Urulaikizhangu varuval / Deep fried potato scrappings / Bangaladumpa fry

 

This unhealthy (yea I agree!!!) but a very tasty, crispy potato fry I learned form one of my sister. She prepared this for her daughter who was in hostel at that time. When we went to the place where she was studying,  my sister gave a tiffin box to us to give to her. When we reached the place we handed it over to her. She opened the tiffin box and I saw that the entire tiffin box is being filled with this golden, crispy fry. As usual I just picked some immediately and dropped it in my mouth. Wow !!! what a treat it was :).

Do any of you love the potato remains that sticks to tha bottom of a pan when your mom prepares potato fry ? I love it. I adore it. I used to wait for that one teaspoon wonder all the time near the pan and I used to get upset when the potato behaves good and doesn't leave its mark on the pan :). The potato remains taste exactly like this fry. So I enquired about the recipe and this is the first time I made it. Try it, your children will love it. This is not a healthy way to prepare potato but once in a while should be OK.

 

Ingredients :

Potato- 2 nos

Red chilli powder- according to your need and taste

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method :

Wash the potato well and scrap the potatoes using a scrapper. Now squeeze the scrappings to remove excess liquid. Deep fry them in hot oil. Take them out when they acquire a golden colour. Place them on tissue paper to remove excess oil. When they cool down add enough chilli powder and salt and mix well with your hands. Tasty potato fry will be ready in no time.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe : Remove the excess liquid from the scrappings by squeezing them otherwise they will imbibe oil. You can add garlic scrappings and curry leaves when frying for that extra aroma. Add salt and chilli powder only at the end of preparation. Serve with rasam saadham. Happy cooking !!!

Vaazhaikai bajji/ arati kaya bjjilu/ Raw plantain fritters

 

In Madurai, at around 4'O clock in the evening, every small tea shop and hotels will have this snack. They serve it with coconut chutney. Vaazhaikai bajji and coconut chutney- a super yum combo !!!. I personally love this bajji than any other bajji preparation. The soft meat of raw plantain covered with a crispy outer coat of batter will keep anybody longing for more and when it is served with coconut chutney- hmmmmmm I have no words to describe it. I love the smell of raw plantain. If you are  a person who love the smell of raw plantain and its taste this recipe is for you.

Ingredients :

Raw plantain (Indian variety)- 2 nos

Bengal gram flour (kadalai maavu, chenaga pindi)- 11/2 cup

Rice flour (arisi maavu, biyappindi)- 1/4 cup

Baking soda- 1/2 tspn (optional)

Asafoetida- 1/4 tspn

Chilli powder- 2 tspn (adjust according to your taste)

Salt to taste 

Oil for deep frying

Method :

Take bengal gram flour, rice flour, asafoetida powder, red chilli powder and salt in a vessel and mix together. Now add enogh water to make a batter similar in consistency to dosa batter. Cut raw plantains as shown in the picture into a thin stripe (no need to remove the skin...I love them with skin intact as it is more flavourful but its your wish). Heat oil in a pan. When the oil is hot enough immerse the individual plantain stripes in batter so that it is coated evenly with batter. Then drop them in hot oil and fry until they acquire a golden brown colour. Yummy, yummy snack will be ready. 

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe: Take care that the batter is coated well on the plantain stripes.Do not make the batter too thick or too watery. It should have a consistency of dosa batter or a little thicker.  Include asafoetida. Bajji and asafoetida are inseperable :). Happy cooking !!! and have a beautiful weekend!!!

Chicken fry/kozhi varuval/kodi vepudu

 

This is my most favourite dish. In my home I was the only NV eater. When sunday comes I would go to the meat shop and buy 1/4 kg of chicken. My mom would prepare this for me. Beautiful days they are !!! I will grind the masala in 'ammi kal'. The smell of garlic and ginger ground together....simply awesome!!! So until today if I smell garlic and ginger only this dish flashes in my mind. The smell of garlic and ginger not only made me happy but also the cats in my home. They will also be eagerly waiting for sundays :). My mom would marinate the ground masala on the chicken and will wait for sometime. Even that time appeared  to me very long. And finally she would drop the marinated chicken pieces in hot oil. The smell of chicken being cooked  along with the smell of ginger and garlic will make me more and more hungry. I will be waiting with a plate near her. As soons as they are in my plate it takes just a few minutes to gulp them down with a dash of lime juice on their top. Now, things have changed. Knowledge (?) I have gained has made me health conscious (!!). Even if I prepare this dish,  now-a-days I cannot enjoy it with a guilt-free mind. The books and articles I have read always told me that deep fried food is bad for health. Hmmm....some simple joys of childhood can never be brought back :(.

