Spinach Masala Vadai

A crispy snack for the upcoming cold evenings and also a great way to use up the left over spinach:)

Ingredients :

1 cup Channa dhal

1/4 cup Thoor dhal

1/4 cup Urad dhal

2 cloves garlic (optional)

1 inch piece Ginger

1tblsp Fennel seeds

5-6 red chillies

Handful of currry leaves chopped finely

2 cups Spinach, chopped finely

1 cup of onion chopped finely

3 green chillies finely chopped

Method:

Soak all the dhals together for about 2 hours. 

Grind them coarsely without adding water along with the fennel and red chillies.Sprinkle some water if needed.

Take the mixture in a wide bowl.Add chopped ginger, garlic onions,green chillies, curry leaves ,spinach and required amont of salt.

Mix well and make small balls out of the dough.

Heat up the oil in a deep pot, flatten the ball and slide it to the oil. 

Fry till crispy and golden brown.

You can fry 4-5 vadai at a time.

Note:

The onion must be chopped finely for the vadais to be intact, otherwise it will break up in the oil.

Take care while adding salt as spinach already has some natural saltness 

Do not use frozen spinach for this recipe.

If the dough is loose add couple of tsp's of besan flour to thicken it.

Gobi Manchurian Dry - My version

Here's my version of gobi manchurian, that I tend to make often during these cold and chilly evenings. What else can beat this cold winter other than hot and spicy food :)
Gobi Manchurian has always been a nightmare to me and I have failed miserably many times in the past. But the following measurements, took out from a local magazine works well for me and nowadays I make it in a jiffy.
This is a easy to make dish if you have all the sauces ready at home. Try to use the light soy sauce and a hot variety of chilli sauce. I used the malaysian hot sauce - sambal olek, really spicy. Spring onion is a must as it adds a nice flavour to the dish.

Ingredients:
For frying:
1 medium cauliflower cut into florets.
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp chilli sauce
salt as per need
1/ 2 cup All Purpose/Maida flour
1/2 cup Corn flour
One handful of Riceflour


For the sauce:
1/2 cup of onion thinly sliced
1/4 cup of capsicum thinly sliced (optional)
1 green chilly, chopped 
1/2 cup chopped spring onions
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tsp Chilli sauce
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup ( or ) 1 tablespoon tomato paste +1/2 tsp sugar
a pinch of red colour (optional)


Method:
Wash and cook the florets in microwave for about 4 mins. Drain and cool in a colander.
The above step helps to reduce the cooking time in oil. But its optional, you can also fry them directly.
Marinate the cauliflower with soysauce, chillisauce and salt for about 10 mins.
Heat oil in a frying pan.
Just when you are ready to fry, toss all the flour into the marinated florets. Mix well to coat.
Drop the florets in the oil and fry till crisp. Drain on a paper towel and keep aside.


Heat a pan with 2 tablespoon of oil.
Add the ginger, garlic, onion , green chilli and saute on high heat.
Now add the soy sauce, chilli sauce, salt, tomato ketchup and the red food colour and mix well .
Now toss in the fried cauliflower and the chopped spring onions, stir well to coat.
Serve hot .

Note: 
Do not mix the flours well before frying, as it tends to get soggy by the time you finish frying. Just add them when you are all set for frying. 
Make sure there's no water in the cauliflower mixture before adding the flours.
Add some more corn flour if gets soggy.
Since the soy sauce has it own salt, make sure to add very little salt while sauting the veggies.

We are going on a short vacation to Spain middle of this week, So this space is going to be silent for another week, See you all after that :)

Spanakopita - A Greek Starter

Couple of months back after making an yummy Greek dessert - Baklava , I was wondering about how to use up the little of the remaining phyllo sheets. I thought of going again for the same Baklava - the rolled up version, then something stopped me warning me about the calories. So after browsing through the numerous bookmarked recipes on starters and appetizers, I settled on Spanakopita that aptly needed the exact amount of sheets that I had in hand.




I adapted the recipe from Here by omitting the egg and baking instead of frying.


Ingredients:
2 cups of frozen spinach
1 small onion minced
2 garlic cloves minced
1 tsp red chilli flakes.
2 tblsp of chopped parsley or cilantro
salt and pepper
Butter or olive oil for brussing the phyllo pastry

Method
Thaw and sqeeze all the water from the Spinach/
Take a tblsp of olive oil in a pan and saute onion and garlic.
Stir in the spinach, salt , pepper and redchili flakes. Saute for 2 mins.
Allow it to cool and mix in the Feta cheese.

Place 3 phyllo pastry sheets on a flat surface.
Brush them with melted butter or olive oil on one side.
Cut the Pastry sheets into thin long rectangular shapes.
Place a tblsp of the stuffing and fold it like a triangle.
Keep folding the triangle continuosly left and right till you reach the end of the strip.
It will resemble a samosa wrapped in layers of trace paper.
Seal the edges with melted butter.

Bake in the  180C preheated oven for 20 mins or the pastry is well browned.
You can also substitute the Feta cheese with Ricotta or crumbled Paneer.





Sending these to the AWED event started by DK held this month  at  TastyCurryLeaf and also to Divya's  Healing food Spinach event.

Sending this also to this week's Bake-off event over at Bangalore Baker

Baked Aloo Tikki and a Special Award.

Before going to the recipe I want to mention about this award that I have received from Viki ( EliteFoods) whose blog I love to visit and have also tried some of her amazing recipes.What makes it so special is that, she has created it herself  and am very happy to receive it first hand from her.To be very frank this is my second award from the Blogosphere.Thank you Viki.

I would like to pass this  lovely award to the following ladies
CoolLassie at  PanGravyKadaiCurry
Tina at Kaipunyam
HappyCook at MyKitchenTreasure.

Please pass on this award to as many blogers as you wish.

Now going to the recipe, I made this tikki's (or should I say cutlet) for a small get together.I had planed to make it as a regular tiki using the tawa and made the filling accordingly.I was interrupted by a very important work that day, so ran out of time and decided to take my chance and bake it.It turned out quite great and everyone loved it.

Ingredients:
4 large potatoes.
1 large onion chopped
3 green chillies chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped ginger
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves.
2 tblsp lemon juice
1 tsp chat masala( optional)
1/4 cup bread crumbs + 1/4 cup for rollling
salt as required

Method

Preheat the oven to 220C
Boil the potaoes.Cool and peel the skin.Mash the potatoes well
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well
Watch the amout of salt as the breadcrumbs and the chat masala will have salt in it.
Make small balls out of the mixture.
Take 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs in a plate.

Line the baking tray with foil.Grease slightly with oil.
Flatten the potato balls and roll the disc over the crumbs and place it in the prepared baking sheet
 Bake it for 15 - 20 mins approx, or until the crust turns golden