Vegetable puffs

It a delicious snack for a lazy evening or a rainy day. My family loves having this. Its also super easy to make and just takes few mins.

Ingrdients:

Boiled potato - 3  medium size
Boiled peas - half can
Finely chopped onion - 2
green chilie - 1
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Fennel powder -1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves - small bunch
mint leaves - few (optional)
Puff pastry - store bought
Oil - 1tbsp
Spices - 1 small stick cinnamon and 2 clove


Add oil in a pan and add the spices, followed by the fennel powder and onion. Fry the onion till golden brown and add the mashed boiled potatoes, and peas. Add chillie powder, turmeric, and keep frying on medium heat for a few mins.You could adjust now the taste as you like by adding garam masala or more chillie powder.  Add salt, chopped mint and coriander leaves.

Vegetable puff mix

Cut a rectangle from the puff pastry of about 5 cm by 10 cm. Now put in some of the prepared mix in the middle of the pastry piece and fold it over as shown in picture. Press the ends together so that they dont open up when being cooked in over or air fryer.

filling up the pastry

corners pressed together and place in the basket of the air fryer over a bake paper.

Now place the vegetable puffs in to the air fryer. This time i put in a backing sheet in the basket as the pastry is sticky and I didnt want it to stick to the basket. Cook it for 8 mins at 180 C by flipping it once at about the 6th min. After 8 mins open the basket and pull of the backing paper and let the puffs fry in the basket for a min or two at 180 C to get the beautiful golden colour and at this point the puffs are already cooked and wouldn't stick anymore.

after 6 minutes of cooking

cooking 2 more minutes without the bake paper.

The whole thing can be don't in bake oven in about 15 mins at 180C

My Verdict: Here the air fryer doesn't reduce the oil as the pastry sheets are loaded with butter i believe, and we fry the mix in a pan with oil. What is better than an oven is it comes out evenly colored, both the sides cook the same way unlike in the bake oven one side is flat even if it is flipped. and is a few mins faster than bake oven.

Gobi manchurian (dry)

I think this is one dish which for sure will be loved by anyone. All Europeans for whom i made this loved it and Indians love it without any doubt.

Preparation time 20 mins

Ingredients:

Cauliflowers - 1 medium size (about 30 pieces)
turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - 1 bunch
oil and salt as required


For making batter:

corn flour - 1 cup

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Rice flour - 2 tbsp (optional)
Onion - 1 medium size finely chopped
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Chili powder - 3 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1tsp
Sesame seed - 2 tsp
vinegar - 1 tsp

1. Soak the cut floret of cauliflower in hot water with salt and turmeric for about 10 mins.
2. Make batter with the listed ingredients. Add water little by little until the a batter is like thick idly batter consistency. Note: Amount of water is very important  too thin batter will not stick to cauliflower. So i suggest to make a thick batter and try to fry one flower and check if the consistency works.  
3. Now dip the cauliflower into the batter and deep fry them. 
4. Garnish it with coriander leaves and lime wedge.

It could be served as a starter, evening snack or one of the side dishes on a high lunch. 

Sorry i don't have the picture taken at every step, i will uploaded it the next time i cook this recipe. 

Kara Paniyaram

Here is one simple recipe to make Kara Kuli Paniyaram. Its really quick and easy but it looks like you have spend a lot of time ;)

Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time : 10-15 mins

Ingrdients:

• Idly batter - 2 cups 
• Onion - 1 big chopped
• chilli powder - 2 tsp
• corriander leaves
• Salt (usually the idly batter has salt)

       Tempering:

• Oil
• Mustard seeds -1/2 tsp
• Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
• Asafoetida -1/2 tsp

1. Add 1tbsp oil to the pan and when hot add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add the Urid dal and the asafoetida. After about 2 mins remove from flame and add this to the Idly flour.
2. Add all the other ingredients to the idly flour and mix well.
3. Add less than 1/2 tsp oil to every paniyaram kuli and I use a non-stick which makes my life a lot easier and i need less oil. Cook on medium high flame.
4. When the oil it hot, add a spoon of flour to each Paniyara Kuli and not let it flow out of the kuli.
5. After about a 2 mins turn it around and it has to be done relatively fast so that the uncooked flour doesnt spill out.



Left: The kara paniyaram flour. Right: Paniyaram getting cooked in pan.

6. let it cook on the other side for about 2 mins. To check if its done you can check by sticking a knife into it.

Kara Kuli Paniyaram

It goes very well with coconut chutney or onion tomato chutney. Its a perfect quick sunday morning breakfast.

Let me know your comments and opinions.