Pakode ki kadhi | Punjabi Kadhi Pakora Recipe

Did I mention before that I injured my ankle & I was on walking boots for six weeks? Yes.., I had a tough time in the first week. I must thank all my friends here who cooked yummy food & served my family for a week. Lucky me, I got to eat delicious, healthy & home cooked food. Later on, I started cooking simple meal by myself. Never made roti, chapathi, paratha or any elaborate dish.

Now that I have recovered, I feel like cooking & eating the food that I missed in the last couple of months. I was so bored of eating the same food that we relished deep fried sins for 3 days non-stop. I made poori, bread pakora & golibaje. I know that is not something, we should be proud of.

Let's talk about kadhi pakora now. Kadhi is a blend of yogurt & chickpea flour (gram flour) cooked with Indian spices. Pakoda or Pakora is a deep fried gram flour fritter. Greens like coriander leaves, spinach or fenugreek leaves & onions are added to the deep fried fritter to get the crunch.

***PS: I have announced the winner of the giveaway. Kindly look at my updated post***

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 30-45 mins
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:
For the pakoras:
Onion: 1 large or 2 medium
Chopped coriander leaves: about 1/4th cup, lightly packed
Chickpea flour/besan : 3/4th cup
Carom seeds/ajwain/omkalu: 1/2 tsp
Baking soda: a pinch
salt: as needed
red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder: a pinch
Water: As needed
Oil: for deep frying or shallow frying the pakoras

For the kadhi :
Gram flour/Chickpea flour/besan: 1/4 cup
Yogurt: 1cup
Water: 1.5 to 2 cups
Coriander powder: 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt: As needed
Green chilli paste: 1/4 tsp, we like it less spicy
Grated ginger: 1/2 tsp
Onion: 1 medium sized, chopped
Oil: 2 tbsp
Dry red chilli: 2-3 nos, broken
Curry leaves: 4-6 leaves, torn
Asafoetida: a big pinch
Cloves: 4-6 nos
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp

For the garnish:
Coriander leaves: 2 tbsp, finely chopped.

Method:
For the pakoras:
Mix all the ingredients mentioned for the pakoras (except the water & oil for frying) in a bowl.
Add couple of tablespoons of water at a time & prepare the pakora batter. It should be thick. Refer the picture below.

Heat the oil for deep frying. I shallow fried & hence used a aebleskiver pan to shallow fry the pakoras. Add about 1/4 tsp oil on each mould. When hot, add a tablespoon of pakora batter to the mould & shallow fry on both the sides.

       

For the kadhi:
Beat the yogurt.
Add the chickpea flour, salt, green chilli paste, coriander powder, red chilli powder, and turmeric to the yogurt.

Beat well again ensuring no lumps.

Add the water & mix well. Keep it aside.

Heat the oil in a broad sauce pan. When oil is hot, throw in the mustard & cumin seeds. When seeds crackle, add the cloves & let the oil infuse the flavors on medium heat.

Add the curry leaves, dry red chilli, and asafoetida.
Throw in the onions & cook till the onion turns translucent. There is no need to cook the onions for a long time. 

Add in the chickpea yogurt mixture & boil it on a medium heat. Keep stirring in between to prevent the formation of lumps.

Cook it until the chickpea flour gets cooked (about 15 mins).

Turn off the heat & add in the pakora. Garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve the pakode ki kadhi hot with roti or rice.

Notes:
You could make the kadhi thick or a little thin. We like ours a bit on the thinner side (milkshake consistency).
You could make spinach pakora or methi pakora and add it to the kadhi. I was out of spinach, hence used coriander leaves.

Vada Pav or Wada Pav : The Indian burger

What do you crave during cool & rainy days? For me, it's deep fried street chaat. It could be a plate of hot masala puri or some bhajiyas (fritters). When we talk of street foods, who do you think can resist street foods? There is not much fun when you eat the street food or chat at the airconditioned restaurants.(Raste pe chaat khane ki maza hi kuch aur hain na!). I can see many nodding heads :D But when you are away from all those pleasures of life, there is only option left. Make them at your home & relish.

