Black eyed beans vada - a quick and delicious "pick me up" snack

DD and her friends went back to school last sunday and the house feels completely empty and silent. The past week was laced with lot of sounds, songs, dance accompanied by unexpected sudden shrieks as they found something exciting to share. Even when they were silent or sitting still, there was an expectation of something fun happening. Flora has been lying in her bed with a long face having been pampered so much by the doting girls, not to even mention all the treats they sneaked to her when mom wasn't around or looking over her shoulders. I have grown so used to 3 pairs of hands and arms reaching out at different times in to the chakli dabba or walking in looking for 'something to eat' as I worked in the kitchen. They enjoyed taking home food on their daily drives and outings and always came back looking forward to the dinner time. As for me and BH, we are trying to be more mature than Flora and get back to our activities and enjoy them though it honestly takes time to make sense of the quietness so soon coming after the merry week.

I have been offered a new job as a chief, "non resident" chef by the girls. They want me to move to the college town and cook food for them. As with any job offer, there are caveats and do & dont's such as - I can't force myself to stay with them in their apartment next year, stay at a non intrusive distance from them, can't drop in at any random time at the pretense of delivering food, can't put on mommy hat when I see a pile of laundry on the floor, should abstain from reaching out for the camera every time they break into a practice dance or song session ...etc. So while I would love to stay in the same town and cook for them (and many more that will drop in apparently), I am reconsidering given all the constraints and haven't made a decision yet. The other deterrent was that they are yet to come up with a way to pay me for my services :-) and I will need to find another way to be financially independent. What do you all suggest?

Work in its regular form resumed from Monday for both of us, BH was in a week long work related conference and announced on Sunday night that he didn't want bf, lunch and dinner for the next 4 days. I had a little bit of left over to last me a day and then a whole bunch of assorted veggies ranging from sweet potatoes, carrots, green beans, asparagus, peppers and cauliflower. Since I was meaning to try some different kind of meal from my usual, I decided to skip the roti and rice completely for a week and make the most of the fresh vegetables before they started going limp and mushy on me. We drove with the girls to a small Bevarian town at the Cascade foothills and I brought home a bottle of jalepeno flavored olive oil :-), it is soooo good that I am very tempted to make some at home. For now, the bottle will last  me for a while. So ended up roasting a huge batch of vegetables in some of the flavored oil and salt and took it for lunch and ate it for dinner with a bowl of home made yogurt sprinkled with roasted cumin and salt, yummm.. . I have realized that I can not only survive but also eat heartily and enjoy a meal as long as it is sufficiently salted and there is a crunch in there somewhere, doesn't matter if there is no rice or flour as long as the meal has character and some spunk to it :-) I did the roasting on Sunday night and the batch of roasted vegetables lasted me until Friday. I hardly switched on the stove or cooked anything after that this past week. It felt like the cooking fairy had taken her wand and just gone phooooosh out of my kitchen window.

BH came back home on Friday evening and was totally shocked to see the empty fridge devoid of leftovers in tiny, small, medium, large boxes which is usually how my fridge is stocked. Seeing him crave for edible stuff also made me miss my cooking and so I decided to get back in action over the weekend. As the weather has been playing with us and gray skies & a chilly breeze were to welcome the next morning, I couldn't think of anything better than a special meal of BBB with some raita. A side of papads was replaced willingly with a more elaborate plate of deep fried, crispy vadas in the plan. Only I didn't have a decent amount of chana dal in the pantry. Ended up soaking some black eyed beans over night and made some really light, crispy, delicious vadas with them. We skipped bf and proceeded to make an elaborate brunch. By the time the pot of BBB was ready, we were too hungry to wait until the vadas got done and I am not a good photographer on a hungry stomach and waning patience :-). So the plan changed slightly as we ate the first dose of BBB with a bowl of cool raita and put off making the vadas until later in the afternoon. Had them garma-garam (piping hot) with a cup of tea and then with a bowl of BBB on the side, mission accomplished :-). Oh wait, I broke a few vadas into quarters and immersed them in some home made yogurt and stuck them in the refrigerator for some cool vadas to enjoy later.

Since it was an after thought and not a very well planned event, I threw in whatever I thought made sense into the vada batter such as a handful of mint leaves, some chopped fresh coconut pieces. None of these are mandatory but add to the taste. Black eyed beans have a distinct taste and you will be glad you added some flavor enhancing substances like mint, onion, ginger etc. Dill leaves are another good option. These vadas taste best when hot and just out of the oil, but also retain a layer of crispness as they cool down. Most of South Indian dal vadas (ambode, chattambode, masala vada) are all similar in preparation with minor changes so I was debating between elaborating on the recipe (and boring to death a skilled reader) versus making it concise (and disappointing a novice cook that visits the blog) :-) and have made some effort to strike a balance. Notes at the bottom have the tips and tricks to make a great crunchy vada. Feel free to message me if you are trying this and have questions.

Makes a wonderful snack for a rainy afternoon with a cuppa. Our weather here has been as unpredictable as it can be. According to weather bureau, we had one of the driest January in history only to be broken by one of the wettest February! and March is marching in the footsteps of February so far with very few dry & sunny days while the rains have taken the front seat. I am enjoying the rains as always and hoping the plants do too. To get myself back into the groove after a week of break from cooking and to celebrate the joy of rains, I made these crispy, crunchy vadas and they not only lifted our spirits but also seem to have had an influence on the weather as today started with blue skies, golden sun and a bright morning :-). Now after binging on these through out the weekend, may be it is time for some control starting tomorrow??