This chicken fry is very simple and very aromatic. I can swear that this is the best chicken fry in the whole world :).

Ingredients :

Chicken- 1/2 kg

Ginger- 1 large piece ( a 2 '' pieces?)

Garlic- some 6 pods ( take them in amount equal to that of ginger pieces)

Chilli powder - 2 tspns (adjust according to your taste)

Green chillies- 2 nos (optional)

Turmeric- 1/4 tspn

Maida ( All purpose flour)- 1 tspn

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method : 

Grind together ginger, garlic, green chillies, chilli powder, turmeric, all pupose flour and salt to make a paste. If you use chicken legs make small slits on the chicken meat. Apply the ground paste as a thin coating to the chicken and marinate for one hour. Otherwise you can marinate the chicken pieces the previous day and store them in deep freezer. This helps the salt and masala to seep deep inside the pieces. Heat oil in a vessel. When the oil is hot enough drop the chicken pieces in oil. Fry until the chicken acquires a deep brown colour. Serve with raw onions and lime wedges.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe : If the chicken pieces have fat sticking to them, they will burst when frying. Be very careful when you are near the hot oil. The above mentioned masala is more than enough to do the magic. Avoid adding any additional masala items. A very tasty snack. It makes a perfect combo with rasam sadham. Happy cooking !!!

Pavakkai varuval/kaakarakaya vepudu/bitter gourd fry

 

A wonderful side-dish with sambhar sadham. Not so healthy (?) because this dark green vegetable is deep fried in this recipe :). But sometimes you can 'live to eat' :). My mom used to make it often when I was a kid. This recipe takes out most of the bitterness of this vegetable. Pavakkai, bitter gourd, bitter melon or Momordica charantia is a vegetable highly valued for its medicinal properties. It has proven anti-diabetic compounds and many other medicinal properties. Some people hate this veggie because of its bitter taste and some are very fond of this vegetable. I like it especially the smaller variety which is available in south India . They are much more tasty. I miss them because we could never get it here. The final product is more like chips, even children will love it. This fry is a very simple one to prepare and I hope you will enjoy it too !!!

Ingredients :

Pavakkai/ bitter gourd - 2 nos

Chilli powder- 1 tspn

Turmeric powder- a pinch

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method :

Cut pavakkai as shown in picture. Add excess amount of salt to the cut bitter gourd pieces and mix well . Keep it as such for one hour. Because of osmosis the bitter tasting liquid will start to ooze out. After one hour  wash the cut bitter gourd pieces with water. This removes much of the bitter taste. Now add chilli powder and turmeric powder and mix well so that the pavakkai pieces are uniformly covered by it. Then heat a pan with oil for deep frying. When the oil gets heated add the bitter gourd pieces and fry well until crispy. Normally there is no necessary to add salt because during the intial step enuogh salt enters the bitter gourd. But if the salt is not enough you can sprinkle it at the end.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe : I love to remove from fire when they turn very crispy. It depends on you. But take care not to char them. You can also add the chilli powder at the end after frying the pavakkai  pieces. Happy cooking!!!

Pakoda / pakora / pakodi

Pakoda, a perfect companion for a cup of hot tea. When it is cold or raining outside a cup of hot tea and a crispy snack like pakoda will be a heavenly treat. It is a snack item prepared with gram flour or besan. It is a very famous bakery item in south India. But home made pakodas are  much tastier and healthier when prepared in the right way. Pakoda and bajis are made with the same variety of flour, yet they taste very different. Pakodas are hard and crispier while bajis have a much smoother texture.

I would always think of avoiding  deep fried items but my cravings usually take an upper hand. So as usual I ended up preparing pakoda on a lazy evening. We both watched IPL with a cup of hot tea and garam, garam pakodis. Hope you too will prepare and enjoy this snack.

Ingredients :

Gram flour (besan)- 1 1/2 cups

Rice flour- 1/4 cup

Onion- 1 no (big variety)

Curry leaves- 10 leaflets

Green chillies- 4 nos

Chilli powder- 1/2 tspn (depending on your taste buds increase or decrease)

Fennel seeds- 1 tspn

Ginger- a small piece (minced well)

Asafoetida- a pinch

Salt to taste and oil for deep frying

Method :

Mix together besan, rice flour. chilli powder, minced ginger, enough salt and asafoetida. In a pan heat 3 tbspns of oil. When the oil becomes hot, add it slowly to the besan mixture and stir it well with a metal spatula. Now add the cut onions, green chillies, fennel seeds and minced curry leaves to the besan mixture. Mix together all the ingredients. Onion has some water content in it. When you squeeze the onions with your hand the moisture in onion pieces will help in binding the flour together. Then sprinkle water little by little and mix the flour to form a thick, paste like batter. Be careful when adding water. Do it slowly and carefully. Take care not to make the batter watery. Then the preparation will turn into a baji. Now heat oil in a pan for deep frying. When the oil becomes hot enough add the batter slowly in batches. Fry till the pakodas turn golden, brown colour. Serve with a cup of hot chai.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe : The texture of the batter is very important. It must be thick and paste like. Addig hot oil to the besan flour helps in making the pakodas crispier and they also imbibe less oil during the frying process. Try adding spinach leaves or any other greens for a healthier version. Happy cooking!!!

