Chekkara Pongali

Ingredients
Sugar - 1 Kg
Rice - 1/2 Kg
Plain Moong Dal - 300 gms
Ghee - 200 gms
Cashewnuts - 50 gms
Kismiss - 50 gms
Elaichi (Cardomom) -10 gms

Procedure
In a shallow frying pan heat some ghee and fry the moong dal for around 5 min. Wash rice and in a rice maker (Cooker) cook rice and moong dal together (For one glass of this mix, add around 1 1/2 glass of water). Remove from flame when the Rice is cooked (Usually after around 4 whistles if you are using Cooker).

In a frying pan, add the ghee and heat it. Now fry the Cashewnuts and Kismiss and put aside. Switch off the flame. In a bowl, take the sugar and a glass of water and heat to prepare Sugar Syrup. The syrup should be single thread (When you dip a spoon in the syrup and hold it above it should drop as a single thread). Add the cooked rice to it and also add ghee, Cashewnuts, Kismiss, Elaichi Powder and mix well. With this your Chekkera Pongali is ready.

Author's Note
This is one of the most important sweet dish for all the festivities in Andhra Pradesh. Most importantly, this is distributed as Prasaddam in Tirupati. A simple dish to prepare yet very tasty.

Sabudana Pakoda

Ingredients
Sabudana - 1/4 Kg
Rice flour - 1/2 Kg
Plain flour (Maida) - 1/4 Kg
Curd - 1/4 Kg
Onions - 4 Nos.
Green Chillies - 5 or 6
Ginger - Small piece
Red Chilli
Salt to taste
Coriander
Curry Leaves

Procedure
Wash Sabudana clean and soak in curd for around 5 to 6 hours (you can soak them overnight). To this mix of Sabudana and Curd, add Rice flour, Plain flour, Red Chilli powder, Salt, Chopped Onions, chopped Green Chillies, finely chopped Ginger, chopped Coriander, Curry Leaves. Add sufficient water to this and mix well. Prepare into a batter.

Now in a deep frying pan, heat oil on medium flame. Take small amoun tof dough in your hand and release into the heated oil in small quantity to prepare round pakoda's. Fry till golden brown. Prepare all your pakoda's in similar way.

Author's Note
These pakoda's are very tasty and can go as evening snacks. The batter should be just thich enough to be able to release them in the oil into small pieces (The same way we prepare the Onion Bhajji's).

Sabudana Vada

Ingredients
Sabudana - 1 cup
Boiled Potatoes - 2 (Big)
Green Chillies - 3 or 4 (chopped)
Ground nut powder - 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Procedure
Wash Sabudana clean and soak in water for around an hour. Now remove the excess water. Soaking in water would make Sabudana softer.

In a bowl crush the boiled potatoes and add chopped green chillies, ground nut powder, Cumin seeds, Salt and the soaked Sabudana. Mix all these ingredients well.

Now heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Make sure you heat the oil on low flame. Take small amount of dough in your hand and press to make small round shaped vada's. Once the oil is heated, release these vada's slowly in the heated oil and keep stiring. Fry these till golden brown on both sides. Similar way prepare all your vada's.

Author's Note
These goes very well with Tomato Ketchup as an evening snack. This is also prepared during fasting days. The most important thing to consider while preparing these vada's is the dough. It should be just thick enought to prepare into vada's.

Sabudana Dosa

Ingredients
Sabudana - 1/2 cup
Curd - 1 cup (Sour)
Rice Flour - 1/2 Kg
Salt to taste

Procedure
Wash Sabudana clean and soak in the curd for around 8 hours (overnight).

Add Rice flour to this mix of Sabudana and curd. Add salt to taste and mix well into a batter. Batter should be thick enough to prepare the dosa's.

In a non-stick pan take a big tbsp of the batter and spread from the middle towards the edges to prepare dosa. You can garnish this with a mix of onions, green chillies and coriander and your Sabudana Dosa is ready.

Author's Note
This is a simpler dish to make and goes well with the Idli chutney.

Coconut Dosa

Ingredients
Rice - 2 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Coconut - 1
Ginger paste - 1 tbsp
Green Chillies - 4 or 5
Salt to taste

Procedure
Take one medium sized coconut and grind well by cutting into pieces or grate well.

In a bowl take the Rice, Urad dal and wash well. Soak in around 3 to 4 cups of water and leave aside for 2 to 3 hours. Remove the excess water and set aside for grinding.

In a mixture/grinder jar take the rice, urad dal, grated coconut, ginger, green chillies, salt and grind all these. Leave aside for 2 hours and your batter is ready. Prepare the dosa's in the non-stick pan and your Green Dosa's are ready to savor.

Author's Note
This dosa goes very well with the Groundnut Chutney or Idli Chutney.

Green Dosa

Ingredients
Rice - 3 cups
Urad dal - 3/4 cup
Fenu Greek (Methi seeds) - 1 tbsp
Coriander - 1 cup chopped
Curry Leaves - 1/4 cup
Tomato - 2
Green Chillies - 4 nos

Procedure
In a bowl take Rice, Urad dal, Fenu Greek and wash well. Now add 5 cups of water to this and put aside for 4 to 5 hours. Now remove the excess of water from this.