Black eyed beans are also called alasande (kannada), bobbarlu (Telugu), Chawli or Lobhia (Hindi) and are one of my favorite beans. They don't need a very long soaking time and you can even get away by washing and cooking dry beans directly in pressure cooker if you are pressed for time. They are great in Usli and gravy dishes as well.

What do you need to make black eyed beans vada? 
Makes about 20-22 vadas
1.5 cups dry black eyed beans
2 Tbsp chopped fresh coconut (skip it if you don't want)
1/2 cup (more or less according to taste) chopped fresh mint
1/2 cup finely chppoed onion
salt to taste
4-5 green chilies
1 inch piece ginger
oil to deep fry (I use peanut oil)

How to make black eyed beans vadas?

• Soak the beans overnight or atleast for 5-6 hours
• Wash and drain the soaked beans.
• Grind with green chilies, ginger into a coarse paste leaving out some beans in halves and quarters. 
• Take the ground paste into a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. 
• Heat oil in a deep kadai. drop a small amount of the batter and check if the oil is hot (if it sizzles right away and comes to the surface immediately it is ready).
• While the oil is heating, make small key lime sized balls of the batter, flatten them a little to form discs and keep them ready. 
• Once the oil is hot, add as many prepared vadas as your kadai holds without piling them up and fry until golden brown on both sides. 
• Take them out onto a paper towel lined plate and enjoy with a hot cup of tea or coffee. 

Notes: 

• Keep the heat on medium once you drop the vadas and fry slowly so the inside gets cooked completely. 
• Grind the paste in pulse mode and do not add any water. Grind in batches to make it easy on your blender. 
• Grind it to a coarse blend and avoid either making a smooth paste or leaving whole beans in the mixture. 
• If you end up adding water while grinding and the batter doesn't hold its shape, you can try adding a Tbsp or so of besan/gram flour and give it a mix. 
• All the add-ons such as onion, mint, dill, cilantro, green chilies, ginger etc are to taste, adjust the quantity to suit your palate. 

Phodi - A desi version of Italian eggplant parmesan (no parmesan though) :-)

It has been a long time since I shared the books on my night stand and the movies I watched, I thought of doing this as part of today's post especially because I am back to reading this new year and also have been watching movies fairly regularly. And timing can't be better with Oscars 2017 just a few hours away, right?. Well, I was writing the draft of the post (as you can imagine) earlier this afternoon and got to posting the final version only now (after watching the Oscars) :-). Did you watch it? Any favorites? I have only seen 'Arrival' so far this year, the others 'Hidden Figures', 'Moonlight', 'La La Land' and ofcourse 'Fences' are on the list, will get to them slowly, may be on the tube if not in theaters. But I am glad to be back to reading books at my old pace. Two of the things that make me really happy in this life - a pile of good books and a pantry full of raw materials. Books to help me in and out of any situation and pantry grounds me to the current moment, focus on the basics. I currently have a bagful of books on my nightstand and two of them are by the same author recommended by a friend. I also recently watched a wonderful movie on the recommendation of another friend. Both suggestions were spot on and I loved both the books and the movie :-).

A dear friend who is also a published author recommended William Trevor to me recently. I am always partial to short stories, I feel like a well written short story has the potential to make a greater impression in a few short pages than a long, elaborate novel. While novels provide a wide space and a broad brush to slowly and deliberately introduce characters, build the story line and express emotions, short stories do not offer any of this luxury but infact demand that the writer be totally convinced about what (s)he is trying to convey in the tight space. Only a very able writer can do justice to paint a lingering image within a span of a few pages of his/her writing. A well written short story can be very powerful while a badly written one can fall flat on its face. William Trevor makes reading short stories a pleasure and I am hooked into his style of writing and the characters he brings to life with his narration. Having finished both 'A bit on the side' and 'Cheating at Canasta', I am on a waiting list for his 'Collected Short stories' next :-). Thanks J for the recommendation, not sure how I never got to his books earlier.

Another friend S mentioned Helen Mirren's "Woman in Gold" on Netflix to me. With HM in the lead I didn't need additional push in the direction and watched it last weekend when I was home alone while BH was busy at some conference. Based on a true story, the movie deals with the recovery of a piece of art with a very intimate personal connection. As any work with the Nazi Germany, this movie has the power to put a knot in your stomach but I enjoyed watching the movie. It is still on Netflix and definitely a watch worth its time. Again, thank you S for the lovely chat and the movie reco :-)

Do you have books or movie recommendations? Something that you enjoyed spending time with? Share them in the comments.

Moving on to the recipe today, here is a deceptively simple and delicious snack, appetizer, side dish made with eggplants. Depending on your mood, you can serve this as a starter or main course. I first tasted this a decade+ back at one of BH's colleague's home when we went there for dinner. His parents were visiting and as R & wife had two young kids that demanded the parents's time and attention, aunty had taken charge of the kitchen. They are originally from Gokarna, the beautiful northern karnataka temple town and aunty's food was everything I had read and imagined from that region. The ease and skill with which she rolled out soft akki rottis and served them hot off the griddle for the ten of us while making it all look so effortless is something I can never forget. I most definitely remember calling nammamma that night and telling her all about aunty's cooking :-). After all these years, I don't exactly remember the entire spread (it certainly was a spread) but one dish that became an instant hit with us was this 'phodi'. She had made them with eggplants and potatoes and kept them ready even before we reached their home and served it along side the akki rottis for dinner. Yumm!!

