Home made Nippattu

Nippattu is popular snack in Southern part of India. It is made of rice flour and can be stored for days and comes handy when there are unexpected guests at tea time. I love this Nippattu and this can also be a favorite snack to crunch during rainy season. It is very easy to make and can be stored in air tight container for months together. Nippattu is best to eat only after it gets cooled, as it get harder and crunchy :P

Ingredients
Rice Flour  -  1 large tea cup (heaped)
Roasted gram powder  -  2 tbsp
Roasted gram chunks -   1 tbsp
Roasted peanuts (crushed)  -  two spoons
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric  -  1/2
Groundnuts  -  2 tbsp
Curry leaves - a sprig, chopped lengthwise
Oil  -  2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Method:

• In a deep bottom pan add the oil to deep fry and get it to heat. Meanwhile roast the groundnuts, de skin and crush them to coarse chunks.
• Mix the Rice flour, Roasted gram powder, Roasted gram chunks, red chilli powder,turmeric, coarse groundnuts, curry leaves , salt .To this add two table spoons of hot oil and mix well adding water till it is a pliable and moist.

• Take a small ball of dough . Place it on a plastic sheet  fold the sheet on top of the dough and press with fingers till it gets flattened to a thin round form.

• Deep fry in the hot oil till golden brown on both sides. Keep the heat in medium so that the nippattu is cooked uniformly.

• Remove on a paper and let it cool. Serve with tea or coffee or just enjoy anytime of the day.

Home made Buttered Popcorn

Making popcorn from scratch can be tricky. Try in small amount and if you succeed, well and good so that next you move for a large quantity.... I tried making Popcorn in home... And believe me, all the kernels got emptied in 2 days time :P 
Buy a bag of dry maize kernels. You can get this from most supermarkets nowadays, and it's easy to find at ethnic stores too. The bigger bag you buy, the more money you'll save in the long term. 
Popcorn is good for health, it could help prevent cancer, research suggests. Scientists discovered the snack food contains 'surprisingly large' levels of health-boosting antioxidants called polyphenols. So why not make some popcorn in home :) Give a try!

Ingredients:
Dry maize kernels
Salted butter 5-6 tbsp (depends on your requirement)
Salt to taste if needed
Choice your flavor- Chat masala/chilli power:turmaric powder mix, Cheddar cheese [These are extra , which is added for flavoring of the popcorn]

• Take a clean and dry medium/big Pressure cooker. Add 5 tbsp salted butter, let it melt. If needed add to it 1/2 tbsp salt.

• Now add 1/3 cup of kernels into the cooker (about 2 small handfuls is usually about right) and turn the stove to medium heat.

• Put the lid on quickly. Shake the pressure cooker continuously while the new kernels pop, but be careful to not spill the hot melted butter.

• You will soon begin to hear the kernels popping and hitting the sides and lid of the pan. DO NOT TAKE OFF THE LID WHILST THE HEAT IS ON AND POPCORN IS POPPING. When the noise dies down to only 1 or 2 pops every few seconds, turn the heat off and remove the pan from the stove.

• Carefully take a peek under the lid. Your popcorn should be good and done, so take off the lid. You will smell the buttery aroma.

• If you want sweet popcorn, take sugar or Splenda and sprinkle it over the popcorn (still in the pan). Put the lid back on and give it a gentle shake. The oil should allow the sugar to stick well to the kernels.

• If you prefer cheddar flavoring (add cheddar cheese), do the same thing as you did with the sugar. You can also add chat masala or even sprinkle a mixture of Red chilli:Turmaric powder (1:1).

• Serve and ENJOY delicious home made popcorn....that toooo in wholesome amount... :P

Green Chilly Flitters (Mirchi Pakora)

Green chilly when you think of it. You might wonder it would be too hot and spicy. Well you need not get scared :D as its amazing taste would make you highly addictive. It is absolutely a tasty pakora which you can make during tea time. A best snack during the rainy season :P

Ingredients:
25-30 Green chilli, cut lengthwise (The one what you use for cooking) [See that you slit the chilli and deseed it, this minimizes the spiceness in flitters]
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1 tbsp tomato sauce
1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
Yogurt for mixing
Oil for frying

Method:

• In a large bowl, mix together chickpea flour, salt and tomato sauce, ginger-garlic paste & make a paste adding yogurt (yogurt minimizes the spicyness in chilli; also the flitter taste great, or you can also use water for making paste).
• Add the slit green chilli and mix well with the paste.
• Deep fry the chilli and serve along tea/coffe. Its a lovely snack during the evening times.
• You can also make it for meals. Sometime we make chilli flitters and have along konji/curd rice. This simple meal sometimes is just awesome one for me :)

Kodubale

Kodubale is really yummy... You can enjoy it along your evening Tea or Coffee. I remember fixing each of kadubale in each of my little finger when I was small, he he.. real fun! If you fry them under medium flame for around 5 min or so you find them to be more crispy and crunchy. Today I was all set in evening to make kodubale. You can make more of them and store in air tight containers. And whenever you love to crunch, take one each of rings in between your fingers and enjoy crunching :P  

 You can make round shape as well pear shaped

Ingredients:

2 cup Rice flour
1 1/2 cup Grated coconut, (ground to fine paste so as to extract the coconut milk)
1 cup roasted Udal dal powdered
2 tsp Jeera
2 tsp Oil
A pinch of hing
Salt as per taste
Oil for deep frying

Method:

• Fry Udal dal, and make a fine powder.

•  Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl; Heat 2 tsp oil and add to the mixture.
  Add very little by little coconut milk and make a dough out of the mixture; Knead well.

• Pull out small balls from the dough and roll them into strands of desired size with your hands. Moist your hands and join one end to the other to form a circle.

 

Make your desires shape either round or pear shaped as shown below

• Heat oil in a kadai/wok. Drop the kodubales into the oil and fry on low-medium heat. They are down when they turn golden-brown in color. It usually takes about 8-10 mins.

• Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. After they cool down, store in air-tight containers.

Spicy Tukada/ Tukadi (konkani)

The weekend is finally here and I am so glad that this week is finally behind us. This week was particularly exhausting, with lots of activities both on the home and the work front.
Finally thought of munching something along tea which is easy to make. Moving on to the recipe, these are deep fried savory diamonds (for lack of better term).
Different regions in India refer to this with different names. In konkani they are referred to as Tukadi, some also call it as Shankar Pali.
Anyway, these are simple to make with readily available ingredients on hand. They are crispy and have that melt-in-your-mouth texture. Trust me; these are so addictive that they are gone in no time.

Tukadi also called as tukda is a traditional snack recipe prepared from a maida based dough. Its crispy , fluffy and quite simple fried snack recipe which can be stored in air tight containers and enjoyed for weeks.
Hope you all had a wonderful and relaxing weekend.

1 cup maida (also can use wheat flour, but maida is preferred more),  1/2 tbsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tbsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp Ajwain, 1 tbsp Jeera/cumin, 1 tbsp hot oil, Water, salt to taste, oil for deep frying

Method:
Mix the flour, turmeric, chilli powder, salt, Jeera, ajwain and add the 1 Tbsp hot oil.
When the oil is cool enough to handle, mix it into the flour and mix well.
Prepare dough as u prepare for chapathis and roll it into chapatis.
Cut into diamonds or squares or diamonds with a knife, cutting wheel or pizza cutter and fry it in oil, till they puff up and become crisp.
Take them out of the oil and put into a shallow dish on a paper/ tissue paper.
Store it in air-tight jar.

Tukadi (konkani)