In a mixture/grinder jar take the above ingredients and add Coriander, Curry leaves, Tomatoes, Green Chillies and grind well. Add sufficient amount of water while grinding (The grinded paste should be just enough fluidy to maste the dosa's).

Now ferment this batter overnight and the next day morning before making dosa's add salt to taste and mix well. And prepare the dosa's in the non-stick pan and your Green Dosa's are ready to savor.

Author's Note
This dosa goes very well with the Groundnut Chutney or Idli Chutney.

Idli Crush Lemon Bagar

Ingredients
Idli's - 4 nos
Groundnuts - 2 tbsp
Lemon Juice - 3 tbsp
Coriander - 1 tbsp finely chopped
Green Chillies - 2 or 3 nos
Red Chillies - 2 nos
Rai (Mustard seeds) - 1/4 tbsp
Curry Leaves - 7 or 8 nos
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Hing (Astofida) - 1 pinch
Salt to taste
Oil to taste

Procedure
In a bowl crush the Idli's and add Lemon juice to this and mix well. Heat oil in a frying pan, add dry ground nuts very well. Then add red chillies, mustard seeds, curry leaves, hing and green chillies (cut lengh-wise but not chopped). Fry very well and then remove from the flame. Add this into the above Idli mixture. And your Idli crushed Lemon Bagar is ready to savor.

Author's Note
A very tasty and easy to prepare dish. All you need is few idli's (usually you have idli's left over from your previous breakfast, you can use those to
prepare a good evening snack).

Idli Chops Chat Masala

Ingredients
Idli - 4 nos
Mirchi Bhajji - 2 nos
Murmure - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Tomato - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Green Peas - 1/2 cup boiled
Coriander - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
Mint - 1 tbsp chopped
Green Chillies - 2 to 3 nos
Chat Masala - 1/4 tbsp
Red Chilli powder - 1/4 tbsp
Garam Masala - 1/4 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure
In a bowl take murmure, onions, chopped green chillies, bhajji's, peas, coriander, mint, red chillies powder, chat masala, garam masala, salt and crushed idli's, tomatoes. Mix all the above ingredients well in a bowl.

Now add the lemon juice to the above mix and mix well. And your Idli chat masala is ready to eat.

Author's Note
This is very tasty and very simple to make. Specially, children would like it most. All you need is few idli's (usually you have idli's left over from your previous breakfast, you can use those to prepare a good evening snack).

Idli Curd Bagar

Ingredients
Idli's - 4 nos
Yoghurt - 2 cups
Milk - 1 cup
Coconut (wet) - 1/2 cup
Coriander (chopped) - 2 tbsp
Green Chillies - 2 or 3 nos
Red Chillies - 2 nos
Curry Leaves - 5 or 6 nos
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1/2 tbsp
Rai (Mustard seeds) - 1/4 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure
In a bowl take yoghurt and milk and mix well. In this bowl add the grinded coconut, Coriander, chopped green chillies, and salt. Mix all these ingredients well. Now crush the idli's and mix in the yoghurt and milk mix.

Now in a frying pan heat oil and add red chillies, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves and pour over the above mix to serve hot. And your idli bagar is ready.

Author's Note
This is very helpful to reduce the body heat and easy to prepare once you have the idli's ready.

Thairu Bhajji

Ingredients
Gram Flour - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 2 tbsp
Green Chillies - 2 or 3
Baking Soda - 1/2 tbsp
Coriander
Ginger Paste - 1 tbsp
Jeera (Cumin seeds) - 1 tbsp
Yoghurt/Curd - around 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Procedure
In a bowl take Gram flour, Rice flour, Baking soda, Green Chillies paste, Ginger paste, with sufficient yoghurt. Mix well all the above ingredients and max a hard paste (The paste should be relatively thick).

Not heat oil in a frying pan. Put small small bhajji's in the oil and fry till golden brown. In a plate take the kitchen paper and remove the excess oil after frying. Make all your Thairu bhajji's like this.

Author's Note
These Bhajji's are easy to make and very tasty to savour. When you have sudden guests at any hour of the day these comes in handy and goes very well with a ketchup.

Potato Bhajji (Aloo Pakoda)

Ingredients
Gram Flour - 1 cup
Rice Flour - 2 tbsp
Baking Soda - 1/2 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tbsp
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Potatoes - 3 or 4 (Big cut into round slices after peeling them. Alternately, you can keep the Potato cover without peeling.)

Procedure
In a bowl take Gram flour, Rice flour, Baking soda, Red Chilli Powder, Salt and mix well by adding sufficient quantity of water (It should be semi-fluidy paste). Keep aside for soem time.
Take the potatoes and peel them (if you don't want to have the cover) and cut into round slices. Soak them in salted water and keep for half an hour. Remove the Potato slices from the water and let dry.

Now heat the oil in a frying pan. Dip the potato slices in the Gram flour paste and heat in oil. Fry it till golden color. In a plate take the kitchen paper and remove the excess oil after frying. Make all your potato bhajji's like this.

Author's Note
Similarly you can prepare Banana Bhajji's (Banana Pakoda's), Karela Bhajji, Kidney Beans Bhajji, Spinach Bhajji, Pan ke Patte Bhajji, Brinjal Bhajji and so
on. These Bhajji's go very well with Tomato Ketchup (Preferably Hot 'n Sweet).