Eggplants and I have a long history, it started with me completely hating the vegetable and staying miles away from it to decidedly ignoring it when it made its way to my plate to falling in love with nammamma's vangibhaath to enjoying the delicious gojju to totally changing sides with amma's stuffed vankaya. I am sure many of you can relate with this, it is not a vegetable that has universal appeal of the spuds but everyone in my family with the exception of DD loves this simple, nutritious and healthy vegetable. The only way DD eats this vegetable currently is in the form of this phodi and sometimes the stuffed version. I exploit that shamelessly and make this often so she gets to eat the vegetable and hope that someday she will be a convert just like her own mom :-). BH on the other hand can eat this phodi all by itself and call it a meal, such is his love for the humble eggplant.

Being an ardent Olive garden fan, DD called this Indian eggplant parmesan since it resembles the Italian dish in looks :-) but the name is misleading as the ingredients and taste is very different as is the cooking method. If you love eggplants and like the texture of tenderized/shrivelled eggplants and are trying to skip cheese and Italian seasoning, this is a perfect dish. Go ahead and give it a try.

What do you need for Phodi? 
1 medium sized eggplant
3 Tbsp oil
Spice mix: 
3/4 cup upma rava/sooji
1 Tsp red chili powder
1 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp coarse crushed black pepper
1/4 Tsp asafoetida
1/4 Tsp Turmeric powder

How do you make Phodi? 

• Wash and pat dry the eggplant, cut both the stem end and the opposite end.
• Cut the eggplant in discs of about 1/4 inch thickness and keep them immersed in a bowl of water to avoid discoloration.

• Heat a heavy (preferably cast iron) griddle on medium heat and let it heat up (a sprinkle of water should immediately sizzle)
• Take a wide plate, add all the ingredients listed under spice mix and mix them uniformly. 
• Taste test a pinch and adjust salt, chili powder or black pepper to suit your taste.

• Make sure the pan is hot, drizzle a couple of drops of oil and smear it all around the pan and reduce heat to low. 
• Take an eggplant disc from water, shake away all the water and dredge it in the dry spice mixture to form a thick & even coating on both sides. 

• Lay the eggplant disc on the hot griddle and repeat for as many pieces as your griddle can hold. 
• Drizzle drops of oil on and around the eggplant discs, cover and cook for 2mins. 

• I use a glass lid for this so I can see the progress of cooking from outside without having to lift it multiple times :-)
• Once the top layer is moist and the disc looks a little shrivelled, gently lift each one and turn it over. 

• Let it cook for another minute and half, add a drizzle of oil on top. Do not cover while cooking the second side. 
• Take the discs off the griddle when both surfaces have reached your desired color and crispiness. 
• These taste delicious hot off the griddle and equally yummy when they cool down making it an easy lunch box item or a make ahead item for a party. Just warm it up before serving. 

Notes: 

• Eggplant tip: Select one that feels heavy for its size. Also look for seedless varieties of eggplants. Get one that is dark purple in color and is not squishy.  
• You can use potato slices, sweet potatoes instead of eggplant
• Cooking time varies with the heat and the thickness of the discs
• Always cook this dish on low heat allowing the vegetable to cook thoroughly and not burn the outer surface. 
• Covering while cooking ensures moisture is captured and the vegetable cooks in its own juices. 
• It is important to keep the spice mix as dry as possible until you are done. Avoid water drops falling into it too much, if you are making a large batch, I suggest you take out handfuls of the mixture into a separate plate and replesnish as you need.  A wet mixture doesn't stick well on the vegetable. 
• Do not skip asafoetida or turmeric as it brings a distinct flavor to the dish. 

Hurgaalu/Hurigaalu - a healthy, protein rich, spicy trail mix I will give my life for :-)

Happy Deepavali to all of you celebrating the festival of lights! Wishing you all hope, love and joy forever.   

This weekend being Deepavali, I am carried back to my Mysuru Deepavali memories where every year nammamma and anna would place tiny home made lamps all around the compound wall and in the portico and go around lighting one by one. Neither of them cared for the fire crackers but the lamps and lights was an integral part of Deepavali celebration at home as was the traditional oil bath and the yummy food. We did the lamp lighting here this year as well though food part was mostly kept very simple.

I started this week long series of home made dishes from Nammamma's kitchen last Sunday as my humble way of sharing my love for my mom. When I wrote my blog post after a couple months of gap, I was looking at it mostly as an outlet to say things that I haven't been able to say verbally and also to remember my mom through some of her best loved dishes. What I didn't expect though was the flood of personal emails and notes from so many of you, sharing your experience of loss of a loved one and supporting me to deal with my pain with the help of your kind words. All I can say is a heart felt thank you to every one of you, beyond any words can possibly express.

