Vazhakkai bajji | How to make bajji

With Diwali around, only 2 days to go, why am I posting vazhakkai bajji ? Yes, we make Bajji on Diwali day. On Deepavali day, we don’t cook lunch. Its full of only junk foods like the snacks we prepare for diwali , sweets, along with idli, adhirasam, vadai and suzhiyan. No rice no cooking. So I thought of ending my posts for diwali with bajji. I love vengaya bajji the best, next is kathirikkai bajji and then vazhakkai bajji. My mom and MIL makes all bajjis assorted the day when ever they make bajji. And coconut chutney is the best accompaniment for this. I like it as such hot hot . So here is the Vazhakka bajji recipe (raw banana/ green plantain bajji).

Vazhakkai Bajji recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 10 mins    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Serves: 3

Ingredients

Vazhakkai/ plantain - 1

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Besan/ kadala maavu - 1/2 cup

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Rice flour - 1/4 cup

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Corn flour (optional) - 1 tsp

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Cooking soda (sodium bi carb) - 3 pinches

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Asafoetida - 1/8 tsp

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Ajwain(omam) or jeera - 1 tsp

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Red chilli powder - 1 tsp

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Salt & water - As needed

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Hot oil (optional) - 1 tblsp

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Oil - for deep frying

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Method

1. In a mixing bowl, mix gram flour, rice flour, red chilli powder, sodium bi carb, asafoetida, salt, corn flour and hot oil if using, ajwain or jeera. Add water little by little and mix well with a whisk and make a thick batter. The batter should easily coat the vazhakkai, not too thick. 
2. Peel off the skin of the plantain with a peeler or if you are comfortable with a knife. Slice them thin or medium thick as you wish using knife or a slicer. Keep it immersed in water until use. Heat oil in kadai side by side. Take it out from water, drain the water as much as you can, dip and coat the vazhakkai and drop carefully in hot oil.
3. Fry them both sides until golden brown. Adjust the heat now and then to avaoid fuming of oil Also using the ladle keep pouring the hot oil over the bajjis as its getting cooked to make it puff nicely. Drain in paper towels.

Notes

• The batter should be in correct consistency so that it spreads over the vazhakkai easily and forms a thin layer. If the coating is too thick, i.e; if the batter is too thick, it will take time to cook and the bajjis inside will not get cooked.
  
• The thickness of the vazhakkai is purely ur choice, but make sure its not too thick, otherwise it will stay crunchy and not get cooked.
• Cook in medium flame to ensure the bajjis get cooked inside.
  
• Mix the batter and keep it ready, once the oil is hot, you can add a laddle full of hot oil carefully in the batter and mix. This is to avoid sucking of oil in the bajji.
• You can follow the same with readymade bajji mix. Aachi mix works best for me.

Enjoy the vazhakkai bajjis with your favourite Chutney and sambar.

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RING MURUKKU RECIPE | DIWALI SNACK RECIPES

Ring murukku is new to me and tasted only 2 or 3 times from shops. We have never tried at home. But when I was thinking what to make for Diwali snacks this year newly, Vj wanted me to make ring murukku. So I adapted the recipe from Srivalli’s blog and then mom also gave me few recipes for it and tried 2 weeks back. So this is not the authentic chegodilu, but just a ring murukku, that’s it. Though I made it very less, still it took some time for me as it was totally new to me. It is better for just trying in small quantities, otherwise the rolling and making ring part is just time consuming than even the kai murukku. And it comes out best only with fresh homemade rice flour. So if you don’t mind spending time and want to make this cute looking murukku, you can try in small quantity as I have mentioned. Its a perfect tea time snack and kids love it as it looks similar to onion rings and they like to insert their finger in it and eat playfully.

Ring murukku recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 30 mins    |  Cook time:30 mins    |  Serves: 4

Ingredients

Raw rice	1 cup
Urad dal flour/ moong dal flour	1 tblsp
Red chilli powder	1 tsp
Sesame seeds	1 tbsp
Asafoetida	1/8 tsp
Jeera	1 tsp
Butter / hot oil	1 tblsp
Salt	as needed
Oil	for deep frying

Method

1. Soak rice for an hour and drain water completely. Spread for 30 mins in a clean cotton kitchen towel to absorb the excess moisture. Grind this to a fine powder in mixie and sieve it to get rice flour. You may get 1 & 1/2 to 2 cups of flour depending on the rice quality. Refer my kai murukku post for step wise preparation of rice flour.

