Milagai Bajji / Chilli Bajji

Here is a very easy to prepare snack and which is very common among Indians. Bajji... Veggies such as onions, potatoes, egg plant, plantain(Vazhakkai) and also with breads bajjis can be prepared.  If you have an unexpected guest then immediately you can make this yummy snack. It is accompanied with any chutney with your choice. I made the chutney which almost taste like the chutney served in the marina beach (Chennai, India) bajji shops.

Ingredients for Chilli Bajji

5 Green bajji chilli (ooty bajji chilli)

1 cup Besan flour (kadalai maavu)

2 tablespoon rice flour

1 teaspoon chilli powder

A pinch of Hing (Asafoetida) 

2 Pinch of Cooking soda (Sodium bicarbonate)

Orange food colouring (Optional)

Salt and Oil for frying

Pic (1)

Method

• Wash and cut the chilli into half [as shown in pic(1)] and remove seeds by just scraping it  ( I prefer with the seeds).
• In a bowl sift the besan and  rice flour, add the chilli powder, salt, hing, cooking soda and a pinch of food colouring.
• Mix all the dry ingredients and then add water little by little mixing it continuously and make sure there is no lumps.
• The batter consistency shouldn't be too thick or very watery. 
• Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan in medium flame.
• Dip the chilli into the batter and fry till it turn dark orange colour. This takes 2-3 minutes.
• Chilli bajji is ready to be served.

Note

• Without cutting into half, you can just slit the chilli and scrap all the seeds and dip into the batter if you want a big bajji.
• Do not cut and throw the stem, this helps you to hold the stem and dip it in the batter and fry.

Ingredients for Chutney

2 big Onions

1 big tomato

4 dry red chilli

1 handful  of mint leaves (Pudina)

Salt and water

Method

• Roughly chop the onions and tomato.
• In a pan heat oil and add the chopped onions, chopped tomato, dry red chilli and salt, all at the same time.
• When the tomato turns gooey switch off the flame and add the mint leaves immediately.
• Let it cool for some time and then grind into fine paste.
• Add a little bit of water if required. This chutney shouldn't be too thick.

Tapioca cookie (Kuih Bangkit)

To be really frank i don't know the meaning of Kuih Bangkit but i definitely know that it is a yummy cookie made with tapioca flour. I just got impressed by the colour of the cookie when i first looked at a local bakery. Then i tried to google it and got loads of links for this cookie recipe. It is a very traditional Chinese cookie. This just melts in your mouth and also gives a crunchy feel when you chew.

Ingredients

400 grams Tapioca flour
5 tablespoon All purpose flour
3 pandan leaves
4 Egg yolks + 3/4 Egg white
135 grams (1/2 cup approx) fine Sugar
165 grams (3/4 cup approx) Coconut milk

Method

• Preheat oven at 350°f(180°c) for 10 mins.
• Sift tapioca and all purpose flour.
• Fry on wok or any heavy bottom large vessel for about half an hour in low flame.
• For the first ten mins fry with the pandan leaves and then remove it and fry only the flour.
• Leave to cool.
• Whisk the yolks and egg white with sugar till it forms a thick mixture.
• Slowly add in egg mixture into the flour mixture and also gradually add in the coconut milk and knead to form a dough.
• Continue kneading till the dough is smooth.
• Dust the tapioca flour in a clean surface and take a small portion of the dough and try to press it with your palm and spread it.
• With the help of cookie cutter your cookies are ready to be baked.
• (Traditional Chinese method is they have their unique wooden mould to get different shapes of cookie)
• Dot the cookies with different colours if desired
• Bake it in the preheated oven for 20-25 mins or untill cooked.
• The cookie is cooked when the back of the cookie is slightly brown.

Pineapple tart

The idea of trying Chinese cookies just popped out of my mind when i saw the cookie sales was heating up in almost all  food related shops in Singapore. During Chinese new year cookies are very special and their way of making cookies is very easy. Ingredients are very simple but they are very delicious:). There are many versions of pineapple cookie but i preferred the one which was shared in rasamalaysia website. 