I started the 7 day marathon blogging with Puri Unde - Nammamma's signature sweet dish and a very traditional sweet from Karnataka and I want to end this week long blogging with another one of her signature recipes, a savory one this time, called Hurgaalu/Hurigaalu. I haven't blogged at this frequency even when I started the blog 4+ years back :-). It was draining to keep doing it every day, tiring to sit down for another few hours of blogging after a long day of work, but at the end of it I enjoyed chronicling some of nammamma's yummy dishes and I am glad I did it. I don't claim that I have documented all of the recipes she used to make, there are still many more to come and I will definitely tag them as I bring them onto the blog here, I chose some really simple ones and every day dishes this past week just because of the memories connected with those dishes.

Plumped up kadle kaalu after overnight soaking

My earliest memory of Hurgaalu is when nammamma made these on a very large scale welcoming her first grand child. I was in grade school when akka was expecting her baby and nammamma was almost delirious with happiness to have a grand child at home, she would prepare special food every single day and feed akka for the 2 months she was in Mysuru. It was like a 'foodie dream come true' for me and the younger brother without even taking the effort to dream :-) since we would be given every one of those delicious delicacies. Thinking about it, I am sure that the two of us ate most of what was prepared and akka mostly just sampled them, she never over eats anything :-). Out of all the goodies prepared, this one is by far my most favorite.

Plumped up Alasande kaalu after overnight soaking

It is not surprising given the fact that I love spicy food, I adore crispy, crunchy snacks and I can eat them almost any time of the day. It is labor intensive and not something Nammamma either had the time to prepare often nor had the inclination if I had left her alone. But eating the delicious hurgaalu at akka's baby shower got me totally hooked on it, so I used to beg her every so often to make these at home. In that innocent childhood, I had even told her that I would have atleast a dozen kids just to be able to eat her hurgaalu every time :-). Well, that didn't happen, I mean the dozen kids part but I am sure that she made it more than a dozen times just to please the demanding kid I was.

Plumped up matki after overnight soaking

It wasn't just me craving for her hurgaalu, almost every one that has eaten her home made hurgaalu swears by it. She had this custom of making yummy dishes for any pregnant woman in the colony. I have seen her frequently make something special for an expectant mom whether it was a friend's daughter, daughter in law or a new neighbor. They all knew that my mother was a sucker when it came to pregnant women and their 'cravings' :-). Many of them openly asked amma for a specific dish or two while a few newly acquainted ones dropped hints about how she loved to eat a certain something nammamma made. Either case the person was sure to receive whatever they had wished to eat from nammamma's kitchen, she would prepare it with all the love and care and carry it over to them :-). Yes, it is part of the perks of living in a tight knit, small community where every one knows each other. None of us minded since we all got our share of it as well. She was like the surrogate mom for many young mothers in our neighborhood. That is who she was, generous with everything she had, making people around her feel cared for, loved by always. Even when things were hard she made it a point to share what she had.

Hurgaalu is like a trail mix, a mixture of roasted beans of different varieties and jazzed up with the right amount of red chili powder and salt. Nammamma had her touch of using the lemon juice to make the spice paste which I believe is sheer brilliance as it enhances the taste of the final product by many folds. She also had perfected the proportions of the different varieties of beans to make the mix taste just right. A few years back, I stopped troubling amma to make this at home knowing that she would willingly start soaking the beans the moment I opened my mouth and asked for it. I didn't have the heart to put her through all the effort and started looking for alternate sources of getting hurgaalu. I have tried many stores in both Mysuru and Bengaluru, some are more delicious than the other but not one of them came close to what nammamma used to make. I hesitated making hurgaalu at home because of the nagging feeling in my head that it will fall short of my own expectations but made it recently when there was a finality that I would never taste nammamma's hurgaalu again. The family received it with genuine compliments and I feel confident that it is as close to nammamma's hurgaalu as it gets.

Plumped up hurli kaalu after overnight soaking

The process is really simple if you pay attention to a few key tricks (see the notes below), a little goes a long way as the beans get mixed together. So start small, get the hang of the roasting and you can make this delicious, healthy snack at home any time. If I were to break down hurgaalu making for a novice, here is how it would look like - Take dehydrated kaalu -> hydrate them in water over night -> dehydrate them back on slow heat -> add spice paste -> go get your favorite book -> take the hurgaalu in a big bowl -> find a quiet spot -> get lost from the world :-)

Nammamma had the advantage of 'bhatti' in Mysuru, these are small shops with professional grade roasting equipment. There used to be a street in old Mysuru that had a couple of these bhattis, you would take your ingredients there and the shop owner would roast them for you. They had huge, wide, thick kadais called bandle in Kannada, half filled with clean sand (for even distribution of heat), they would put the beans one group after another in to the hot kadai and roast them on wood fires. It would take less time than if you were to do it at home but nammamma stood there the entire hour or so, chatting with the bhatti owner and making sure he roasted them just to the point she wanted. The inside of the stores would be hot, humid and not at all comfortable, so if we accompanied her, we would be asked to sit outside and wait.

Once the roasting was done, the entire content of the kadai would be passed through a fine sieve that was just the right size to hold the beans but let the sand pass through. He would put the roasted beans back into their individual container they originally came in and hand it over. Nammamma brought it back home, mix it with the spice paste before the second roast in multiple batches. After adding peanuts, kadle and coconut, the mixture would be ready to start munching on. Hope you try this at home and enjoy it as much as I do :-)

Happy Halloween everyone, Have a safe and spooky tricking and treating!!