2. Boil a cup of water in a vessel. Add butter and salt to it and then the flour. I added 1 & 1/2 cups of flour to get the dough. Immediately switch off the flame. the quantity of flour differs depending upon the rice flour quality. The dough should be thick enough like the usual murukku dough.  So keep the flour ready to add more if needed. Keep the dough covered. After its cooled down or warm enough to handle, add jeera, red chilli powder, sesame seeds and knead to a dough.

3. You can either roll equal goose berry sized balls ready fully,  to make rings or then and there pinch equal amount of dough for making the ring murukku. I roll and keep balls to make sure the rings are equally sized. Roll into thin ropes and join the ends to make rings.

4. Deep fry in hot oil few per batch. While a batch is getting cooked, you can make the next batch. Or make all the rings together and fry little by little. Fry in high flame but do not let it fume. Until golden and the shh.. sound and bubbles reduces.

Notes

• Make sure you roll thin and even sized to ensure even cooking.
• I have used store bought rice flour too, but it needs only 1 cup for 1 cup water. But the texture is best and comes out perfect only with homemade flour. Store bought flour gives a very light and hallow murukku.
• If you reduce the flame while frying as we do for other snacks, the ring murukku wont get cooked properly and even it will become oily.
• If not fried properly it will become soft the next day. But still I recommend eating the same day we prepare.
• I used urad dal flour – roast urad dal, powder and sieve it. Same way you can prepare moong dal flour.

Perfect tea time snack, to much on with you favourite hot drink.

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EASY WHEAT FLOUR MURUKKU RECIPE | DIWALI SNACKS RECIPES

       
Wheat flour murukku recipe was given to me by my MIL, through a TV show. When I was telling about the  maida seedai I made during Gokulashtami, MIL said we can even make murukku same way with wheat flour. Actually I had maida murukku in my mind to try sometime, but when I heard same way we can make murukku with wheat flour as well, I was double happy to try. Atleast the maida is replaced with wheat flour, though its deep fried. So I was waiting for Diwali time to come to try this murukku and tried with 1 cup flour today. It turned out perfect. The murukku was just tasting like murukku and no atta (wheat flour) smell in it. So you can try this too for your kids would love this and now straight on to the Diwali snack recipe.

Wheat flour murukku recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack
Prep Time: 10 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Makes: 14

Ingredients

Wheat flour	1 cup
Red chilli powder	3/4 tsp
Jeera/ ajwain	1 & 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida	1/8 tsp
Salt	as needed
Oil	For deep frying

Method

1. Steam cook atta in a clean white cloth, tied into a bag. You can use your idli pot and place this bag over the idli plate. I used my bamboo mesh too over the plate. You can use pressure cooker also for steaming. Keep the bag in a container and cover and cook without pressure value (pressure regulator). Steam cook for 15 mins to 20 mins.

2. Untie and when it is warm enough to handle, break it roughly.

3. Sieve it and use ur hands to break, if there is any small lumps. I used the clover shaped hole plate for this murukku. Its your choice to choose.

4. Heat oil in kadai meanwhile you prepare the dough. Add red chilli powder, asafoetida, salt and jeera. Add a tsp of oil (preferably hot oil) too. Make dough with water. It should be a stiff yet smooth and non sticky dough.

5. Press into coil shape or what ever comfortable shape you prefer. I opted for this coil shape murukku. Please refer the video for guidance in the bottom of the post. I pressed in a plastic cutting board and used dosa spatula to take it and transfer to oil..

6. Deep fry in hot oil, cook  both sides until the shh… sound and bubbles reduces. Until crisp and golden brown. Never let oil fume at any point, regulate the heat now and then and ensure even cooking of the murukku. You can press the next batch of murukku while a batch is getting cooked. Drain in paper towel.

Notes

• Steam cook properly, dont let water enter the bag of flour. The flour after steaming will not have any moisture at all. And the dough will be non sticky without any elastic feel atta usually gives.
• You can replace red chilli powder with black pepper powder too.
• Do not drop the murukku when the oil is not hot enough, otherwise it will drink oil. Also do not cook in too low flame as well.