Potato fry

Potato is a favourite vegetable for many people. I am also a fan of this starchy, tuberous crop. When I am young I used to wait for tasting the cooked potato. When my mom cooks it and cools it for removing the skin I used to peel it and eat it. Before my mom could use it for preparing a dish half of it will be in my stomach.   Definitely this starchy vegetable has an unique taste. Mainly children love it in any form. This vegetable is  very versatile too. It acquires different taste depending on the way it is prepared. Cooked potato has an entirely different taste than the fried one and shallow fried potato has a different taste than the deep fried one. In Europe it is a staple vegetable. They consume potatoes like rice. It was very surprising for me in the beginning to see cooked potatoes in the canteen here. Just a bowl of cooked potatoes!!! Potato is very easy to cook. The first dish I made was with potato. This potato fry recipe which I am going to share with you is very simple yet very tasty. Look at the way they are cut and fried. Beautiful right? I loved it from my childhood. I love potato fry when my mom prepare it this way. This fry will be crispier on the outside and soft inside (veliya kara muranu ulla methunu...supera irukum). I am 100% sure your little one will love it . One more important thing is Rajender loves it too. Once when I aksed (compelled!!!)  him to tell which dish he likes most in my preparation he mentioned this after a long thought . So this dish is really special to me .

Ingredients

Potato- 5 nos

Chilli powder- 2 tspns

Salt and oil for seep frying

Method

Cut potato as shown in the photograph. Marinate the cut potato pieces with chilli powder and enough salt for 30 minutes. Then deep fry in oil. Very tasty potato fry is ready to serve.

Potato is a starchy vegetable. So it is not advisable to include it too often in your diet. Once in a week should be OK. But I use it even less in my home. For children it should be no problem. Try to include it more often. Potato is very rich in good quality gvitamin C and pottasium. If you find green areas in potato or if you find sprouts in them please remove it. These portions harbour solanine a poisonous glycoalkaloid which could affect the nervous system. One more imporatnt thing about potato is- It is best to consume this vegetable with skin. All the nutrients in potato is concentrated between the skin and the flesh. Skin also provides us with fiber. So if you get potatoes with flawless skin try to cook it with skin.

Taste enhancing tips for this recipe: Do not burn the potato pieces when frying. Take them out when they acquire a golden brown colour. Take care not to add too much salt. Cut it as shown in figure. It not only looks beautiful, cutting that way greatly enhances the taste too. Happy cooking!!!

Mathi meen varuval (Sardine fry)

Sardines are named after Sardinia (an Italian island),  where large schools of these fish were once found. I saw these fresh sardines in the market. Immediately,  I started to drool on the thought of the fish fry which my mom prepares. Her fish fry recipe calls in for a special type of ground masala which is very different from tamilians preparation. I think it's a keralite way of preparation. Whenever I go for the fish market she would say " buy sardines if it is available they will be very nice for frying". The sardine fry turned out to be very tasty. Since the fishes were very small they became very crispy in no time. So here comes the recipe:

Ingredients

Sardines ( wash and clean them)

Ginger 1 inch piece

Garlic 10 small pods

Pepper- 1 tbspn

Fennel seeds- 1/2 tspn

Curry leaves- lots (some 50-60 leaflets)

Turmeric a pinch

Chilli powder- 1 tbspn

Salt to taste

Method

Clean the sardines. Grind all the items given in the ingredients column (ofcourse except sardines) into a very smooth paste. This ground masala is excellent for all types of fish fry. Try it. You will love it.  Marinate the sardines in the ground paste. Keep aside for atleast one hour. Take a shallow pan, add oil and shallow fry the fishes. I would love to have the fishes in the most crispier way. So when to stop the frying process depends on you.

Sardines contain lots of fat in them.They are very good source of omega-3 fatty acids. When you eat sardines, you  do not have to worry about the sharp bones. They are very fragile and when you fry sardines they become very crispy, so "appadiye sapidalam". In this way you get a lot of high quality calcium. Sardines are claimed to be good for cardiovascular health, memory, joints, skin and energy level but the most important reason to indulge in a plate of sardines is it's taste


. Happy cooking!!!