Chickpea Sundal / Channa Sundal

Dussera Navaratri are from 13th - 21st October this year. During these days South Indians mostly make Sundals and other desserts as offerings to Lord Durga in 9 avatars for 9 days. 

Baby Potato Fry / Small Potato Fry - Side dish for Rotis and Rice

Simple South Indian recipe with baby potatoes. I often make this at home. This delicious and easy to make side dish with sambar or rasam makes a simple South Indian lunch.

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas / Spicy Chana

Wondering what to do with soaked chickpeas!!! One thing is to make Chana Masala and another easy thing to do is to roast it and eat it as a snack. These Roasted Chickpeas are spicy, salty, crunchy and healthy snack.  This is also a low- fat alternative to peanuts. 

Ingredients

2 cups Chickpeas

1/2 teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

1. Soak chickpeas in water overnight. Discard water and dry them. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan. Add dried chickpeas to the pan. Saute it every 3 minutes for about 15 minutes. When the colour changes and you see black spots here and there reduce the flame to medium. Add salt and chilli powder. Mix it. Saute it again for 5 minutes.

2. A very easy crunchy snack.

Varalakshmi Vratam Vantalu / Sravana Sukravaram Prasadam / Naivedyam

Varalakshmi Vratam falls on the second friday of the Sravanam Masam. It is widely performed by the married ladies all across South India for their husband's long life and for riches to the family. This year Varalakshmi Vratam falls on 28 August.

Goddess Lakshmi is worshiped throughout this holy month of Sravana in the form of Ashtalakshmis Aadi Lakshmi, Dhanya Lakshmi, Dhairya Lakshmi, Gaja Lakshmi, Santana Lakshmi, Vijaya Lakshmi, Vidya Lakshmi and Dhana Lakshmi. For any pooja bhakti is the main element but a lot of preparation go into this pooja.  

Apart for Pooja, 3,5,7,9 or 12 different naivedyam / prasadam will be made. It is completely depends on you on how many prasadam varieties you can make and offer. If you want to offer 9 varieties here is the list Boorelu, Garelu, Paravannam, chakkara pongali,  Pulihora, miriyala pongali, plain rice with pappu (Plain Dal/Tomato Dal/ Yellow Cucumber Dal/ Mango Dal/ Green Sorrel Dal), daddojanam, Aratikaya Bajji.

Boorelu	Garelu	Paravannam
Chakkara Pongali	Pulihora	Miriyala Pongali
Pappu	Daddojanam	Aratikaya Bajji

Curd Rice / Daddojanam - South Indian Rice Item

We South Indians can't end our meals without curd rice. In everyday meals, we just mix curd with rice and eat it with a pickle but when I make as an offering to God, specially on festival days I follow this recipe. 

You can beat the summer heat with this yummy curd rice. Some people also add pomegranate to this recipe but curd rice just with tempering and no fruit and vegetable also tastes heavenly.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Raw Rice

2 cups of Water

3 tablespoons Milk

1 cup Thick Curd

Salt to taste

3 tablespoons chopped Carrot

1 tablespoon Ghee

10 Cashewnuts

To Temper

2 teaspoons Ghee

1/4 teaspoon Mustard Seeds

1/2  teaspoon Urad dal

2-3 Green Chillies

1/2 inch Ginger 

1 Sprig Curry leaves

1. Pressure cook rice with 2 cups of water for 4 whistles. Let it cool, then mash the rice. Add milk, curd and salt. Mix it well.

2. Chop green chilli to small circles and chop ginger to small pieces. In a small pan, add 2-3 teaspoons of ghee , mustard, urad dal, saute for till dal turns to light brown. Then add green chilli, ginger and curry leaves. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add this to curd rice. Chop carrot to small pieces. Add this to curd rice. Mix it well.

3. In a small pan, add a tablespoon of ghee, and cashews. Saute it till cashews turn to golden brown. Add this to curd rice. You don't have to follow this step in case you don't want to add cashews. Mix it well.  

4. Yummy,  heavenly delicious curd rice. Add water if required to make more smooth. Adjust salt accordingly. Have it with any Indian pickle.

Instant Crispy Rava Dosa - South Indian Breakfast Item

Ravva Dosa is another popular breakfast item and dosa variety from South India. This is crispy, delicious and almost instant. The batter for this doesn't require fermentation. This is the breakfast item I normally make when I am not prepared for any thing else and would like to have a dosa variety. Tastes excellent with Coconut chutney and sambar.

You can many varieties of ravva dosa by adding chopped onion, podis / powders on it or just have it plain with any podis.

Ingredients

1/2 cup Suji / Rava

1/2 cup Maida / All Purpose Flour

1 1/4 cup Rice Flour

3 Green Chillies

1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds

Salt to taste

Oil as needed 

1. Mix suji, rice flour, maida and salt in a bowl, add a cup of water, mix it well. Then add 1/2 cup of water to make a batter with consistency like water. Add more water if required. Add cumin seeds and finely chopped green chillies. Mix it.

2. Heat a flat pan. Check the consistency of batter every time before pouring it on the pan as suji absorbs water. Add more water if required. Pour batter from the edges of the pan towards the center. When the batter is light and is like water you can see more small holes on dosa. Dosa will be crispy and tasty if there are more small holes and gaps in it.

3. Spread a teaspoon of oil around and over the dosa. When the bottom turns golden brown (you can see through the pores) Fold it and remove from the pan.  

4. Serve it hot. 

Cabbage Vada / Cabbage Garelu

Vada is a popular South Indian breakfast and snack item. We like Onion vada but Cabbage Vada has become our favourite recently and also I am making these quite often these days. It is easy to make and very delicious and crispy.

