Chukkakura pappu - Khatta palak dal

Even though Andhra is famous for its pickles, podis and chutneys, the telugu people also make a range of dals ( pappu ) with a whole host of greens and vegetables.  A dal with greens that is a breeze to prepare despite long list of ingredients is the Chukkakura pappu.  The chukkakura pappu is a classic down to earth Andhra recipe which is nutritious, full of iron and protein and a flavour which is irrestible with finger licking goodness.  The Chikkakura pappu is one of the favourite pappu of telugu speaking people. One advantage of Chukkakura is that it cooks very quickly.  Chukkakura is a green leafy vegetable which is mildly sour in taste and found very common in any part of Andhra pradesh.   In this article we will learn how to prepare Chukkakura Pappu..

Ingredients required :  

• Tur dal / red gram dal / Kandi pappu --  1 small cup
• Onion -  1 no  chopped
• Tomato -  1 no  chopped
• Turmeric powder -  1 big pinch
• Green chillies -  3 to 4 nos cut lengthwise
• Chopped ginger -  1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Water - 2 cups

For seasoning / popu :

• Garlic cloves crushed -  3 to 4 nos
• Red chillies dry, deseed and tear -  2 nos
• Mustard seeds -  1/2 tsp
• Fresh curry leaves -  12 to 15 nos
• Oil  -  2 tsp

How to make Chukkakura pappu :

• Place Tur dal, Chukkakura leaves, onions, tomatoes, green chillies, ginger and turmeric powder in a pressure cooker.  Add 2 cups of water and pressure cook upto 2 or 3 whistles.   Cook till dal is almost cooked
• Now heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel, add mustard seeds and as they splutter, add cumin seeds, garlic, red chillies and curry leaves and stir fry for few seconds
• Add this to the pressure cooked dal and combine.  Cook on a slow flame to medium flame for few minutes.

Serve the Chukkakura pappu with steamed hot rice and ghee..

We can also make Chukkakura Pachadi using Chukkakura leaves.   

Andhra style Gutti Vankaya fry - Stuffed brinjal fry recipe

Gutti vankaya fry made with roasted brinjals is one of the perfect side dish with steamed rice.  The telugu people of Andhra Pradesh immensely love the Vankaya or the brinjal especially in its stuffed avatar.  The best and favourite way to eat brinjal in Andhra and Telengana regions is in the form of Gutti Vankaya fry.  The Gutti vankaya is unique in terms of the texture and flavor.

The secret behind the andhra style gutti vankaya fry is the unique combination of spices and lentils roasted perfectly and ground to a coarse powder which works as stuffing.  The stuffed brinjals are slowly roasted to perfection with a featherly touch of a tamarind.  Some jaggery is also added to the gutti vankaya fry. This Gutti vankaya fry can be served with hot steamed rice, pappu, papad.  A meal with Gutti vankaya fry makes it as a perfect meal.

We have to select fresh, tender and glossy purple baby brinjals for making Gutti vankaya fry in order to make it tasty.  Please dont use brinjals which are light, hollow and have wrinkled skin.  The lentins used to be roasted in a slow flame till red to have good taste.  Let us now see how to make Gutti vankaya fry recipe.

Ingredients required :

• Baby egg plants or purple brinjals -  300 to 350 grams..  wash make + quarters with stalk and apply oil
• Jaggery -  1 tsp
• Tamarind -  small gooseberry size soak in 1/3 cup of warm water and extract juice
• Salt as required

For stuffing :

• Coriander seeds -  1 1/2 tbsps ( Dhaniyalu )
• Chana dal ( Senaga pappu ) -- 2 1/2 tbsp
• Urad Dal ( Minapa pappu ) -  1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds ( Jeera ) -- 1/2 tbsp
• Red chillies -- 4 to 5 nos.  tear and de-seed
• Sesame seeds -  1 1/2 tbsp ( nuvvulu )
• Methi seeds ( menthulu ) -- 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste  - 1/2 tsp

For tempering:

• Oil  -  2 to 3 table spoons
• Mustard seeds -  1/2 tbsp
• Asafoetida -  1/4 tsp
• Curry leaves -  few leaves

How to make gutti vankaya fry :