Wada Pav is a famous street food of Mumbai. After pav bhaji, this is the most appreciated Mumbai street food at my home. Vada Pav does take more time, but if you plan in advance & then cook, it'll not be tiresome.

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 15-20 mins
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

For the batata vada (stuffed potato fritters)
For the stuffing:
Boiled Russet potatoes: 3 nos, large (refer notes below)
Green chilli paste: 2 tsp
Grated garlic: 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder: a big pinch
Oil: 1 tbsp
Salt: As needed
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida: a big pinch
Finely chopped coriander leaves: 2 tbsp
Lemon juice: 2 tsp

For the batter:
Besan/Kadle hittu/ Gram flour: 1 cup
Rice flour: 2-3 tbsp, optional but recommended
Salt: As needed
Chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder: a big pinch
Baking soda: a pinch
Water: As needed

Enough oil for deep frying the batata vada (stuffed potato fritters)

For the dry coconut chutney: 
Dry coconut: 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder : 2 tsp or about 8-10 dry red chillies
Salt: As needed

For assembling the burger | vada pav:
Pav or dinner rolls or burger buns: About 9-10
Dry coconut chutney: 2 tsp on each bun
Green chutney: 1 tsp on each bun, optional
Batata vada : 1-2 nos for each bun.

Method:
For the dry coconut chutney:
Blend together the dry coconut, chilli powder & salt in a blender until it is a coarse powder. Keep it aside.

For the batata vada:
Peel the skin of the potatoes & mash them roughly.
Heat oil in a broad pan. When oil is hot, add the cumin seeds. When cumin seeds turn golden brown, throw in the chilli paste & grated garlic. When garlic gets cooked, add the turmeric powder, mashed potatoes, salt & mix well. Add in the coriander leaves & lemon juice. Turn off the heat.
Mix & mash the cooked potato again.
Make lime sized balls from the potato mixture & keep it aside.

For the batter:
In a bowl, add the gram flour, rice flour, baking soda, salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder & mix well.

Add little water at a time to the gram flour mixture and prepare a batter. The consistency of the batter should be like a pancake batter or a thick milkshake.
Heat enough oil for deep frying the batata vada. When oil is hot, dip the potato balls in the gram flour batter & slide the raw batata vada in the hot oil.

Deep fry on both the sides until the vada turns golden brown. Remove the vada using a slotted spoon & drain it on a paper towel.

Arranging the vada pav:
Slice or cut the pav or burger bun in half.

Spread about 2 tsp of dry coconut chutney on one half of the burger bun.

**If needed, spread a teaspoon of green chutney on the other half of the bun. (I don't do this as we do not want the green chutney to over power the dry coconut chutney)
Place the hot batata vada on the dry chutney powder.

Cover it with the other slice.
Dig in!!

Notes:

• Use any potatoes of your choice.
• Vada pav is supposed to be garlicky & spicy. So, ensure to make the batata vada spicy & garlicky. 
• Make the dry coconut chutney spicy too. You could serve the vada pav with a slightly roasted green chilli too. 
• Ensure to serve the batata vada hot.  

PS: I'm sending this to Pari's event 'Only' Sandwiches, Burgers & Panini hosted by myself :)

Along with this, I have two other entries too.

Here they are:
Baby corn-bell pepper grilled sandwich
Grilled tomato cheese sandwich.

Uppu cheedai | Uppu seedai Recipe : Gokulastami Recipes

During the Krishna janmastami, every household get busy deep frying savories & making ladoos. Krishna Janmastami is celebrated in the Bhadrupada maasa (month) & on the 8th day of the Krishnapaksha. We offer butter & dishes made using rice flakes (poha/avalakki) along with the deep fried savories  & sweets prepared earlier.

