As I planned my list, I couldn't help but think of all the combined cooking and potluck with my buddies in Miami the last few years. Well, this year was a different kind of combined cooking, Maha and I synced up through the phone to prepare our spread. While she braved about 10+ items, I kept my menu short and simple with mixture, ribbon pakora & ghee mysore pak.
I followed Anusha's recipe for the mixture. I made a few changes, I skipped the boondi, I also threw in some halved cashews and I used Planters roasted and lightly salted peanuts. You will also notice (in the pictures) that some of my cornflakes is fried. Well, I started frying them and realized they drink too much oil so I skipped the idea.
I twisted Anusha's recipe from last year's spread a little bit.
Ingredients:
Besan (kadalai maavu) - 1 cup
Rice flour (arisi maavu) - 2 cups
Salt - 2 tsp
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Heeng (perungayam) - 1/4 tsp
Unsalted butter - 1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) at room temperature
Water - enough to make a smooth dough.
Sift rice flour and besan together. Add salt, chilli powder and heeng. Now add the butter and mix well. Slowly add water and knead the dough. Place the ball inside a press (known as murukku nazhi) with the ribbon pakoda attachment in it. Press over hot oil and cook till crisp and light brown color (ribbon gets darker when cooled). Store in air-tight container.
Notes: you don't want to make the dough to too loose or sticky like you did for the omapodi. When you press it through the "press", it should be just a little bit tight. You know you've added too much water if it is too easy to press and when this happens, you will see the ribbon drink a lot of oil and form oil pockets/bubbles. If this happens, you can always add more besan and/or rice flour to fix the consistency. Again, if the dough is way too tight to squeeze out of the "press", you can add some water.
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| Mixture |
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| Ribbon Pakora |
Ingredients:
Besan (kadalai maavu) - 1 cup
Rice flour (arisi maavu) - 2 cups
Salt - 2 tsp
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Heeng (perungayam) - 1/4 tsp
Unsalted butter - 1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) at room temperature
Water - enough to make a smooth dough.
Sift rice flour and besan together. Add salt, chilli powder and heeng. Now add the butter and mix well. Slowly add water and knead the dough. Place the ball inside a press (known as murukku nazhi) with the ribbon pakoda attachment in it. Press over hot oil and cook till crisp and light brown color (ribbon gets darker when cooled). Store in air-tight container.
Notes: you don't want to make the dough to too loose or sticky like you did for the omapodi. When you press it through the "press", it should be just a little bit tight. You know you've added too much water if it is too easy to press and when this happens, you will see the ribbon drink a lot of oil and form oil pockets/bubbles. If this happens, you can always add more besan and/or rice flour to fix the consistency. Again, if the dough is way too tight to squeeze out of the "press", you can add some water.
Happy Diwali Anu.. Please pass some of your cooking skills and motivation for working in the kitchen, this side too..
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