Vadas can be offered to god as prasadam. I usually make Medhu vadas / Garelu for prasadam but got bored with it recently and can't offer onion vada to god as there is onion in it. So found a better alternative in Cabbage Vada.   

Recipe for Medhu Vadas / Garelu

Ingredients (Makes 12)

1 cup Urad Dal

2 cups finely chopped Cabbage

3 Green Chilli

2 sprigs Curry Leaves

salt as needed

1. Soak urad dal in water for 2-3 hours. Grind it in pulse / juice mode with 4 tablespoons of water.Add salt and mix it. Finely chop cabbage,green chilli and curry leaves. Add all these to urad dal mixture. Mix it well.

2. Heat oil for deep fry. Wet your palms with water, take a big lemon sized dough, turn it and shape it a ball, flatten it and with your thumb place a hole in the middle.

3. Drop it gently in hot oil. Fry till vada turns golden brown on both sides. Remove it onto a absorbent paper.

4. You can have these Crispy cabbage vada with coconut chutney or sambar.

Carrot Stir Fry / Carrot Poriyal Recipe

Stir fries / Poriyals are the simplest and quickest curries you can make. Carrot Stir Fry is a very tasty and healthy curry which liked by everyone even kids. You can make many variations in stir fries  by adding beans, cabbage or any other vegetable along with carrot. Coconut in this makes extra delicious. 

Carrot Poriyal with Rasam / Sambar makes a simple lunch.

Try out my other carrot stir fry curry recipe Grated Carrot Stir Fry. .

Ingredients

4 mediuem size Carrots

3-4 tablespoons of Grated Coconut

2-3 Green chillies

1 Sprig Curry Leaves

1 teaspoon Channa Dal

1/2 teaspoon Urad Dal

1/4 teaspoon Jeera

1/4 teaspoon Mustard Seeds

1 teaspoon Cumin Powder 

Salt to taste

1. Peel the skin and cut carrot to small pieces. Boil them in water 10 - 15 minutes. Drain the water and keep the carrot pieces aside.You can store bought grated coconut or you can make it at home by grinding few pieces of coconut for a minute.

2. Slice green chillies. In a pan, add oil, channa dal, urad al, jeera and mustard. Saute for a minute, add green chilli and curry leaves. Saute for another minute, add boiled carrot pieces, Cumin powder and salt. Stir fry for 5 minutes. Add grated coconut and fry for a minute.

3. Simple yet yummy curry.

Andhra Mixture / Bombay Mixture / South Indian Mixture - Diwali Snacks

Mixture is one the most popular, all time favorite snack of India. It is made in different ways, has different names like Bombay Mixture (as it is known all over the world) , Andhra mixture, Chivda or even just as mixture.

This spicy, crisy, crunchy, delicious savory is a much snack for all age groups and is an addictive. 

There is no hard and fast rule to make this recipe. This recipe tasted better than the store bought mixture. I am very happy with the outcome. My husband after it got over said "Why didn't you make more of this . This just got over in few hours" !!!!!  

Compliment ??? Yes it is . 

Ingredients

3 cups Chick Pea Flour / Besan Flour

1 cup Rice Flour

pinch of Turmeric Powder

1 3/4  teaspoon Red Chilli Powder

1 1/2  teaspoon Salt

1/2 teaspoon Asafoetida / Hing 

1/2 cup Split Roasted Channa Dal

1/2 cup Groundnuts / Peanuts with Skin

5 sprigs Curry Leaves

Oil for deep frying

1. Mix besan flour, rice flour,1 teaspoon of  red chilli powder, 3/4 teaspoon of salt, turmeric powder, asafoetida in a bowl. Add water little by little. Combine well and knead it to make a smooth dough. The dough shouldn't be watery. 

2. Heat oil for deep fry. When the oil is hot check by dropping one tiny piece dough, if it rises immediately then the oil is ready. Reduce the heat to medium. Divide the dough into 3 portions. Place the disc with small holes in the murukku press. Fill the press with dough. Press the dough on hot oil in circular motion. Fry for about 30 seconds on each side or till it gets a golden brown colour. Remove this from oil onto a paper towel. Repeat this until 1/3 of dough is used to make murukku. Break murukku to small pieces.

3. Now change the disc to ribbon pakora. Fill the murukku press. Press the dough on hot oil. Fry for about on each side on till golden brown. Don't worry about the shape of ribbon pakora as we are going to break it. Take this out of oil onto a paper towel. Repeat this until the other 1/3 part of dough is used. Break ribbon pakora to small pieces. Switch off the stove or turn the flame to low.

4. Now with the the remaining 1/3 part of the dough is for boondi. Add water little by little to dough to make the dough thin like batter. Bring the batter to a pourable consistency. The batter should flow through the holes of a perforated spatula. To check the consistency of the batter, take the batter into a small cup or tumbler, pour a little batter through the spatula at a height of 1 1/2 inch , if the batter comes out like small bubbles, that is the right consistency. 

5. In the same oil, pour the batter through the perforated spatula at 1 1/2 inch above oil and move the spatula in a circular motion. Don't overcrowd the pan. When the boondi turns golden brown, remove the boondi from oil onto paper towel. Repeat this, until all batter is used.You need to be very quick here. 

6. In the same oil fry roasted channa dal, and then ground nuts. Fry curry leaves till crisp.

7. Add 3/4 teaspoon of red chilli powder and 3/4 teaspoon of salt (or as needed) to murukku.  Mix it well along with roasted channa dal, groundnuts and curry leaves. 

8. Store it in a container. Serve it with tea. A tasty time pass snack.