Ulunthu /Urad daal Vadai

Ulundu Vadai:

Vadai is one of the inevitable dish in south india. For any festival or occasions, it is very difficult to make a menu without this. Ulunthu / Urad dal is generally good for bones. It will strengthen your bones when it is taken in your meal .

One day after my regular scrums and  the followed discussions with the team, i missed my tea brake with my friends. Though i do not drink coffee or tea, still i do not miss the breaks as they help me to recharge myself with a small chit chat or by seeing other faces instead of staring at the monitor.

I just came to my desk with all exhausted and thinking, should i go for the break alone?
The moment i sat on my chair, my friend  was asking... "Exhausted huh? how about a vadai this moment"?

I was little hungry too... we decided to have the vadai at desk itself. I should say, it was the wonderful vadai I ever had.... It was such spongy soft, and there was no trace of oil in my hands after having it.... Even my mother used to make nice vadai, but it wont be this much spongy... I just asked her did they add and baking soda in it?

She gave me the recipe how did they prepared. It needed some little planning in advance.  It was so simple and almost similar to our preparation, but except one simple step.
Curious to know what it is? Come join me to make oil free spongy ulunthu vadai....

Ingredients:

Urad dal - 1 cup
Pepper - 1 tea spoon
Jeera - 2 tea spoons
salt  - to taste
curry leaves-  a few

Note: If you like to add Onion and green chili, and ginger you can add. As I was planning to prepare thayir vadai and Rasa vadai on the same day, I did not add these.

Preparation:

1. Soak Urad dal in sufficient amount of water for 2 to 3 hours.
2. Then Grind them in a grinder for about 30 mins by spraying water in it whenever required.
3. add required salt and mix well.
4. Keep aside or 6 to 8 hours or over night. (Do not refrigerate)(Yes, keeping it aside for hours was totally new to me)
5. Morning  just add pepper, jeera and curry leaves to it.
6. Heat sufficient amount of oil in kadai.
7. Take a small amount of mix, shape it to round with a hole in the middle and deep fry in heated oil until they turn golden brown.
8.drain in tissue papper
9. Repeat the steps for remaining vadai mix.

Note: I soaked urad daal at 7.30PM, started grinding it at 10PM and it was finished at 10.30PM.
next day Morning around 8AM I prepared the vadai.


sending this recipe to South Indian cooking hosted by Nandoos Kitchen and organized by Anu

and cook and share what you like event by chaithra of Athitdhyam

Walk Through memory lane Jan- 2014 of Gayathri's Cookspot

Grated Beetroot Stir

According to me the any veg poriyal / stir should be cooked without changing the original taste of the veggie. I believe adding mild spices  will help to retain the original taste.

I have heard from my friends and relatives that their kids are not eating the veggie. they don't like it etc.

I would suggest them to cook the veg without adding more spices. Only certain veg needs extra spices and treatments. And most of the times, kids are tasting the chili powder or roasted and ground masala's than the veg, which makes them to avoid the veg itself totally.

Reduce the spice and let them enjoy the taste and gain the vitamins.

Ok lets get into the recipe now.

Beetroots are basically sweetened root veg. Either you grate/cut and stir, or make a chutney, or Jam it used to taste awesome. I do not like adding chili powder or other masala to it.

A very simple stir, its like just giving tadka/ thalippu

Ingredients:

Grated beetroot - 1 Medium
Green chili/red chili -1
mustard seeds -1/2 a tea spoon
Urad daal - 1/2 a tea spoon
jeera (optional) -1/2 a tea spoon
Curry leaves - a few
oil -1-2 tea spoon
salt - taste

Preparation:
1. Heat the pan with 1 tea spoon of oil.
2. Add mustard seeds, urad daal, jeera, chopped chilies and curry leaves one by one... saute for 30 seconds.
3. Add the grated beetroot and stir well
4. Add a pinch of salt, mix well and close the pan with a lid.
5. Simmer the flame and let it cook for 8-10 mins.
6.In between open the lid and stir to make sure it is not burned.
7. Serve with your favorite main course or as a snack.

sending this recipe to cook with red, "New U"  and  
cook and share what you like event

South Indian cooking hosted by Nandoos Kitchen and organized by Anu

dish-it-out- Side Dishes hosted by Sathya Priya, organized by vardhini@ cooks joy  

Moong Daal Pakoda

Moong Daal / Paasi paruppu pakoda:

One of the easiest and healthy snack for your tea time. This week accidentally i ended up doing this snack. I have soaked the daal to make dosai, then noticed already i had adai batter in fridge... So invented new snack for the weekend :)

You need few hours to make this delicious "moru moru" pakodas.