Store in an airtight container and enjoy your snack time :) Its crisp and tasty, that no body will know what flour you have used!



Here’s how I made the shape. Hope its helpful to the beginners. Hold the murukku press high so that its easy to coil as you press.

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CHOCOLATE BURFI RECIPE ( DIWALI RECIPES FOR KIDS)

I am a big big fan of maida burfi (Maida cake as we call it). As I have said in my Maida burfi post, both my Maamis are expert in making this. The highlight of that burfi is adding tutti fruiti and vanilla essence. It smells divinely! And this year I wanted to try bournvita cake but I had only bourvita 5 star magic (my favorite yay!), so I was in doubt if it would turn out good or not, so I just made the same maida burfi as chocolate burfi, but to make it look attractive, I added layers. One is white vanilla and the other one is this chocolate layer. You can make fully chocolate, but I had a long time wish to try this way. So today I was so happy to make this and click this to post it here in my blog. So without any yada yadas I will straight away go on to the recipe.

Chocolate Burfi recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweets
Prep Time: 20 mins    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Serves: 12

Ingredients

For white layer (vanilla layer)

Maida/ All purpose flour	1/2 cup
Vanaspati/ ghee	1/4 cup minus 1 tsp
Sugar	1 cup
Vanilla essense	3 drops

For Choco layer

Maida/ All purpose flour	1/2 cup
Vanaspati/ ghee	1/4 cup minus 1 tsp
Sugar	1 cup
Choco powder (unsweetened)	3/4 tblsp

Method

1. Heat vanaspati/ ghee in a pan until hot. When you add a pinch of flour to it, it should get fried immediately. Add the flour and fry briskly. May be for a minute to get rid of raw smell. Switch off the flame. The flour should be mixed well with the ghee. Keep a try greased well, ready.

2. In another heavy bottomed pan, add sugar and 1/2 cup water. Boil until one string consistency. Its very important to get one string consistency. So double ensure that it has reached one string consistency. (If you check by swiping the back of the ladle with your fore finger and check in between thumb and forefinger, a string will from).

3. Now, switch off the flame and add the fried maida. Mix well to a smooth paste. Add the vanilla essence. Keep stirring.

4. Continue until the mixture gets thick as shown in the pic. It took 5 mins for me, so kept stirring until that. If your sugar syrup is past one string consistency, the mixture gets thick fast, so the time depends on the syrup consistency. If syrup has not reached one string consistency then it will never get thick. So syrup consistency is very important. Pour in a greased plate.

5. Level with a greased zip loc or flat ladle. Let it be thin as we are gonna make it 2 layered.

6. Now follow the same process of heating ghee, add maida and mix well. Now add coco powder to it. Mix well and keep aside.

7. Prepare sugar syrup for one string consistency same as step 2 and add the coco mixture to it. Mix well off the fire (remove from fire and keep stirring) 
8. When the mixture gets thick, pour it over the vanilla layer. Spread same as before to a smooth level using a greased zip loc. Let it set for atleast 1/2 hr and then cut into desired shape with a knife. Invert and tap gently over another tray to get the pieces separately.

Notes

• Both ghee or vanaspati works great for this. But do not add more than mentioned. This is the maximum we can add to this burfi, otherwise the burfi will become so soft.
  
• Vanilla adds great flavour to this. If you don’t have then you can add powdered elachi.
  
• As I said b4 sugar syrup is very important to get the burfi.
  
• Do not let the mixture cool without stirring as it will not be smooth later. So keep stirring until it cools and poured into the tray.
  
• You can make only vanilla or only chocolate too. Add any other colour to the white also can.

Enjoy the desi chocolate fudge, it smells heavenly and tastes great, just melt in your mouth.

