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. 

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. 

Chegodilu - Crunchy, spicy yet light. Did I say 'addictive'?

Tomorrow is Groundhog's day and it is customary belief that the groundhog will come out of its burrow to see its own shadow. If there is a shadow, apparently it goes right back to its hibernation, continues to sleep for another few weeks but if no shadow falls, it starts roaming around on the surface :-), what was all that about? Groundhog feeling, sensing the arrival of Spring. And why am I talking about the groundhog day? Something strange seems to be happening and I am not an expert on global warming. It is Feb 1 and we haven't even had a decent winter yet(I know, my friends on the east coast will jump at me for saying this after being buried in inches of snow), where I live it has been a very mild winter with hardly any rains and last week we started to notice buds in our Camallia flowers and this weekend they have already bloomed and many petals have fallen on the ground with the wind!! No matter what the groundhog sees and decides to do tomorrow but I feel the plants have already sensed an early spring. Happy Groundhog's day anyways :-) and here is a picture of how our Camillias are looking right now. Pretty, aren't they?

Today also happens to be the Superbowl Sunday when most fans are either burrowed in their homes watching the game or actually watching it from the stadium. It has been a week of superbowl fever all over the place. Seattle very proudly is backing the home team and showing the pride in all conceivable (and some very imaginative) forms of support. Downtown Seattle is dressed up with various good luck messages on the buildings, we had a party and spirit day at work last Friday. The game started an hour back with Seahawks playing the Patriots for their 2nd consecutive SuperBowl trophy, game has just entered the 2nd half and Hawks are leading. We are watching the game (I am trying to type in this post while watching the game, I know that is not very 'fan'ly but I honestly can't sit glued to the screen especially when those ads are playing) at home, rooting for the Hawks.

Update at 7:05PM, Hawks lost, wish I had posted this out earlier. The final few seconds of the game was not really good sportsmanship at all :-(

Will tell you what happened later on if I haven't published this post before the game is over :-). I made some delicious sweet potato muffins, salad and a big bowl of spicy mixture made with rice crispies. Recipes will show up one of these days on the blog, I promise.

Onto today's recipe, I have some crunchy, crispy chegodilu - a deep fried snack from Andhra. Now if you have not heard the name before, here is a breakdown. I am told 'godi' is the metal chain lock used in old homes for protection. It refers to the shape of the snack. If this is too complicated to imagine, just think of modern day ear rings or hoops. Chegodilu (plural) resembles a thick ear hoop/ring. Now, if you follow my blog on a somewhat regular basis, you know I grew up in Karnataka. You probably are wondering why I am talking about chegodilu and not the famous 'kodubale' from Karnataka. I agree when you look at the pictures, it would scream kodubale for those of us coming from Karnataka but here is the difference.. before I explain the difference, let me tell you a quick anecdote.

Kodubale (I don't have the recipe on the blog, gasp, what a shame! given that it is my favoritest of all spicy snacks in this whole world), I promise I won't make you wait for too long, it is just that I want it to be perfect when I present it :-). I make Kodubale quite often and we have shared it with many family members & friends. Everytime I made this and we gave it to someone on BH's side, amma would say "not our chegodilu, kaani chaala bavuntayi" :-)"which translates to "not our Chegodilu, but these are very tasty too" which would pique me about the undiscovered chegodilu. I had to wait quite a few years to actually taste the real deal chegodilu and first impression for someone who grew up on kodubale was that they were very good, but not as good as Kodubale :)).

When I made them at home for the first time, DD took a bite and said, "Oh, these are chakbales ('Chak' from chakli and 'bale' from kodubale)" and I think that is a very apt name because the rice flour is unadultrated in this unlike the kodubale so you taste a hint of chakli. Hence our name for this delicacy at home is chakbale.

So what exactly is the difference between the kodubale and chakbale? Chakbale is made with rice flour, red chili powder adds the heat and asafoetida gives the sharpness. But kodubale is a complex combination of tastes and textures, much more balanced and will talk about it another time. These chakbales are quick to make, stay fresh for a week if kept in an dry, airtight container and finally very addictive (there goes the plan of keeping them for a week :-)). So let us get going to make some chakbales chegodilu before the winter wraps up completely and the groundhogs start to rule the world. Shall we?

What do you need to make Chegodilu?
2 cups water
1.5 cups rice flour
1 Tbsp soaked moong dal
1 Tsp white sesame seeds
1/2 Tsp cumin
1 Tsp salt
1 Tsp red chili powder
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
6-8 curry leaves - chopped finely
1 Tsp oil
2-3 cups of oil to deep fry

How do you make Chegodilu? 

