Ponganalu

Have you wondered what to do with the bit of dosa batter that’s soured, and definitely not enough to make an entire batch of dosas? Well, the best solution for this situation are ponganalu. Of course, in my house, we specifically sour the batter to make them! 😉
The credit for teaching me how to make this amazing snack goes to my sis-in-law. 🙂

To start with, you need a special pan (ponganalu pan) that is available in most Indian markets. You may find them made of alloy, cast iron, or also in non-stick versions!

Ingredients:

Dosa batter
2-3 green chillies
1 large onion
3-5tsp chana dal (depending on amount of batter)

Method:

• Soak the chana dal in the dosa batter overnight.
• Heat the pan on a low flame till completely hot.
• chop the green chillies and onion into fine pieces and add to the dosa batter
• Once the pan has heated sufficiently, pour in a tsp of oil in each of the hollows and spread it around using a table-spoon.
• Pour in the batter into the hollows, and pour some oil around it, not unlike making a dosa.
• Take care in this step, as the ponganalu will fluff up during the process, and too much batter will make the flipping-over unwieldy and difficult.
• Once the edges of the batter start turning brown, gently lift from the hollow and turn over. Pour some more oil.
  • You need to exercise a lot of patience for this step, and it takes a lot of practice to be able to flip the ponganalu neatly.
• Once both sides have been sufficiently browned, take off the pan.

Serve hot with cocnut chutney or kura podi.

This is a really nice snack to make to accompany the evening tea/coffee.

Bendakaya Kura

This is a  simple and tasty vegetable to make.

Ingredients:

1/2 kg okra
1tblsp sour curds
1tsp salt
1 tsp Chilli powder
1tsp turmeric
3 tsp oil

Tadka:

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 dry red chilly

Method:

• Soak the okra for 20 mins in a large pan, to ensure all dirt is removed. Drain and chop into moderately small round pieces.
• In a large wok, heat some oil and add the chopped okra
• Add salt, turmeric and sour curds and mix well. Be careful not to mash the pieces. The curd is meant to absorb the stickiness from the okra.
• set the lid on the wok and let it simmer.
• Keep checking in 10 min intervals to ensure the okra does not stick to the sides of the wok. Always be careful not to mash the pieces.
• Once all the water evaporates, add chilli podwer and mix well.
• Let it cook for another 5-10 minutes and set aside.
• In a small wok, heat 2 tsp oil and add the tadka.
• Add to the okra when the mustard seeds start popping and mix well.

Serrve hot with rice.

Aloo Tikki

This is an amazing evening snack! Definitely North Indian, but I decided to include it here. 🙂

Ingredients:

500gm potatoes, boiled & peeled
25gm cornflour/maida
1/2 cup green peas, boiled
2 green chilles, finely diced
juice of 1/2 lemon
1tsp cumin powder (jeera)
1tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste
oil for frying
Method:

• Mash potatoes into a dish
• Mix all the ingredients except oil
• divide into equal portions and make into balls
• Flatten each ball between the palms into discs
• Heat oil in a frying pan and shallow fry over medium heat until golden brown and crisp on both sides

Serve hot with ghee-roasted bread, or plain with tomato ketchup.