कोथिम्बीर वड़ी/ Kothimbir Vadi (Indian Snack)

Kothambir Vadi

Kothambir / Kothimbir is the Maharashtrian name for fresh green leafs of Coriander. These leafs are my favorite due to the fragrance and subtle tangy taste. These leafs are rich in Iron and impart very good color and texture to the food, whether it by virtue of garnishing or using it as a base in curries and snacks. I do not like to waste the soft stalks of the fresh coriander leafs, thus whenever I separate leafs from stalk, the stalks are used to make Green chutney or added to vegetables while making clear vegetable soup. Yummy chutney and soups are made and except the roots nothing goes waste. In Maharashtra coriander leafs are used along with Besan (Black gram flour) to make delicious snack. Traditionally these Vadis are made by steaming the batter, but I make them by baing the batter and pan frying in least amount of oil to get low fat tasty yet very healthy and nutritious snack. It can be made both ways traditional steaming or Baking the batter. I prefer baking to steaming.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Baking Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 40-50 small pieces

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degree centigrade for 15-20 minutes

Nutritional Value (Approximate) of the Vadis made From the said amount:

Calories: 980

Fats: 16.27 gm

Cholesterol: 0gm

Sodium: 160mg

Potassium: 2115mg

Carbs: 114.55gm

Fibers: 30gm

Protein: 60 gm

Sugars: 27.12gm

Vitamin A, Iron, Calcium

Ingredients Required For Making Kothambir Vadi:

• 1 Big Bunch of Fresh Green Coriander Leafs / Two tea cups cleaned and chopped leafs
• 250 gm. Besan (Gram flour) / two tea cups
• 4-5 Green Chilies / to taste
• 8-10 Cloves of Garlic (Optional)
• 2-3 cm. Ginger piece
• 4 Teaspoon sesame seeds (2+2)
• 1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
• 1 Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Baking powder
• 1/2Teaspoon Cooking Soda
• 2 Teaspoon Any Cooking oil (I used Olive oil)
• Salt to taste

Directions For making Kothambir Vadi:

• Prepare a baking pan of 12”x12” by brushing it with oil nicely and ten dusting with besan like we do for cakes, difference is that maida/atta is replaced with besan.
• Remove the roots of coriander sprigs and wash them thoroughly with flowing water to remove traces of soil.
• Separate leafs from stalk. Keep the stalk to make chutney and drain water from leafs.
• Cut the drained leafs finely and place them in a big bowl.
• Make fine paste of green chilies, peeled garlic and ginger. If you are not using garlic then make paste of green chilies and ginger.
• Mix
• Oil
• Salt
• Baking powder
• Cooking Soda
• Mix with a dry spoon and keep aside.
• To chopped coriander leafs add
• Besan
• Paste of garlic + ginger + green chilies
• Salt + baking powder + eating soda + oil mixture
• 2 Teaspoon Sesame seeds

All Ingredients to be Converted to Batter

• Mix thoroughly with spoon.
• The mixture will not be too wet but like dough.
• Add 50 ml. water and mix to make a uniform mixture.
• Add another 20-30 ml water and mix. By this time the batter should become of pourable consistency but not thin and flowing.
• If you find the batter very thick, then add little water and mix to make batter of proper consistency as shown in the picture below. The amount of water may vary depending upon the water retained by leafs after draining as well as the quality of besan used.

Correct Consistency of Batter

• Immediately pour al the batter in the baking pan and tap once or twice to remove any trapped air bubbles.
• Bake in a preheated oven at 180 ^o C for 30 minutes or till baked.

Batter Ready For Baking

• To checked the doneness of Vadi poke a dry skewer diagonally through the center. If it comes out clean then the Vadi is baked, else bake for the time till the skewer comes out clean. The time differs due to slight change in consistency of batter and make of oven.
• Take out the baking pan form the oven. You will see that the top has some little cracks. That also is absolutely ok.
• Cover the baking pan with a moist cloth and allow the baked batter to cool.
• Remove the baked batter on the cutting board and cut it to the pieces of the size and shape you choose to.

Baked Batter of Vadi

• I prefer 1-2 cm pieces.

Baked Batter of Vadi Cut to Pieces

• Take a shallow pan and put 1/2 teaspoon oil in it. Heat till the oil is hot but not smoking.
• Place 10-15 pieces of Vadis and let them become golden brown from one side. Flip and sprinkle 1/2teasoop oil on the pan and cook till the other side is also become golden brown.

Kothambir vadi getting crisp and golden brown in pan

• Repeat with all the Vadisd in the same manner to make them crisp and golden brown from top and soft from center using very little oil
• Heat 
• 1/2teaspoon oil in a ladle and to the hot oil add
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon Sesame seeds, Let them splutter.
• Spread this seasoning on the Vadis
• Remove from pan in a plate and serve with Tangy-hot Green chutney made by using the stalks instead of leafs / tomato sauce/green chili sauce / red chili sauce.

Kothambir Vadi

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/06/hariyali-chutney-raw-mango-chutney.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-chilly-sauce.html http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2011/09/red-and-green-chilly-sauce.html

Tips:

• Always pre-heat the oven.
• It is best that besan and chopped coriander leafs be taken in 1:1 ratio. If you choose you can reduce the coriander leafs amount. But I like when the Kothambir Vadis live up to their name and have great green color, yummy coriander flavor and slight bitter + hot + garlicy, gingery flavor. After all it is all about Kothambir (Coriander leafs).
• Add water in little amounts to get correct consistency of batter. Adjust the amount of water for it may differ than what I have mentioned in recipe. I do not use packaged besan, they are too refined for my taste. I get chana dal ground to a bit coarse flour in flour mill.
• Bake the batter immediately after mixing water else the baking powder and eating soda will start losing its effectiveness.
• Do not make the batter runny it should be thick like cake batter. Not like pakodas (Fritters) batter.

