Home made Purple Sweet Potato Chips and Plantain Chips {Black and White Wednesday # 95}

This week for Black and White Wednesday event I am submitting image of  home made Purple sweet potato chips and plantain chips.  I made these chips over labour Day long weekend for evening  tea time snack. I had two green raw Plantains and one  purple sweet potato, It took me around 45 minutes to prepare these deep fried chips. I simply peeled the skin of plantains and sweet potato, directly sliced it over oil Kadhai. My slicer blade makes extra thin slices. Per banana I got above 100 chips and total yield was little over two cups. Sweet potato, I got 1.5 cups chips. I seasoned  chips with  extra fine ground sea salt.

Deepali  from Lemon In Ginger  is hosting Black and White Wednesday Event #95. Susan, author of TheWell Seasoned Cook is a founder of this event. Now Cinzia of  Cindystarblog is a new admin for Susan's Black and White Wednesday Event. For all guidelines  and an index of  all future event hosting blogs please check Cinzia's  post here. Participants can join Flickr group created for B&W event. Next event (BWW #96, 11th Sept-2013) will be hosted by Haalo  of  Cook allmost anything.

Home made Purple Sweet Potato chips & Plantain Chips

Black and White Wednesday
 Event #95, 4th Sept-2013

Fritters with Florida hot chilies, Onion, Cilantro leaves and Cilantro stems. {Pyaz-Dhania-Hari Mirch ke Pakore/Bhajia} {Gluten free, Eggless Fritters}

I made Bhajia after a long gap. I had few Florida Hot green chilies in fridge and this weeks Cilantro bunch was extra grown with thick and very long stems, almost 20 inches long. I wanted to make use of these stems so combined  them with Florida hot green chilies and onions. I didn't make traditional style besan batter instead allowed dry besan to get moist with chili, oinion, cilantro juices. I used water spray to make pakora mixture slightly damp  for easy moulding into crab like or birds nest like shape. I made these bhajias for evening tea time snack but by the time I finished it got too dark so image taken at night was not very sharp, I saved two fritters to click image next day. I ate up one fritter thinking it is not possible to click just two fritters but at the same time I don't wanted to miss recording first attempt of this combination of fritters. Imagination and instinct helped me to put some styling around single fritter, I am glad I decided to take an  image, it was good experience in food styling which is required for food blogging. These fritters are very versatile and  can be made with variety of  veggie combinations.

Ingredients :
Makes more than 20 Fritters.

• 1 medium Onion - Sliced thin lengthwise. (2 cup loosely packed yield.)
• Handful Cilantro Stems -  2 inch long. (30-40 pieces)
• 6-7 Florida Hot green chilies - slice into 1 cm broad and 2 inch long strips,30-35 pieces ( If using regular green chilies, slice lengthwise into three or four parts. Use around 8-10 chilies or less for mild heat.)
• 1 +1/4 Cup Besan (gram flour)
• 2 Cup Cilantro leaves - roughly chopped
• 2 Cup Oil - for frying
• 1 water spray bottle.
• 1 Tb.spoon Chat Masala to sprinkle over bhajia. (optional)

Method of preparing fritters/Pakode :

1. Cut onion length wise into two parts then slice lengthwise into  thin slices. Place them in a medium size bowl.
2. Clean and rinse cilantro, separate stems and leaves. Cut hard stems into two inch sticks, if stems are too thick like  your little finger, slit into two or three pieces. Roughly chop cilantro leaves and tender stems.  Transfer stems and leaves in the same bowl.
3. I used full grown Florida hot chilies which were 7-8 inch long, so I have to cut them in 2-3 parts and then slit into 2 inch long sticks. Check the image of bowl  to see  cilantro stems and sliced green chilies. I removed veins and seeds from few green peppers to reduce heat. Transfer chili sticks to a  bowl.
4. Spread  1 + 1/4 cup Besan and salt over chopped ingredients, stir thoroughly with spoon to get all fritter ingredients properly coated with besan flour. Let it stand for 10-12 minutes, in between stir well,  scoop  grainy textured besan from bottom and scatter it all over.  In the mean time start heating 2 cups oil in a medium size kadhai over very low heat. Once  besan clings to onion and chilies try to pick  lime size mixture, pat with fingers into flat fritter shape, if it roughly holds together then you are ready to start frying. Test and adjust salt level. You can once spray water over mixture to speed up binding process. You have two ways to form  these fritters either by using fingers  or patting it over plate or plastic sheet.
5. Method :  1) Grab 1/4 cup quantity or lime size mixture with your  five merged finger tips. Place mixture over merged four finger surface. Gently spray very little water over fritter to make it little more moist, by using thumb pat and bind  mixture into flat fritter. I did this by using only right hand. Don't pat into fine round shape, allow few onion, green chili and cilantro stems to spread outward. This will give birds nest / Crab  like appeal to each fritter. Before starting to fry make sure oil is not smoking hot. For testing temperature pick one piece of onion from mixture, drop it in the oil, it should quickly sizzle with bubbles all around and rise up to the oil surface but should not quickly change shade. If it gets dark then reduce heat to low for 4-5 minutes then start frying. Once fritter  binds well slowly drop it in the oil, continue to bind  more fritters, fry 6-7 fritters in each batch. Fry over medium heat, turning occasionally with slotted spoon/ Zara  until golden.(2-3 minutes each batch)  Remove from oil  using slotted spoon, drain on absorbent  paper towel lined basket or tray. Quickly sprinkle little chat masala for extra flavor. Continue back  working with  more fritter batches. At end mixture gets more moist, you may not need to use spray for last batch. You can add some more sliced onion, sprinkle some besan flour in the last batch to maintain nest / crab like fritter shape.
6. Method :  2) Above method may be little difficult to follow so instead of using hands you can pat each fritter over slightly greased thick plastic sheet (cut gallon size freezer bag), banana leaf or medium size thin flat plate. Shape 3-4 fritters at a time and gently slide in oil using knife or spatula. Fry as explained above. Use caution while frying fritters. Serve with sweet-sour tamarind date chutney or ketchup.