For the first time, I made this uppu seedai. I got to know about this from many of my blogger friends. Thanks to the blogger world. With their suggestions, I could make it successfully.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Cooking Time: 15 mins 

Makes about 2 cups of seedai

Ingredients:

Rice flour: 1 cup, refer notes below

Skinned black gram flour/urad dal flour: 2 tbsp*

Grated coconut: 2 tbsp (I used the frozen coconut), refer notes below

Sesame seeds: 2 tsp

Salt: a big pinch

Butter: 2 tbsp, at room temperature

Water: As needed

Oil: For deep frying the seedai

* Dry roast the urad dal on medium heat. Let it cool. Once cool, make a fine powder out of it.

Method:
Sieve the rice flour & the urad dal flour.
To the flours, add sesame seeds, coconut, butter, salt & mix well.

Add a tbsp of water at a time & make a stiff dough. The dough should not be sticky.

Spread a damp paper towel.
Pinch out small marble sized dough & quickly roll it to a ball.
Keep the prepared balls on the damp paper towel.

Once all the balls are done, let it rest for about 15 mins.

Heat oil in a deep pan or sauce pan. When oil is hot, slide in the rolled balls.
Bubbles are formed in the oil & the oil rises up.

As the seedai gets cooked, the bubbles cease. Also, the oil sound shh reduces.
Cook the seedai till it is golden in color. I removed the seedai as soon as it turned golden. You could cook till you get golden brown color too.

Allow it to cool completely & then store it in an air tight container.

Notes:

• It is very essential to sieve both the rice flour & the urad dal flour to avoid bursting of the seedai in oil.
• I used the Deep brand rice flour available here. 
• Some people suggested me to dry roast the sesame seeds & the grated coconut too. However, I didn't do it. 
• Do rest the rolled seedai for atleast 15 mins before frying.
• Do not roll the seedai for a long time. It doesn't matter if it is not perfect in shape. 
• If you are using salted butter (just like I did), watch out while adding salt again. 
• I microwaved the frozen coconut for about 10 secs & then used it when it was at room temperature.

Palak Cabbage Pakora | Spinach and Cabbage Fritters

I made these pakoras on a cold snowy & a lazy Sunday afternoon. They are a breeze to make & absolutely delicious!! Go ahead...It's alright to indulge in these fried beauties once a while.

Preparation Time: 10 mins

Cooking Time: 15-20 mins

Serves: 4-5

Ingredients:

Shredded Spinach: 2 cups
Shredded Cabbage: 1 cup
Carom seeds/Ajwain/Om kalu: 1 tsp
Red chili powder: 1 tsp
Salt: As needed
Turmeric powder: 1/2 tsp
Gram flour/Besan: 1 cup
Rice flour: 2 tbsp
Fine Rava/Chiroti rava/Cream of wheat: 2 tbsp
Hot oil: 1 tbsp
Water: Approximately 1 to 1.25 cups

Other ingredients:
Oil for deep frying the fritters.

Method:

Mix in the shredded spinach, cabbage, carom seeds, red chili powder, turmeric powder & salt in a large bowl.

Let the mixture sit for 5-10 mins. The mixture will ooze out water.
Next, throw in the rice flour, cream of wheat, gram flour to it.

Pour in the hot oil & mix them all together.
Now, slowly add the water & make a thick batter. The batter should be of dropping consistency.

Heat enough oil in a kadai/wok for deep frying the fritters.
When oil is hot enough, drop in a tbsp of batter at a time to the oil.
Cook the fritters on med-high heat, on all the sides until the fritters are golden brown & crisp.
Remove the fritters using a slotted spoon & let them dry on a paper towel.
Serve these fritters hot with a dip/chutney or ketchup.

Palak Pakoras | Spinach Fritters: Carom seeds flavored!

"Wishing you all a very happy & a prosperous new year"

My son asks, who loves spinach more, me or Popeye? I answer back saying, " you are the greatest lover of spinach in the whole world". He happily & proudly asks for second serving of the spinach dish. Because of the above reason, I always have spinach lying in my fridge. I try to make as many dishes as possible using spinach. Some of my spinach delicacies could be found here.

