BREAD VADA

I

don't know about you but I love Teatime! It's something we always cherished at home and I am trying my best to continue that tradition in our house too. I admit that it's a lot of work because it kind of happens right after you are done with the lunch clean up. It used to be a subtle affair earlier but now as the children are growing up, their appetite seems to be growing at lightening speed! No matter what I cook and how much I cook, everything gets over in no time at all.

These days, I say a silent prayer while I cook. A one line prayer for the food to stretch for another meal so that I don't have to cook four times a day, everyday! So back to the topic... I cannot do a subtle Teatime anymore. It's full on...Boost, Tea, Coffee and sometimes even a glass of Green Juice for the little lady! Then the food. I honestly thank heavens because I enjoy cooking. If not, I would have walked out of the house already! :-)

No one asks for it but if I make something around Teatime, it vanishes in two seconds. So I know, everyone is hungry! I try to make different things for 'naalumani' so when I came across this recipe by Lakshmi Nair, I made a mental note to try it sometime. Now that Jobin's mummy is with us, it's even more exciting to plan and execute THE snack for the day.

While I was frying these vadas, Jobin reached back home from work and I immediately asked him if he could make some tea for us to sip while munching on piping hot vadas. While we were hankering around the stove, I told him about my prayer these days. He laughed and said that there's no way that the food I make can last long! I mean, seriously? But why? :-( He was like please don't even think that you can cook one day per week and stretch that food...because we LOVE to eat! I agree, all 4 of us live to eat.

I sometimes dream of having a help in the kitchen like how Amma has. Like, there are days when I don't feel like touching another dirty cup! There's no paid help in our house and we do every chore ourselves. Kids have designated jobs to do everyday and they do it, luckily without hesitation.  Now that Spring is here, it's going to get extra crazy with ALL the yard work that's waiting for us outside. We have a huge wooded/ private backyard which is extremely beautiful throughout the year but maintaining it is work. When I am gone to India in Summer, Jobin is left with all the work in and around the house and he tells me that it's exhausting. I agree. But the satisfaction that you get when you do it for yourself is something worth experiencing!

BREAD VADA
Makes 12-14 pieces

Ingredients:
10 slices white bread, crumbled
1 cup yogurt,whisked
2-3 tablespoons water
1/2 cup rice flour (puttu podi)
4 tablespoons semolina
1 medium onion, diced
2 green chilies, diced
1 inch piece ginger, diced
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
Cilantro, as needed
1 small sprig curry leaves, torn
Salt
Oil for deep frying

Method: In a large bowl, mix together the bread, yogurt and water and set it aside to soak for 5 minutes.In the meantime, heat the oil for deep frying. After 5 minutes,add the remaining ingredients to the soaked bread mixture. It should be like ' Uzhunnu Vada' consistency. Basically, if you scoop some batter in a spoon and tap the spoon, it should fall back into the bowl. If needed,add just enough water to get to that consistency. Wet your palm, pinch a small ball out of the batter, pat into the palm, mark a hole in the centre and gently drop it into the hot oil. Fry till golden on both sides,about 2 mins. Drain excess oil on tissue paper and serve hot!

It's a quick snack that you can make with easily available ingredients. Even though it doesn't taste like 'Uzhunnu Vada' it's a nice crisp snack with a faint sweetness from the bread and heat from the green chilies.You can serve it with Ketchup or any other spicy sauce of your choice. We really enjoyed it and as usual it vanished in under 5 minutes!

PIDI ULARTHIYATHU

Watching a cookery show is one of my most favourite things to do,when I am doing something that does't require my full concentration.Maybe,I should rephrase it. Listening to cookery show is one of my most favourite thing to do, when I am cooking.It's usually for the background noise and at times, when my favourite show is on,I pay attention to see if it's a repeat show. If it is a repeat, then I just continue with my work . Otherwise, I stop everything that I've been doing and make sure that I soak up all the stuff they are demonstrating. Some of them stay on my mind,while most of it evaporate.

The other day, while I was browsing for some videos for Ian, I chanced upon a cookery show hosted by Mrs. Lakshmi Nair. She was one of the judges when I participated and reached the finals of Vanitha Pachakarani, back in September 2008,even before my food blog was born!I was just 22 then... very soon I'll be hitting a big number! Don't guess it, I'll tell you about it when the time comes ;-)That's when I made Mini Cheese Pasta Rolls,the only entry that I've shared on my blog.

Remember the Lamington Towers that I made for Jobin's birthday, long back? It was her recipe. It's one of the most popular recipes on my blog. It is one of my personal favourite too!

So, in that video she was showing a twist on our usual Pidi. She called it Kozhukkatta though. One thing that caught my attention was the ratio of rice flour to water that she used. She used 2:1 ratio for rice flour to water but I think it was a genuine mistake even though she mentioned it twice, because it would be mushy and almost soupy.

When I decided to give that recipe a try, I went ahead with the 1:1 ratio that we generally use for Kozhukkatta. Everything worked fine and the dish turned out very well. As such, I am a sucker for Mezhukkupuratti's,so this recipe is going to be one of my favourites! The aroma and flavour of this dish is,well,nothing short of amazing!Just like how she mentiones in her video, this would pair well with a Kattan Kaapi / Chaya on a rainy day.

PIDI ULARTHIYATHU
Serves 2-3

Ingredients:
1 cup fine rice flour / Idiappam - Pathiri podi
1 1/4 cup water
Salt to taste

4 -5 pearl onions /1 small red onion
3-4 cloves garlic
10-12 dried red chilies
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 cup coconut oil

Method: In a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil along with salt. Add the rice flour and stir well it form into a dough. Turn off the heat and keep the saucepan aside. After 5 minutes or when it is touchable,knead the warm dough for 10-15 times or until it's smooth. Form them into 30 tiny dough balls and steam on medium high heat for 10 minutes.
In the meantime,crush together pearl onions,garlic and dried red chilies. In a saute pan,heat the oil and once hot, add the mustard seeds and let it pop. Add the curry leaves and let it sizzle for 10 seconds. Then,add the crushed paste and saute for a minute or two,till the raw smells goes off.Check for salt. Add the steamed Pidi's  to it and saute well, till the Pidi's are well coated with the crushed masala. Turn off the heat,cover it with a lid and let sit for a while for the Pidi's to absorb the flavours. Serve warm.

I served it for dinner last night and we enjoyed it. When I tasted them as soon as I turned the heat off, I felt there was something missing. No, it wasn't the salt.The Pidi's didn't absorb the flavour of the crushed masala. So I let it do it's own thing for a while. When I went back to it after half an hour,precisely after taking photographs for my blog, it tasted very different and so good!That's why I've mentioned in the recipe to let it sit for a while before eating it. Do give it a try when you are in a mood for a change. This is a classic dish with a twist!