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Diwali recipes - Diwali sweets recipes - Diwali snacks recipes

Diwali recipes - Diwali sweets, Diwali snacks

Recipe Cuisine: Indian   |  Recipe Category:Festival recipes

For me Diwali means thrill, joy, happiness. Who can ever forget the childhood days filled with all these mixed emotions. My joy starts even before 100 days from Diwali. Yes, I take the calender, mark the count down with a pencil in a corner of the daily sheet calender, and every single day when I tear the calender sheets, I will get so excited and count my days for Diwali. What made Deepavali so exciting those days and why its not now, I always ask myself. I always feel bad that Aj is missing all those. Even myself. May be its because we were kids and the crackers were one of the main fascination. May be, those times, we don't get new clothes this often as we are buying every now and then, when ever we feel like. Yes, my dad buys dress only once in a year for Diwali alone. And the Deepavali shopping for clothes will be so so exciting. And they don't even let us to try the new dress until the Deepavali day. Only after all the poojas get over, we get the new clothes in our hands through the eldest in the home. How can I explain the joy those days!

And not to forget the crackers. I still remember the cracker and firework stories in my childhood. Every single thing. We the kids in the street will be having competition, like in front of who's house there is more cracker papers. We burst crakers and sweep the papers in a corner to show how much we have burst. I love love to burst crackers. Right from oosi pattasu to Laksmi vedi. And the cape - dot cape, which we burst with a hammer, roll cape with the toy g*n. I am not big fan of 'at*m bom*'. Its too loud for me, no fun. But laksmi vedi is class. It gives lots of paper kuppai, just what we want. And I have never burst 1000 walas. Only the 100s. And the Bijili crackers. How colorful those bijilis used to be and sometimes, we even untie the saram red fort crackers to bijilis and burst for more time. We do lot of naughty things while bursting crackers, though not serious ones, it will be up to our range ;) Like gather all the left over papers and dig the cracker inside it and make it burst. It will blow up all the papers up and we watch the fun.

Diwali and rain comes together hand to hand. We will be so worried and our prayers to God will be only that it should not rain! How big our prayers, see, at that age. ;) And we don't leave the rain water that is in the open fields opposite to our home. We quickly place the crackers inside it and make it burst, and it spills water all over. :D  And all these things, I do these with my bro +Sendhil Kumar Ramalingam . Not to forget the mini competitions that who wake up first and burst the first cracker in the street. Wantedly, we burst the loudest to make the point that we did it first. For me I wont get sleep at all on the eve of Diwali. Its pure excitement and nothing else. My bro will be equally excited, but he will sleep like anything in the morning. I will be waking him every time.

Those days I don't even care about the Diwali works mom had. Only I used to do is enjoy with my bro. Until he went to hostel for his higher studies. Then the scenarios just changed. In those 4 years when he was in hostels, he will even sometimes not come home for Diwali, and me and mom used to shed tears for that too, which my dad always mocks at. :)  But after that, he went to job, and though he will keep the suspense until last day whether he is coming or not, I had one more advantage, he will also buy crackers, dress for me. And mainly the salwars, chudidars from B'lore ;)

The whole Diwali day will be full of eating sweets, snacks prepared for Diwali along with Idli, chutney, podi, suzhiyan, adhirasam, vadai. No cooking that day and we used to eat all these and get heart burn ofcourse because of all those oily goodies! Who cared, we totally enjoyed the food and time.

We wake up like around 3.00 am and mom will lit lamp in the pooja room, keep sheekai / arappu thool in a bowl, and sesame oil in another bowl. Elder in the house will apply those two in the head for sastra and we take oil bath, come back and wear some other new dress, not the diwali dress and eagerly wait for the pooja to get over. After the pooja is over, we fall on the elders feets and get our dresses and rush to wear the dress. The smell of the new dress, how exciting it will be! :) And not to forget to show off your dress to the friends and neighbors ;)

Now enough of my stories and here is the list of recipes for this Diwali 2013. Preparation and cooking time varies from recipe to recipe. Please check the individual to know. Prep time varies from 12 hrs to 10 mins and cooking from 1 hr to 15 mins.

And main ingredients in sweets are milk, khoya, sugar, besan/ kadalai maavu, maida, urad dal, badam, pista, cashew nuts, coconut, rava, jaggery, ghee, oil.

For snacks, mainly rice flour, urad dal flour, besan, oil etc;

Click on the picture for the respective recipes.

Diwali sweet recipes

   

    

   

   

   

    

   

   

   

     

     

Diwali snack recipes

   

    

   

    

    

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