Schezwan Aloo Soya

Ingredients

Baby Potatoes - 10
Mini Soya Chunks - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 (chopped)
Capsicum (chopped) - 1/4 cup
Grated Ginger - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 2 pods (finely chopped)
Tomato Sauce - 2 tbsp
Soya Sauce - 1 tsp
Red Chillies - 12
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Corn Flour - 1 tsp
Salt - To taste
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp (optional)


Procedure

Wash and cook baby potatoes.  Peel skin once cooled.  Keep aside.  If baby potatoes are not available, use the regular potatoes and cut into pieces after boiling.

Wash the soya chunks and soak in hot water for 10-15 minutes.  Then, squeeze out the water from the soya chunks and keep aside.

Soak red chillies in hot water for 10-15 minutes and then grind to smooth paste adding enough water.

Heat oil in a pan and add grated ginger, finely chopped garlic, and chopped onions and saute till golden.

Add the ground chilli paste, tomato sauce, soya sauce, salt, and sugar.  Mix well.

Add the boiled and peeled baby potatoes and squeezed soya chunks.  Mix together well.

Add about 1/4 cup of water to infuse the sauce into the potatoes.  Allow to boil.

Mix corn flour and 2 tbsp of water and add to the gravy.  Allow to thicken to desired consistency.  I allowed to thicken it up well that it appeared as a dry fry.

Add chopped capsicum and saute for 2 minutes.  Allow the capsicum to retain its crunchiness.  Do not cook until soft.

Squeeze lemon and mix.  This step is optional.

Serve hot with fried rice or as a starter.

Notes:

The original recipe used just baby potatoes.  You can use baby potatoes, regular potatoes boiled and cut into cubes, combination of both, and/or soya chunks.  It
all depends on the availability of vegetables with you.

Adjust spiciness according to your taste.

Baked Potato Wedges

Source:

Mrs. Subhashini

Ingredients:

Large Potatoes - 4

Grated Garlic - 2 tsp

Salt - 1 tsp (adjust to taste)

Italian Seasoning - 2 tsp

Olive Oil - 2 tbsp

Cheddar/Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 cup (grated)

Coriander Leaves - 2 tbsp (finely chopped)


Method:

1.  Line a baking tray with butter paper or silicon mat.  Grease with oil or butter evenly throughout.  Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2.  Wash the potatoes and wipe thoroughly with a kitchen towel.  Cut them into wedges.

3.  Add all other ingredients to the sliced potatoes and mix thoroughly to coat over all the potato wedges.

4.  Arrange the potato wedges on the prepared baking tray with the skin side facing down.

5.  If there is left over seasoning-oil mixture, spread them evenly over each of the wedges.

6.  Bake them in a preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes at 200 degrees or until golden.  Bake for 10 more minutes if you want them crispy.  Serve hot with a dip of your choice if desired.

Notes:

1.  Toss the potato wedges with seasoning and oil and keep ready refrigerated until use.  Bake when needed.

2.  These potato wedges can also be fried instead of baking and served hot.

3.  You can use any cooking oil of your choice instead of olive oil.  I used sunflower oil.

4.  For an indianized version, use the indian spices (viz., chilli flakes, chilli powder, jeera powder, pepper powder, chat masala, etc.) instead of the italian spices

Potato Vada/Tikki

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 1 kg (boiled and mashed)

Green Chilli Paste - 1 tbsp

Salt - As per taste

Lime Juice - 1 tbsp

Onions - 3 (finely chopped)

Aval (Rice flakes/beaten rice/Poha) - 1 to 1-1/2 cups 

Rava (semolina) - 1 tbsp

Maida - 1 tbsp


Method:

1.  Wash and soak rice flakes for 10 minutes.  Drain and squeeze the excess water out of the soaked rice flakes.

2.  Mix together boiled and mashed potatoes, soaked rice flakes, maida, rava, salt, green chilly paste, finely chopped onions, and lime juice.

3.  Make tikkis/cutlet-shaped vadas.  Deep fry in hot oil until golden brown and crisp.  Serve hot with sauce of your choice.