Ingredients
175 grams (1 1/4 cup) All purpose flour
1 tablespoon Corn flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoon Sugar
110 grams butter (4 oz)
1 Egg yolk
1 tablespoon Shortening (optional)
1/2 Egg yolk (for egg wash)
For Pineapple jam:
1 fresh pineapple or 1 can sliced pineapple
5 tablespoon Sugar
1/4 tablespoon cloves

Method

• If you are using fresh Pineapple remove skin and avoid the middle part and cut into pieces and blend for 8 seconds.
• If it is canned pineapple, drain the slices and squeeze the extra water with your hands and then blend.
• In a non-stick pan(preferably) add the blended pineapple, sugar and cloves.
• Stir continuously in a low flame(to avoid burning) with the wooden spoon till all water gets evaporated.
• Turn off the heat when it turns into light golden color.
• Remove the cloves and refrigerate the jam. 

• Meanwhile sieve all the dry ingredients in a big bowl and combine the flour mixture with butter, shortening and egg yolks together.
• Knead the dough and it shouldn't stick to your hand, if it is too dry add a bit of butter or if it is too sticky add a bit of flour and form a smooth dough.
• Divide the dough and pineapple jam into equal number of rounds.

• Preheat the oven to 350°f (180°c) for 10 mins.
• Flatten the pastry dough with your palms and put the pineapple filling in the middle and use the side part of the dough to cover the filling.
• Use your palms to round it up and then shape it into a roll.
• Use a small fork or knife to make criss cross patterns and brush it with egg wash using a pastry brush.
• Place the pineapple tarts 1 inch apart from each other on a cookie tray lined with parchment paper.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until light brown in a preheated oven. 

Note

• I used canned pineapple, if you are using fresh pineapple peel skin and avoid the middle part of the pineapple which is not required for the jam.
• Shortening is just optional, it just gives a extra smooth and crunchy texture.
• You can make  it in any shape of your choice.
• While preparing jam, add extra sugar if needed because sweetness differs from each pineapple to other.

Choco chip soft Cookies

The Cookies which we usually have will be chewy but this a very soft and dissolves when you have your first bite. My preference is baking and having  these cookies at the same day as day by day it looses its soft texture. 

Ingredients
70 grams Unsalted Butter
1/4 cup Brown Sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 Egg
1 cup Self raising flour
125 grams semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Method

• Preheat oven to 200°c for 10 minutes.
• Cream the white Sugar, brown Sugar, vanilla extract and Butter together with the help of hand mixer or electric mixer.
• Beat the egg well and add little by little into the butter mixture.
• Then slowly add the flour and beat well.
• Finally add the chocolate chips and mix well.
• Drop by large spoonfuls onto the greased pan.
• Bake for about 10 mins in the preheated oven or until edges are nicely browned.

Note

• When you place the cookie mixture onto the greased pan, leave some gap in between each one so that when they spread out they won't connect.
• If you feel the mixture is bit wet, don't worry this won't spoil the texture of the cookie.

Paavakai Chips (Bitter gourd chips)

Most of us hesitate to have Bitter gourd as the name itself tells us it is very bitter. This is a good evening snack. Got this recipe from Sharmispassion, but did small alterations. This is very flavorful and must try and doesn't absorb much oil.

Ingredients
4 Bitter Gourd 
2 1/2 tablespoon Rice flour
2 tablespoon Corn flour
4 tablespoon Chickpea flour
1 1/2 tablespoon chilly powder
1 tablespoon Fennel powder
A pinch of Cumin powder
Salt

Method

• Wash Bitter gourd and allow it to dry. Slice it evenly thin.
• Take a bowl and mix the rest of the ingredients together.
• Sprinkle the mixture to the sliced bitter gourd and add 1 or 2 tablespoon of water.
• Mix well, don't add too much of water. (The water is added so that all the dry ingredients get stick to the bitter gourd).
• Heat oil and fry them until most of the bubbles are gone or when it turns golden brown. 
• Leave these chips in a kitchen tissue paper so that it absorbs all oil and then store in a air-tight container.

