Spicy Thukkada / Thukudi / Diamond cuts

I present you one my favorite recipes from my childhood days. As I released a spoiler of this dish in advance in My Kitchen Experiments's Fb page, by now many of you would have come to know this recipe. Yes, its the Thukkada. It is nothing but crispy, savory diamond cuts which perfectly pairs with tea/coffee.



My Mom makes it often when no snacks are available for us to accompany coffee/tea time. My sis and myself always fight for making the diamond shapes when my mom prepares this recipe. I was recollecting those sweet wonderful memories when I prepared this.



There are 2 versions (Sweet and Spicy) and I know many of you like the spicy version a lot. I will be posting the sweet version soon. The one which I posted here is a generic version of the spicy thukkada. You are free to innovate and bring out different variations of this dish.



I have heard that this recipe is also known as Shankerpale in Kannada. The Kannada variant is a bit thicker.

Basic Information:

Preparation Time: 1 hour

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Makes: 5 cups approx.

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 3 cups

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tablespoon, preferably hot oil

Dry red chillies - 11-12 nos

Garlic - 2 cloves

Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Ajwain seeds - 1/2 teaspoon (optional)

Asafoetida - a big pinch

Oil - for deep frying

Method:

1) Grind dry red chillies, cumin seeds, ajwain seeds, garlic cloves to a fine paste by adding small quantity of water.

2) In a mixing bowl, take wheat flour,oil (I added oil while making a dough) and salt. Mix well. Add the ground spice paste(as said in step 1) to this. Mix again.

3) Start adding water slowly and make a very tight dough. Taste and adjust the salt if required.

4) Divide the dough into equal sized balls.

5) Roll each of the balls into round shape like how we roll for chapatis. Use wheat flour or oil for easy rolling.

6) Using a knife or pizza cutter, cut into diamond shapes.

7) Transfer them to a wide plate and keep aside for 4-5 minutes. Meanwhile roll and cut diamond shapes using remaining dough.

8) After 5 minutes fry them in oil. The temperature of the oil should not be very hot and not very low. It should be in medium temperature.

9) Once thukkadas become crisp and changed in colour, transfer them to a plate covered with kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil.

10) Enjoy well.

Note:

1) Instead of dry red chilli and garlic paste, you can simply use red chilli powder along with cumin seeds and ajwain seeds.

2) The colour of the thukkada is purely based on red chilli powder and level of frying.

3) Make thin diamond shapes for very crispy thukkadas.

Chocolate brownies

This is my next recipe using the foodie ingredients, chocolate brownies! With a twist I used the scrummy chilli chocolate.

Melt 7oz chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.

Cream together 8oz butter and 10oz soft brown sugar until smooth.

Add 4 eggs and the melted chocolate and beat in.

Fold in 3oz plain flour 1/2 tsp baking powder 3 tbsp cocoa powder and 4oz chopped nuts (I use walnuts).

Pour into a lined and greased tin about 9"x9" and bake at 180C fan for about 25 mins.

Enjoy!

Veggie Lentil Soup

Lentil is nothing but "Pulse/Legume". Lentil are a main part of the Indian food. There are a lot of varieties which can be easily differentiated by their color and shape. We mostly eat the split varieties, but after coming to the US, I started liking the whole lentils a lot more. So I usually use more of the red lentils and the green.

One day at our office I got an email to volunteer to get a soup or a dessert which will be given for money and that money was being collected for the Food Bank. So I was thinking of making a soup, but was not sure as it was on a weekday and moreover Anush was also not keeping well. But a day before the event I just decided I would do a soup but had no idea as to what soup I am going to make. Well I thought how about do it in a crock pot/slow cooker so that I need not worry about it after I on it.

Now the question comes....I didn't have a crock pot or a slow cooker. Eventually I managed to borrow one from one of our colleagues. It turned out very good, but guess it might be little bit spicier for the american crowd.....  The best part I liked in it is the color of the soup and the potatoes in the soup. You must be wondering why did I like potatoes in it so much, well I love potatoes in any form (but cooked of course :)).

Well I am happy to say that many of them liked it and it was almost over within the lunch time.

Ingredients:
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2 cups Whole Green Lentils
1/2 cup Whole Red Lentils
1 Big Onion chopped
2-3 Carrots chopped
2 Potatoes chopped (I used red skin potatoes)
3-4 Garlic Pods chopped
2 tbsp Tomato Paste
1 tsp Hot Salsa (Optional)
1 tsp Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper Powder
1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder
1 tbsp Spanish Paprika Powder
1 tbsp Cumin Powder
1/2 tsp Thyme
Salt as needed
1 tbsp Olive Oil

Method:
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1. Wash the lentils and soak it in warm/medium hot water for about 30 mins.
2. Add these lentils to the crock pot along with enough water. (Adding more or less water will depend on how you want your soup to be)

3. Meanwhile, In a pan, add olive oil when it's hot medium hot add garlic and onions and saute it until the onions are transparent.
4. Now add all the spices and salt...add chili, cayenne, black pepper, paprika and cumin powder, along with the spices add salt and thyme.
5. Saute the spice powders until the raw smell is gone, now add tomato paste, salsa and saute it for a min.

6. Add the veggies, carrots and potatoes. Mix well cover and cook it in medium flame for about 5 mins.
7. Now add the veggies and spices to the lentils in the crock pot and I cooked it until the lentils were cooked completely in high or for quick results pressure cook it.
8. Garnish with your choice of herbs and serve it with Tortilla chips or your choice of chips or just eat it plain or even steamed rice will go well with it.

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