What do you need to make Hurgalu? 
1 cup whole moong/mung bean/hesaru kaalu
3/4 cup whole black chickpeas (this is not garbanzo, see the picture)/kadle kaalu
1/2 cup black eyed peas/alasande kaalu
1/3 cup moth beans/matki
1/2 cup horse gram/hurli kaalu
1/2 cup raw peanuts
1/2 cup roasted gram/kadle
1 cup chopped dry coconut/kobbari

For the spice paste: 
1 Tbsp red chili powder (adjust to your taste buds)
1/2 Tsp asafoetida
1 Tsp salt
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
1.5 Tbsp lemon/lime juice

Needed kitchen gadget: A heavy gauge, thick bottom kadai/skillet. A damp kitchen towel or paper napkin. 

How do you make Hurgalu? 
Preparation (previous evening):

• Take each of the beans (1-5 in the list above)in a separate bowl. 
• Pick any dirt/small stones from the beans.
• Wash the beans in 2 changes of water, soak overnight in double the quantity of water.

Making of Hurgalu:

• Next morning, drain water from each bowl using a sieve.
• Spread a thin, clean cotton cloth in your kitchen or any other area of the house indoors that is dry and shaded. 
• Spread the washed bean on the cloth, still keeping each variety of bean separate from the other. 

• Let it dry and lose the dampness (about 4.5-5hrs), but not dry completely. 
• Heat a really thick bottom kadai/skillet on medium heat, reduce the heat to low and add raw peanuts. 
• Roast them until they get brown spots on the skin and give out a nice roasted aroma. Take them onto a plate, let cool and remove the outer skin. Keep aside until ready to use. 
• In the same kadai, warm the roasted gram for a minute and take it out to a plate. 
• Next, warm the chopped dry coconut pieces for a couple of minutes until it turns a very light brown, keep aside.

• Add horse gram, stirring frequently, roast until the kaalu shrinks back to almost the original dehydrated size and starts to pop. 
• Taste test a couple to make sure they are crispy and light. Take it off the kadai and pour into a wide mixing bowl. 
• Repeat the process for the remaining 4 types of beans and as they get done, add them to the same mixing bowl.  

• Here is a cheat sheet for the roasting times for the quantity mentioned above and on low heat. It may vary slightly depending the heat and the kadai gauge. 
• Hurlikaalu - 15 mins
• Kadle kaalu - 25 mins
• Alasande kaalu - 25 mins
• Matki - 10 mins
• Hesaru kaalu - 15 mins
• In a small bowl, add all the ingredients for the spice paste and mix well, the paste needs to have a dropping consistency. Add a spoon of water if needed to get the consistency. 

• Once the roasted kaalus cool down slighly (give about 15mins wait time from the last batch of kaalu), add the spice paste to the bowl and using your hands toss them well to coat the spice onto all the beans. Use gloves if you want to avoid the heat of the red chili powder. 

• Once all the beans are well coated, return them to the kadai on low heat, stirring frequently roast for another 12-15 mins until the moisture from the spice paste is lost. Add peanuts, kadle and coconut pieces prepared earlier, mix well with the beans and roast for another 2 minutes. 
• Switch off, transfer to a wide bowl, let it cool down completely before storing in dry, air tight containers. 
• Hurgaalu stays good for a couple months (use good quality coconut) and can be enjoyed as a high protein trail mix any time. The perfect company for this snack is a good book :-)

Notes: 

• There is no hard and fast rule for the amounts of the different beans in this recipe. Nammamma struck a perfect balance of bigger Vs smaller beans in the mix and I follow the same proportions. You can up or down any variety (even add a favorite bean or skip) based on your preference. 
• Soaking the kaalu overnight is one of the crucial steps to get a really crispy hurgalu. 
• The mung beans are notorious for what are called 'kallagaalu' or really small sized beans that refuse soften even after an overnight soak in water. Pick the ones that are at the top of water and leave the hard ones at the bottom, do not use them in the hurgaalu unless you want to spoil the experience with rock hard beans popping in the middle of a blissful munch. You can leave these hard ones soaked in water for another day till they soften and use it in cooking or eat them raw as salads. 

• Drain all the water from the soaked kaalu and let it dry in a cool, shaded place indoors. At the end of the 4.5-5hr period, kaalu should feel moist but not wet. 
• As soon as you add the kaalu to the kadai/skillet, keep stirring it as they will stick to the bottom because of the moisture. If you are not paying attention at this stage, the kaalus will get cooked and not roasted :-)
• Each set of kaalu is to be fried until it reverts back to its original pre-hydrated size. 
• After every batch, remember to wipe the kadai with a damp cloth or paper towel to remove any remnants from the previous batch sticking to the surface of the kadai. 
• When you return the beans for the second roast after mixing with the spice paste, make sure to open the kitchen windows and switch on the exhaust, because when the spice paste hits the hot kadai, it can start off a coughing fit. 
• 
  
• How to remove roasted peanut skin - roast peanuts on a slow and low heat for best results. Once cool, put them in between 2 layers of a kitchen towel and rub the top layer gently to peel off the skin. pick the skinned peanuts and use them in the recipe. You can also put the peanuts in a ziplock bag and do the same thing. 