• Add 1/2 tsp oil in a wide cooking vessel, add coriander seeds and stir fry till it turns slightly dark in color. Remove. 
• Similarly, add channa dal and urad dal, roast till them till they turn red and remove. Dry roast dry red chillis, methi seeds, and cumin together till the methi seeds turn red in color. (ensure methi seeds are nicely roasted) Add sesame seeds and roast for a min and remove. Cool the dry roasted ingredients.
• Add salt to the roasted ingredients and grind them all together to a coarse powder. Stuff each brinjal with the coarsely ground powder.
• In the  same vessel, add the remaining oil, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter. Add asafoetida and curry leaves and toss them for a few seconds. Place the stuffed brinjals as a single layer and cook on high flame for 3 mins.
• Place  a lid and let them cook on low flame for 12 mins. Keep checking on them at regular intervals and flip them over to ensure they don't burn or stick to the pan.
• Continue to roast the brinjals without the lid for another 10 mins on low flame. Check at regular intervals and flip over. Sprinkle the tamarind extract over the brinjals along with the grated jaggery and, 1/2 tsp salt and continue to cook them till they turn soft. It should take approx 15-20 mins for the brinjals to be well roasted. There will be no moisture left.
• Do check if salt is required and adjust salt accordingly.

Serve with steaming hot rice and a dollop of ghee along with papad.

If you found this post helpful,  then you can share it with your Facebook friends or Twitter followers today.  Also please post your comments after reading this article...   If you want to know about more Andhra chutneys,  you can visit my other blog on Telugu Pachallu.

Endu kobbari podi - spiced dry coconut powder

One of the culinary delight of South Indian kitchens is the Podi, a dry spice-mix where a combination of spices, lentils, herbs or leaves are roasted in oil and ground to make a powder.  These podis are eaten along with tiffins like idli, dosa or upma and also along with steamed rice with ghee.  

Most of the south indian kitchens store at least 2 to 3 varieties of home made podis in bottles as these podis have a life of 4 to 6 weeks.  It is very simple to make aromatic, packed with proteins, easy on stomach and tasty, these podis are essential accomplishment for a typical vegetarian thali meals.  Today we will see how to make Endu kobbari Podi or the dry coconut spice mix powder in this article.  Now let us see how to make Endu kobbari podi  or the spiced dry coconut powder.  


Ingredients required:

• Minapa pappu ( black gram dal )  -  1/2 cup
• Senaga pappu ( bengal gram )  -  1/2 cup
• Oil or ghee for roasting the dals and coconut -  1 table spoon
• Dried red chillies -  8 to 10 nos   tear into two and de-seed
• Half a dried coconut, grated or finely sliced
• Garlic cloves -  10 to 12 nos
• Salt for taste

Method of preparation of Endu kobbari podi:

• First grate or slice the dried coconut into small thin pieces
• Now heat a table spoon of oil or ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel and roast the dals and dry red chillies on low heat till light brown color and release of flavor.
• Remove them and let them cool
• In the same vessel add the grated or sliced coconut pieces and roast on a low heat for 5 minutes. 
• Once the dals, red chillies and coconut pieces are cool, place them along with garlic cloves and salt in  a blender and grind them to make a powder.
• This can be stored in an air tight container

This Endu kobbari podi can be served with south indian tiffin items like Dosa, Idli, Upma and also can be served along with steamed rice with a combination of ghee

If you want to know about how to make Kobbari Pachadi, please read making kobbari pachadi..

How to make Karivepaku podi - Curry leaf powder

Karivepaku podi - spiced curry leaves recipe

Any South Indian meal is incomplete without taking some kind of podi ( spice powder ) and it is essential item on the dining table whether it is breakfast or lunch.    The curry leaves provides us with many health benefits like boosting iron levels, controlling blood sugar levels, flushing toxins from stomach and aids in digestion.   So people with low iron levels will be benefited by consuming curry leaves powder or the Karivepaku podi.

If you take one table spoon of the karivepaku podi with rice in the beginning of a meal aids in increasing appetite.  The karivepaku podi can also be taken along with upma, idli, pongal or even with dosa.  So today we will see how to make curry leaves spiced powder called as Karivekaaku podi or the karepaaku podi made from curry leaves, lentils and spices.  Now let us see how to prepare Karivepaku podi.