Indian Gluten free and eggless Fritters.

Extra long Florida hot green chillies.

Food Styling- 4 flowers of sage, 1 curly mint leaf, ketchup and
root portion of betroot, peeled, sliced and arranged.

Sweet Potato Bhajia with Samo rice flour - Crunchy Spicy treat for Mahashivratri Fast.

My warm MahaShivaratri wishes to all  followers, readers and visitors. Lord Shiva's blessings may always be with you. Today I made spicy sweet potato (shakkarkand,ratale) bhajia with samo rice flour, since samo flour do not contain gluten I used mashed potato for binding. Cumin and green chili added zest. Fritters turned extra crispy and delicious. This is easy and delicious fasting treat.

Pictures of Lord Shiva Pooja done at home with offerings of Belpatra,

Belfal, Dhatura leaf and fruit, Bhang leaves. (Picture credits - S)

Sweet potato / ShakarKandi Bhajia Recipe

Ingredients :-

• 2 Cup Sweet potato (ratale,shakkar kand) cut into juliennes (just like matchstick, I used julienne slicer)
• 4-5 Green chilies - finely crushed
• 1/2 Cup Samo rice flour
• 4 Tb.spoon - Instant mashed potato flakes or you can use 1/2 Cup boiled finely mashed potato.
• 1 T.spoon - Cumin
• 1/4 Cup water to bind batter/mixture ( you may need little extra)
• 2 Cup oil for deep frying

Process of making Sweet potato Fritters :-

1. In a medium size bowl combine julienned sweet potato, salt,  finely crushed chilies, samo rice flour, cumin and mashed potato flakes. Slowly add water and stir-mix with wooden spoon. You may use fingers to combine all ingredients together. Batter/Mixture should be thick and not flowy, it should just coat around sweet potatoes.
2. Heat 2 cup oil in wok/Kadhai. Drop tiny piece of sweet potato in oil; it should quickly rise up to the top and should not quickly get dark. This is the  indication of right oil temperature. I dropped fritters with fingers, if you have no prior experience to use fingers then use dinner spoon.
3. Merge five fingers together and pick one tablespoon quantity batter and slowly drop into oil. Avoid making exact round shape to get nice crab like shape. Drop  6-8 fritters at a time and fry each side for at least 1.5 minutes or until fritters turn golden and crispy. After frying two batches if mixture gets a bit flowy then sprinkle some samo flour/ potato flakes or add more sweet potato.
4. Remove from oil and set them on paper towel lined plate. You can make about 25 fritters. Enjoy with peanut-coconut chutney.

Peanut and Coconut Chutney

Ingredients :-

• 1/4 Cup - Fresh coconut
• 1/4 Cup Roasted peanuts
• 3-4 Green chilies
• 1/2 Cup water

Process :-

Combine coconut, roasted peanuts, green chilies and salt  into small blender jar - Add half cup water and grind to fine paste.

Spicy Samo Rice-Potato Fritters/Vada/Bhajia

Cooking something interesting out of leftover food always strike spontaneously. I had one cup left over cooked samo rice from Janmashtami dinner. First I thought to eat with some curry..later thought to use it up in dosa batter..but imaginations ended on idea of making Bhajia/fritters/Vada out of left over samo rice. Fritters tasted very delicious and this recipe is worth repeating again and has lot of room for trying variations.
Season is slowly changing in NC..it is still very hot but we had few pleasant chilled mornings..Look at the below picture, I have placed very first three leaves picked from backyard with beautiful fall color tone.