Note

• Cut the Bitter gourd and refrigerate. Mix other ingredients on the next day,  by doing this way personally i felt it is much crispier than the usual chips.
• In most of the paavakai chips recipe, they have mentioned to bake for 5 mins, which personally i felt not required. 

Ola Pakoda / Ribbon Pakoda

This is not the usual recipe which is done with besan flour(gram flour) but trust me this is very simple and tasty than the usual one. If you plan before hand, this recipe will be very easy for you. 

Ingredients
2 cups Idli rice
1/2 cup roasted gram (pottu kadali)
10-15 dry red chilies
2 cloves garlic
Handful of curry leaves
Salt
Oil for frying


Method

• Soak the Idli rice for 4-6 hrs (Preferably overnight), and grind well with very less water(the batter should be very thick and tight).
• Separately coarse grind the red chili (don't grind to fine powder), to that add the curry leaves and garlic cloves and grind well.
• Powder the roasted gram, add the roasted gram powder, red chili mix and salt to the idli rice batter. Mix well.
• This should be a smooth dough, if it gets harder then it becomes tough to fry.
• Put this dough in the murukku mould, use the ribbon pakoda achu(with 2 slits as shown in the pic).
• Heat oil in the pan, press the mould directly in the pan and fry until it turns golden brown or crisp on both sides.
• This doesn't take much time to fry so don't over-fry it. Transfer this to kitchen towel, allow it to cool to the room temp and then transfer this to air-tight container. (Only when it cools down to the room temp you get the crispiness).

Note

• Try to avoid much water when you are grinding, if your idli rice batter doesn't turn smooth, add some water and grind well.
• The roasted gram should be a dry powder, you can powder with mixie or any food processor.
• If your dough is bit watery, add more roasted gram powder to form a soft dough.
• Adjust the red chili according to your spice level.
• If you do not have idli rice, then you can go for any rice available at home, but idli rice gives you a very crispy and tasty ribbon pakoda.

Shankarapali (Inippu Biscuit)

Here comes another very easy recipe. Most of us don't know the exact recipe and with no other choice we go to the nearest sweet store to get this small delicious biscuit. In most of the Mixtures(Savories in local Indian sweet shops) we can find this small sweet biscuit. I have no clue about the name of this recipe, just found from website, but generally in stores they call it as Inippu Biscuit. This is my sis fav too.

Ingredients
1 1/2 - 2 cups Plain Flour
1/3 cup Ghee (Clarified Butter)
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup full cream milk
A pinch of Cardamon powder
1 tablespoon Semolina/Rava
Oil for frying

Method

• Heat the pan in low flame and melt sugar in Milk and also add ghee and melt it till the sugar gets dissolved. Allow it to cool. Add the cardamon powder and rava to it.
• Slowly add the plain flour and mix it, add the flour till you get a soft dough.
• Knead into a soft pliable dough.
• Divide the dough into big lemon size, roll into chapatis 1/3" thick.
• Cut into small square shapes or any size as your choice.
• Carefully transfer to a dry cloth or any non-stick surface, and allow it to dry for 1 hour.
• Deep fry in hot oil over slow flame till light brown color.
• Drain well and keep aside till cool.
• Store in clean and dry container.

Note

• I used cookie cutter for different shapes, but the general shape we get from sweet store is square shape.
• Slowly add the flour for kneading the dough, do not add all the flour at one time.
• For extra flavor i added 1/2 teaspoon of Vanilla extract.
• When you roll like thick chapatis dust the flour so that it won't be sticky.

