Dahi bade/ Dahi bhalle/ Dahi vada - fried and steamed version

Mom's tip : The secret to soft and melt in the mouth bhallas or vadas lies in beating the vada batter till light and airy. The consistency of the batter is extremely important and will decide how soft the vadas will turn out. And you should use the beaten batter immediately to prepare the vadas.

Recently made this yummy dahi vadas and enjoyed it. DH just looooved it!  Do try it out, you can make the steamed version to reduce the calorie intake, It does not have the same texture but the taste and softness is the same!!

Ingredients

For preparing Vadas:
1 cup urad dal without skin, washed, soaked for 3 hours
2 tbsps Yellow moong dal, soaked along with uad daal
Salt to taste
oil for deep frying
To prepare dahi bhalla chaat:
Fresh curd - 2 cups, thick yogurt (it should not be sour)
Water - 1 1/2 to 2 cups
Powdered sugar - 1/2 heaped tbsps
Red chilli powder - 1 heaped tbsp
Roasted cumin powder - 1 heaped tbsp
Sweet tamarind and dates chutney - 3/4 cup
Sev for garnish
Fresh coriander leaves for garnish
Bhujia sev

Method

Preparing the batter:
Rinse and soak urad dal and moong daal overnight or for 5-6 hours, rinse well and grind it in mixer or grinder into smooth fluffy mixture. Use 2-3 tbsp of water only if required, which you will required if you are using mixer to grind.
Grind the dal until the batter becomes light and fluffy. Sprinkle water if the mixer making lot of noise.
Take out the batter in a wide bowl and start beating it with hand for 2-3 minutes, it will make the batter more light and fluffy, after beating continuously you can see the colour of batter will be white instead of pale white or yellow.
To test if the batter is ready to make vada in a bowl of water drop a small bowl of vada if it’s floats on top of water then it’s ready to use. If the batter ball sinks a bit inside water then you have to beat it with hand for a minute more. Repeat the test until the batter ball floats on top of water. If you skip this step the bhalla or bada will not be soft.
Add asafoetida and salt and mix well.

Fried Version:
Heat oil in a wok for deep frying. Take a dollop of dal batter (i used a serving spoon for this) and carefully drop it in hot oil, drop 5-6 vada at a time in wok so it doesn't stick with each other.
Make sure you use enough oil for the full vada to be in oil, if upper part of the vada/bhalla doesn't cook in oil then when you turn them it will stick together. Don’t worry about the shape very much, it doesn't has to perfect round, once we soak the vada in curd it will get shaped.
Fry until golden brown in medium flame, turn over and fry until another side gets golden brown too.

Steamed Version:
Keep the steamer ready ( I used Idli maker), add Baking Soda(i missd adding the baking soda :( ) to the mixture and steam it for 10 minutes.

Soak the vadas:
Meanwhile in a wide pan heat 4-5 cups water. Add fried and steamed vadas in this water and let them soak for min of 10 -20 mins. You can soak for 1 to 2 hours too (soaking makes vada soft and absorb curd), take them out of water and squeeze water out carefully to retain the shape, try not to break vada.

For Assembly
In a wide bowl whisk together curd, salt with a pinh of sugar. Arrange th esqueezed vadas ina erving dish, pour the curd mix ovr this. Sprinkle red chilli powder, cumin powder, drizzle sweet tamarind and dates chutney and green chutney (i did not use green chutney, you can add as per you taste) in small dots all over vada. Garnish with coriander leaves and bhujia sev.

Keep refrigerated and serve chilled :)

Linking it to Harini's Event , Only summer foods and drinks event by shailaja and pari's giveaway.

http://www.fullscoops.net/2014/06/event-announcement-favorite-recipes.html?m=1

http://www.simplysensationalfood.com/2014/06/announcing-event-lets-cook-for-fathers.html

Kids activity - Cup cake liner flowers

Hi dear crafty friends 

Sharing today a very simple craft that me and my little one enjoyed recently. I had some pretty cup cake liners lying in my pantry, so thought of beautifying the house with these. 

My little S is now very pro at paper cutting. She loves to cut paper and I make her put it in one bowl, so that it is not all over the place.

With this craft, I tried to enhance her paper folding skills. We both folded the cup cake liners multiple times. Then I showed her how to cut it (which she did on her own for most of the flowers), and slowly she unfolded it to get a beautiul flower!!

Made some leaves with green paper and outlined it with sketch pen. Layered the flowers and sticked little magnets magnets behind them. They now adorn my fridge. :)

You can check the very simple tutorial of this here.

Sending this to Artsy Craftsy Mom  - Kid friendly Recycled craft

Braided stuffed masala bread - first attempt at using yeast

Made and enjoyed this yummy bread from the recipe here .
Finally I did try my hands on Yeast..not very comfortable yet, but happy with the results of my first attempt :)

I had a very good friend with me to try this out (both giving each other moral support to try this new recipe). We both had  fun gossiping and preparing this..turned out to be a lovely baking date ;)

Sending this to pari's event 

Pottery - our first attempt

Living your dreams with your children..believe in that? I am experiencing the blissful stage. Teaching, explaining, letting her create, creating to give her an example..love it all!

