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

Krishna Janmashtami - Vrat friendly Dinner

Shri krishna Janmashtami celebration has always been a very special festival for Mumbai people. Ritual of breaking Dahi Handi is a unique feature of Mumbai Gokulashtami celebration . Every year in Mumbai I celebrated this festival with great enthusiasm. One of my favorite part of this festival was eating DahiKala. It is prasad made with mix of poha, yogurt, pickles, peanuts, fresh coconut, cilantro. It used to be big collective effort to feed DahiKala as Prasad to all neighborhood residents. DahiKala has very intriguing taste.. sweet, sour with strong pickle aroma.

This year I celebrated Krishna Janmashtami by doing simple Krishna Pooja and cooked sattvik Vrat friendly dinner on the day of Gokulashtami.

Krishna Janmashtami Greetings to all my readers and followers.

Vrat Friendly dinner for Gokulashtami ...Scroll down for recipes.

• Samo Rice (Varicha Bhat/Moraiyo )
• Raw Peanut Curry on top of Samo rice
• Plantain stir-fry with Jeera Tadka
• Pedha - made from Banana Halwa
• Spicy Rajgira flour Paratha with potato and peanuts
• Cucumber Raita infused with Cilantro

Cooking Samo Rice

Ingredients :-

• 1 cup Samo rice - picked and rinsed
• 1 T.spoon butter or Ghee
• 2 cup water

Cooking Method :-

Pick and rinse 1 Cup samo rice, drain water and keep it aside. Boil 2 Cups water in a two quart pot. Once it starts boiling add 1 tsp butter or ghee. Add Samo rice and let it simmer for 2 minutes. Add some salt. Reduce heat to lowest setting . Cover pot with lid and leave it on stove for 10-12 minutes. Open the lid and stir at least 3-4 times while cooking. All water will get absorbed by rice and you will have nice fluffy cooked samo rice ready in just 15 minutes.
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Raw Peanut Curry Recipe

Ingredients :-

• 1 Cup soaked raw peanuts
• 2-3 Green chilies
• 1 T.spoon oil
• 8-10 curry leaves
• 1 T.spoon Jeera (cumin)

Cooking Method :-

Soak 1 cup peanuts in water for 8 hours. (You can use skinless raw peanuts to avoid work of peeling peanut skins after they are soaked to tender.) In a small blender jar add soaked raw peanuts+ 2-3 green chilies+ half cup water - Grind to fine paste.
In a small size heavy bottom pot heat 1 tsp oil..add 8-10 curry leaves.. let them sizzle for 15 seconds..quickly add 1 tsp Jeera..stir for 5-6 seconds. Pour ground raw peanut paste - stir continuously with wooden spoon for 2-3 minutes on medium heat. Add 1.5 cup water +salt and simmer it for 6-7 minutes on medium low heat. Enjoy with samo rice / Rajgira Paratha. Generally this curry is made with roasted peanuts but raw peanuts gives a very refreshing milky taste to the curry.

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Plantain Stir Fry

Ingredients :-

• 1 Raw banana or plantain
• 1/2 T.spoon cumin
• 2 green chilies
• 5-6 curry leaves
• 1 T.spoon oil

Cooking Method :-

Peel the skin of one Plantain and cut in diagonal slices, 1/8 inch each. Heat 1 tsp oil. Add chopped green chilies+1/2 tsp cumin + 5-6 curry leaves. Saute for 15 seconds and add sliced plantains. Stir for one minute on high heat. Add 1/4 cup water and let it cook on medium heat for 3-4 minutes. Increase  the heat and stir fry with wooden spoon until all water dries up and plantain is cooked to tender.

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Pedha with Banana Halwa

Ingredients :-

• 1 Ripe Banana
• 1 Tb.spoon Butter or Ghee
• 4 Tb.spoon sweetened Condensed milk
• 4-5 cardamom pods - finely powdered
  
• 5-6 Almonds - roughly chopped
  
• 1 Tb.spoon - golden raisins
  
• 1/2 T.spoon corn starch or Rice flour

Cooking Method :-

Heat 1 tbs butter or Ghee in small open skillet. Add one sliced ripe banana and stir fry with wooden spoon for five minutes or until banana forms into thick pulp. Now add chopped almonds,raisins and cardamom powder. Stir to mix with banana pulp - about 2 minutes.

Pour 4 tbs condensed milk into skillet - continuously stir for 3-4 minutes on medium heat.

Mix 1/2 tsp corn starch in 1 tbs water , make paste and add to skillet. ( I added little roasted rajgira flour for binding) Mix well..reduce heat to low and let it cook till oil separates and shine all over Halwa. Keep stirring at regular interval until halwa thickens and gets nice brown tone - about another 4-5 minutes.

After it cools down give desired shape, decorate top with raisins/almonds and enjoy as pedha or Burfi.

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Cucumber Raita

Ingredients :-

• 1 Tender Cucumber (5-6 inch long)
• 1/2 Cup Yogurt
• 2 Green chilies
• 1/2 Cup fresh cilantro - finely chopped
• 2 pinches of sugar

Peel and Cut cucumber into medium pieces. Beat yogurt in a bowl. Add cucumber, finely chopped cilantro and green chilies..season with salt and little sugar.

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Rajgira /Amarnath flour mini paratha with potato and peanuts

Ingredients :-

• 2 Cup - mashed potato ( tightly pressed)
• 3/4 cup roasted peanuts - coarsely crushed
• 1 Cup Rajgira flour - roasted
• 1 Cup chopped cilantro
• 4-5 Green chilies - finely chopped
• 1 T.spoon Ghee/butter

Cooking Method :-

Roast Rajgira flour in a heavy bottom skillet by adding 1 tsp butter/ghee. Roast slowly on medium low heat by continuously stirring with wooden spoon. Roast for at least 10-12 minutes. Let it cool. Keep it aside.

Mix mashed potatoes, coarsely ground peanuts, chopped cilantro ,finely chopped green chilies, salt and roasted Rajgira flour. Combine and form dough. If required sprinkle little water. Moist fingers with oil for ease while working with the flour. Make 10-12 dough balls . You will have to use palm and fingers to prepare those mini parathas. Refer the post of Rice Pathiri and read step C . In the similar manner make 3-4 inch diameter parathas and griddle fry them on medium heat until they turn light brown on both sides. Do drizzle few drops of oil while frying parathas on griddle.