Ingredients required:

• Curry leaves -  2 cups
• Senaga pappu ( bengal gram ) - 4 table spoons
• Minapa pappu ( urad dal )  -- 2 table spoons
• Cumin seeds ( Jeera )  -  1 table spoon
• Coriander seeds -  1 1/2 table spoon
• Dried red chillies -  8 to 10
• Lemon sized tamarind
• Salt to taste
• Oil -  1 1/2 table spoon

Method of preparing Karivepaku podi:

• Add one  tbsp of oil in a pan and add the Bengal gram and urad  dal and fry them on medium heat till they turn red. Please do not  burn them. Keep tossing them around continuously. Remove from pan and keep them aside
• Now add the cumin and coriander seeds and toss them on medium heat till they turn brown..approx 2-3 mts. Remove from pan and keep aside.
• Add dry chillies and toss them for about 2 minutes.  Remove and keep them aside
• Now add one table spoon of oil and add the curry leaves and toss them till they are crisp and roasted.  Turn off the heat and allow all ingredients to cool down
• After everything is cool, grind the dals first followed by coriander, cumin seeds and red chillies and grind again
• Add tamarind ball and grind.  Remove them and keep aside
• Now add curry leaves and grind to make a powder ( note that all ingredients should be cool before grinding ).  Mix it with the coarsely ground spices and salt and store in an air tight container.
• Serve the Karepaaku podi with steamed rice and ghee.

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The oats dosa is a healthy and easy to make breakfast item which is very easy to prepare.  The tasty and delicious dosa prepared from oats has many health benefits too and helps in maintaining a balanced diet.  It takes very less time for preparing dosa with oats if you compared with traditional rice dosa.  It does not require any advance preparation.  Simply dry roast oats, crush them to powder, mix some curd, rava, spices, greens and finally water to prepare the batter.  Spread it over hot tawa and cook for few minutes and the oats dosa is ready .....  in minutes.  

Now let us see the step by step method of preparing oats dosa....

Ingredients required ( 1 cup = 250 ml )

Here is a list of ingredients required to prepare oats dosa  which can make  8 to 10 dosas,

• 1/2 cup quick cooking oats
• 1/4 cup rava / sooji / cream of wheat / semoline
• 1/2 cup fresh curd / yogurt
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• Finely chopped onions - 1/4 cup
• Green chillies and finely chopped ginger  -  1 table spoon each
• Curry leaves - 7 to 8 chopped finely
• Coriander leaves finely chopped - 1.5 table spoon
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 table spoon
• Crushed black pepper - 1/4 table spoon
• Optionally grated coconut -  1 to 2 table spoons
• Water and salt as per  requirement
• Oil for preparing the dosa

Steps for preparing oats dosa...

Here is a step by step method for preparing OATS DOSA...

• First you need to grind the oats in a mixer to a fine powder.  Take this flour in a bowl.
• Now add the rice flour and rava / sooji / cream of wheat / semoline
• Then add the fresh curd.  Sour curd can also be added.  But if you are adding sour curd, then it should be only 1/4 cup instead of 1/2 cup.  
• Now add 1 cup of water, stir and mix to get smooth consistent without any lumps
• Add finely chopped onions, ginger, green chillies, chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves
• Once again stir well and then add 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp black pepper, and salt as required.
• Grated coconut can also be added
• Stir well and keep aside for 10 minutes.
• Check for consistency and add more water as required.  The consistency should be thin and flowing like a rava dosa batter
• Heat a non stick pan or a cast iron pan on a medium flame.  Drizzle 1/2 tsp of oil and spread the batter with the spoon.  If you  are using a cast iron pan, then before adding oil, sprinkle some water to check the temperature of the pan.  If water drops sizzle and evaporate, then pan is ready to make dosas.  Avoid this method for non stick pan as adding water to non stick pan will affect the non stick coating
• Stir the batter in the pan and take a ladle full of batter and pour it from the circumference to the center.  Do not spread the batter with the back of the ladle like the way we do for regular dosas. Fill the small gaps and holes with extra batter and cook the dosa.
• Once it becomes crisp and golden, flip and cook the other side
• Once this side is cooked, flip again to the other side and cook
• Fold the dosa on the tawa and remove it
• Serve the dosa hot in a plate.
• If you are not able to serve hot, then cover the dosas with a lid and proceed to cook other oats dosas in a similar way.  The crisp texture changes if you serve the dosa warm or at room temperature.  Even then they taste good.
• These dosas can be served with coconut chutney, sambhar or idli-dosa podi ( powder

How to make potato pattis - Potato Tikki

Potato Pattis also called as Aloo Tikki is very easy to make and does not require much time.  If you like potatoes, then making potato pattis is very easy.  Whether these are made with normal potato or with sweet potato, they are very delicious.  The potato pattis can be served along with coconut chutney or with tamarind chutney.

Here is the procedure on how to prepare the potato pattis or the aloo tikkis.

Ingredients required ( 1 cup = 250 ml )Sweet potatoes - 4 Nos.

