Avalose Podi ||Cooking with family and friends - #6||

My sister was a picky eater. I have no choice but say 'was' because this time around when she came to Dubai I saw the 'pickiness' ( not too sure there is even a word as such) changing. It was not just her being picky but she hardly ate. Her favorite was chapati with chicken gravy ( she never touched the chicken in it though) So my Dad thought there is one easy girl to manage not much expenses on her food. This was until she grew up and then all she wanted to eat was non-veg food:) The hungriest time of the day was the gap between rushing from school at 4.30 pm ( read after throwing the shoes one under the cot and another under table, socks on the dining table and school bag on the sofa) and the play time which started at 5. We always rejected the option of left over morning puttu ( steamed rice cakes) for evening snack time. But our mother had her way. She would sprinkle a generous amount of sugar, mash in the bananas and feed us. That did taste out of the world - a dish we did not want to dig our hands into tasted so great when she fed us with love. That is how I love puttu even today as for my sister this is how she eats puttu - sprinkle sugar on puttu, eat a handful of that and then take a bite of the banana. When asked about her new style of eating, she says that she mixes and eats it only when mom is around to mash the banana in for her and she doesn't want to dirty her hands doing it herself.

Today's recipe is a dish that is eaten in the exact same way as puttu - sprinkle some sugar and mash in the ripe banana. It is usually eaten as a snack but hey, you could make it a breakfast dish too when you really do not want to cook anything else in the morning. I have done that:)

This is my 6th post in the series of Cooking with Family and Friends - this time around with my mom. We made this during my vacation in October to India. Also makes me think it is high time I post something that Shibin and I cook together on this series:)

Ingredients

1. White Rice - 3 cups
2. Coconut Grated - 2.5 cups
3. Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp

Method

• Wash and soak the rice in warm water for 3 to 4 hours
• Drain off the water and spread the rice on a kitchen towel until it is completely dry. This takes about an hour
• Dry grind the rice to powder
• Add coconut and cumin seeds  to the rice powder and mix it thoroughly using your hands. 
• Press this down tightly and keep this covered for an hour
• Roast this in a wide pan until the color begins to turn to light brown. Roast in batches in case you do not have a wide pan.
• Always keep on low flame and using a spatula keep moving the mix around so that it cooks evenly and does not stick onto the bottom of the pan. This process may take about 30 to 40 minutes. ( bit of work for your hands but totally worth it)
• Let it cool and grind it to powder consistency. Sieve it and grind again until all the particles gain the same consistency
• Store in an air tight container. It lasts outside for a month to two and if refrigerated longer.
• Avalose podi is usually served with a sprinkle of sugar with banana mashed into it.

Crispy Sweet Corn

I keep saying that every dish has a story behind it and Shibin says every photograph should tell a story. So we definitely have a 'Once upon a time' in this dish and a 'happily ever after' too.

Most of us have heard of Barbeque Nation and have atleast been there once to satiate our barbeque cravings.What you probably did not know was this restaurant chain is owned by Indore based Sayyaji Hotel. I was fortunate enough to spend two days here and that is where my love affair with crispy fried sweet corn started. I have tried making this snack couple of times - but never achieved success till about two weeks back. This definitely does not meet BBQ Nation standards but still we loved it this way.

Last week, we had a family over for dinner and we spent most of the time playing carroms. The need for a quick snack at the carroms table was what reminded me of this recipe. It turned out crispy as I wanted it to and that led me to making it again the very next day for the blog. That is when Shibin suggested that we make it a snack for our evening trip to the beach and photograph it there. For him, this seemed an ideal picnic snack and where better than a trip to the beach. We had some fun time creating those cones too - super fun to see Shibin trying to create cones and ending up with huge ones that would hold almost  a 1 kg of the kernels:P Some childish crafting at work:) Blogging is fun!

Here is the recipe -

Ingredients

1. Sweet Corn kernels - 1 cup
2. All Purpose Flour - 3 tbsp
3. Corn Flour - 3 tbsp
4. Chilli powder - 1 tsp
5. Onion - 1 finely sliced
6. Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp finely chopped
7. Water - 2 tbsp
8. Salt to taste
9. Oil

Method

• Mix together all purpose flour, corn flour, chilli powder and salt.
• In a bowl, use your hands to mix together the dry ingredients with the sweet corn kernels.
• Sprinkle 2 tbsp water on this and give a firm mix so that the batter holds on to the kernels.
• Heat oil in a deep pan and test by dropping one kernel into it. It has to crackle and rise to the top.
• Keep the flame on medium throughout and once the oil is ready, drop a handful of kernel into it. Let it fry and rise to the top.
• Drain excess oil on tissue paper.
• Transfer to a bowl, add chopped onions and coriander leaves. Sprinkle a little chilli powder and give it a good toss.
• An easy snack for those lazy evenings.

You may also note - 

• Fry as soon as you make the mix, do not let it rest for too long as it tends to get a little soggy and will end up holding kernels as a bunch and not as individual ones.

Boli/Holige/Puran Poli/Indian Sweet Flatbread

I am not much of a sweet tooth, neither is Soumya, my sister. Despite this, one sweet dish that both of us would love to snack on is Boli or Holige as it is called in Karnataka. Boli and a splash of warm milk is just beyond yum. 

My sister often comments on my good memory, be it with the dates or my ability to connect different incidents and the day it happened. My memory with food is not bad either. That gives me the right to comment on my Boli memories as well. Boli is a snack that my father often buys from local bakery and I loved taking it to Bangalore during my college days. More recently on our visit to India, my sister introduced this to Shibin as well. He loved it too which inspired me to try out this snack.  

Boli is made of All Purpose Flour/Maida. To make it more healthier, I tried out the with wheat flour. Not much of a difference in recipe, just replace maida with wheat flour.

There it is the recipe -

Ingredients

1. Wheat Flour/ All purpose Flour - 1 cup
2. Bengal gram dal/kadala parippu - 1 cup
3. Jaggery - 1 cup grated
4. Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
5. Ghee - 3 to 4 tbsp
6. Rice Flour - to roll
7. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Salt
9. Water

Method

Pressure cook the Bengal gram dal in a little water till soft. Do not overcook. Drain the water and grind it till a smooth paste. 

In a saucepan, heat 2 tbsp ghee and add the gram paste, grated jaggery and cardamom powder. Roast it till the water drains out, the color changes and the mixture holds together. Roll this into lemon size balls and keep aside.

In a separate bowl, add the flour, pinch of salt, turmeric powder and slowly pour warm water. Use a fork to mix this gently. Keep it covered for 15 minutes till the moisture holds together. Uncover and make dough out of this. Roll this also into lemon size balls. Rub your hands in a little ghee, in case you find it difficult to make the dough.

Lightly roll the dough balls into sheets and place the gram mixture balls onto this. Bring together the edges of the sheet using water to hold this together until the gram mixture balls are completely covered.

Flatten this with your hand and turn it over on rice flour. Using a rolling pin roll out sheets like chapati, apply more rice flour in case the dough sticks on.

Heat a pan and place the rolled out sheets on the pan on medium heat for a minute. Flip it over and let the other side also get cooked. Add ghee to either sides and flip it over twice more. Transfer to a plate and serve with a cup of milk.

Generally. Boli is served along with payasam/kheer. But trust us milk is an excellent replacement!