Cabbage Pakodas

A perfect snack to much on rainy days. It does need some patience to fry them. But, the final outcome is totally worth it. Cabbage pakoda is not a very common Indian dish, its just an experiment and a good one according to the one's who tasted it. 

Ingredients:

Cabbage (shredded) - 4 cups

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Green Chilli - 2

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - to taste

Gram flour - 1 cup

Rice flour - 1/2 cup

Oil - for frying

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Water - as needed

Procedure:

1. Shred cabbage as shown in the picture
   
2. In a separate large bowl add shredded Cabbage, chopped green chillies, salt, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, chilli powder, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste and mix well. 
   
3. Add in gram flour (chickpea flour), rice flour and baking powder to the above and mix
4. Heat the oil in a wide pan for frying. Divide the mixture from step-2 in to small portions (as shown in the picture) and carefully drop in to the hot oil for frying
   
5. Fry evenly on both sides for a couple of minutes, till they turn golden brown. 
6. Remove from oil and serve!!

Enjoy while they are hot with some ketchup or green chutney on the side!!

Note: Be very careful while dropping the mixture in to oil. Also, add gram flour and rice flour to get your desired consistency for the batter (just make sure you maintain 2:1 ratio)

Schezwan Sauce

One of my favorite and spiciest recipes of all time. Any dish you cook using this sauce will be gone in no time. So, I strongly recommend you cook larger portions. Here's the recipe with out further delay!!

Ingredients:

Dried red chillies - 60

Garlic cloves - 45

Ginger - 5 tbsp

Tomato ketchup - 6 tbsp

Soy sauce - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 4 tsp

Oil - 1/2 cup

Salt - to taste

Pepper - to taste

Water - 1.5 cups

Procedure:

1. Cut open the dried chillies and remove all the seeds. Boil these (seedless) chillies in about 1.5 cups of water for about 5 to 9 mins. 
2. Drain the water and blend the cooked chillies in to a fine paste
3. Heat oil in a separate sauce pan. Add in crushed garlic and ginger and saute till they turn golden color.
4. Add the pureed chilli paste from Step-3 and mix well. 
5. Add tomato ketchup, Soy sauce, Sugar, Salt and Pepper and mix well. Cook for about 5 more minutes and remove from heat. 
6. Let it cool and store it in a glass jar. 

Enjoy!!

Note: There are several Rice, Noodle & snack dishes that can be prepared with this sauce. Make sure that there are no seeds left in the chillies, as it is already super spice as is. 

Bottle Gourd & Toor dal curry

I recently went to an Asian shop and saw Bottle Gourd. I immediately bought it, but was very confused later, as I was completely clueless about what to cook with it. I immediately called up mom and she gave me a healthy recipe. I was very easy to prepare and I am sure several variation of the same are already available out there.

Ingredients:

Bottle gourd - 3 cups

Yellow moong dal - 1 cup

Dried coconut powder - 1/2 cup

Dry red chillies - 3 

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Rice flour - 1 tbsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 spring

Hing - 1 pinch

Salt - to taste

Chilli powder - to taste

Water - as needed (1.5 to 2 cups)

Procedure:

1. Grind Coconut powder, red chillies, cumin seeds, turmeric powder and rice flour in to a fine paste. 
2. Add chopped bottle-gourd, moong dal, salt and water in a cooking pot. Cook for about 15 to 20 mins till the dal and Bottle-gourd are cooked well.
   
3. Add in the paste from step-1 and bring it to boil. 
4. In a separate pan heat oil and add mustard seeds. Once they start crackling, add urad dal, curry leaves, hing and mix well. 
5. Add this tempering to the curry from step-3 and mix well. Let it cook for few seconds and serve. 

Enjoy with some hot rice or hot chapathis!!

Note: If you could get fresh coconut, its better use that.