Alasanda Vada (Black eyed Peas croquettes)

Blogging Marathon#64: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Mega BM Bookmarked Recipes 

Dish: Alasanda Vada from Suma 

Can't believe we are starting the last week of this month's blogging marathon today. May seemed to have zoomed right past us. My theme for this week is 'Bookmarked dishes from last month's mega marathon'. It is an impossible task to pick just 3 dishes to make from more than 600 delicious dishes (24 bloggers * 26 days), but we have to start somewhere, right??

So for the first day, I made these Alasanda vada aka blackeyed peas vada from Suma. I actually made it right after she posted it on her blog. I had some oil leftover from frying these nimki and so I decided to use it wisely and make these yummy vada.

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Palak Methi Nu Muthiya (Gujarati Steamed Spinach Dumplings)

Here's a recipe for steamed Palak-Methi muthiyas. These are great as an evening snack or stirred into curries. Muthiyas are first steamed and then shallow-fried until crispy on the outside.

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Quick Pan Handvo (Gujarati Instant Handvo)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 3: Gujarati Cuisine 

Day 17: Q for Quick Pan Handvo

Q was one of the tough letters to find a dish in Gujarati cuisine (I guess it's difficult in many cuisines). I was almost tempted to make 'Qesar Shrikhand' but it seemed a little odd, so I finally ended up making Quick Pan Handvo instead.

Handvo is a popular Gujarati snack. It is a baked spicy lentil cake made with a fermented batter of rice, lentils and spices. It is crispy on the outside and soft inside. It has been on my to-make list for quite a long time. I was hoping to try the traditional version for this mega marathon, but Oondhiyu dictated the letter selection, so Handvo has to wait for now.

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Nimki or Namkeen (Rajasthani Namak Para)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 14: N for Nimki
We are already at the end of Week 2 in our Journey through the cuisines and the last Rajasthani dish I made are these crispy, crunchy and very addictive Nimki aka Namkeen or Namak Para. Letter N was one of the tough letters to find a dish for. After a lot of googling and not finding any Rajasthani dishes, I ended up picking this dish that is quite commonly made across all the states.

My mom used to make them quite frequently while we were little and we used to call them 'chips' or 'namkeen'. After I started blogging, I learnt their other name, Namak Para and now with this BM, I learnt yet another name, Nimki.

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Curry flavored Roasted Mixed Nuts

Roasted nuts are my husband's favorite go-to snack. He is the snacker in the house, grabs a handful every time he walks into the kitchen. I don't like snacking, I'm more of a 'eat a full meal and wait for the next meal' kind of a gal. Even when I snack, it has to be in a proper bowl, I don't do handfuls, I only have bowlfuls :-)

Anyway, my husband has been asking me to make roasted nuts for a long time and I finally made him these curry flavored roasted mixed nuts. Recipe courtesy Ellie Kreiger's Food Network show.

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Nutella Bear Claws (made with Puff Pastry)

I saw the recipe for these Bear claws in Food Network magazine and they looked so tempting that I made them yesterday. The original recipe used Cookie butter (or Speculoos), but I used Nutella because my kids like it.

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Murmure Chiwda

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 4/ Day 1

Theme: Bookmarked Recipes from Fellow BM Bloggers

Dish: Murmure Chiwda from Varada's Kitchen

We are starting the final week of blogging marathon for this month today and my theme for the week is one of my favorite -- cooking from fellow blogging marathoners. As a group we are checking and commenting each others posts very frequently and I have a ton of recipes bookmarked from them.

I already have quite a few dishes made from the blogs, so this one's from my drafts. This Murmure chiwda is from Varada's Kitchen and I made it for Diwali (back in November). This is a easy, quick to make snack that can be whipped up in no time.

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Butternut Squash Queso Fundido

Super Bowl weekend is coming up and I'm sure all sports fans are gearing up for a fun game night. I am not a big football fan and don't follow it too closely. But I'm excited about the half time show and the commercials more than the game itself :-)

This queso dip made with butternut squash will be a yummy addition to your super bowl party menu. It is secretly healthy with the addition of squash and sports two-thirds less fat than the classic queso (or cheese) dip.

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Indian Style Nachos with Kidney Beans (Naan-Chos)

Blogging Marathon# 59: Week 1/ Day 2

Theme: Bring on the Nachos

Dish: Indian Style Nachos with Kidney Beans

I was raking my mind on what nachos to make for today. I googled quite a bit to find something I liked and then found these vegetable chili nachos on Foodgawker. But instead of topping the nachos with traditional chili, I thought of giving the dish an Indian touch by topping it with Rajma masala (Kidney bean curry).

