Kharapodi/ खारापोड़ी (Spicy Tangy Red Powder)

Kharapodi

Kharapodi is red hot tangy powder primarily taken with idli and dosa. This version of Kharapodi is made in Andhra Pradesh. It is mixed with either ghee or cooking oil to make a paste before eating with idli/dosa. I and my family love it so much that with every meal it is taken as an accompaniment. Since we do not take extremely hot food thus the amount of chili is comparatively less as compared to the Kharapodi made in Andhra. 
I use more coconut and comparatively less chilies, coconut provides much required oil and thus this powder unlike its original form can be eaten without mixing with ghee/oil also, though for best taste mixing it with warm ghee is suggested.

Preparation time: 15-20 minutes
Roasting Time: 30-40 minutes
Grinding Time: 30-40 minutes 
Servings:  1.250 Kg(Approximately)

Ingredients Required For Making Kharapodi : 

• 250 gm Tamarind (Without seeds)
• 500 gm. Whole Red Chili
• 200-250 gm. Dry coconut
• 100 gm. Coriander seeds
• 100 gm. Chana Dal
• 100 gm. Dhuli Urd Dal (Split-chaffed Urd Dal)
• 100 gm. Salt /To taste

Directions For Making Kharapodi:

• Remove the stalk and seeds from the red chilies.
• Grate dry coconut.
• Check tamarind for seeds, if any remove them.
• Dry roast chana dal, Urd dal on low heat to light pink color. Both dal should be roasted separately not together. I use non-stick wok for roasting.
• Remove and keep aside to cool.
• Dry roast red chilies on low heat till they change color to darker shade and become crisp. Remove from wok and keep aside to cool.

Roasted Red Chili

• Dry roast coriander seeds on low heat  to light brown shade. Remove from wok and keep aside to cool.

Roasted Coriander Seeds

• Roast coconut powder on low heat to light pink color. Since coconut has oil and even after removing from heat the hot oil in it will cause it to cook more so do not roast coconut to darker shade. Remove from wok and keep aside to cool.

Roasted Dal and Grated coconut

• Lastly in the hot slightly oily (due to coconut roasting) wok add tamarind and bring the heat to medium and roast with continuous stirring for 5 minutes. Tamarind will stick to the bottom of the wok, it is normal so do not worry. Switch off the heat and remove the wok from the heat. 
• Remove tamarind from wok and let it cool.

Roasted tamarind

• Put water in hot wok to remove tamarind stains.
• Mix roasted Chana dal and Urd dal. Pulse it till it is converted to fine powder.

Dal Powder

• Add roasted tamarind to the dal powder in small portions and pulse. Repeat till all tamarind is mixed with dal powder and pulsed to coarse powder.
• Sieve the mixture and pulse the remaining coarser part. Repeat till whole thing is converted to slightly grainy powder. It will not be fine powder, but little grainy.

Dal and tamarind Powder

• Grind roasted coriander seeds to fine powder.
• Mix coriander seed powder to Dal-Tamarind powder and pulse once or twice to make uniform mixture. 

Dal,Tamarind and Coriander Powder

• As the amount will grow grinding/pulsing in one go will not be possible so divide the whole amount to two three portions and then put in grinder / mixer to grind.
• Grind roasted red chilies to fine powder. Add 2-3 teaspoon of salt while grinding red chilies, this will help converting chilies to fine powder.
• Mix powdered chili to the mixture of Dal-Tamarind-Coriander seed powder. Pulse together again.

Dal,Chili,Tamarind,Coriander and Red chili Powder 

• To roasted coconut add remaining salt and grind to get fine powder.
• Add coconut-salt powder to the mixture of Dal-Coriander seed-Chili-Tamarind powder and mix.