Ingredients:

Moong Daal -1 cup
rice - 2 tea spoon
urad daal - 2 tea spoon
Onions - 1/2 a big onion or 1 medium  (finely chopped)
Green chili - 1 or 2 (as per your spice level) (finely chopped)
Perungayam - 2-3 pinches
salt - to taste
Oil to deep fry
curry leaves - a few (finely chopped)


Preparation:

1. Soak Moong daal, rice and urad daal for 2 hours.
2. Drain water completely, and keep it aside for 30 mins to 1 hour.
3. In a mixer, grind them all together coarsely without adding water.

4. Add  finely chopped  items, salt and perungayam to the coarsely ground paste.
5.heat oil in kadai,  and deep fry the pakodas untill they are golden brown.
6.Serve with your tea or as it is.

Notes:
1. Keeping aside for 30 mins after draining water will help the daal to dry a little, and it will not drink much oil while frying.
2. make small sized pakodas so it will be more crunchy.
3. I didnt chop the green chilies finely, because if it is visible, then my daughter can skip it without eating, . If your kids can eat spicy, you can add finely chopped, otherwise make it to little big pieces, so while eating they can discard.
4. You can add a piece of ginger while grinding, or you can add finely chopped ginger while adding onions. This will give some extra flavor to pakodas.

sending this recipe to cook and share what you like event

South Indian cooking hosted by Nandoos Kitchen and organized by Anu

Only food for growing kids event hosted by Shrutis Rasoi and organized by Pari

Peas Paratha

One evening i was breaking my head thinking, what I should prepare for dinner. Really got bored of idly and dosa... Wanted something different, and too my kid should like the new dish. Suddenly I got a call from my husband saying, he will be home late as he is going to Boston to meet his friend. And My daughter was napping as she had tired day at school!

Hmmm... I got time to try something new. Even if it doesn't work out, still I have time to prepare something else to feed my family. :)

Rak's Kitchen is one of my favorite site for recipes, and i started checking for a simple yet new dish for my family....

Oops...I have never tried Stuffed Parathas ... Why dont I make it today?

And I Decided "Peas Paratha" would be best to try. And here is the recipe too...I have changed the ingredients quantity as per my taste.

Ingredients:
For Chapati dough:

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Salt - as per taste
Water- as required (For the flour i used, i needed 1/2 cup)
oil- 1 tea spoon

For Stuff:

Green Peas - 1 and 1/4 cup
ginger - 1 inch piece
green chili -1
jeera and ajwin- 1/2 tea spoon each
garam masala - 1/2 tea spoon
salt - a pinch

Preperation:

1. Mix the chapati dough and keep aside for 30 mins.
2. Meanwhile, cook the green Peas in steam for 10-15 mins or till they cooked. If you keep in pressure cooker 2 whistles are enough. (In raks kitchen, she suggested to pressure cook it with out adding water. As i was lazy to wash the cooker that day, i just cooked it on steam. As shown in the pic... :D )

I boiled some water in the big vessel down and kept the peas vessle on top of it and closed with lid.

3. In a mixer grind the ginger and green chili along with ajwin and jeera seeds.
4.Grind the cool down peas along with this.

5. Make equal sized balls of chapati dough and peas stuff.
6. dust and roll it slowly. (I do have only poori press. so cannot dust and roll. If it was done with dusting and rolling it would have come in better shape and size :) )

7.Heat a tawa or pan and cook on both the sides.
8.Serve with your favorite side dish or Raitha.

My daughter loved this with butter. She was wondering how did the peas went inside the chapati??? :)

Sending this recipe to Lets cook with green

"Only Flat Breads and Parathas" hosted by Rafeeda and organized by Pari  And 

Cook up some main dish


And New "U"

And  to cook and share what you like event

 dish-it-out-light-dinners and cooks joy