Urulaikizhangu Bonda - Alu Bonda

This was one of the favourite snack in my household especially during winters and on rainy days. I wonder why we love to eat such snacks only on those days.  Maybe the weather has something to do in bringing about the cravings for a particular food.  Whenever I prepare this, it used to get over as it is getting done. Now,over to the simple recipe for u all to enjoy.

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 4
Onions - 2
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Green chillies - 1/2 tsp finely chopped
Cilantro - 1/2 tsp finely chopped
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Besan - 1 cup
Rice flour -  2 tbsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Oil
Salt

Boil the potatoes, mash well and keep it aside. Finely chop the onions, green chillies,curry leaves and cilantro.

In a heavy bottom pan, add 2 tbsp oil and then the urad dal.Once the dal turns pinkish in color, add the mustard seeds. When it splutters, add the finely chopped green chillies, curry leaves and then the finely chopped onions. Saute till the onions turns translucent. Now, add the turmeric powder and 1/2 tsp chilly powder and toss a little. Add the mashed potatoes, finely chopped cilantro and finally salt. Toss well so that the masalas are coated well into the potatoes. Allow it to cool.  Make small balls and keep aside.

For the batter, mix Besan and the rice flour and make a dough of semi-thick consistency.  Add salt, asafoetida and 1 tsp of chilly powder too.  Add 2 tbsp of hot oil to the batter to make the Bonda crunchier.  Dip the potato balls one by one into the batter, coat it thick and deep fry  in medium flame.  Yummy, urulaikizhangu bonda ready to devour.  Tastes awesome with any chutneys, sauce or ketchup.

Tips:
1.  While mashing potatoes, there should not be any water.
2.  While making potato balls, make it small as the bonda tends to become a size bigger once it gets coated with besan.
3.  Make the potato balls tight so that it does not break after dipping in the batter.
4.  Dip the potato balls one by one into the batter as and when frying. Do not soak them in the batter.

Tempting layered dip - Guaranteed hit

Ingredients for the dip (one batch)

Red kidney beans - 2 1/2 cups (cooked)
Onions - Medium - 2
Tomatoes - Medium -2
Jalapenos pepper - 2
Original Taco seasoning - 1 1/2 tsp
Mont Pepper Jack cheese - (Buy the block)
Mild sharp cheddar cabot - (Grated cheese)
Avocado - 3
Sour cream

In a pan, saute finely chopped  onions till it turns pink, add tomatoes and saute it too. Once it is done, add the beans and mash it a little. The consistency should be semi-thick.

Scoop the avocado and put it in a bowl, add pepper,salt, lime and sour creme. The final mix should be light green in color.

Finely chop tomatoes and onions and keep aside.

Arrangement of the layer

Beans first.

Then,
Avocados mix

Then,

Jalapenos chopped in circles
Finely chopped onions
Finely chopped tomatoes

Then,
Sour creme

Finally,

Mild sharp cheddar cabot (grated cheese)
Mont pepper jack cheese.(Buy the block)

Place it in an oven (Temp. 400deg.) .  The dip is done when the cheese just begins to melt

Dig the scoop into the dip and I need not tell u how the experience would be.  Mmmmmmmmmmmm :-):-):-):-)

Sunset

Sitting by the sea shore
Looking at  the sun setting
Brings in a remorse feeling
Of bidding farewell to a close friend

With each passed second during the day
Someone might have missed a dream
Someone might have lost a close one
Unaware of all this, the sun is setting

With each passed second during the day
Someone might have achieved something
Someone might have had a new addition in the family
Unaware of all this, the sun is setting

With each passed second during the day
Moments of happiness
Moments of sorrow
Unaware of all this, the sun is setting

Only to dawn tomorrow
With new hopes and new expectations
Bright and cheerful with its beaming rays
Let us allow the sun to set peacefully
In total ignorance!!!!!!

Uttappam

Uttapam is a variation of Dosa- same batter, more ingredients. I usually make these when my dosa batter is a week old (pulicha maavu).

Ingredients:
Dosa Batter - 3 cups
Onion- 2 medium sized
Green Chillies- 1 nos
Mustard Seed
Curry Leaves- 3 or 4nos
Corriander
Oil- 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Recipe

1. Finely chop the onions, chillies & corriander and add it to the dosa batter.
2. Heat the oil in a pan and add mustard seed. Once the seeds splutter, add it to the dosa batter.
3. Add salt to taste and make nice small uttappams.