This was a long pending desire of mine..yes wanted to try my hands on pottery! I had thought will do this some day..then I saw a play pottery set, with all the contents to make our own earthen pots..My little one and me started about doing it (with amused hubby watching us). The wheel was quiet fast..and its no easy job for sure (the box said 5+ years..oops!) But we did not give up. My hands were full of clay as I tried to mold it, like I had seen people do it in TV. The little one was controlling the ON/Off button :). Finally our first pot was ready after a few unsuccessful attempts.

I wanted to color it after drying, but the cranky little one dropped it on floor when I was showing her the dried pot..alas! Never mind, there is always a next time for sure :) 

Thanks for stopping by. Do lemme know how you liked it. 

Quick snack - Puffy sticks - Puff pastry sticks

Hi Friends

Sharing with you today a very simple and light snack.

Ingredients:
1 Puff pastry sheet
1 tsp canola oil
1 tsp chat masala

Method:
Thaw the puff pastry sheets for 5 mins. Smear some oil and chat masala on sheet. Cut it into 1cm wide strips. Line a baking tray with foil. Twist the strips on the foil and bake for approx 15 mins..
Quick and easy snack is ready. You can munch these with soup as a starter or enjoy with a cuppa tea..my daughter loved it with tea.

Inspired by the bread sticks posted by pari here

Sending this to her event 

Sending this to Gayathri's - Walk down the memory lane
http://gayathriscookspot.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/maa-inji-oorugai-ginger-mango-pickle.html

You make me smile :)

 Hi dear friends
Hope you are having the best of your time!
Sharing today a cute layout featuring my little one with FIL. As most grandparents and their grand children, they have a very special bond. My FIL is so amused with all the nakhre of my little one! I was my grandpa's pet and love to see the bond between my FIL and little one.

Sending this to:
http://shopscrapmuch.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/sketch-y-friday-with-team-b_23.html


http://itsybitsyindia.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/the-itsybitsy-anything-but-card.html

Yummylicious bread katori chat from foodilicious!

I love this excellent starter shared by Pari of foodilicious - the bread katori chat. I have tried it so many times and it is always a hit with guests. Sadly the assembling is mostly done when the guests arrive, so did not get to take the recent pictures..but trust me it looks and TASTES amazing.
I have shared this earlier at my blog here ..please excuse the old pics.



Linking this to the event hosted by Pari : celebrating 5 years of blogging ! wow..thats an achivement an motivation..congrats :)

http://www.cookingoodfood.com/2014/04/only-tried-tasted-from-foodelicious.html

Quick birthday treat bags - party favours

 Hi friends, hope you are having a good weekend. Sharing with you very quick treat bags that I made for the return gifts in birthday party. The bags are made using 12-12 pattern paper. Embellished it with quick origami dress(for the girlies) and shirt(for the boys). Added the alphabt buttons with the initial for each of the children.
All done in 20 mins flat!

Sending this to
http://itsybitsyindia.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/the-itsybitsy-anything-but-card.html

Happy mothers day + TP roll giraffe

Wish you a very happy mothers day dear friends! Hope you have a lovely time with your family this weekend.

I had a amazing day today..with lovely kisses and wishes from my little one. We went to the park with two other families..the weather was good and we had a blast out there..the childern enjoyed the new play area. The adults played with ball, the chain game, dumb charades followed by amazing home made food. While I am typing this post, we are awaiting another get together for a dinner :)

How did you celebrate mothers day, do let me know.

Sharing with you a lovely lovely gift that my little one gave me today. Its the cutest giraffe i have ever seen..made by us (ofcourse!)

We used 4 tp rolls and one kitchen roll, cut them as shown below and stuck them together.
Then we coated our girafe with 2 layers of yellow poster color. Made the spots in brown. The hair are handcut from a maroon handmade paper.

I first saw this at crafty crafted site (http://www.crafty-crafted.com/animal-crafts/toilet-paper-roll-giraffe/)
..and was waiting to try it, m happy (very :)) with the result.How do you like our giraffe?

Linking this to :
http://www.homeschoolingmom4two.com/2014/05/JustForKidsLinkUpWeek12.html

http://rainydaymum.co.uk/5-homemade-math-games-kids

http://funkypolkadotgiraffe.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Too%20Cute%20Tuesday

http://www.gingersnapcrafts.com/search/label/%7Bwow%20me%7D%20wednesday

http://www.vmg206.com/

http://www.jaqsstudio.com/

http://itsybitsyindia.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/the-itsybitsy-anything-but-card.html

Sending this to Artsy Craftsy Mom  - Kid friendly Recycled craft

Nostalgia

One of my very old sketches, 14 years i think!