Chaklis/Chakkuli made with roasted gram - a jhatphat snack for a rainy evening

A tall, dark & handsome hero romancing a sultry, gorgeous heroine. In true Bollywood style they change dresses multiple times within a span of 5 minutes as the melody unfolds in the colorful tulip gardens in Netherlands. Oh yes, I am talking about the beautiful and controversial movie Silsila and specifically the song 'Dekha Ek Khwab..'  I love the song for the interspersed commentary in that unmistakable baritone of Mr. Bachan. I watched this movie many years after it was released, I think I was in grade school when it was made and wouldn't have been allowed to go movies let alone movies laced with adultery:-). I don't remember all of the movie but this song and the color splash of the swaying tulips somehow stayed as a static image with me.

When we initially moved to the PNW, as we were looking for places to go, things to do and views to see, one recommendation from folks here was not to miss a visit to the tulip gardens during spring. And we waited for the spring after our move and went to visit the tulip gardens, honestly I hadn't the faintest idea as to what to expect and my imagination turned out to be extremely unimaginative and restricted. It was silsila of real life but I found that the gardeners don't usually allow visitors to walk in between the rows and stomp all around. May be the rules are different for our Bollywood hero-heroines :-). I am happy to stand at the edge of the row and just look around me. Ever since that first trip, this has become a family favorite drive , we infact call it our annual pilgrimage to the valleys :-). The drive is about an hour and half and once you enter the town, fields of colorful blooms embrace from all directions. As far as the eyes can see, the space is covered with rows and rows of fragrant, colorful tulips.

We did make the drive yesterday and found that the tulip gardens have grown thousand folds in popularity, or so it seemed to us. Roads were full, drive was slow and we couldn't get an entry to one of the popular gardens in the area as it was brimming capacity. It was a blessing in disguise as we drove around and landed on not one but multiple stretches of tulips by other gardeners. It was a beautiful day, warm and bright and the blooms were showing off with nothing holding them back. I thought I will share some of my tulip pictures here, enjoy them.

With temperatures climbing north, I do not think I will be making any deep fried snacks in the coming few months unless the days are made cool with some good showers, may be.. Here is a delicious chakli I made a couple of weeks back when DD was heading back.

For me, chaklis always meant Urad dal chakli/chakkuli as I grew up with them. There were others belonging to the same family but tasted entirely different, Tengolu (or tengolalu) made with urad dal and rice but different proportions for the powder and made in very different shape, muchhore made with moong dal that brought in yet another different crunch and taste. I tasted this chakli at a former colleague and a friend of mine J, a few years ago. She is another person that makes cooking look so easy and delicious that I know. Her idlis are soft and melt in the mouth specially with her signature 'white' chutney, yummm..

When I had a piece of this chakli at her home one day, though it felt different from my chakli, I wasn't able to zero in on the ingredient. Then she said she had used kadle/roasted gram also known as chutney dal, I was still a non believer. I tried it at home and made sure she wasn't trying to pull one on me. Not only are these very tasty, they are super easy and quick to make. Whether you are making a large batch to send with someone or making a small quantity to be finished with a cuppa, these can be your 'go to' snacks. No need to fry/roast any ingredient, no pre-cooking needed, and the proportions are hard to miss and always turn out perfect. The only change I made to the recipe that J gave me was to replace dry red chili powder with freshly ground black pepper. This not only retains the color of the chaklis as I know them but gives a fresh flavor and pep to them. If you like chili powder better, go for it.

What do you need to make kadle chaklis? 
1.5 cups rice flour
1/2 cup powdered kadle
1 Tblsp butter
1 Tsp sesame seeds or cumin (different flavors, choose the one you like)
1 Tsp freshly ground black pepper
1.5 cups water
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
oil to deep fry

How do you make kadle chaklis?

• Blend roasted gram into a fine powder. 
• Take the rice flour and powdered gram in a wide bowl and mix well with fingers. 
• Add ground black pepper, sesame (or cumin) and salt and stir them uniformly. 
• Cut butter into small chunks, add it to the bowl and work it into the flour with your fingers. 
• The flour mixture should get crumbly as you break the butter into it. 
• Taste and adjust salt or pepper to your taste. 
• Add water slowly and bring the flour mixture to a soft dough. 
• Heat oil in a wide pan for deep frying. 
• I used the plate with the single starred hole in the center. Get your chakli press ready. 
• Wet your hands in water and run the fingers on the inside wall of the chakli press. This makes it easier to press. You can use oil instead of water. 
• Pinch off an orange sized dough, shape into a cylinder and put it in the chakli press. 

• You have two options, you can make round chaklis on an aluminium foil and transfer them to the hot oil or directly press into the hot oil. 
• I chose to do the latter this time as we were anyway going to pack them for DD to carry. 

• Fry on medium heat until it is golden turning them over a couple of times, drain oil, take them onto a paper towel lined plate. 
• Repeat for all the remaining dough. 

Notes: 

• Keep the butter outside the refrigerator for about an hour to soften and bring it to room temperature. 
• To check if the oil has reached the right temperature, drop a small pinch of the dough into the oil, if it comes sizzling to the top immediately, you are ready to go. Not very scientific method :-) but works like a charm. 
• Add water slowly and in small quantities. The dough should be of the chapati dough consistency sans the gluten. If it is too hard to press, sprinkle a few drops of water and soften it. 
• Keep any remaining dough covered with a wet paper towel at all times to prevent it from drying. 