Ingredients :-

• 1 Cup cooked samo rice - (heaped and firmly pressed)
• 1.5 cup boiled mashed potatoes.
• 1 Egg
• 4-5 green chilies (reduce if need mild hot)
  
• 1 inch ginger piece
• 3-4 garlic cloves
• 8-10 stems of cilantro along with leaves - roughly chopped
  
• Oil to fry ( upto 2 cups)
• 1-2 Tb.spoon rice flour/besan/instant mashed potato flakes. (if required for binding)
  

Preparation :-

• A) mash boiled potato. I use cheese grater to get fine texture for potato. Keep it aside.
• B) Beat one egg. Keep it aside
• C) Combine green chilies, ginger , garlic , cilantro in small jar of blender and coarsely grind.

Method of preparing fritters/Vada :-

1. In a medium size bowl , combine the samo rice with all ingredients mentioned in step A,B,C. Add salt and blend thoroughly with a mixing spoon until the mixture has the consistency of a soft dough. If you find dough too soft to handle , add little rice flour or Besan or instant mashed potato flakes.
   
2. On a medium hot temperature heat the 1.5 cup oil in a Kadhai /deep frying pan. Drop peanut size dough in oil, if it bubbles and quickly floats on top - that indicates oil is ready to fry.
3. Collect 1 inch size ball of dough and give desired shape..like I made few flat round ones and few oblong shape. Gently slide fritters into the hot oil. Fry until fritters turn golden brown. Fry for 1.5 minutes each side by turning them at interval.
   
4. Drain on paper towels and serve hot with any type of Hot-sweet-sour chutney or ketchup.
   

Samo Potato Vada

Bhajia / Pakora with Sprouted Moong Beans

It was a pleasant evening , cravings were perfect to enjoy some deep fried snack...Cup full sprouted Moong Beans were laying in my fridge..so decided to make Bhajia/Pakora by adding them to regular Bhajia batter. I made delicious chat chutney without Tamarind and Dates. You must try this quick chutney made from Jamaican Jerk sauce which tastes as tempting as Sweet-Sour Chat chutney.For earlier Tofu-Onion-Bhajia/Pakoda recipe click here....

Ingredients :-

• 1 Cup Sprouted Moong beans.
• 1 Cup Besan (chick Pea flour)
• 1 large size onion - roughly chopped
• 5-6 green chilies - finely chopped
• 1 Cup fresh Cilantro -roughly chopped
• 1/4 Cup water
• 1/4 T.spoon baking soda
• 1/2 T.spoon Ajwain seeds (owa)
  
• Oil for deep frying - 2 cups

Method of making Bhajia :-

1. Take a medium size bowl - Add 1 cup Besan with 1/4 cup water. Beat well , remove all lumps and make fine thick paste.
2. Add salt, ajwain seeds, chopped onions, green chilies, cilantro - Combine well.
3. Put sprouted beans and baking soda - gently mix in the batter. If you find batter too dry and thick while mixing then add little water.
4. Heat 2 cups oil in Kadhai or as much as you need for 2-inch depth. (It will depend on your Kadhai)
   
5. To test oil temperature - Drop peanut size batter into the oil , if it quickly raises to surface and floats at top that indicates oil is ready for frying pakora. It should not quickly turn brown and maintain bright yellow color.Always maintain medium heat and in between you may increase little heat but quickly decrease it back to medium heat.
6. For dropping pakodas in oil you can use regular eating spoon . If you are familiar with dropping Pakora with hand then merge tips of all five finger together..dip them in batter and collect walnut size batter , gently place 6-10 pakoras in each batch carefully -Fry frequently turning with slotted spoon or Zara for at least 2 minutes or until each bhajia turns light brown.
7. Take out fried bhajia from oil and place them on the tray lined with paper towel.Repeat next batch..you can make around 20-25 bhajia/pakora. Serve them hot with sweet sour chutney or ketchup.
   

Quick Sweet-Sour Chutney with Jamaican Jerk sauce :-

• Take 1/4 cup Jerk sauce. ( World Harbors Jamaican Jerk Sauce.)
• 4-5 green chilies
• 2 small Galic cloves
• 1 Cup tightly pressed - roughly chopped fresh cilantro
• 10-15 fresh mint leaves
• 1/2 T.spoon Chat Masala
• 1/4 T.spoon black salt (Sanchar)
  
• 1 T.spoon Vinegar
  

Mix and finely grind all above ingredients in a small jar of blender...your sweet and sour chutney is ready... Enjoy with hot Pakodas/ Bhajia...also this chutney can be perfectly relished as "All-In-One-Chat-Chutney".

Tofu and Onion Bhajia - (Onion Tofu Fritters)

Kanda Bhajia is very popular Indian appetizer and tea time snack, one of the highly craved snack during wet and cold weather. I made little variation to regular onion bhajia by adding tofu cubes and served them with green chutney made with sweet relish, fresh cilantro and green chilies.

