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. 

Stuffed chili bajji - easily one of the best from south Indian street food

Have been 2 eventful weeks since I last blogged. Nothing to do with my personal life but everything that would impact my personal life. I don't talk about my political convictions in public ever but the recent presidential election & the results in my adopted home as well as the demonetization efforts in my native home have made me do a lot of introspection these past few days. Does everything that looks like progress, really so? By the same token, is anything ever so easily understandable? I decided to stay off the grid for a few days not to be influenced by outside opinion (there is plenty of it right now) but the addiction to news media is so real that I came back online soon :-(. I have decided to keep the blog away from any kind of political banter, so you won't be subjected to my political/non-political opinions here. Let us be kind to one another, accept every other person with respect and the dignity we all deserve.

We saw the new Marvel movie Doctor Strange last weekend, it was a special birthday weekend. The movie is fun and Benedict Cumberbatch (if you are a hard core fan of the BBC Sherlock Holmes series like me) makes the marvel movie more marvelous :-). We went to the movie after a heavy brunch of jolad rotti and badnekaayi palya (yep, will post it sometime soon), and I would have most certainly snoozed in the darkness of the theater if it were not for Cumberbatch.

Now that work seems to be kind of reverting to normal load after nearly 3 grueling months, I am going back to my other favorite activity. Went to the public library and got a basket full of books. Happiest part of the weekend was to be able to get my hands on books, move my fingers along the spine of those books that I had wanted to read for a while, get them home and actually be able to read them in the evening. Just started reading '32 Yolks' by French chef Eric Ripert. It started off well and I have a feeling I will like the book. It was a recommendation on one of the radio stations I listen to regularly and I have had it on my list. Can't say enough about how grateful I am for the public library system. I will share more on the book once I finish reading it.

Jumping to food matters or food that matters most, it wasn't my intention to post two chili related recipes back to back, it just happened unexpectedly. The last post (red chili pickle) was sitting in the backlog since summer and I had to post that authentic recipe sooner than later on the blog. And then, when I sat down today to look into my ever growing list of 'yet to be blogged' content aspiring to clean up some before the holiday rush starts here, pictures of this recently prepared favorite caught my eyes and I just gave in for another virtual indulgence as I write about this most craved for street food from India. It is a personal favorite though I don't make it often.

We had been to India about 4 years back for a family wedding, it was one of the rushed trips we have ever made, the entire trip including the travel was a week long. The positive side of the trip was that we didn't even give our bodies a chance to experience the jet lag, we were back before it ever realized that we had traveled twice across the Pacific :-). One of BH's young cousin's got married and we didn't want to miss the wedding. It was DD's first full on exposure to a traditional Telugu wedding and she had a blast as some of her favorite cousins made it as well. We flew in to Hyderabad and traveled to Vizag where the wedding was performed. The wedding food was delicious but I really wanted to try the famed mirapakaya bajjilu (chili pakodas) that defines the Andhra street food and something I had heard so much about.

My sis-in-law is my partner in crime when it comes to spicy, oily food:-) and we dropped enough hints around the wedding group. We wouldn't have been able to go out and enjoy the food from the street side vendor in all our wedding splendor and the busy schedule. Most people didn't have the time to pamper us with the bajjis and it was not on the menu for the 3 days of wedding festivities. But there is always atleast one kindred spirit in every group and BH's aunt Padma atta got 6 chili bajjis wrapped in their signature old news paper packets for us when she went out to get some flowers from the market. Not one to make a big fuss, she quietly got the packet to the room where we were all getting ready for the next event and handed it to me. The warmth of the oily looking packet and the aroma coming out of it was enough to divulge the secret inside:-) - fresh out of kadai with that unmistakable Indian street food stamp on it was the delicious mirapakaaya bajji. Nothing to hold us back, the two of us (and a couple other people that happened to pass by the room at that time) finished up the entire packet in no time and went downstairs to take part in the wedding. Even after 4 years, I can just close my eyes and talk about those yummy bajjis as if I was enjoying them right this minute. BH says he wasn't even aware that we ate it and has stuck to his claims that we ate it all up by ourselves. We may have done it in our blind love (and greediness) induced by those yummy snacks but I can't believe that we didn't share it with anyone, especially not even BH. One of us is clearly lying in this case, and the debate is still ongoing :-).

A punjabi family opened a restaurant in town here a couple of years back. They specialize in huge, thick punjabi paranthas, chole-bature and also serve pani puri on premises. We love their paranthas with more than generous amount of stuffing inside and have tried almost all different flavors. BH chanced upon their mirchi (chilli) bajjis in the menu's Indo Chinese section (? don't ask me why it landed there) and ordered them. We were taking it home that day and were pleasantly surprised to find 2 huge chili pakodas cut in half. The stuffing though was made of mashed potato. My personal peeve with using potatoes is that they tend to take center stage, I am yet to find a person that doesn't like potatoes but the moment you add them to a dish, you mostly forget about the other ingredients in the dish :-(. Much as I like those stuffed with potatoes, I have a preference over the south Indian version where the chilies are stuffed with roasted cumin or ajwain and lined with tangy lemon juice. The layers of smoky cumin and tangy lemon makes these irresistible and also helps not to overpower the flavors from the chilies.

