Baked Pakoras n’ Khadi

We often prepare pakoras deep fried in oil. This time around we wanted to try an alternate way. Still with the same ingredients and process for pakoras but baked in oven instead of deep frying in oil. Additionally, made Khadi to go with.

To prepare pakoras:

Ingredients:
Besan – chick peas flour – 1cups
Rice flour – 1/4th cup
Onion – 1 small/medium – chopped into small pieces
spring onions – (optional) – 2 to 3
green chilli – 1 or two
cilantro (kotthambari soppu / ) – 3 or 4 strands
curry leaves – 2 or 3 leaves
salt – as required (optional)
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Jeera – 1 tsp
asafoetida (hing) – a pinch
Olive Oil (optional) – 1 tblspoon
water – 1 cup or a little more

Process:
Chop Onion, green chillies, cilantro, curry leaves into small pieces. you may choose to add any other vegetables like potatoes, beans, peas, etc
Mix flour, chopped vegetables, salt, hing, jeera, red chilli powder, olive oil together in a bowl. Add water a little at a time till you get to a consistency of paste – not too watery and not to think either – but paste consistency towards the thicker side would be ideal.

Get a oven tray (either non-stick metal  or made of aluminum foil), spray/smear a little oil / butter around the sides. scoup the batter into the tray.

Pre-heat oven to 400 deg F. place the tray for about 30 to 40 minutes or till pakoras get golden brown. you may have to turn them around to ensure they are baked on both sides. Attached snapshot shows two on right side turned upside down.

while pakoras being baked, start preparing for Khadi.

To Prepare Khadi:

Ingredients:
Yogurt – 1 to 2 cups
besan – chick peas flour – a quarter cup
turmeric – half tsp
mustard seeds – 1 tsp
jeera – 1 tsp
red chilli powder – a pinch
salt – as required (optional)
cilantro – 3 strands
curry leaves – 2 to 3
olive oil – 1 teaspoon

Process:
pour a cup of plain yogurt in a bowl. add a pinch of red chilli powder, a half tsp of turmeric powder, besan flour, salt (optional) and mix well. Prepare a tadka in another bowl. To prepare tadka, place a skillet / bowl on cooking range on a medium flame, pour a tsp of olive oil and allow it to heat up. add a tsp of mustard seeds and wait for it to sizzle. add a tsp of dal (chana + urad), chopped chili if rquired, and curry leaves. add a pinch of hing (asafoetida) for flavor, and a teaspoon of jeera. now add the yogurt mix that was prepared in another bowl into tadka vessel. allow it to warm up for few minutes on a low/medium flame. and keep it aside. garnish with chopped cilantro, curry leaves, grated ginger, if you prefer.

Check the pakoras in oven, intermittently so it doesn’t get charred.

once ready, serve warm – put a pakora in a bowl and add khadi (yogurt prepared above).

Pakoras turned out crisp and it was a great combination to eat ‘em with khadi. the only drawback was it took a little longer in oven compared to what it would have taken if deep fried in oil on stove top

Any suggestions? please write your comment below

stuffed bOti (papadam)

One of the snack items I enjoyed as a kid in Bangalore was bOti (ಬೋಟಿ). Either we used buy these prepared ones at the store or get the raw ones and fry ‘em at home. It used to be a lot of fun stacking them on our fingers and eat one at a time. And obviously one round of 10 (for 10 fingers) would not be enough, so we would go buy again and again. It was fun.

We noticed these raw ones at local stores near by so being nostalgic, wanted try them out again. Initially, we used to fry them in Oil, but then a few days ago, just realized of making something different with these bOti (ಬೋಟಿ). Off late we fry them in microwave instead of deep oil and it turns out great and also quick enough that we don’t have to have a mess with oil, skillet etc.

 

 

Ingredients:
raw bOti (i don’t know the English term, but you find these in Asian Indian stores in Papad section.
tomato ketchup
boiled smashed Potato  – 1 cup
frozen Peas – 1/4 cup
curry powder – 1 teaspoon

Prepare Stuffing:
Heat the skillet on a stove on a medium flame, put a spoon of olive oil, and a pinch of jeera. now add mashed potato and frozen peas and top it off with a tspn of curry powder, and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Prepare / microwave raw bOti in microwave – we usually arrange them on a paper/ceramic plate and place in microwave for about a minute. you may choose to deep fry in oil if you choose to, but it is not required.

take ‘em out of the microwave, and fill in the prepared potato stuffing in bOti. Serve with Ketchup or with date/tamarind chutney (available in grocery stores in chaat section) if you have it.

i am not sure about adults, but Kids love it the most, well, I love it too

Salad #5: Quick Cucumber salad to my 4yr old

 

One evening, L and I thought of prep’ing a salad for us, but our 4yr old, being a picky eater, doesn’t eat all the vegetables. And a handful of vegetables being Cucumber, Tomato, carrots, and couple of others.