• Add water in a pan on medium heat. 
• Add soaked moong dal, sesame seeds, cumin, salt, red chili powder, chopped curry leaves, 1 Tsp oil and asafoetida and let it come to a rolling boil. 

• Lower the heat, add rice flour in a continuous and slow flow to the boiling water. 
• Mix quickly with a spoon, switch off, cover and let rest for 10 minutes. 

• Heat oil to deep fry in a wide pan. 
• Take half of the cooked mixture onto a flat surface, dip your hand in cold water and knead the mixture into a smooth dough. This is important to prevent chegodilu from cracking.
• Keep the remaining mixture covered. 
• Take small key lime size balls of the smooth dough, roll them to resemble pencils, when you reach about 3 inches long, turn the two ends towards each other and press them together with a little overlap. 

• Prepare a few (as many as your pan can hold without crowding) chegodilu. 
• Once the oil is hot (my 'no thermometer' test for this is to drop a pinch of the dough and if it comes bubbling to the top immediately, then the oil has reached the right temperature), add the prepared chegodilu one by one in to the oil. 
• Let them come to the surface on their own (do not disturb at this stage or they will break), flip each one over slowly to the other side. 

• Let them cook (2-3 minutes) on medium heat until they are golden brown all around and the bubbles in the oil die down. 
• Take them onto a tissue lined plate and let cool. 

• Enjoy the crunchy Chegodilu with a cuppa. 
• Store remaining (if any) in a ziplock or air tight container up to 2 weeks. 

Notes: 

• Before kneading the dough, taste the cooked mixture for salt, spice level etc and adjust while kneading. 
• If you are making a large batch, keep the unused dough covered with a damp paper towel so it doesn't go dry. 
• You can make the chegodilu any size of your choice. 
• These stay good for a couple of weeks if left untouched :-)

Wisdom from making it multiple times :-):

• Instead of soaking the moong dal, dry roast it until light pink and add water to the pan to start cooking it. This gives you a pleasant & unexpected bite instead of the softer soaked moong dal effect. 

Cabbage Pakoda - Crispy and Saatvik :-)

Our weather changed pretty quickly into a wet, slightly nippy days laced with gorgeous colors of the trees. Yep, we are into Autumn and every day as I walk back & forth, I stop in the middle of the road to take in the colors, click some pictures on the cell phone to preserve those moments before I move on. This weather also has an uncanny ability to make me ache and miss home as I remember it from years ago and wish for a reason to get together with loved ones. There is definitely something in the air that causes the feeling to return year after year :-(. Here is a picture of the beautiful dahlias I see in the market which invariably take me back to the home where dahlias of all colors and sizes exploded in the front yard towards the end of summers.

Recently, I came across a reading about a time machine that would take you back to any specific time. Does that sound appealing to anyone? Would you like to go back in time to a specific day/time in your life? Though it sounded attractive, I still think I would like to keep moving forward in the journey for a few reasons:
1. If I went back to the happy, carefree childhood where everything would be taken care of, I would miss being a mom myself and take care of my little girl.
2. If I went back to my fun filled college days, I would miss all the fun I have as a working woman now.
3. If I went back to my running around with the school friends days, I would miss being the friend of my best friend & husband.
4. If I went back in time, I would be ignoring all the blessings I have had since then.

Memories are 'lift me ups' when you need it but one can't live in the memories themselves. Going back in time doesn't always mean it will make you happier. So, no time travel for me, either back to the past or into the future. Look at all those peppy, perky colored chilies hanging down in beautiful creations. May this Fall be as colorful and cheerful to you all.

That was a totally random chat, I told you the weather makes me goofy sometimes :-). But this weather also encourages me to go back and cook something spicy & delicious to enjoy on those wet evenings. I throw all my caution about high calorie food out the window and indulge in a few bites (or platefuls of :-)) some garma garam pakodas and chai.