Bon Appetit!!

Evergreen recipe - Alu mutter (green peas)gravy

This is an universally loved dish and found in all the menu cards around the world.  Very quick and easy to meal-out dish.

Ingredients:
Potato - 2 medium sized
Mutter (peas) 1/2 cup
Onions - 1 big sized
Tomato paste - 2 tbsp
Ginger - a piece of 1/2" length
Garlic paste - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt 
Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp finely chopped

Boil potatoes, peel and cube it. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add chopped onions and saute till the raw smell disappears. Cool this and later  grind finely with Ginger. Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of oil and add the ground onion ginger paste and the garlic paste.   Keep stirring till it leaves it leaves the pan and cooked well. Then, add the tomato paste and keep stirring. Once this is done, add garam masala powder, turmeric powder and chilly powder and keep stirring for a few seconds only.  Add the pre-boiled and cubed potatoes and the green peas too (Frozen peas cooks very quickly)  .  Pour 1/4 cup water and add salt. Allow it to boil until the masalas are absorbed into the vegetables. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.

Enjoy this with garam rotis or even with simple white Basmati rice.

'Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don't eat has been proved to be indispensable for life.  But I go marching on.'  - George Bernard Shaw

Vadai

It is a New Year and time for my favorite recipe. Crispy and Crunchy vadai!!


Ingredients:
Urad dal: 1 cup
Green chillies: 2-3 nos
Asafoetida: 2-3 pinches
Oil: 1-2 cups
Salt to taste

Recipe:
1. Soak urad dal in warm water for 1 hour
2. Grind the urad dal with green chillies, asafoetida and salt (do not add any additional water)
3. Heat oil in a pan
4. Wipe your palm with some water, take a spoon full of the batter and place it in your palm to flatten it. Make a hole in it.
5. Add this to the oil at medium high heat (this ensures the vadai is crisp while getting cooked).


Bon Appetit!

Mother tongue = Native language = ??????

I wonder why I am not able to speak a full sentence  in Tamizh nowadays? I find myself at crossroads between Tamil, English and Hindi and thank God  I am fluent only in these three languages. If I had known some more, what sort of dialect  would I be speaking now ??? As popularly everyone terms it 'Tanglish', for me it needs to be renamed 'Hitanglish'.

There are different slangs of Tamizh spread across Tamil Nadu depending upon the district one hails from. About three decades back, a person can be identified of his district by his spoken Tamil.  But now, at large all are tuned to the so called 'Madras Tamizh'.

In Tamil Nadu, except for a handful like our Kalaingar Karunanidhi and Vairamuthu, how many of us can speak chaste Tamizh for 5 minutes without  bringing in an English word.  In one of the private channel Makkal TV, there is a programme which encourages the public to play with them for instant gifts if they are able to answer their questions in Tamizh and only Tamizh.  It was odd watching the participants struggle to get the appropriate words.

In the Tamil TV channels and Radios one can see the DJs and VJ's  literally murdering the language with very coloquial words, Kochai Tamizh.  The sanctitiy and the sweetness of Tamizh has disappeared and wonder if there is any hope for the pure language to get revived among the future generations.

Has the above happened  with any other language, I wonder ??? The damage is already done.  Even if one is interested to speak in chaste 'Tamizh', how many of us would be able to understand? In this fast moving world, would anyone care to take time to learn the vocabulary all over again  and do justice to the language.

With this note I decide to begin at home  trying to speak senthamizh  and could hear a chorus "MOM stop this,  we are unable to understand :):) " and my hope gets diffused instantly and poor tamizh ? NO CHANCE !!!!!!. My children are not to be blamed as they were born and raised in the Northern part of India in the Hindi belt. Although, we made a point to speak in Tamil at home, still they are comfortable conversing in Hindi or English among themselves.  I am sure, many of you would agree with me with the issue and would be having similar thoughts in you too.

With more generations leaving the native state and settling across the globe, it is unlikely that the newer generations would pick up the language in its originality. Any solution to the above issue????

"The loss of languages is tragic precisely because they are not interchangeable, precisely because they represent the distillation of the thoughts and communication of people over their entire history."   - Marianne Mithun