So here is a quick salad we made for her. and it excited her more because of the shapes and easier to get some vegetables to her body.

picture describes pretty much what’s required and what was done.
Ingredients:
Cucumber
Tomato
Cashews
potato Chips

cut Cucumber and Tomato into thin slices and make the shapes you would want, in our case we tried the petals of a flower. Arrange the sliced pieces in circle. Place a last piece of tomato at the center, sprinkle some Almond cuts and Cashews. Place one Potato chip at the center. She being fond of potato chips it made a difference.   She also added ketchup on top of it – she loves ketchup.

 

Salad #4: Cucumber salad

we tried this salad over the week end, and turned out well.

Ingredients:
Cucumber – 2 (chopped)  (approx 63cents)
Tomatoes – 1 (chopped)  (~ 5 cents)
onion – (small to medium) – 1 chopped (~ 5cents)
Jalapeño chili – 1 (sliced)  (~2 cents)
bell pepper (green) – half  – chopped (~40cents)
bell pepper (other colors – yellow, orange, red) (optional, but adds better taste) we didn’t these in picture above
carrot – 1 (chopped/sliced) (~6 cents)
black pepper powder – 1 teaspoon
if you have any dressing (italian, ranch, …) according to your taste, it might add a good flavor and taste. 

Mix all the vegetables in a bowl. Add the dressing if you choose to and mix them well. Refrigerate if you like the salad to be cold or warm it up a little bit in microwave if you choose it to be a bit warm. I tried warm, and it was good. add some crushed ginger as well. Add a teaspoon of olive oil if you would like.

serve:
scoop the salad into a plate. sprinkle a tea spoon of black pepper powder across. garnish with sliced almonds, pitted dates, chopped coriander. place this plate (if microwave’ble) in a microwave for a minute to warm this up if you wanted it to be warm. Add tomato ketchup if you would like. Salt to taste. No we didn’t add salt on our plates

Turn out:
it turned out very tasty. I ate this for evening snack, dinner and a breakfast. Cost for ingredients above was below $1.50 and that served for 3 times.

snack: khara puri – spiced puffed rice

This is one of the snack items we used to munch on over the evening cup of coffee or after dinner. It also goes with some of the other dishes like rava upma, etc…

Ingredients:
puffed rice 3 cups
curry leaves – 10-15 leaves
split chick peas – half a cup
peanuts 2 teaspoons
mustard seeds – .5 (half) teaspoon
asafoetida (hing) – one pinch
salt – to taste
turmeric powder – .5 (half) teaspoon
red chilli powder = 1 teaspoon
dried red chillies – 5 chilies

place a skillet on a stove. pour a teaspoon of olive oil and heat. put peanuts for tadka and wait till it splitters up. put some jeera (if required) and add peanuts, red chillies and curry leaves. wait till curry leaves get a little crisp and not leave till the peanuts and red chillies to turn black. add a pinch of hing and turmeric. add split chick peas (dalia) (hurigadale in kannada), red chili powder and stir the content. Now add puffed rice and mix all the ingredients on a low flame. leave it for 5 to 10 minutes with occasional mix/stirring up and take it out of the stove (turn off the stove too )

you may also add sev if you choose to, it gives a better flavor and crispiness to eat.

Oats Cutlet? Oats Patty?

                No, we haven’t named it right yet. however, one morning we tried this for a breakfast. It turned out great and filling too.

