Fried Semolina balls

An easy and perfect tea time snack; learnt from my mother-in law. It requires very few ingredients and just deep fry the batter.

Recipe Source: MIL

Ingredients:

Coarse semolina - 1 cup approx

Egg - 1

Sugar - 4 tbsp, as per taste

Baking powder - a pinch

Cardamom powder - ½ tsp

Oil - to deep fry

Instructions:

• Pour oil to a saucepan and keep it on medium flame.
• Beat the egg with a fork. Add sugar according to your taste and beat until dissolved.
• Add cardamom powder, baking powder and mix well.
• Now add coarse semolina until the mixture turns really thick (thicker than the idli consistency).
• Allow the batter to rest for few minutes. 
• When oil is medium-hot, dip in a spoonful of batter to the hot oil.
• Once it turns golden brown colour on one side, just turnover.
• Take out the fried semolina balls from out of the hot oil when the fried balls have turned to a nice brown colour.

Notes:

• I'm unable to provide the accurate measurement of the semolina used as it depends on the size of the egg used & the coarse semolina variety.
• When you dip the spoonful of batter and if the spreads without holding the shape, then you need to add more semolina to the batter to make it thick consistency.
• When consistency is really thick, the batter will hold it's shape when dropped in hot oil.

Parippu Vada

This reminds me of the thattukada near Crown theatre, where Achan & Moothachan used to get us hot crispy parippu vadas packed in greasy newspaper. Super delicious ones. I'm not sure whether that thattukada still exists there. Have to include this in the To do list when I reach Calicut. Back home, mom grinds the soaked dal on an ammikkallu which gives a nice flavour to vadas.

Serve hot parippu vadas with a cup of steaming hot tea and enjoy a nice evening.

Recipe Source: Mom

Ingredients:

Channa dal - 1½ cups
Onion - 1 no, finely chopped
Ginger -  tbsp, finely chopped
Green chilli - 4 nos, chopped
Curry leave - a sprig, coarsely chopped
Asafoetida - ½ tsp
Salt
Oil - to deep fry

Instructions:

• Wash and soak the channa dal for 3-4 hours. On a kitchen towel, spread the channa dal and let it completely dry.
• Once dried, grind the channa dal into a coarse paste and transfer to a bowl.
• Add chopped onion, ginger, green chilli, curry leaves, asafoetida and salt to the coarse grounded channa dal and mix well.
• Make into small size balls and lightly flatten each ball.
• Heat the oil in a high flame at first. Then reduce the flame to medium hot and fry the vadas.
• Place the fried parippu vadas on a kitchen tissue to soak the excess oil.
• Serve hot.

Pav Bhaji

The first thing that come to mind seeing the hot buns is make Pav Bhaji. Oh, how I miss the Pav Bhaji served at a very small stall in Jaya Nagar, Bangalore where our gals gang used to eat out once in a week.

My Home-made Pav is all set and ready. Just make the Bhaji.

Recipe Source: Adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor with my slight variations

Ingredients:

Onion - 1 (finely chopped)
Green chilli - 2 nos (chopped)
Ginger - 1 inch piece (grated)
Garlic - 4-5 cloves (grated)
Tomatoes - 2 big
Potatoes - 2 nos
Carrot - 1 no
Peas - ¼ cup
Cauliflower - 4 florets (grated)
Capsicum - ¼ cup (finely chopped)
Pav Bhaji masala powder - 4 - 5 tsp (as per taste)
Coriander powder  - 1 tbsp
Cumin powder - 1 and ½ tsp
Fennel powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - to garnish
Kasthuri Methi - handful
Asafoetida - a dash
Oil - 2 tbsp
Butter - loads
Water
Salt
Chopped onions, coriander leaves, lemon juice - final garnish over served Bhaji

Instructions:

• Boil and mash potatoes, carrot and peas with salt.
• Heat oil and butter. Add finely chopped onion and green chillies. Sauté till translucent.
• Add grated ginger and garlic and sauté till raw smell goes.
• Add pav bhaji masala powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and fennel powder and sauté for few minutes.
• Add chopped tomatoes, grated cauliflower, chopped capsicum and sauté till it turns soft.
• Add mashed potato, carrot and peas.
• Add water, salt and let the masala mixture boil for sometime.
• Check for taste and adjust spices, add a dash of asafoetida accordingly to get that street Bhaji effect.
• Switch off the flame, add a stick of butter and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and Kasthuri Methi.
• Heat a pan, add butter. Slice the pav/bun in half and shallow fry in butter on both sides.
• Serve the bun with steam hot Bhaji. Top it with chopped onions, chopped coriander leaves, lemon juice.

Home-made Buns/Pav

It's messy but quite fun to play with the bread dough :) I meant the kneading part. Just have a clean kitchen counter top and a scraper. Scraper will ease the kneading a bit.

I anxiously waited for the dough to rise and shaped them up. The aroma of freshly baked buns surrounded my home. I'm using these buns as Pavs for Pav Bhaji and the remaining buns will be used for breakfast, Buns with butter or jam.

Recipe Source: Adapted from YummyOyummy

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 2 cups + 1 cup
Yeast -  2 ¼ tsp 
Sugar - 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp
Warm Water - 2 tbsp
Warm milk - 1 cup
Butter - 4 tbsp + 1 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Egg - 1 whole (slightly beat the egg)
Egg white - 1 

Instructions:

• Dissolve yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar in warm water. Hot water kill the yeast. Make sure water is just warm enough. Keep it aside for few minutes until it froths and rises.
• Meanwhile use 1 tbsp of butter to grease a bowl to keep the kneaded dough to rise.
• Add salt, 2 tbsp of sugar, 4 tbsp of butter, 1 whole egg slightly beaten and milk to 2 cups of all purpose flour. Mix together with a spatula until well combined.
• Transfer the contents to kitchen counter top. Add the remaining cup of flour and knead for 15-20 minutes. Use a scraper to ease the kneading.

• After kneading for 20 minutes, transfer the dough to the greased bowl. Cover with a cling film and wait for 2-3 hours until the dough rise.

• Once the dough has risen, remove the cling film and knead for 2 mins.
• Roll the dough into small balls and place on a baking tray. Wait for 30 minutes as the rolled balls will again rise.

• Pre-heat oven to 180 C/350 F for 10 minutes.
• Beat egg white with few drops of water to make egg wash.
• Brush egg wash on top of the rolled buns and place the buns in the oven.

• Bake for 20-25 minutes until the top of the buns are slightly brown in color.
• When buns are baked and out from the oven, take a cube of butter and spread butter on top to get a glazing effect.