Preethi's Andhra Kitchen

Preparation :-

• Take 4 electric rice cooker cups of thick poha into a bowl . Add sufficient water mix it with hand and immediately drain water(no need to soak) . Tightly squeeze poha / atukulu with hand and put them in a bowl.

• To this add 1 tspn of salt and mix nicely .

• Slit 6 green chillies vertically.

• Heat a wide pan add 2 tbspns of oil . Add 2 tbspns of peanuts , 1 tspn urad dal , 2 dry red chillies , 1 tbspn chana dal , 1/2 tspn each mustard and cumin seeds . Add slitted green chillies , add hing/asafoetida . Add few curry leaves .

• When chillies are fried add 1/4 tspn turmeric and mix well . Add squeezed poha / atukulu . Fry nicely till they turn hot . Adjust salt . Add few sprigs of finely chopped coriander leaves . Switch off the stove .

• Immediately add juice of 1 lemon . Mix nicely and put lid .

• Serve after 5 mins and enjoy hot and tasty atukula pulihora.

This is the authentic dish of Andhra . I can say that this is a telangana special dish . My mom while preparing dosa batter she prepares it little thick . After preparing dosa batter she will take sufficient amount of batter to make guntaponganalu in one bowl and the rest in other bowl . After fermentation she mixes sufficient water in the second bowl inorder to get dosa consistency for making dosas. With that thick batter we prepare guntaponganalu . This is one of our favourite tiffins. Even tamilians make similar dish called as 'Paniyaram'.

Preparation :-

• Take thick dosa batter . To this add finely chopped raw onions , 3o mins presoaked chana dal , sufficient salt , chilly powder , finely chopped coriander leaves and curry leaves .

• Mix nicely and put aside for 15 mins.

• Take nonstick guntaponganalu / Paniyaram pan. Apply few drops of oil in all holes . Put this aside for 15 mins.

• After 15 mins has completed heat this pan . when it is hot add sufficient batter in all holes . Dont overload the batter. If u r trying to make big big ones then batter wont cook inside . So try to fill the batter till the level . Dont make a hill.

• Put lid on top of it . Put flame in medium heat .

• After 5 mins take 2 spoons and reverse each of them by balancing with that 2 spoons .

• Now again put lid and after 3-4 mins takeout the lid and check whether the batter inside is cooked .

• If they are done then transfer them into a bowl .

• Repeat the same process by adding little oil in all holes and pouring batter, etc,.

• Serve them hot with coconut chutney / peanut chutney.

Whenever there are left over idlies of the morning breakfast , my grany used to do this upma in the evenings . We used to call it as idly upma ( coz upma is made out of idlies ) . But she wont add pappulapodi . She used to do like normal upma and finally sprinkle enough lemon juice and endsup . But i saw adding pappulapodi in this recipe in my frds blog http://amma-cheppindi.blogspot.com/2006/12/idli-twists.html and thought of trying this . Anyway it was fantastic and almost similar to my grany's taste.

Preparation :-

• Take leftover idlies and crush them with hand .

• First we need to prepare pappulapodi . For that we need roasted bengal gram (putnalu) , garlic pods , dry red chillies or red chilly powder , salt and cumin seeds /cumin powder. If u r using dry red chillies , slightly roast them . Grind all the ingredients into a fine powder.( Add enough salt and chilly powder hereitself that the complete upma needs)

• Heat a pan add oil , do seasoning by adding urad dal , dry red chillies , chana dal , cumin seeds , mustard seeds , pinch of hing / asafoetida , few sprigs of curry leaves .

• After that add chopped onions . Fry them nicely . Add enough turmeric and little salt .

• When onion is fried add crushed idly powder and mix nicely .

• Now add pappulapodi . Mix nicely .

• Finally add chopped coriander leaves . When it turns hot u can switchoff stove.

• Squeeze enough lemon juice , mix well and serve hot .

Mokkajonna garelu ( corn vada ) are our favourite and one of the traditional dishes of Andhra . In corn season in all most all the houses andhrites make this dish as breakfast or snack item . In my inlaws house they will do twice or thrice a week . There r two different varities we can do with corn . One is spicy corn vada (karam garelu) and other is sweet corn vada ( theepi garelu). First i will show u how to prepare spicy corn vada .