• Ginger and green chilli paste - 1 tea spoon ful
• Arrow root flour, water chest nut flour or buckwheat flour - 1 or 2 tbsp
•  Char garam masala - 1 tsp
• ½ tsp amchur powder or dry mango powder
• Chaat masala -  1 tsp
• Lemon juice - 1 tsp
• Crushed roasted cumin or cumin powder - 1 tsp
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• ¼ tsp garam masala powder
• rock salt or black salt as required
• oil for frying

Procedure to make potato pattis

1. First of all rinse the potatoes well in water.
2. Roast them in oven till they are cooked and become soft
3. Otherwise you can pressure cook them with enough water and salt till they become soft
4. you can also boil them in a pan with water & salt.
5. Now drain the water.
6. when they cool down, peel.
7. Mash the sweet potatoes with a potato masher 
8. Add all the ingredients except oil.
9. Mix them well 
10. Shape  into medium sized tikkis or patties.
11. pan fry with little oil till both the sides are browned.
12. while serving garnish with some coriander leaves.
13. serve sweet potato tikki with a chutney or sauce.

How to make Batata Vada - Maharashtrian snack item

Batata Vada is a popular snack item from the streets of Maharashtra.  Batata means potatoes.  The potato is called as Batata in Marathi.  This recipe is called as Batata vada in Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra.  In south india, it is called as Potato Bonda.   

The Batata Vada tastes different in different regions of Maharashtra like Pune, Nasik etc.  Even in Mumbai, the taste differs amongst different vendors.  The taste difference is due to the inclusion of different spices in potato filling.  The batata vada is the same that we use in vada pav.

It is very easy to make batata vadas.  Just prepare the potato filling, make them into balls, coat them in the gram flour batter and then deep fry them.  Let us see how to make batata vadas.

Ingredients ( 1 cup = 250 ml )

For potato filling

• medium sized potatoes  -  4 Nos.
• Curry leaves - 10 to 12 Nos.
• 2 tsp skinned split urad dal ( black gram )
• 1 tsp cumin seeds ( optional )
• 1 chopped green chilly
• finely chopped ginger - 1 or 1.5 tsp
• turmeric powder - 1 tsp
• 1/4 tsp of asafoetida
• a few chopped coriander leaves
• oil for frying
• salt

For the Besan (Gram Flour) batter you will need:

• 1.5 cups gram flour
• ½ tsp turmeric powder (optional)
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp rice flour (optional)

Method of preparation of Batata Vadas

Preparing the filling:

1. Boil y boil the potatoes till cooked thoroughly. Then mash them well. There should be no lumps.
2. Take some oil in  a pan.  Add mustard seeds and urad dal when oil gets heated.
3. When the mustard seeds start crackling and the urad dal turns brown, then add the cumin seeds, the curry leaves, chopped ginger, chopped chilly, asafoetida.
4. Fry till the spices are well cooked. Don't burn.  Add turmeric powder after that.
5. Now add this tempered hot spices with the oil to the the mashed potatoes.
6. Add salt.
7. Mix the potatoes with the spice mixture with a spoon as the mixture will be hot.
8. Later you can mix with your hands.
9. Make equal sized medium balls of the potato mixture.
10. Flatten them a little as it helps to deep fry them easily.
11. Keep aside

Preparing the vadas:

1. Now take the gram-flour, turmeric powder, add salt to it.
2. You can also add a pinch of red chilly powder to it.
3. I added rice flour to this batter as rice flour makes the coating crisp while frying. You can completely omit adding rice flour. With water make a slightly thick batter.
4. Dip each potato patty or ball in the besan batter.
5. Coat the ball evenly with the gram flour batter.
6. In a hot oil in a deep fry pan, add the potato balls coated with gram flour paste.
7. Fry them till golden brown.
8. Serve hot.
9. Batata Vadas are served with green chutney and tamarind-jaggery sweet chutney.
10. You can also serve them with coconut chutney.
11. If you are short of time, you can serve them with tomato sauce too.
12. It is also served with fried green chillies tossed in salt and a maharashtrian dry chutney made up of garlic, red chillies and onions.
13. You can make a vada pav too of it. Just slice the pav or bun into to.
14. Apply the green chutney on one side.
15. Then apply the sweet chutney on the other side.
16. Sprinkle the maharashtrian dry chutney made up of garlic, red chilli and onions.
17. Keep the batata vada in between the two slices of pav and serve with fried green salted chillies. You can also use burger buns or bread slices.