Kharapodi

• Pulse this mixture for 1 minute so that the mixture becomes uniform and all ingredients flavor also infuses nicely. Pulsing the whole mixture is must to get proper flavor in Kharapodi. Since the amount is large now it may require to be divided to two or three portion for pulsing.
• The change in the color of powdered mixture can be seen just after pulsing it after adding salt-coconut powder. 
• Kharapodi is ready. Let the it cool to room temperature (It will become warm due to grinding/ pulsing).

Kharapodi Ready to be stored

• Store in airtight container.
• Mix little Kharapodi with ghee/cooking oil and enjoy with Idli/ Dosa/ Uttapa, Dal-Rice, Curd-Rice,
• Sprinkle Kharapodi on buttered slice, in sandwich. I love to have it with crisp-hot pakoras, there are unlimited options.

Tips:

• Use of non-stick wok will make roasting and later on cleaning easy.
• Roast coconut in just before roasting tamarind this will make the wok slightly greasy and roasting tamarind will become easy.
• Grind the roasted ingredients in the given order for ease and best results.
• Pulsing the mixture at all the steps is very important, because this causes the flavors of all ingredients to mix nicely. 
• Remove seeds from chilies, else the powder will not be dark red in color.
• Check the hotness of the chili and change the amount accordingly to suit your taste.

Suggested Variations:

• Instead of roasting Chana and Urd dal, roasted Black gram (available in market) can be powdered after removing chaff, 
• Powder of roasted curry leafs can be added to the mixture before final pulsing.

Sirniks ( Cottage Cheese Dessert/Snack Of Ukraine)

SIRNIKS

Cheese cutlet with mild sweet taste ‘Sirnik’ I ate at my friend and neighbor in Ethiopia. Extremely delicious and healthy cutlets they eat with sweet. Ukrainian food basically borders on sweet taste and is not at all spicy. I had a chance of having dinner at their place all vegetarian /Non-vegetarian dishes were basically sweet not having savory taste like we most of us are used to , but every preparation was extremely delicious and mouthwatering. Since I am basically vegetarian I gorged upon the bread, eggplant vegetable and these sweet cheese pan fried cutlets as dessert. Irina is real good lady who agreed to teach me how to make these cutlets ‘Sirinkkies’ at short notice. We in Debrezyiet Ethiopia have to plan everything in advance for many factors. L.

Preparation Time: 10 min.

Cooking Time: 10 min

Servings: 20 Medium size Sirniks

Ingredients Required For Making Sirinkkies:

• 250 gm. Cottage Cheese / Ricotta cheese

• 75 gm. Refined flour (maida)

• 2 Egg

• 3 Tea spoon Sugar2 Drops Vanilla essence

• 15 ml. Olive oil/any other cooking oil

Directions For Making Sirniks:

• Crush cheese with a fork or spoon till it becomes soft and uniform. It can also be mashed with palms to make soft.

Cheese softened by beating with fork

• Add 2 drops vanilla essence and mix.

Vanilla essence being added to softened cheese

• Break an egg and add to the cheese essence mixture.

Eggs broken directly to cheese vanilla mixture

• Mix nicely. No need to beat the egg separately.

Eggs being mixed to cheese and vanilla mixture

• Add refined flour with spoon in little proportions and mix.

• The mixture will become soft but thick like dough. Due to different size of eggs the requirement of flour may change little. Remember the mixture should neither be too thick nor too thin. It should be thick enough to make ball out of it.

Cheese, flour, egg and vanilla mixture

• Add raisins and mix.

Raisin added to the flour,egg cheese vanilla mixture

Sirnik mixture

• Divide the mixture to 10-12 parts and make round out of them by rolling on dry refined flour.Flatten them by pressing lightly.

Irina showing the size of ball to me made

A ball from mixture of Sirnik coated with refined flour and flattened

Heat oil in a frying pan and when the oil is hot (not smoking hot) place the ball of cutlet mixture in the oil and pan fry on medium flame till golden brown on one side.

Oil heated on frying pan

Sirniks placed on hot oil and being pan fried

• Turn and fry the other side also till golden brown.

 Sirniks pan fried on both sides

• Remove from oil and place on a paper napkin so that all excess oil gets absorbed by the paper.

