Tricolor Sandwich

 

Ingredients:

White Bread (Can use any kind of bread) : 3 slices

For green chutney

Pudina (Mint Leaves) : 1 bunch

Coriander : 1 bunch

Green chillies : 4 or 5

Salt : as per taste 

Oil : 1 tsp

For Red Chutney 

Tomatoes : 3

Tomato sauce or Ketchup : 2 or 3 tsps

Pepper powder : as per taste

Salt : as per taste

Oil : 1 tsp

Preparation:

To prepare Green Chutney

• Wash the leaves of pudina and corianders.
• Heat 1 tsp of oil in a saucepan, and add pudina, coriander and green chillies to it.
• Fry until they are nicely cooked.
• Finally add salt and blend into smooth paste after the ingredients get cooled.

To prepare Red Chutney

• Cut tomatoes into big pieces and blend into a smooth paste.
• Heat 1 tsp of oil in a saucepan, add tomato puree and tomato sauce to it.
• Cook till the puree leaves the edges and add salt and pepper power to it.

Serving

Arrange one piece of bread slice on a plate, spread green cutney. Put another bread slice on the top and spread red chutney.  Finally add a third bread slice on the top, cut into desired shapes and serve.

Tamalapaku Pakodi (Beetle Leaf Pakoda)

Makara Sankranti, well known as Pongal, is an auspicioius festival in Andhra Pradesh. Its a festival of Harvest and is celebrated for four days.

• Day 1 - Bhogi
• Day 2 - Makara Sankranti (Pedda Panduga)
• Day 3 - Kanuma
• Day 4 - Mukkanuma

The first day of festival is Bhogi (భోగి). At dawn people light a bonfire with wooden logs, other solid-fuels and wooden furniture at home that are no longer useful. In many families, infants and children (usually less than three years old) are showered with fruit called "Regi Pandlu", that is the Indian jujube fruit. The second day is Makara Sankranti (మకర సంక్రాంతి), also called "Pedda Panduga" (పెద్ద పండుగ), which literally means "the big festival", when everyone wears new clothes, pray to God, and make offerings of traditional food to elders in the family tree who died. Kanuma Panduga (కనుమ) is not as widely celebrated, but is an integral part of the Sankranti culture. Mukkanuma (ముక్కనుమ) is famous among the non-vegetarians of the society. People in Coastal Andhra do not eat any meat or fish during the first three days of the festival, and do so only on the day of Mukkanuma.

Here in US too, we celebrate Bhogi and Sankranti. And this time, we celebrated this Bhogi Showers to my younger son along with four other friends' kids in one of my friend's house. We distribute beetle leaves, soaked black chole and some fruits to all of them who came to the showers.  I was also invited by other friends to their kids' Bhogi showers. At the end of the day I ended  up with lot of beetle leaves in my fridge.  So I came up with this Tamalapaku Pakodi, and I don't have any idea if anybody else has experimented this earlier.

Ingredients:

Senagapindi (Besan) :  50 gms
Onions : 2 big (cut into thin strips)
Beetle leaf : 6 or 7 (cut into very small pieces)
Green chillies : 3 or 4 (cut into small pieces)
Salt : as required
oil : required for frying

Preparation:

• Mix salt with onions and set aside.
• After 15 minutes mix beetle leaf pieces, chilly pieces and besan  with onion pieces.
• If it is too thick to mix, you can add 1 or 2 tsps of oil while mixing.
• Deep fry until golden brown and serve hot with tomato ketchup.
  

Mango Milkshake

Ingredients:

Canned Mango Puree : 1/2 cup or u can use one fresh ripe mango
Milk : 2 cups
Sugar : 2 tsps or as desired
Saffron : for garnishing

Serves 3 people

Preparation:

• Blend all the ingredients except saffron in the blender.
• Pour into serving glasses, sprinkle some saffron and serve.