So I went ahead and Indianized (is that even a word???) all of the components and made it the same way as the regular nachos. This dish turned out so delicious and I was very impressed with my own creation.

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Greek Nachos with Tzatziki Sauce

Blogging Marathon# 59: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Bring on the Nachos

Dish: Greek Nachos with Tzatziki Sauce

We are starting a brand new blogging marathon today and I picked a very interesting theme. It is 'Bring on your Nachos' and so for the next 3 days, I'm going to post some interesting Nacho recipes -- a little different from the cheese laden ones we are all used to.

These Greek Nachos have been on my mind ever since I watched Kelsey Nixon make them on The Kitchn. I bookmarked the recipe right away, but it took me all this while to get to making it.

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Pizza Popcorn

Blogging Marathon# 57: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole grains

Dish: Pizza Popcorn

I'm running a little late to post for day 2 of this week's marathon. It has been a busy weekend with back to back Navratri dinners on Friday and Saturday, so couldn't find time to make this dish until today. Luckily I made the pizza spice mix couple of days ago, so all I had to do today was to pop the corn and mix with the spice blend.

Sending this over to Kalyani's Kid's Delight -- Cooking with Whole Grains (an event started by Valli). Popcorn is a whole grain food that is very low in calories and a good source of fiber. But those buttered or artificially flavored popcorn is not the way to go. It is best to pop your own corn and then flavor it as needed.

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Skordalia (Greek Potato-Garlic Dip)

Skordalia is a traditional Greek appetizer dip made with whipped potatoes flavored with fresh garlic, almonds and olive oil. Serve at room temperature or slightly warm with warmed pockletless pita triangles or with crispy oven-roasted eggplant and zucchini.

This recipe is from 'Vegan Eats World' cookbook. I was so excited to see this creamy potato dip recipe that I made it right away for the Buffet on Table -- Condiments week, only to realize that I already had a dish from Greece, so moved this over to this week's Cooking from Cookbook Challenge.

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Chickpea Croquettes with Tzatziki Sauce

As I was looking for dishes to serve with tzatziki sauce, I saw these chickpea croquettes recipe in Vegetarian Times magazine. Original recipe was not served with tzatziki, but I thought they tasted great with the addition of the creamy yogurt sauce.

I found adding chickpea flour (besan) and whole chickpeas in these croquettes was quite interesting. The whole chickpeas give these croquettes a hearty texture.

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Tostones (Fried Raw Green Plantains) with Mojo Sauce

I made these Tostones or fried green plantains for Cuban meal earlier this week. From what I've read, fried green plantains are very popular and pull together most any Latin Caribbean meal. They have different names (tostones, patacones, tajadas, mariquitas) and shapes depending on the country.
These crunchy slabs of fried plantains make a very addictive snack or appetizer when served with lightly salted or with a garlicky mojo sauce. This recipe is from Viva Vegan cookbook.

Green plantain is fried twice, smushed down just prior to the second frying to create a thinner and extra crunchy treat. There are many methods for crushing tostones for their second frying. The idea is to use a heavy, flat object to evenly apply enough pressure to the cooked plantain to flatten it, but not so much that it falls apart. There's a special Latin kitchen tool; called a tostonera that is designed just for the smashing purpose. I used my handy-dandy poori press for that and it worked great for me.

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Sanna Pakora (Sindhi Onion Pakoda) for Indian Cooking Challenge

For this month's 'Indian Cooking Challenge', Valli chose a delicious Sanna Pakora, a Sindi specialty. She gave us 2 recipes to refer from - one from from Vaishali and one from Alka.

We made a fritter, Patnam Pakodi, from AP for last month's challenge. But this Sindhi pakoda is quite different. Though the ingredients are almost the same in both the recipes, these Sanna pakoras are double fried. First the batter is fried in big chunks, then cut into smaller pieces and fried the second time. This second frying makes the fritters extra crispy and yummy.

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Patnam Pakodi (City Style Onion Fritter) for Indian Cooking Challenge

For this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, Valli picked Patnam Pakodi. Patnam means City in Telugu and so this pakoda literally means 'city fritter' hence the title 'city style onion fritter' :-)

This recipe is from Padma's grandmother and it was once a popular snack in Tamil Nadu. The recipe that Padma shared used rice flour as the base along with a little bit of besan or chickpea flour. But unfortunately I ran of rice flour but had some brown rice flour in the fridge. I didn't want to take a risk with making the pakodis with that, so I googled and found a slightly different version of the same patnam pakodi using besan or chickpea flour on Vahchef site.

This recipe is very similar to onion pakora or ullipaya pakodi, the only exception being that the pakodis are shaped as balls instead of random shapes. They are golden and crispy on the outside and are soft inside. Addition of grated ginger gives a nice flavor to this snack. They are perfect with a cup of tes/ chai on a rainy afternoon like today :-)

So here's my version of patnam pakodi made with chickpea flour.