Last weekend, we finally got DD to agree for her senior pictures. If you do not know what senior pictures are, don't worry, I am here to enlighten you on the topic :-). High school seniors take pictures that portray them in the best light (figuratively & otherwise)that go into their year book as a keep sake. While the rest of the grades have their pictures taken by the regular guy that visits the schools, senior pictures are taken in a non-school setting and I have seen kids and families engage professional photographers and drive around to find the best spot to take pictures. We didn't have anything like that when in school so I was personally keen on having some senior pictures taken for DD. But my child is not one that does all the expected things, she didn't even show a small flicker of interest in taking the pictures. On top of it, to shake off the annoying mom, she said that she would have one of her really talented classmates take it for her and *definitely didn't want dad to take those pictures* :-). All the grand plans kept getting postponed as she threw herself into school work and other activities and the senior pictures took a back seat in a dark alley. Finally last weekend, she relented to take some pictures and said yes to her dad being the photographer. We didn't chase any picturesque spots, but got some beautiful shots right around us, she was happy and we were more than happy :-)

To celebrate the senior pictures and also to enjoy the wet weather, I made some cabbage pakodas. If someone were to ask my family what I cooked best, you would have an overwhelming vote on my onion pakodas, since I have made them for a long time and almost everyone in the extended family have enjoyed them at one time or another. I know, I don't have that recipe yet on the blog, will get to it soon.

The other day, I was talking to a friend who mentioned eating cabbage pakodas at an event at the temple. Normally, temple food tends to be saatvik and avoids onion, garlic among other ingredients. Last week, I was also planning on taking some snacks to a group event and wanted it to be devoid of onions. If you are craving for pakodas but not in the mood to consume onions, don't fret. These cabbage pakodas will give a run for the money to their cousins made with onions and just as mouth wateringly tasty and crunchy. I can bet that you won't miss the onions. Buoyed by the successful picture session, BH & DD kept eating the pakodas before I could pack some for sharing. I had to mix another batch and take it for my pot luck. It was well received and I came back home empty handed but feeling full in the heart.

What do you need to make Cabbage Pakodas? 
2-2.5 cups finely shredded cabbage (see notes)
2-3 Tbsp besan/gram flour
1 Tbsp chopped mint
1-2 green chilies chopped fine (adjust to taste)
3/4-1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp rice flour
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 Tsp crushed ginger
1/2 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to taste)
pinch of turmeric powder (adds color, optional)
oil to deep fry

How do you make Cabbage Pakodas? 

• Finely shred cabbage to measure about 2.5 cups, put it in a bowl. 
• Add all the ingredients except for oil. 
• Mix it with light fingers and keep aside for 10 minutes. Cabbage leaves some water when mixed with salt.

• Heat oil in a wide pan. 
• After 10 minutes, mix the ingredients again and slowly add water to bring them together, about 1.5-2 Tsp of water is sufficient for this amount. 

• Drop small spoonfuls of the batter into the hot oil, make sure they are in a single layer and not piled on top of each other. 
• Turning them over a couple of times, cook until the pakodas turn golden brown all over. 

• Take them onto a paper towel lined plate, let cool for a minute or so before popping the deliciously addictive snack into your mouth. 

Notes: 

• Shred or cut the cabbage in to thin and long (about 1-1.5 inch) strips. 
• Cabbage should make the bulk with the flours only coating them. This is key to crispy pakodas. If you add too much flour or make the batter watery, the pakodas will become soggy and soft. 
• Mint adds a wonderful flavor to the pakodas not allowing any die hard onion fans to miss onion in this recipe. Add more if you like.

• I don't use any baking soda in the recipe, the pakodas turn and stay crisp for a long time (you can verify this yourself if you have a steely resolve to fight the temptation of eating them all as soon as they come out of the hot oil :-))

Sabudana Vada - a completely sold out affair at Navaratri Bommala koluvu

Happy Navaratri to all my celebrating readers. May this festival season bring you lots of joy and contentment.

Navaratri started last week and since there was only one weekend I could get before Vijaya Dashami, we went ahead, set up our bommala koluvu and invited friends over last Saturday. As always, it was lot of fun, music and food. Over the last 3 years since we have been here, I have made a lot of young friends through my Balavihar classes and they have become family. Some kids move onto the other classes but they come and visit our Navaratri koluvu and they all have come to realize that there is no escape from singing at my place :-). New kids start off a little shy and try to squirm out by making excuses but they give up as they see others singing. After all, Navaratri has to be celebrated the right way with joy, music and dance, don't you all agree?