Raw Mango Adai (Maangaai Adai)

Source:

Mrs. Sasi Prem


Ingredients:

Sour Raw Mango - 1 medium sized

Par Boiled Rice - 2 cups

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Coconut (scraped) - 1/2 cup

Green Chillies - 12 to 15 medium sized

Salt - As per taste

Asafoetida - A pinch

Potato - 1 (grated)

Carrot - 1 (grated)

Onions - 4 medium sized (finely chopped)

Coriander Leaves (finely chopped) - 1 tbsp


Method:

1.  Wash and soak par boiled rice in hot water for 1 hour.

2.  Wash, peel skin, and cut raw mango into small pieces.

3.  Grind together raw mango, ginger, scraped coconut, salt, asafoetida, green chillies, and soaked rice to a coarse batter using required water to grind.

4.  To the adai batter, add chopped onions, grated potato, grated carrot, and finely chopped coriander leaves and mix well.

5.  Smear oil on a hot tawa and pour small adais and toast on both sides using oil.  Serve hot.

Chilly Potato Crisps

Source:

Mrs. Meera Sathish


Ingredients:

Potato - 1/4 kg

Cornflour - 2 tsp

Maida - 1 tsp

Onions - 2 (finely chopped)

Garlic (finely chopped) - 1 tsp

Ginger (finely chopped) - 1 tsp

Green Chillies (finely chopped) - 3 tsp

Red Chillies - 8

Tomato Sauce - 3 tbsp

Soya Sauce - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Spring Onions - 1 bunch (finely chopped)

Salt - To taste


Procedure:

1.  Make a thick paste of cornflour and maida adding water as required.  Keep aside.

2.  Soak red chillies in lukewarm water for 1 hour.  Strain water and grind red chillies to a smooth paste to make red chilli paste.  If using readily available red chilli paste, use 1/2 tsp of the paste or more according to taste.

3.  Chop potatoes lengthwise as you would do for french fries (finger chips).  Soak in salted water for 10 minutes and strain in a colander and allow to dry.

4.  Mix well the chopped potatoes and cornflour-maida paste and deep fry in oil until golden brown.

5.  In a kadai, heat 4 tsp of oil.  Add chopped onions, chopped garlic, chopped green chillies, and chopped ginger.  Fry them all together until golden brown.  To this, add sugar, soya sauce, tomato sauce, salt, and about 4 to 5 tsp of water and mix well.

6.  Now add the deep fried potatoes to prepared masala paste and mix well until combined.

7.  Sprinkle the chopped spring onions on top and give a quick stir and serve hot.

Vennila Oothappam

Source:

Mrs. Visalakshmi Ravi


Ingredients:

For Oothappam:

Raw Rice - 4 cups

Urad dhal - 1 cup

Salt - As required

Water - As required

Cooking Soda - 1/2 tsp


For Masala Topping:

Green Peas - 1 cup (cooked and slightly mashed)

Carrot - 1 cup (chopped and cooked)

Potato - 1 cup (chopped and cooked)

Bread slices - 2 (cubed and dried)

Cashewnuts - 1 tbsp (broken to pieces and fried in ghee)

Kismis - 1 tbsp (fry in ghee)

Onions - 1 cup (finely chopped)

Tomatoes - 6 (cut lengthwise)

Green Chillies - 2 (chopped lengthwise)

Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp

Tomato Sauce - 1 tbsp

Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp

Salt - To taste

Lime Juice - 1 tsp

Oil - To fry

Ghee - To fry


Method:

Wash and soak rice for 2 hours and urad dhal for 1/2 an hour.  Grind together to a mildly coarse batter (not too smooth) with the required water and salt to idli batter consistency.  Store in a closed vessel, allow to ferment, and use the next day adding the cooking soda just before making oothappams.

To make the masala topping, heat oil in a kadai.  Fry in the oil garam masala powder, long sliced green chillies, finely chopped onions, tomatoes cut lengthwise.  Fry for 2 minutes until well combined.  Add cooked green peas, potatoes, and carrots and stir for a minute.  Add in other ingredients for the masala topping including the fried cashews and kismis and mix well.  Do not add water.  Your masala for topping the oothappam is ready.

To make vennila oothappams, heat dosa tawa and spread oil all over.  Pour a little batter to make small palm sized oothappams and top with the vegetable masala and drizzle oil all around the oothappam.  Make oothappams with closed lid and turn over the oothappams after removing the lid.  Leave it for a minute on the masala topping side and serve hot with desired chutney or any other accompaniment.  This oothappam is complete by itself too and may not require any side dish as such.