Suggested Variations:

• I prefer not to experiment with much spices here because the original flavor of coriander leafs has to be maintained to the highest level.
• Traditionally these Vadis are made by steaming the batter and the pieces are fried. I prefer low oil so pan frying and baking is easier and hassle free. If you wish you can steam the batter and fry the pieces.
• Instead of sesame seeds poppy seeds can also be taken for garnishing. These seeds not only enhance the taste but add much nutritional value also.
• Kadi patta (Curry leafs), some pieces of red chili can be added to oil of seasoning along with the seeds.

Whole-Wheat-Carrot-Cinnamon-Muffins

Whole Wheat flour-carrot-Muffin

Muffins are denser than cakes and require less fat (Oil/Butter). Carrots/Apples/Pear and other fruits make it very healthy and nutritious along with tasty. If these muffins are made brown sugar or yet better organic unrefined jaggery then it tops the list of all muffins for its nutritional, health and taste quotient. Since I am a chocolate buff thus I divided my batter to two parts (3:1) and in one part added dark chocolate and put it in the bottom and the rest 3 parts was used for pouring above the chocolate batter, I found this experiment unique and yummy. Try if you are cocolate buff like me. Else avoid the cocolate part.

Preparation Time: 20-30 min.

Baking Time: 25-30 min. maximum

Servings 4 large muffins (100gm each muffin)

Nutritional Value of Carrot muffins: (Approximate)

Calories:  1036

Total fats: 47.17 gm

Cholesterol: 478mg.

Sodium: 627mg

Potassium: 606 mg

Carbs: 151.34gm

Dietary fibers: 40.2 gm

Sugars: 71.05 gm

Proteins: 27.12gm

Vitamins A,B,C group

Minerals calcium, Iron

Divide the above data with 4 to get approx. value /muffin.

To reduce sugar amount and increase iron and fiber contents white sugar should be replaced with organic unrefined jaggery and to reduce fat butter should be replaced with Olive oil (60% of butter amount).

Ingredients Required For Making Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins:

• 100 gm. Whole Wheat Flour
• 50 gm. Salted Butter
• 50 gm. Sugar
• 100 gm. carrots
• 2 Medium size eggs (The eggs I used weighed 50 gm each)
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda/Eating Soda
• 1/2Teaspoon Cinnamon Powder
• 1 egg white for glazing muffins (Whisked separately)

Directions For making Whole Wheat Carrot Muffins:

• Wash and remove the fibrous roots from carrots. Do not peel them else many nutrients will be lost.

Carrots Cleaned not Peeled

• Grate the carrot and keep aside for later use.

Cleaned and grated carrots

• Sift flour, cinnamon powder and baking soda 3-4 times to ensure even mixing of baking soda and flour also this incorporates air in flour which helps batter to rise.
• Powder the sugar by pulsing it in grinder.
• Cut the butter to small cubes and beat with sugar powder till creamy mixture is obtained. (3-4 min. with hand mixer)

Whisked Butter and sugar 

• Add egg yolks and whisk for a minute.

Butter and egg yolk beaten to creamy texture

• Whisk the egg whites till stiff peaks are obtained.

Egg white beaten to stiff peaks

• Add flour to grated carrots and then add this mixture and whisked egg whites in butter and sugar mixture.
• Mix with light hand without whisking, just swirl and mix this will give a thick uniform batter.

Thick batter for muffins

• Pour the batter in muffin cups and brush the top lightly with whisked egg white.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes or till done in a preheated oven at 180^o C.
• The top will become golden and the testing skewer should come out clean when baked.
• Cool on the rake. Remove from the molds and when muffins come at room temperature wrap them individually with cling wrap. Store and enjoy with hot cup of coffee/tea/milk.

Whole Wheat flour-carrot-Muffin

Tips:

• Do not beat while mixing the ingredients in final stage as the air trapped will get released and the muffins will not rise. Use swirl and cut method.
• Under-mixing will result in non-uniform batter so mix slowly with light hands till uniform batter is obtained.
• Eggs can be beaten together with butter without separating yolk and white. This will shorten the time required.
• Carrots and flour mixture should be added together just before adding to butter egg mixture because moisture of carrot will start the reaction of soda.
• Oven should be always pre-heated for baking else slow baking will start during heating of oven causing the baked product (Muffins in this case) to get spoiled.

Suggested Variations:

• Nuts can be roasted and added to the batter this will add crunchiness to the muffins as well as nutrition.
• Replace sugar with brown sugar/ jaggery for better nutrition.
• Replace butter with Olive oil for reducing fat content and fewer calories.
• Extra 50 gm of carrots can be added to the batter in paste form to get more carrot flavor and dietary fibers.
• I prefer my cakes and muffins nude, if you want top them with whisked cream and fruits.
• As I haqve mentioned in strating that for chocolate fans like me I included chocolate by taking 1/4 part of batter and adding melted dark chocolate 50 gm. Then this part of batter was poured at the bottom and above it pure carrot batter, then baked to get yummy muffins. Try it if you are chocolate buff like me.