Irina with Delicious Sirniks

• Delicious Sirinkkies are ready to be served and enjoyed with friends and family.

Sirniks

• I love them more when served with a topping of cream.

Tips:

• Do not add all flour together because some the moisture in cheese and the size of egg dictates the amount of flour required.

• Dust off the excess flour stuck to the cutlet balls before frying them.

• Since the cutlets have sugar and cheese thus they tend to brown up fast thus keep checking them while frying by lifting with a blunt flat spatula.

• Do not use mustard/Niger / Palm oil the strong smell of oil spoils the taste of these cutlets.

Suggested Variations:

• Eggs can be replaced by two medium size potatoes by vegetarians.
  

• Finely cut cashew nuts, almonds can be added to the mixture.

• Jaggery/Brown sugar are healthy replacement of white sugar.
• 1 teaspoon honey can be added to the mixture before making the dough.

• Boil small pieces of bone less chicken / mutton with salt then stuff one piece each in the mixture before rolling it to a ball.

• Those who want to use less oil can first cook them on non-stick frying pan till light dots of golden brown color start appearing then sprinkle 3-4 drops oil on each side. And cook till good golden brown.

• Finely cut mushroom can be added to the mixture. If mushroom are being added then add flour 2-3 tea spoon more as mushroom loose water while being cooked.

• Rice can flour/whole wheat flour is a healthy replacement of refined flour.

Delicious Vegetable Cutlets /स्वादिष्ट सब्जियों के कट्लेट्स

Pan fried Low fat Vegetable Cutlets

One of the best way to make low fat cutlets are to pan fry them with minimum of oil. I find cutlets one of the best dish along with toasted bread  and Red chili sauce for breakfast and with coriander-mint chutney or Hariyali chutney for snacks. Since vegetable cutlets have potatoes in it thus it is high in carbohydrates.  Apart from starch Potatoes are rich in antioxidants which help in fighting cancer; they contain potassium which is beneficial for heart, vitamin C and proteins. Adding lots of different vegetables makes the cutlets very nutritious. Beans add protein content, carrots vitamin A and coriander, spinach iron, green chili Vitamin C.Peas are rich in calcium. Due to different vegetables present in these cutlets the dietary fiber content is also high, which is very much desirable to maintain good digestive system. Thus this is one of the best method to make children enjoy eating vegetables.

Preparation Time: 30min.

Cooking Time: 30min.

Servings: 25 -30Cutlets (approximately)

Calories in 25-30 cutlets 201 k cal.( approximately)

Ingredients Required For Making Pan Fried Vegetable Cutlets:

• 250 gm. Potatoes

• 100gm. French Beans

• 100gm. Carrots

150 gm Cauliflower

• 250 gm. Peas

• One Medium size onion(optional)

• 8-10 leaves of fresh Spinach

• 2-3 sprigs of Fresh Coriander

• 1 Medium size Capsicum

• 1 Medium size Red bell pepper (optional)

• 1-2 Green Chilies

• 1/2Tea spoon Red chili powder

• 1/2Teaspoon Garam masala

• 5-6 Tea spoon Corn flour

• Salt to taste 
• 2-3 ml. Olive oil / any cooking oil 

Direction for Making Pan Fried Vegetable Cutlets:

• Boil the potatoes as such that they are cooked but remain firm.

• Wash the beans, carrots, and dry them.

• Break the Cauliflower to small florets , wash and dry them

• Cut Cauliflower finely.

• Remove the thread from beans and cut them fine.

Finely cut Cauliflower and Beans

• Cut the carrots fine.

• Cut the onion very fine.

• Take 100 ml.  water in a thick bottom pan and keep on gas on high flame.

• When water starts boiling put carrots and beans , cauliflower to it and boil till they partly cooked. The cooked beans and carrot pieces should become soft after cooking.(approximately 5 min.)
• Sieve the boiled vegetables and allow them to cool

• Shell peas.