Tomato Rasam

Ingredients :

Ripe tomatoes - 4
Mustard seeds - 2 tsps
Jeera - 2 tsps
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsps
Chopped Coriander leaves - 2 tsps
Oil - 1 tsps
Curry leaves - 5
sambar powder or rasam powder - 1tsp (I prefer sambar powder)
sugar – 1/2 tsp
Hing (Asofotadia) a pinch
grated coconut : 2 tsp

Salt - as required

Method :-

• Blanch tomatoes in hot water, take out the skin and mash or grind the pulp.
• Add lot of water to the pulp and keep it aside.  
• For tempering, heat oil, add hing, mustard seeds, jeera ,curry leaves, once they crackle add ginger garlic paste. Fry little and add the tomato rasam to it.  
• Add salt, sambar powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and boil well for 5-10 minutes.
• Lastly add sugar, coriander leaves and coconut powder.
• Serve hot as a soup or with steaming hot plain rice and papads. A dash of ghee in the rasam before serving will enhance the taste.

Tips :- The more you boil, the more it tastes good. You can add 1/2 cup boiled toor dal to the rasam.

కారం గవ్వలు (Spicy Shells)

Ingredients:


Maida / all purpose flour: 1 cup
Ghee or Butter: 2 tsps
Green Chillies: 4 or 5
Thymol seeds (Vaamu, ajwain): 1 tsp
salt as required
water enough for kneading a dough

Preparation:

• Crush the green chillies and thymol seeds in the mixer grinder into a smooth paste (if it is a very small quantity u can add some maida while grinding). 
• heat ghee/butter and pour into maida.
• add salt, green chillies paste and water to maida and knead well into a soft dough. 
• make small balls out of the dough. 
• take gavvala peeta or a fresh new comb and using your thumb roll them into shells. 
• deep fry the shells till they turn into golden brown and enjoy the snack. 
• can store them in an air tight container upto 15 days.

Aavada (Perugu vada)

Ingredients:

urad dal: 2 cups

yogurt: 2 cups and little sour
green chillies: 5
ginger: one inch piece
Oil: for frying
Salt: as required

For Seasoning:

urad dal: 1/2 tsp
chana dal: 1/2 tsp
mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
red chillies: 2 or 3 made into 1/2 inch pieces
cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
fenugreek seeds: 1/4 tsp
curry leave: a few

For Garnishing:

Coriander

How to:

• Grind ginger and green chillies into coarse paste or can cut into very tiny pieces.
• Whisk yogurt with little amount of water, the above ginger-chilli paste and salt.
• If the yogurt is not sour enough you can add some lemon juice to it.
• Heat oil in a pan and add fenugreek seeds, urad dal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and add to the yogurt mixture.
• Grind urad dal and salt to a thick paste without adding water. (Can sprinkle some water in between but try to avoid that.)
• Using oil/water shape the thick paste in the form of donut and deep fry.
• When they turn golden brown transfer them to yogurt mixture. Garnish with Coriander Leaves.
• Let vadas absorb the spices for two hours or more and serve.

Kudumulu or Undrallu

VINAYAKA CHAVITHI SUBHAKANKSHALU

Vinayaka Chavithi also known as Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the most popular festivals in India. Kudumulu is offered to god as Naivedyam on that day. As part of the Vinayaka Chavithi recipes, I present this Kudumulu which is one of my favourites.

Ingredients:

Biyyam ravva (rice rava): 2 cups
water: 4 cups
sanagapappu (chana dal): 1/4 cup
ghee / oil: 2 tsp

How to:

• To prepare biyyam ravva: wash rice and dry completely and ground to a coarse powder similar to sooji.
• Soak chana dal 15 minutes ahead and drain.
• Bring water to boil in a thick bottomed pan.
• Add oil / ghee and chana dal to it.
• Let it boil for 5 mints and add the ground rice ravva and stir continuously ensuring that no lumps are formed.Once all the water is absorbed and appears like a big lump, cover and cook for 4-5 mts. Turn off the heat and cool.
• Alternatively use a cooker instead of pan and cover with lid immediately after adding the rava. Wait for three wistles and remove from the stove.
• Once cool, make big lemon sized balls of the cooked mixture.