Onion Ring

Ingredients:

·    Onion: 1

·    Gram flour (Kadalai maavu / Besan): 1 cup

·    Buttermilk (Mor / Moru): ½ cup

·    Baking powder: 1 tsp

·    Edible oil: for frying

·    Pepper to taste

·    Salt to taste

Method of preparation:

·      Peel the onion.

·      Slice horizontally like disks of about ½ centimetre thickness.

·      Separate these disks into rings.

·      Soak the onion rings in buttermilk for about half an hour.

·      Take gram flour, salt, pepper, and baking powder in a bowl and mix well. Add
              a little water and stir well.

·      Heat oil in a wok (iruppu chatti, vanali, vaanali, kadai, karahi, or kadhai) over 
        medium flame.

·      Take a few onion rings from buttermilk, dip in the batter, put in oil and deep
         fry them.

·       On frying, remove from wok and drain the excess oil.

·       Repeat for the remaining rings.

Serve hot with any chutney or sauce.

Quick Onion Pakoda

Onion Fritter, Vengaaya Bajji, Pyaaz pakora, piyaz pakoras, vengaya pakkoda

Ingredients:

• Onions: 2

• Rice flour: 2 tbsp

• Corn flour (chola maavu): 1tsp

• Gram flour (kadalai maavu, chickpea flour, garbanzo flour, or besan): 1tsp 

• Chili powder: 1tsp

• Curry leaves: a few

• Edible oil for deep frying

• Salt to taste

(Use 2 tsp of gram flour if not using corn flour)

Method of preparation:

• Slice the onions thin.

• Take a bowl, mix onions and salt.

• After sometime add chili powder and curry leaves.

• Mix well.

• Add gram flour, corn flour and rice flour and mix them well without adding water. (If water is added a little, we get non-crispy pakoda)

• Heat the edible oil in a pan, wok, iruppuch chatti, vaanali or kadai.

• Sprinkle the prepared mixture over hot oil.

• Fry till they become brown.

Serve this delicious and crispy Onion Pakoda hot with or without chutney (Thuvaiyal).

Wheat Laddoo (Godhumai mavurundai / Atta laddu)

It is an easy to prepare energetic dessert. It is enjoyable to have during tea time along with snacks. It is also called kodhumai maavu urundai.

Method of preparation:

• Roast 250 grams of wheat flour (Atta / Godhumai mavu).
• Mix 200 grams of grated jaggery (Gud / Vellam) with the roasted flour.
• Add 30 grams of ghee (clarified butter / makkan / vennai).
• Mix well.
• With the help of your palm, prepare ball shaped laddus of your preferred size.
• Serve with or without snacks and tea or coffee.

Medu Vadai (Ulundha Vadai / Urad dal Vada)

A good appetizer cum soft, healthy, energetic, cheap, easy to prepare and tasty snack.

Ingredients:

• Black gram (Uluttham paruppu / Urad dal) - 2 cups
• Onion - 1
• Green chilies - 3 or 4
• Black pepper - 1 tsp
• Cumin seed - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves – a few
• Coriander leaves – a few
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying

Method of preparation:

• Wash and soak Black gram for about 1 hour.
• Finely chop the onion and green chilies.
• Grind all smooth without adding water.
• Roughly chop the curry leaves and coriander leaves and mix with the batter.
• Add broken black pepper, Cumin seed and salt and mix thoroughly.
• Heat oil in a deep pan.
• Make your hands wet.
• Take a lemon size of batter.
• Flatten with your palms and make a hole in the middle.
• Deep fry at a time about six, until golden brown color, uniformly both the sides.
• Drain excess oil and serve hot with coconut chutney and sambar.

Kara chevu (Kara sev, a diwali / deepavali snack)

Ingredients

• Bengal gram flour (Kadalai maavu, Channa dal flour) - 2 cups
• Rice flour - 2tbsp
• Red chili powder – 1 tsp
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Black pepper - 1tbsp
• Cumin seed (Jeera- Jeeragam) – 1 tsp
• Ajowan (Carom, Bishop’s Weed, Ajwan, Omam) – 1 tsp
• Asafetida (Perungayam, Hing) - as required
• Edible oil for deep frying - as required
• Salt- as required
  

Method of preparation

• Grind garlic, black pepper, cumin seed, ajowan and asafetida into a coarse paste.
• Mix Bengal gram flour, rice flour, red chili powder, salt and the ground paste.
• Make a thick dough using water.
• Heat oil in a pan for deep frying.
• Fill the dough in a murukku press.
• Press to slide the dough into the hot oil.
• Take out when become golden brown and drain the oil.
• Break into pieces of desired length.
  
  

A tasty, crispy, special snack especially prepared home during festivals like Deepavali.