• Take 50 ml. water in a pan boil the water and add shelled peas to it and cook for 10min.(approximately 2min.)
• Sieve the peas and allow to cool.

• Wash spinach and remove the stalks form the leaves.

• Discard the stalks and dry the leaves.

• Cut spinach leaves very fine.

• Wash the coriander sprigs and drain all water.

• Cut washed and dried coriander leaves very fine.

• Cut green chilies very fine.

• Cut capsicum and red bell pepper fine. 

Finely cut Capsicum and Red bell pepper

• Peel boiled potatoes and mash them using a potato masher or with your hands.

Boiled Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes

• Mash boiled beans, carrots and cauliflower. Do not make paste mash them.
• Mash peas coarsely.

• To the mashed potatoes add

• Mashed vegetables

• Finely cut spinach

• Coriander leaves

• Finely cut onions

• Finely cut capsicum and red bell pepper.

• Salt

• Red chili powder

• Garam masala

• Amchur

• Corn flour

• Mix nicely to make uniform mixture.

• Make 25-30 balls from the mixture and flatten them to 1-2 cm. thickness.

• Cut them to the required shape with the help of mold.

• Roll the cutlets in corn flour and keep aside for 5min. so that the corn flour sticks to the surface of the cutlets.

• Take a non-stick flat pan (tawa) and put 8-10 drops of olive oil or any cooking oil on it and spread it on the tawa.

• Heat the tawa on high flame.

• When the tawa / pan becomes hot, (not smoking hot) place the cutlets on it at a distance of 2-3 cm. from each other.

• Lower the flame and let the cutlets become golden brown from the side they are touching the tawa.

Cutlets Pan fried to golden brown color on one side

• Sprinkle 2-3 drop of oil on each cutlet and turn them over carefully.

• Allow them to cook on the other side also till they become golden brown.

Cutlets done to Golden brown color on the other side

• Low fat, tasty and nutritious cutlets are ready.

Low fat Pan Fried Vegetable Cutlets

• Enjoy hot cutlets with coriander-mint chutney or Hariyali chutney.

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html
http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/hariyali-chutney-raw-mango-chutney.html

Pan fried Low fat Vegetable cutlets with Coriander-Mint Chutney

• Apply some Red chili sauce
  

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2011/09/red-and-green-chilly-sauce.html
on a toasted bread piece place a cutlet on it apply red chili sauce on another bread piece and place it on the cutlet and enjoy your breakfast.

Tips:

• While boiling potatoes add little salt to the water to ensure potatoes remain firm.

• Add one small piece of lemon to the water while boiling potatoes to ensure the container does not turn black after boiling water.

• Make sure potatoes are not over cooked else the mixture of cutlets will not be firm and cutlets will not come out nice.

• Beans and carrots should be cooked nicely else solid pieces of beans and carrot will come in cutlet which is not desirable.

• Peas should be coarsely mashed.

• The edges of cutlet can be cooked to brown color by placing them by the side if tawa.

• Olive oil is healthy medium of cooking and light to digest.
• While adding vegetables corn flour and soices to the mashed potatoes salt should be added last.
• If your cutlet mixture becomes slightly thin (not firm) then add some corn flour to it.

Suggested Variations:

• Coriander can be replaced by parsley or celery.

• To change the flavor 1/4 tea spoon of thyme / oregano can be added.

• Boiled and grated beet root can be added to the cutlet mixture. It will add color and nutritive value to the cutlets.

• Corn flour can be replaced by bread crumbs / Rice flour.

• If you have left over beans / carrot / cauliflower vegetable just mash it and add to the mixture. Good use of left over veggies can be made this way.
• Powder some nutrela nuggets ( soya beans nuggets), soak the powder in water for 4-5 min., squeeze water form the soaked powder of Nutrela nuggets and add the soaked nutrela nuggets powder to the cutlet mixture it will make the cutlets more crysp and of course add more fiber and protein content to the cutlets.