So what am I going all ga-ga over? Well, this is the deep fried, sinfully delightful mensinkaayi bonda (Kannada) or mirapakaaya bajji (Telugu) that you should try once atleast. Let me warn all of you health food geeks out there. There is nothing healthy about this recipe :-). However the heavenly taste only deserves that you surrender completely and let go of your reservations completely before you dig in. That is not too much to ask for, is it? And you can't be eating 'only good food' your entire life, some indulgences here and there are absolutely necessary to make life spicy (pun intended). Now that I have done all the talking and also gotten the guilt off my chest by way of excuses, let us go into the kitchen and make some 'to die for' mensinkaayi bajji (chili pakoda) that is capable of giving your street vendor some tough competition.

Though it is made of chili peppers, there is nothing 'hot' about it as the spice quotient is reduced by removing the seeds and using a special variety of peppers that are inherently milder. In India, these are made with a special variety of chilies called 'bajji mensinkaayi' in Kannada, though I don't get those here, there are alternatives. Do not use Jalepeno since their thick skin makes it difficult to hold the batter coating. Serrano are better suited. Banana peppers being the sweet pepper varieties are good too but I find them way too huge for making bajjis with. Go ahead and use them if you find smaller sized ones.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! There is a lot to be grateful for despite things not seeming that way, take a moment to say thanks to the many, many blessings in your life. I am looking forward to the long week off from work and making some of DD's favorite dishes as she comes home for the weekend. Share your bounty with others, spread the love and kindness.

What do you need to make stuffed chili bajji? 
I am going to give you the quantities sufficient to make 6 pakodas
6 green, fresh serano or other mild varieties of peppers
Oil for deep frying (I use peanut oil)
Stuffing: 
1 Tbsp cumin
1/2 Tsp ajwain/carom seeds
1/2 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon/lime juice
Batter for outer covering:
1.5 cups gram flour/chick pea flour/besan
1 Tbsp rice flour
3/4 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/8 Tsp turmeric powder
1/4 Tsp asafoetida
pinch of baking soda
water to make batter

How do you make stuffed chili bajji? 

• Wash the peppers in water and pat dry them. 
• Make a slit vertically from the stalk end to the tip of the pepper with a sharp knife. The purpose of the slit is to open the pepper out and not cut the pepper in half. 

• With the back of a steel spoon or butter knife, scoop out all the seeds from the pepper making sure you don't injure or tear the pepper apart.
• Do this for all the peppers and keep aside.

• Roast cumin in a dry pan on low heat until it gives out a smokey aroma and starts to pop a little (about 3 mins). 
• Let it cool and grind to a coarse powder with ajwain. 
• Take the powder in a cup, add salt, lemon juice and mix it well. 

• Now take a big pinch of the powder between your index and ring finger and rub the inside walls of the pepper generously with this mixture. 
• Let the peppers rest for 10-15 mins while you prepare the batter. 

• Take all the ingredients listed under batter except for the baking soda and water in a deep bowl and mix them well. 
• Add water slowly to make a thick, pouring consistency batter. Using a fork or whisk, beat the batter for a minute to make it fluffy. This ensures your bajjis are crispy as well. This resembles idli batter. 
• Add baking soda and mix well.
• Heat oil in a wide kadai for deep frying. 
• Once the oil is hot (my thermometer-free way of checking is to drop a tiny pinch of the batter into the oil and if it starts to sizzle and comes up quickly to the surface the oil is ready), take the stuffed pepper, holding its stalk dip it into the batter and swirl it all around so the batter coats evenly. 
• Hold your batter bowl closer to the kadai and transfer the coated pepper into the oil. 
• You can add as many peppers as your kadai will hold without overcrowding them. 

• Deep fry the bajjis turning them a couple of times to ensure uniform frying all around
• Once they reach a crispy, golden color, life them with the help of slotted spoons and take them onto a plate lined with paper towels to absorb excess oil. 

How do you serve stuffed chili bajjis: 

• Obviously a cuppa (tea or coffee to suit your preference) works great with this dish. 
• You can eat them dipped in a mild coconut chutney or a ketchup. Make sure they are cooled for a few minutes as they will be really hot inside for a bite. 
• Cut mirchi chat - Cut the fried bajjis into bite sized pieces, serve it with finely chopped onions, a dash of lemon juice and a sprinkle of chat masala on top. Yummmmm!!!

Note: 

• Choose peppers that are firm, blemish free and have a radiance to them. Don't take saggy ones for this recipe. Flavor of the peppers need to be strong. 
• Always sieve gram flour before mixing it in to avoid lumps in the batter. 
• The batter needs to be thick for this recipe, unfortunately I missed clicking pics, will update next time I make them. If you take a bit of batter between your fingers and try to drop it, it should fall deliberately, slowly and in a clump. Do not make it free flowing or liquidy. See pictures here to get an idea. 
• The street side bajjis and those served in restaurants always are crispier than home made ones because they are double fried. I draw a firm line on double frying since it is way 'unhealthier'. The rice flour addition gives it the crunch it needs. 
• If you really want to achieve the vendor made bajji results, take them out when they are 3/4 done, let them rest and cool for about 10 mins before returning them to the hot oil for a second round of frying until they are as crispy as you wish.  

• The lemon juice added to cumin powder should be just enough to wet it, don't make a paste. 
• You can adjust the quantity of cumin and ajwain to suit your liking. Adding lemon juice not only adds the hint of tanginess but also brings down the heat of the peppers. 
• If you have any left over batter, add finely chopped potatoes, onions, cilantro, mix them well and drop tiny spoonfuls into the hot oil. These make delicious vegetable pakodas. 

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. 
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• 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.