Nei Biscuit (Ghee Biscuit)

Nei Biscuit is fav among most of the kids, i always use to wonder what would be the recipe for this biscuit, according to me it was a very tough job. Only after searching the recipe for this biscuit i realized that it is such an easy recipe. We call it as Joosebery (Not sure about the pronunciation :p). Nei is nothing but Clarified Butter.
When i was too young i can still remember my appa did this biscuit for us, that was the best taste i've ever tasted:):)

Ingredients
1 1/2  cup Plain Flour
1/4 cup Ghee
1/2 cup Icing sugar
1/4 teaspoon Baking powder
A pinch of Salt

Method

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (approx 162 degrees C)
• Mix the ghee and sugar, beat well till you get the creamy texture.
• Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and knead into a soft dough. The dough should be very soft, even if it is sticky no prob, if you feel the sweetness is less, add some sugar. (This is definitely no prob).
• Place a baking sheet in a tray and take the desired size balls and slightly flatten it and place it in the tray.
• There should be space between each biscuits.
• Bake it for 9-12 mins, not more than that. If you feel the biscuits is not done, bake for another 3-5 mins.
• The Biscuits shouldn't turn brown. The right way to know is, your biscuits starts leaving from your sheet.
• When the Biscuits are hot, it looks like very soft and smooth, no worries, after cooling you will get the exact texture.

Note

• Do not melt the ghee
• If you do not have Icing sugar, you can use normal sugar but powder it.

Diamond Chips (Spicy)

With simple ingredients, you can make amazing snacks. To make Diamond chips, the main ingredient is Maida (Plain Flour) which is very common and you can get in any grocery shop.

Ingredients
1 cup Maida (Plain Flour)
2 tablespoon Rice Flour
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
15-20 dry red Chilies
Handful of Curry leaves
1 tablespoon Ghee or Butter
1 pinch baking soda
Red food color (optional)
Salt
Oil for frying

Method

• Finely powder the cumin seeds, also powder the dry red chilies separately.
• Mix the maida, rice flour, Cumin powder, dry red chilly powder, finely chopped curry leaves, ghee, salt and baking soda.
• Add little amount of water to knead into dough. Cover it with wet towel. Leave it for 10 mins.
• Take a small lemon size ball and roll it out as you do for Poori, it should be very thin to get the crispiness.
• Cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch strips and cut across diagonally again 1/2 inch apart. Separate the cut pieces.
• Drop them in hot oil and fry. 

Note

• Adjust the dry red chilies according to your spice level.
• If you are not getting the diamond shape properly, then no worries, cut into small pieces as your wish. (But try to give it a differnet name:P)
• Curry leaves plays an important flavour, so please don't try to avoid it.
• I did not use the color, if you want you can use it.

Konda kadalai Sundal

This is simple yet delicious sundal. The only point is that you have to soak this chick peas atleast for 4-6 hrs or for overnight.

Ingredients
1 cup white or black Chickpeas (Chana dal)
1/4 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon Mustard
1/2 teaspoon urad dal
3-4 dry red Chillies broken into pieces
Curry leaves 8-10
3 pinches of Asafoetida/Hing
3 teaspoon Oil

Method

• Soak the chick peas for 6-8 hrs or over night
• Rinse the water from soaked Chick peas and add fresh water and pressure cook till it becomes soft.
• In a pan heat oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters add urad dal, red chilies,  hing and curry leaves. Urad dal should turn golden brown.
• Add coconut, salt and  the tempering to the cooked dal. Stir well. 
• Sundal is ready.

Jam Butter Cookies

One of the easiest cookie recipe, kids will surely love it. 

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter

3/4 cup white sugar

1 large egg

1 egg yolk

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup jam (Any flavor)

• Method
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C)
• In a large bowl, cream the butter, white sugar, large egg and egg yolk.
• Mix in flour a little bit at a time until soft dough forms.
• Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls or any size of your choice. 
• If the dough is too soft, refrigerate for 20-30 mins.
• Use your finger or an instrument of similar size to make a well in the center of each cookie.
• Fill the hole with 1/2 teaspoon of jam. Place it in a greased tray with 2 inches gap.
• Bake 10-12 mins in the preheated oven, or until golden brown on the bottom.
• Remove from cookie tray to cool on wire racks.
•