Hariyali Cutlet with ragda a.k.a green cutlet with gravy - A Spring inspired chat :-)

It is a very typical early spring day. The soft pitter patter of the rains outside my bedroom windows, the stillness that comes with the rains as it falls in a steady stream downwards, a stray bird getting mischievously wet as it puts its head out of its hiding, the fat squirrel that comes out of its burrow looking for a nut rushes back home when the water falls on its body in torrents, the trees shaking their body and swaying with the wind as it accompanies the rain. How can anyone not enjoy this musical & magical picture of the nature? This weather invariably makes me ache and long for a summer from the past where everything I see today would be present along with the intoxicating fragrance of the earth. Indian summers are hot and when the monsoon finally arrives the soil is so dry and thirsty, it seems to immediately drink up the water from above in return releasing a heady fragrance as if saying thanks! What was different in the long ago summer I long for was that I was a carefree, grade school girl with no responsibilities of my own. I had parents and older siblings to take care of my every need and much more. Much as I miss those days, I am equally happy where I am and who I am today too. The rains just remind me of everything, the gains and the losses, that has happened in these years.

Spring is the time for everything comes alive and grow anew. Our neighbors have 2 little girls that I get to see mostly when the weather is warm. With the busy schedule of 2 working parents, the routine is mostly pre school care, school and after school care. So by the time they reach home, it is dark outside and the kids are hungry for dinner. Like everyone else, we get inside the nest for the rest of the evening. But spring and summer are a different story. I get to see kids come out with their bicycles or balls to play in the open area infront of the house. The littler of the 2 little girls who had just started walking last year this time is trying out her older sister's bike with training wheels while the older one has graduated to independently cycling away on her merry way. They both have grown a couple of inches taller and the older one is not as shy any more when she greets me as I get off the car in the drive way and sometimes asks "How is your daughter doing? Where is she now"?. She remembers her from the couple of baby sitting times they had together :-). And I just feel awed by this magic of life that enables everything and everyone to grow and grow up.

As the girls tire of their biking, they run back to their drive way where the proud parents are watching, screaming for snacks and treats. No such luxury for me, grown up as I am, I just have to get up and make a treat myself if I want to eat something :-). The weather certainly calls for something spicy, hot and tasty and I am going to get something that is spicy, hot and tasty. I made these haryali cutlets and served it up as a chat with the spicy gravy keeping in tune with the nature's green theme around me. Well, in truth I had made these a couple of weeks back when DD was home but couldn't take any pictures since the kids were all hungry and attacked the plates as soon as it got to the dining table. So I had to make it again for the sake of the blog and I was more than happy to oblige :-)

Cutlets are the favored finger foods present in some form or the other in most major cuisines of the world. You see the kabobs of the middle east, crab cakes of the western world, tikkis of native India and the cutlets of modern India - they all have their seed in the same concept though the ingredients, shape, color, recipe differ based on the chef and the mood of the day.

We tried this haryali or hariyali (literally meaning 'green') cutlet in a restaurant once long time ago and fell in love with it. It was the deep fried version and was very different from the regular aloo tikkis (potato patties) and the vegetable cutlets. I have seen many, many variations of the haryali cutlets or hara bhara kabobs on the web and also in the restaurants since it seems to be a much loved favorite of many people. The hara bhara kabob is pretty similar to what I have today but sometimes may have paneer or Indian cottage cheese stuffed inside the kabob/cutlet dough before it is fried which opens up to a gooey goodness when you cut into it. That is why it is called a hara (~green), bhara (~stuffed) kabob. It is a must try for all hard core paneer fans.

I made the non stuffed version as I wanted to serve it as a chat (takes it many a notches up from the plain cutlet - is my personal opinion :-)). Unlike other cutlets which are loaded with spuds, this one uses the tuber as just a binding agent and in minimal quantity. The resulting cutlet is light, airy and crispy with loads of spinach goodness. Yes, you heard it right, this is a cutlet based almost entirely on the spinach foundation, you will be consuming your daily requirement of iron with 2 of these cutlets (I exaggerated a bit and I am not a qualified nutritionist, so I made up the statement about the iron content :-), but it is all good green stuff). Although the expert chefs on the web were in harmony when they said the haryali kabob tastes best when deep fried, I am glad to have proven them wrong with my delicious 'shallow fried in pan' kabobs. If you want to expend some additional oily calories, go ahead and deep fry but I can assure you that you won't lose any taste with the pan fried method instead will also preserve the green goodness.

The only thing you want to keep in mind with this recipe is to have as less moisture content in the mixture as possible. I have given some tips along with the procedure to do this. I have told you how I prepared my spinach which hardly lets out any water. You can also blanch and squeeze the water out (in which case you will be taking out some of the nutrients of the mighty spinach). Potato is just present to provide that binding so the cutlet is not crumbly, do not overdo the spuds (however much you love them) in this recipe. The mint and the ginger add a heavenly flavor to the cutlet. Try this recipe and let me know how you liked it. And you don't really have to wait for the rainy season to enjoy this chat, any time is good too.