SPICY CORN VADA :-

Preparation :-

• Take normal Indian corn cobs . Takeout its skin . It is prefered to use aged corn than young and tender. (muduru kankulu use cheyali . Lethavi use cheyakudadhu.)

• peelout seeds from cobs . It is a big job . Small tip is first break the cob into 2 horizontal halves . In each half takeout seeds from one single line . so that it becomes easy to peel out the whole cob.

• Now grind together corn seeds , dry red chillies (accord to ur taste) , salt and cumin seeds . Dont grind it like a paste . It should be litely crushed ( baraka barakaga undali).

• In the grinded paste add finely chopped onions , coriander leaves , curry leaves .Mix all nicely and prepare it as a dough.

• Heat oil enough for deepfrying .

• Take a cotton cloth and take a small ball of dough and gently press it on cloth so as to make a corn patti . Put a hole in center .

• When oil is hot just drop that corn vada in oil . (slowly drop it). U can fry them in batches .

• When it turns golden brown u can take out into a kitchen towel . So that it absorbs oil from vada .

• Now enjoy ur delicious hot hot corn vada .

Sweet Corn vada ( Theepi garelu) :-

• Just like above process u should separate the seeds from corn cobs .

• Grind together corn seeds and jaggery . Ratio is , for 1/4kg of seeds we need to take 1/4kg of jaggery . For this dish also we need to use aged corn than tender . If we use tender corn and grind along with jaggery the dough will be juicy not a thick one , so we can not make vadas.

• Same like above process make vadas with hands on a cloth and drop them in hot oil .

• Fry them nicely till golden brown .

• Enjoy ur hot hot sweet corn vadas.

Preparation :-

• Chop 1 potato , 10 beans , 3 green chillies , 1 onion , 1 carrot. wash frozen peas and corn kernels.

• Take 2 glasses of Bambino vermicelli and dry fry in a pan till they turn golden brown colour and transfer them into a plate or a bowl.

• In same pan add 2 tbspns oil . When it turns hot add 1/4 tspn cumin seeds , 1 tbspn bengal gram , 1/4tspn mustard seeds , 2 dry red chillies , add 7-8 crushed indian garlic pods , 3 chopped green chillies ( very long and spicy) , add 4 strigs of curry leaves.

• Add chopped onion , fry nicely. Add chopped potato , chopped carrot , chopped beans , few green peas (fresh / frozen) , add few corn kernels (fresh / frozen) . Fry them nicely .

• When it is halfdone add 2 tspns kwality noodles masala powder . Mix nicely & fry till vegetables are cooked .

• Add 1& 3/4 glass water , add 1 & 1/4 tspn salt ( i used tata salt) . When water boils fully add fried semiya and stir it nicely .

• When semiya is cooked add chopped coriander leaves and when it turns little dry switchoff stove and put a lid.

• After 2 mins takeout lid and stir it once and put lid again . (if u do like this semiya comes separate separate)

• Serve hot after 5 mins .

Preparation :-

• In a bowl take 1 glass of urad dal , 3 glasses of raw rice , 1/2 tspn fenugreek seeds . Wash them nicely and pour sufficient water and soak them for 6 hours .

• After that drain the water and grind it . U can grind it in mixcy or in wet grinder. In last 5 mins add 2 tspns of salt ( tata salt) . Dont add too much of water it should be bit thick .

• Take ur grinded batter in a bowl . Ferment this for 8 hrs .

• with this ur batter is ready to use.

• After 8 hrs u can put the bowl in freeze and when u need it u can use it .

For Dosa :-

• When u want to make dosas take required amount of batter in a bowl and add suffficient amount of water to it to get the right consistency . Mix well . Put ur rest of the thick batter back in freeze . We can make gunta ponganalu , mysore bajji , egg dosa , etc.........

• Heat the griddle add a tspn of oil and using onion half just spread the oil all over in circular motion .

• Pour 1 laddle ful of batter and spread it circularly .

• Pour 1/2 tspn of oil around the corners .

• When 1 side is roasted reverse it . After a min u can takeout the dosa in to plate .

• Normally we like to have it with ulli karam and ghee.