Ingredients:
original oats – 1cup
mustard seeds – half teaspoon (not mandatory)
peanuts – one tablespoon (not mandatory)
Jeera – one teaspoon (not mandatory)
green chilies – 2 (chop it to size you like)
onions (if required) – 2 tablespoons (chopped)
red chili powder – 1 teaspoon
salt – for your taste (i mean, take a bit taste and put it away)
olive oil – 1 or 2 tablespoons

Preparation:
Heat a skillet / vessel on a stove with 1 tablespoon of olive oil in it. Add some mustard seeds and for few minutes. follow the usual tadka process. add jeera and peanuts along. after 2 to 3 minutes with peanuts add the chopped green chilies and chopped onions. let the onion fry in oil for most part. add salt according to your taste as mentioned above

now, add one cup of oats and mix well. you may have to sprinkle some water to it can be mixed well for about 8 to 10 minutes, till you see the oats getting softened. and turn off the stove.

use a cookie cutter or a lid of a metal box/bottle would help too. fill the prepared oats mix into the template and drop it to a microwave safe or an oven safe tray (as appropriate).

to options to bake:
either you may use the Microwave or the conventional oven. We used microwave this time. place the tray in microwave oven for about 2 to 4 minutes. keep a watch along the way so it doesn’t get too hard and not get charred.

serve hot / warm with ketchup. I don’t eat Ketchup and the plate in this picture doesn’t show it.

Salad#3: Orange salad

It was a little funny when I made this a few months ago. I have gotten into a habit of snacking something when I get back home in the evening. One evening, I noticed an orange on our dinner table and a bunch of grapes in the refrigerator. peeled off an orange and spread the slices on a plate. cut the Green seedless grapes into halves or several pieces. spread them around on top of oranges.

 

Now sprinkle some red chili powder, and black pepper powder. put some almond slices if you have. If you do, you may also add chopped coriander leaves.

If you don’t like cold tangy orange, keep the plate in microwave for a minute or so, so it warms up a little bit.

It was a great to snack on some cut fruits, and since I mostly like chili spice, this tasted great.

Salad#2: Baked vegetable salad

We had tried this a few years ago and not that often since then.  A few days ago, we thought of going for a salad for dinner – this we considered this a main course. 

a packet of lettuce/carrots combo – Garden Fresh salad packet
2 cups of french cut beans
1 onion   (slice into spirals/rings)
2 Jalapeño chilies (slice)
1 cup of corn
1 cup of green peas
1 Lemon  (slice one lemon )
handful of green grapes, cherries
1 tomato (slice one tomato)
1 cucumber (slice one cucumber)
1/2 yam, 1/2 potato (slice yam, and potato)
pepper powder, chili powder
ketchup

arrange Lettuce, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, potato,yam slices in an oven safe tray. top up with cut beans, peas, corn, Jalapeño chilies, and any remaining vegetables from our list. pour some ketchup around. A bit of salt to taste (note: salt to taste, so take a bit taste the salt and put the salt bottle away, salad does not really need salt)

We also added some chili powder, pepper powder, dhaniya powder and other spices. you may add any other spices you would like. Add a spoon of Olive Oil, if you would like.

Pre-Heat the oven for 350 or 400 deg. place the tray in the oven for about 20 to 25 minutes. keep a watch after 20th minute for several times, just in case.  If you notice the content turning into a bit brown turn off the oven, and keep the tray there for few more minutes.

after oven heated, the outcome looked like this:

and this was another version without ketchup and salt

overall – it was yummy!!!

salad#1: Quick vegetable Salad

 

The other night when it was a bit late for both L’ and I to get home, it was hard to decide what to eat. We had some panipuri and bread that L’ and V’ were able to manage. For me, especially I don’t prefer to eat rice that late and not eat anything heavy late at nights either, looked at the refrigerator and found number of vegetables.

We thought, the besting thing is to try something vegetable.. so here it is:

Cut Onions into spirals, spread it across the plate.
heat up any frozen vegetables, we used frozen french cut beans, frozen peas (salt free),  frozen corn, trozen brocolli,
cut bell pepper (capsicum) into long pieces,
cut Tomato length wise,
Pitted Dates – cut into thin slices
carrots – slice into 2-3” lengths
1 teaspoon of cut ginger
Lemon or lime concentrate
Powdered black pepper
salt – to taste (note: it is only to taste – so taste a bit of salt and put it way, you don’t need to use it on salad )
butter/cheese – cut few into little cubes (if you would like)

spread all the above vegetables on a plate into several layers. squeeze half a lemon on vegetables, sprinkle powdered black pepper a little, place those little butter/cheese cubes around, a teaspoon of olive oil, if you would like. and finally put spread a spoon of chopped coriander leaves (we didn’t have coriander that night), it gives some garnishing flavor.

In a way, it turned out great and I felt so good and was glad we didn’t go for rice that night.

$200 burger ?

wow! noticed what money can buy section on Time magazine – one of those was that surprised me was a burger at a Burger King fast foods costing $200/-

picture from the time.com : http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1825241_1739915,00.html 

see the above link for the ingredients that go into this burger …