What do you need to make Hariyali cutlet chat?
For the cutlets 
Makes about 12 cutlets
250gm of spinach leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed mint leaves
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro
1 inch piece fresh ginger
3-4 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
3/4 cup cooked green peas
1 medium sized potato boiled and mashed
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used panko)
2 Tbsp oil to pan fry cutlets

For the gravy
2 cups dry green peas
1 tomato chopped
1 small onion chopped
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
3/4 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp red chili powder
1/2 Tsp amchoor (dry mango powder)
1/2 Tsp garam masala powder
To grind: 
2 Tbsp chopped onion
1 inch piece ginger
2 cloves garlic
2 1-inch piece cinnamon
3-4 cloves
2-3 green chilies

For assembling the chat: 
Tamarind-date chutney
finely chopped onion
finely chopped tomato
finely chopped cilantro
roasted cumin powder
red chili powder
fine sev to garnish

How do you make Hariyali cutlet chat? 
Making Haryali cutlets:

• Wash, clean and pat dry spinach leaves, chop them roughly. 
• Heat a wide pan on medium heat. 
• Turn the heat to high, add the spinach leaves into the pan (no water or oil and definitely no salt at this time), stir and saute for 3-5 minutes until the leaves wilt and shrink. 

• Since we do not add any salt or oil, the water from the leaves is less and almost insignificant. 
• Switch off and transfer the cooked leaves to a bowl. 
• Take the green chilies & ginger in a blender jar and grind to a smooth paste. 
• Add cooked green peas and salt into the jar and pulse a couple of times to make a coarse pulp. 

• Take this mixture into the same bowl with spinach leaves. 
• Add boiled, mashed potatoes, chopped mint & cilantro. Mix well and taste test. Adjust salt as needed. 

• Cover and keep the mixture in the refrigerator for atleast 30 minutes for it to firm up. 
• After 30 minutes, take the mixture out, add the bread crumbs in spoonfuls and mix together. 
• 1/2 cup of crumbs give a nice taste but make sure you don't add a lot more than that - for one, it takes away the rich green color, secondly the cutlet loses the spinach taste.  

• Take golf ball sized dough, shape into a patty. Repeat for all of the dough. 
• Heat a flat gridle or pan, add a Tbsp of oil and spread it evenly. 
• Put the patties on the griddle (as many as the griddle can accomodate at a time) and roast for 2 minutes on each side or until they develop a light brown crust. 

• Take them out to a plate. You can eat them as is at this stage, serve warm with some ketchup on the side. 

• If you want the full experience, keep reading to make the gravy and assemble the chat :-)

Making the gravy (I have a slightly different variation of the gravy here and here, you can use any of these or the one below for this chat): 

• Soak the dry, green peas overnight in plenty of water. 
• Cook the soaked peas with 2 cups of water for just one whistle in a pressure cooker or until fork tender if you are cooking in an open pot. 
• Chop onion and tomato finely. 
• Grind all the ingredients listed under 'To grind' in the gravy section along with 1/2 cup of cooked peas and 1/2 cup of water. 
• Heat a pan with oil, add cumin seeds and let it sizzle. 
• Add chopped onion and let it sweat for a couple of minutes. 
• Add the chopped tomatoes, salt and cook until the mixture is mushy (3-4 minutes)
• Add the ground masala and cook for 2 minutes until the raw smell disappears. 
• Add the remaining cooked peas, mash them slightly with the back of your ladle or a potato masher
• Add 2 cups of water and the dry masala powders (red chili, garam masala & amchoor) and let it come to a boil. 
• Switch off and let it rest until ready to use. 

Assembling Hariyali Chat: 

• Keep the gravy piping hot and the cutlets warm. 
• Take your serving dish and place a cutlet in the center. 
• Sprinkle some chopped onion, tomato, red chili powder and roasted cumin powder (all of this is according to taste)
• Add the tamarind date chutney on top. 
• Pour about 1/2 cup of the piping hot gravy on top of this. 
• Garnish with more onion, cilantro and sev. 
• Enjoy it when it is hot :-). Go back and reassemble another plate, and keep going until you can eat no more :-)

Notes: 

• Since I used the dry green peas for the gravy, I just scooped out about 3/4 cup of the cooked peas to use in cutlets. If you are planning to serve cutlets without gravy, you can use frozen peas as well. Thaw them to room temperature and pulse them to a coarse mixture in the blender. 
• You can add boiled, mashed sweet potato instead of regular potatoes in this recipe. 
• You can use bread slices in the recipe instead of crumbs/panko. Just remove the edges, tear 2 slices of bread into pieces and incorporate them in the mixture. This soaks up any extra moisture and also gives binding to the cutlet dough. 
• I use the triple washed, ready to use baby spinach. If you are using bulk spinach, pick and discard any thick stems. Use only the leaves in this recipe. 

• You can add other greens such as methi (fenugreek) or kale if you like.
• You can put the spinach leaves in boiling water for couple of minutes to blanch, strain and take out all the water and use only the cooked leaves to the above method. 
• If you are short on time and cannot afford to refrigerate the dough, you may need to add a little more bread crumbs/bread. 
• I have given 3 different variations of the gravy with links, choose whatever appeals to you. I used green peas to keep with the theme of 'haryali'.