Recipe from Vah Chef & Padma.
Ingredients:
Besan/ Chickpea Flour - 2cups
Rice flour - ½cup
Baking powder - ¼tsp
Red Chili powder - 1tsp (adjust per taste)
Ghee - 1tbsp
Salt - to taste
Onion -1 large, thinly sliced
Green Chilies - 1~2, finely chopped
Ginger - 1" piece, finely grated
Curry leaves - 8~10, finely chopped
Cilantro - 3tbsp, finely chopped
Cashews - 2tbsp, soaked in water

Method:

• Soak cashews in water for 10~15 minutes. Drain and keep ready.
• In a small mixing bowl, combine the onions, green chilies, curry leaves and cilantro. Mix well and set aside for a few minutes.
• In another mixing bowl, combine besan, rice flour, baking powder and salt. Add the ghee and rub it into the flour, either by using your fingers or a fork, until the mixture becomes crumbly.
• Add the onions, soaked cashews to the besan mixture and mix well. Add water, very little at a time, until the mixture comes together into a stiff dough.
• Heat oil for deep frying.
• Meanwhile, divide the pakoda dough into small lemon size balls and roll them gently between the palms. Don't put too much pressure while rolling -- that will make the pakoda dense, so be gently when making the pakoda.
• When the oil is hot enough, slide a few pakoda and fry them on medium flame until golden on all sides.
• Remove onto a paper lined plate and serve hot with ketchup.

Salted Caramel Popcorn

Blogging Marathon# 53: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Movie Night Snacks

Dish: Salted Caramel Popcorn

I have never been a fan of popcorn, especially the ones sold at the movies or even the microwave variety. Growing up my parents didn't want us to eat outside food, so they never bought us anything when we went to the movies. So I never associated going to movies with popcorn or food. I continue to do that with my kids too. My older one never asked for it, lets see what the little one does.

I had a really bad popcorn when one of my friends bought a big tub of it and it was just so terrible that it ended my already non-existent relation with movie popcorn. Good thing with most of the non-Indian movies is that they are short and even before you realize you want to munch on something the movie is over. But Indian movies force you to buy snacks to kill time and money.

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Curry Puffs/ Veg Puffs (made with Puff Pastry)

Blogging Marathon# 53: Week 2/ Day 2

Theme: Movie Night Snacks

Dish: Curry Puffs/ Veg Puffs

Curry puffs or veg puffs used to be my favorite bakery item during school and college days. Egg puff was also ordered very frequently. After coming to the US, I learnt that they can be easily made at home using frozen puff pastry.

So for Day 2 of 'Movie night snacks', I made us some curry puffs and served them with good old ketchup :-) We watched a movie too while eating the snack, but now I don't remember the name of the movie. I used to have real good memory and knowledge of films when I was in India. But now, all the movies seem the same and I get confused between the actors. Also we've lost patience and interest in watching the long Indian movies. So most of the movie, read songs and fights, are seen in fast forward.

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Sev Khamani

Time sure is flying right by, can't believe it is the middle of May already. It almost slipped my mind that it's time to post for this month's 'Indian Cooking Challenge' and I haven't even looked at the ingredients. I immediately looked at the recipe and my pantry & fridge to see if I had all the ingredients. I was only missing the pomegranate, I went shopping and bought it right away.
So the dish that Valli picked is this Gujarati snack called Sev Khamani. Recipe is from Vaishali's friend, so big thanks to Vaishali & Valli for picking this recipe.

Gujaratis have a knack of making delicious snacks & dishes with just about any ingredient. It's mind boggling the number of snacks and desserts they make. This is one such recipe where the dish uses crumbled up khaman dhoklas. I think it is a genius idea because my dhoklas end up crumbled most of the time anyway and this is a delicious way of reusing them into a completely new dish.

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Bagel Chips with Cinnamon Sugar

BM# 51 -- Baking Marathon: Day 25

Bake of the Day: Bagel Chips

After a easy, breezy palmier recipe, here's another baked dish that is very very quick and easy to make. These Bagel chips are made using store bought bagels and they are crispy, crunchy and delicious.
I first saw these crunchy bagels on Siri's blog and mentally noted it down to try. My husband buys bagels from Costco & BJ's occasionally and if you know anything about these warehouse stores, you know that they come in wholesale quantities. So we get about 9~12 bagels in one shot. I don't usually eat bagels and it's just my husband and my son who have to finish the whole bag. After about 2~3 days, they get tired of them and we have these sad looking bagels in the bread box.

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