Now, Navaratri though is celebrated all over India, the practices are different as you move from place to place. In some states, Navaratri is celebrated with a lot of Vrat (festival) related restrictions on food. People do not eat onions, garlic among many other things. While these festival celebrations may seem restrictive to many, this is how nammamma made food most days of the year even when it was not a festival day. I on the other hand am a total onion fan, I like them in all forms, so it takes me a little rethinking during festivals. It is always a success when a visiting parent or an elderly person asks about onion in the menu and I can confidently say that all dishes on the table fit the 'no onion' criteria:-)

In an effort to make a 'no rice' dish, I made my millet pongal which was a hit but these sabudana vadas took home all the glory and crown. Sabudana vadas are considered vrat dishes in Maharashtra and Gujarat though I am not an expert on the subject. Everybody seemed to like it going by the empty bowl we had at the end of dinner. Since Saturday, I have had atleast 4 requests for the recipe, so here it is.

These vadas are known for retaining more oil than the regular vadas, adding the flour helps reduce this a little bit and make sure you put the fried vadas on to a plate lined with paper towels for the extra oil to drain out. I made them again today as a few of the friends came by this evening. As I was planning the menu, DD said that I needed to make these vadas again and her excuse was, "amma if you don't make them, the people that come today will miss the most delicious snack in this whole wide world" :-). After such blatant flattery, I can't say 'no', so ended up making another batch of sabudana vadas. I tried shallow frying a batch of them, turned out very tasty though the texture is very different from the deep fried stuff. Look at the end of the post for 'how to'.

These taste yummy either hot or cold, the crunchiness of the outer layer stays put because of the sabudana even after they become cold making it a perfect snack for parties.

Here are some previous Navaratri posts and posts if you are in a mood to read - a must have Usili/sundal and a no recipe read about Mysore Dasara.

What do you need to make Sabudana Vada? 
3/4 cup sabudana (will become 1 cup once it soaks)
2-3 medium sized potatoes (see 'how to' below for details)
1-1.5 Tbsp rajgira or Bajra flour
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
3-4 green chilies
1 Tbsp grated ginger
2 Tbsp coarsely crushed peanuts (increase if you like more crunch)
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 Tbsp lemon/lime juice
1 Tbsp chopped fresh coconut (Mysore Twisht :-), optional)
oil to deep fry

How do you make Sabudana Vada? 

• Wash Sabudana in running water twice and soak it in water for 6-8 hours or overnight until they plump up and become soft to touch. 
• Drain the water through a colander and let the sabudana stand for 30 minutes or so until all the water is gone. 
• Boil potatoes until soft, peel and grate them - you can mash them but it is better to grate as it gives a smoother texture. 
• Toast peanuts on stove top or microwave, let cool a little, pound them in a mortar & pestle or blender to coarse powder. You want small bites of peanuts, make sure you do not make them too small or powdery. 
• Crush the green chilies into a paste. 

• In a wide bowl, mix all ingredients except for oil until they come together. Depending on the water content, you might need a little bit more or less flour. Do not add too much flour as it changes the taste. 
• Taste and adjust salt, green chilies as needed. 
• Heat oil in a deep pan until a small piece of dough dropped in comes up immediately. 
• In the meantime, break lime sized dough, make a ball and flatten into a patty. 

• Drop the prepared patties in to the hot oil and let them cook for minute before flipping them over. 
• Fry until both sides turn light golden in color. 

• Take them out onto a plate lined with paper towels, enjoy with a chutney or sauce. 

Notes: 

• Potatoes when grated should make 2 cups, choose the number based on the size of potatoes. Too much of potatoes make them oily & soggy. 
• Remove outer skin of peanuts before pounding them into bits. I like the mortar & pestle since the skin tends to come out easily which you can separate and continue to pound. Else, put the toasted nuts in a ziplock bag and give it a couple brisk rubs for the skin to fall out. 
• If you can't find Rajgira or Bajra flour, go ahead and add rice flour. The idea is to absorb the moisture in the dough as much as possible. 
• Ginger plays the key role in enhancing the taste & flavor of this vada, do not skimp on it. 
• More cilantro makes the vadas happy :-)

• As both potatoes & sabudana are bland in taste, green chilies are your only ingredient of spice, adjust according to taste. 

Low Calorie alternate: 

• If you are on a diet or wanting to avoid deep fried stuff, go ahead and shallow fry the patties on a tava. 
• Use a cast iron pan preferably and add a generous spoon of oil to the bottom before placing the patties. 
• Let the patties turn golden brown on both sides, cooking it on medium high. 

• These will not be crunchy like the deep fried ones but you can sleep peacefully (eating a couple more) knowing that the chances of all that fat settling down in the middle of the body is addressed :-)