During one of the festivals last year, I made this pakora instead of the cabbage pakora. We relished this with thick rice flakes bisi bele bath.

Preparation Time: 10 mins
Cooking Time: 10-15 mins
Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

• Spinach leaves: About 2 cups finely chopped
• Gram flour/Besan: 1 cup, a little more or less.
• Rice flour: 2 tbsp
• Fine rava/Cream of wheat: 2 tbsp
• Salt: As needed
• Red chilli powder: 1 tsp, adjust according to your needs
• Carom seeds/Ajwain: 1/2 tsp (Refer here for Language Translation to Kannada)
• Hot oil: 1 tsp
• Baking soda: a small pinch
• Water: As needed

For deep frying:
Enough oil for frying the pakoras.

Method:

Wash the spinach leaves & chop them fine.
In a medium sized bowl, add all the ingredients mentioned (except the oil for deep frying!).
Mix them well.
Add few tablespoons of water at a time and make a thick batter. Consistency should be like that of a cupcake batter.
Heat oil in a wok. When oil is hot, scoop out a tablespoon of batter directly in the oil & deep fry in a medium heat.
After a couple of minutes, keep moving the fritters in the oil for even cooking. 
When the pakoras turn golden brown, remove them on a paper towel. 
Repeat the procedure with the remaining batter.
Serve the fritters, either with green chutney or with a dip of your choice!

Notes:

• For extra crispness, add thinly sliced onions along with the spinach. 
• Instead of carom seeds, these fritters could be flavored with cumin seeds or grated ginger.

Ambode | Masala Vade | Dill leaves and Chana dal Fritters

Wishing all Savi-Ruchi readers a very happy and a joyous Navaratri. 

Was craving for ambode (also known as chattambade) with dill leaves from many months. Hence, made them couple of weeks before with Majjige Huli & relished it thoroughly!

Preparation Time: 20 mins
Cooking Time: 15 mins
Soaking Time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients: (Makes 20-22 vadas)

• Gram dal/Channa dal/Kadale bele: 3/4 cup
• Skinned black dal/Urad dal/uddina bele: 2 tsp, optional
• Ginger: 1 inch piece
• Green chillies: 5 nos
• Onion: 1 medium sized
• Dill leaves: 1 cup, finely chopped & loosely packed (refer notes)
• Rice flour: 2 tbsp
• Salt: As needed
• Oil: For deep frying

Method:
Wash the channa dal & urad dal together. Soak it for 2-3 hours in sufficient water.
Drain the water from the dal/lentils.
Wash the dill leaves & finely chop them. 
Add the ginger, green chillies to the drained lentils. Throw it in the food processor & make a coarse paste out of them(Do not add any water).
Scoop out the coarse paste. 
Add the dill leaves, onion, rice flour, and salt to the coarse lentils paste. Mix it thoroughly. The consistency should be like a patty. 
Heat sufficient oil in a broad pan/kadai.
Prepare lime sized balls out of the paste. Pat them gently (just like a patty for burgers) using the fingers on a greased aluminum foil/butter paper/plastic sheet.
When oil is hot(check notes), remove the patties carefully from the foil & slide them in oil. 
Cook it on a medium heat until golden brown on both the sides. Drain it on a paper towel & repeat the procedure with the remaining dough balls. 
Serve it warm as a starter with chutney or with rice & a side dish.

Notes:

• I'm repeating it again, just in case! Make a coarse paste out of the lentils without adding any water. The moisture in the lentils would be sufficient.
• To check the readiness of the oil, drop a small ball of dough (say around the size of the lemon seed). If the dough ball floats in a couple of seconds, the oil is hot enough to drop in the patties.
• Dill leaves could be replaced with coriander leaves. 
• It is essential to cook the vada on a medium heat to ensure proper cooking of the lentils.