Potato bonda

Potato Bonda is an evening snack with your tea or coffee. Potato is the main ingredients used to make this snack along with other ingredients and spices.

Items required
350gm potatoes
Salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
Juice of lemon
1 teaspoon mustard
2″ long piece ginger
4 green chillies
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder
A few curry leaves
A few coriander leaves
Cooking medium (oil)
375ml chenna dal flour
125ml rice flour
2 teaspoon chilli powder
A pinch of baking soda
Preparation method
1.Cook the potatoes, drain, peel and crumble them by hand into small piecesand keep aside.
2.Peel the ginger, chop fine and keep aside.
3.Chop the green chillies fine and keep aside.
4.chop the curry leaves and coriander leaves and keep aside.
5.Heat a little oil in a frying pan and add mustard; whenthe mustard crackles, add ginger (vide 2) and green chillies (vide 3) saute a little and add sauteed ingredients to the crumbled potatoes (vide 1).
6.Add also, asafoetida powder, curry leaves and coriander leaves, salt (to taste) , lemon juice (to taste) and turmeric powder to the crumbled potatoes; mix all the ingerdients together, roll into small balls and keep aside.
7.Mix together, channa dal flour, rice flour, salt (to taste), chilli powder, baking soda and a pinch of asafoetida powder; add a little water and prepare a thick batter.
8.Heat oil in a saucepan, dip the potato balls (vide 6) in the batter (vide 7) so that the former is uniformly covered with the batter and then cook to a reddish brown in oil as you would, in the case of Mysore Bonda.
9.Repeat the process in respect of the remaining potato balls and serve hot, with chutney.

Hog plum pickles

Two varieties of Hog plums are grown. While one variety is as small as holly strawberry, the other is rather large-as large as goose berry.

Items required
1/2litre Hog Plum(large)
1/2 teaspoon Fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoon Asafoetida powder
Oil for seasoning and frying
1 1/2 teaspoon Mustard
1/4 teaspoon Turmeric powder
4 teaspoon Chilli powder
Preparation method
1.Wash the hog plums thoroughly, cut off the stalks, chop each of them longitudinally into two, discard the seeds, drain and keep aside.
2.Roast (that, is heat without using oil) the fenugreek seeds until they turn dark brown, grind into a fine powder and keep aside.
3.Heat oil in a sauce-pan and add mustard.
4.When mustard crackles, add hog plums (vide 1) and turmeric powder and fry.
5.When all the moisture in the hog plums evaporates and the hog plums begin to curl up, shut off the flame.
6.Add salt and mix well.
7.When the ingredients cool to room temperature, add chilli powder, powdered fenugreek seeds (vide 2) and asafoetida powder; mix well and serve.
Tip : Some more oil may be added, if needed, when the hog plums are being fried.

Bajji

“Bajji ” is a typical south indian dish usually prepared on normal as well as celebrations or traditional parties.It is easy to prepare and is less time consuming.

Items required
125ml Channa dal flour
125ml maida flour
250ml rice flour
salt to taste
3 teaspoon chilli powder
1 tablespoon sour curd
a pinch of asafoetida powder
a pinch or two of baking soda
vegatables like green plantains, onions,
Potatoes & brinjals
Preparation method
1.Mix channa dal flour maida flour, rice flour, salt (to taste), baking soda, chilli powder, asafoetida powder and curd together.Knead the dough by adding water so that a thick consistency is achieved.
2.Skin a couple of green plantains, cut them longitudinally into thin pieces and keep aside.
3.peel 4 large onions, slice them into thin rings and keep aside.
4.Slice 2 brinjals and 2 potatoes into thin rings and keep aside.
5.Heat oil in a sauce pan; dip the green plantain pieces one by one tn the dough (vide 1) so that they are uniformly covered with the dough and then cook them golden brown in oil and serve, with chutney. Repeat the process with onion rings, brinjal rings and potato rings.
6.If needed, slice more brinjals or potatoes or green plantains or onions and prepare Baajis as above, until the dough is used up.

Fresh red date chutney

This “Red date chutney” is easy to make, involving blending ingredients together. Vinegar is an important ingredient, Helping to preserve them.

Item required
6 dates, seeded
1 small onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 tablespoon malt vinegar
Preparation method
1.Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor, blend until smooth.
Makes 1/2 cup(125ml)

Kuma pilau

Kuma pilau is a special preparation of the dish which is again cooked with mutton and with the latter being the more popular variety.

Item required
1 onion, finely sliced
250 g ghee
500 g lean meat, minced
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon chilli powder
2 teaspoons ground coriander
2 tablespoons plain yoghurt
few strands saffron
3 cups (500 g) rice
8 cloves
1 stick cinnamon
Preparation method
1 Saute onion in the ghee until golden.
2 Add the mince, ginger, chilli and coriander. Saute until mince is browned, add yoghurt and fry until rich brown.
3 Soak the saffron in 1 tablespoon water and add to the mince.
4 Combine rice, cloves and cinnamon in a large pan. Add enough water to come 6 cm above the level of the rice. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer until the water has almost evaporated and the rice nearly cooked. Remove from the heat.
5 In a 2 litre heat-proof dish, arrange in a layer of rice then a layer of mince and so on until all the mince and rice are used up. The last layer must be rice. Cover, bake in a slow oven for 20 minutes until the rice is cooked. Before serving, mix the pilau very carefully so as not to break the rice grains.
SERVES 6 TO 8

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