Ridge Gourd Dip For Dosa, Idly / Peerkangai Chutney / Peerkangai thogial

Preparation time: 10 mins
Quantity: Serves 3

Ingredients:

• Ridge Gourd - 1 Long
• Onion - 1 Medium
• Tomato - 1 Medium
• Green Chillies - 3
• Rock Salt - To taste
• Asafetida - 1/4 tsp
• Tamarind pulp - 1/2 tsp (optional)

To Temper:

• Oil - For tempering
• Curry Leaves - 1 strand
• Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard - 1/2 tsp
• Asafetida - 1/4 tsp

Method:

• Remove the skin of Ridge gourd and roughly chop them into medium / small pieces
• Chop Onion and Tomato roughly
• Heat Oil in a pan and add green chillies and fry for a min. Add Onions and Fry until translucent.
• Add chopped tomatoes and cook till it becomes soft
• Add chopped ridge gourd and add very little water and cook covered for 3-4 mins or until the ridge gourd becomes soft.
• Allow the mixture to cool and transfer it to a grinding jar.
• Add salt, asafetida, and tamarind pulp and grind them all to a fine paste.
• Heat a oil for tempering and add, mustard seeds, urad dal, asafetida, and curry leaves.
• Add the tempering to the ground paste.
• Serve with Idly, Dosa, white rice.

Beetroot aloo tikki

Preparation Time 20 minutes

Quantity serves 4

Ingredients

• Beetroot - 1 big
• Potatoes - 2 medium 
• Onion - 2 medium
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp 
• Chilly powder - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste 
• Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
• Chaat masala - 1/2 tsp
• Amchur powder - 1/2 tsp
• Corn flour - 1 tsp
• Bread slices - 4
• Sooji / rava - to coat patties 
• Water - to cook veggies

Method

• Peel and boil beetroot and potatoes with salt and water. Cook until half done,  strain water, and grate it. 
• Grate onions and add to grated beet and potatoes 
• Add all the spices one by one and mix well 
• Add corn flour and crumbled bread and mix well 
• Leave aside for 5 minutes so that the bread will absorb the moisture and the dough will be easy to shape into patties 
• Make patties of desired shape and size
• Roll them over the Sooji and coat all over 
• Shallow fry in a hot pan 
• Serve hot with ketchup 

My Notes

• You can also shallow fry without coating in sooji
• If there is more moisture in the dough add few more bread slices. It will help to bind the dough well and make them into desired shapes.

Potato Cheese Balls

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Quantity: Serves 3

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 3 large boiled and mashed

Fresh green peas - 1/2 cup

Onion - 1 medium chopped

Spring Onion – 1 strand

Chilly sauce – 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Pepper Powder – ½ tsp

CornFlour - 2 tblsp

Water – ¼ cup

Breadcrumbs - 1 cup

Mozarella Cheese - cut into small cubes

Oil - for Deep Frying

Method:

• Boil potatoes, peel and mash them finely.
• Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, add onions, peas and spring onion leaves and stir until the peas gets soft.
• Add Chilly sauce, salt, pepper and stir well. Finally add mashed potatoes and mix well. Turn down the flame and allow it to cool.
• Make a thin batter using corn flour and water. Keep aside.
• Cut cheese into small cubes and keep aside.
• Make the potato mixture into balls and insert the cheese cube in middle of the ball. Ensure that the cheese is not seen outside.
• Dip it in the corn flour batter and roll it in the bread crumbs.
• Deep fry them in hot oil and serve hot with ketchup

My notes:

• Make sure the corn flour batter is thin. It is just to bind the bread crumbs.
• Heat the oil in high flame and once the oil is ready, turn the flame to medium. Else the balls will be burnt and become dark brown.
• If you do not have bread crumbs handy, you can just crumble few rusk pieces and use it, though it tastes little different.
• Easy way to make bread crumbs is to put bread in a pop up toaster and crumble them.