Urad dhal vadai is a healthy snack and is mostly made on pooja days. This is a very delicious treat as it can be eaten along with sambhar, rasam, chutney or yogurt.
Serves up to 4 people
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Ingredients:
1 cup of urad dhal
2 green chilies
1/8 tsp of asafoetida
1 tsp of freshly ground black pepper/ crushed black pepper
10 curry leaves
salt as required
Oil for frying
Preparation:
1.Soak urad dhal for 3 hours in water. Drain the water and grind well with green chilies and salt together.
2. The curry leaves is finely chopped and add it to the ground mixture. Add the asafoetida and black pepper and mix well.
3.First wet the palm, then make a small patty in the palm and put a hole with the thumb. Transfer gently to the preheated oil.
4.Once the patty turns golden brown, urad dhal vadai is ready.
Coconut burfi can be done in different ways. When I was a kid, my mom used to make this sweet for my birthdays. This sweet brings me nostalgic feel. Being thousands of miles away, I am connecting with her by trying out her recipes. Another name for this sweet is seven cup burfi- The name comes from the fact that there are seven cups of ingredients.
Ingredients:
1 cup of fine rava/ sooji
1 cup of grated coconut
1 cup of cashew nuts (powdered)
1 cup of melted ghee
1 cup of milk
2 cups of sugar
pinch of saffron
4 pieces of cardamom
raisins for decoration
Preparation:
1.Mix the above ingredients in the following order, rava , coconut, powdered cashew, ghee, milk and sugar in the heavy bottomed vessel.
2.Start stirring in the low flame to avoid any lump formation.
3.Keep stirring till the sweet starts to thicken. Towards the end, add the saffron soaked in 1/2 tbsp of milk and powdered cardamom.
4.Apply little ghee on the plate and transfer the sweet. Allow the sweet to cool and cut in to squares.
5.Decorate with raisins.
Continuing with the recipes for Diwali, I am adding a second savory today to my recipe list. Ola Pakoda, is a real treat and very easy to make. This snack is really delicious and a definite balance with the sweets.
Ingredients:
2 cups of Besan/ gram flour
1 cup of rice flour
1/4 tsp of asafoetida
1/2 tsp of red chilly powder(~spice level)
1 tbsp of butter (@ room temperature)
salt as required
oil for deep frying
Preparation:
1.Sift the rice flour and besan well. Mix all the above ingredients together and add the required amount of water to knead them into the dough.
2.Make the dough a little soft so that the it can be squeezed easily from the murukku maker.
2.Heat oil in the kadai. Smear the inside of murukku maker with little oil. Make a ball and put in the murukku maker and press it directly in the oil.
3.As they turn light golden brown, turn to the other side. Remove ola pakoda from the oil and place it on the plate.
First of all, I wish you all a very Happy Deepavali. My mom always makes murukku, ola pakoda, mixture etc. for Deepavali. I miss my mom more during these festivals :( . So this time I thought why not make some delicious murukku. My son is a great fan of this item, so this is a real treat!
Ingredients:
3 cups of rice flour
1/4 cup of urad dhal flour
1/4 tsp of asafoetida
1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
2 tbsp of butter (@ room temperature)
salt as required
oil for deep frying
Preparation:
1.Sift the rice flour well. Mix all the above ingredients together and add the required amount of water to knead them in to the dough.
2.Heat oil in the kadai. Smear the inside of murukku maker with little oil. Make a ball and put in the murukku maker and press it on the back of the ladle.
3.Once the oil is hot, transfer the murukku in to the oil. As they turn light golden brown, turn to the other side.
4.Remove murukkus from the oil and place it on the plate.
Serves up to 4 people
2. The curry leaves is finely chopped and add it to the ground mixture. Add the asafoetida and black pepper and mix well.
3.First wet the palm, then make a small patty in the palm and put a hole with the thumb. Transfer gently to the preheated oil. 