Ingredients :-

• 2 cup Besan.
• 1/2 cup Water.
• 2 large size Onion cut lengthwise.
• 1 cup chopped fresh Cilantro.
• 9-10 chopped Green chilies.
• 2 cups cubed Tofu- 1/2 inch size - Gently squeeze out water and lightly marinate with salt.
• 1 T.spoon Ajwain (carom seeds)
• Salt as per taste.
• Canola oil for frying.
  

Method Of Preparation :-

1. Take 3-4 quart glass or stainless steel bowl. Add 2 cups besan, salt, Ajwain, chopped chillies and cilantro. Mix all well.
2. Add lengthwise cut onions and coat them well with besan mixture. Add half cup water and stir well. Leave mixture in bowl for 10 minutes.
3. As mixture turns more moist add Tofu cubes and gently mix all batter.
4. Heat oil in Kadhai/Wok. Once oil get hot maintain medium hot temperature. For checking right temperature add little batter through small spoon in Kadhai. Fritter should quickly float on top with lots of bubbles around. It should not quickly turn dark brown.
5. For dropping fritters in oil you can either use spoon, small serving tong or hands. I find it comfortable to use hands. Merge all five finger tips together and dip in batter. Collect walnut size batter and gently drop into Kadhai. You need to be quick and cautious in this step. Make sure you grab onion pieces and tofu pieces in each pick.
6. For each batch drop 8-12 fritters into Kadhai and fry them turning to both sides for at least 2-3 minutes. Be watchful on flames. Always maintain medium heat and in between you may rise temperature little higher but quickly get back to medium heat.
7. Once you see all fritters turn golden brown and appear crisp in texture, remove them from oil and place it on open large plate layered with paper napkins.
8. You will be able to make at least 40 fritters with this quantity.
9. Serve them hot with following Green Hot-Sweet-Sour Chutney or ketchup.

Chutney :-

• 4 Tb.spoon Sweet Relish.
  
• 1/2 Cup chopped fresh Cilantro.
• 6-10 Green chillies. (Adjust as per heat desired)
• 1/2 T.spoon chat masala ( optional)
• Sanchar (rock salt)

How to prepare Green chutney :-

1. Take small jar of blender and add 4 Tb.spoon sweet relish, chopped corriader, green chilies.
2. Blend it to fine paste. Add 1/2 T.spoon chat masala and little rock salt.
3. You may add very little water to have your desired consistency for chutney.

Sweet relish gives sweet and sour taste also it helps to retain green color for longer time.

Spring Rolls - Tempting vegan appetizer with Indian twist.

I love making those spring rolls. Sweetness of corn+green peas+carrot and hotness of ginger and green chillies give it zesty taste.Try those refreshing colorful crunchy spring rolls.

Ingredients :-

1. One Medium size onion - finely chopped.
2. 8 Big size cloves of Garlic - finely crushed.
3. 2 inch piece of ginger - finely crushed.
4. 6-7 Green chillies - finely chopped.
5. 2 cups frozen Green peas. (preferably use petite peas).
6. 2 cups frozen Corn.
7. 1 cup grated carrot.
8. 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro.
9. 1 Tb.spoon cooking oil and little salt for making filling.
10. half cup all purpose flour - Add some water and make thick paste.
11. Oil to fry Spring Rolls.
12. Packet of Spring roll sheets ( 50 count packet of medium size).

Method Of Preparation :- ( Spring roll filling)

1. Heat 1 Tb.spoon oil and add chopped onions. Stir it for 4 minutes on high heat.
2. Add crushed Garlic,Ginger and green chillies. Stir for 2 minutes on medium heat.
3. Add grated Carrot and stir for 2 minutes.
4. Add Green peas and corn. Add some salt. Stir for 5 minutes and high heat. Shut off the Gas.
5. Let it cool for some time. Now add fresh chopped cilantro.

Method of Making/Frying Spring Rolls :-

1. Keep Spring roll sheets out from freezer for One hour.
2. At a time take 4-6 spring roll sheets and spread on counter. Fill One Tb.spoon of prepared filling. Fold the spring rolls as per instructions on the packet.
3. At last fold stage apply little paste of all purpose flour at top corner and close the spring roll.
4. Heat the oil and set gas at medium temperature. Gently drop the spring rolls and fry them for 3-4 minutes. Do turn them in between. After frying keep them on Paper towel.
5. Enjoy them with sweet and sour tamrind chutney or Ranch.

Note :-

1. If you find little water in filling then add 1 Tb.spoon potato spuds. Watery filling might break spring roll and crack while frying.
2. As you fold spring roll be gentle and roll it tight.
3. While frying take care that spring rolls are not broken. Broken spring roll will spoil oil and give stains on remaining spring rolls. Proper folding will avoid this mess.