Raise your hands if you are not on the lookout for quick and easy snack recipes or tea time snack recipes you can make in as little time as possible. Some of these recipes may take a few mins over 15 depending on the quantities you make
# Methi Pakoda
Ingredients
1 cup of fresh methi leaves, cleaned and chopped coarsely (see notes)
¾ cup of besan / gram flour / kadalai maavu
1 tsp of red chilli powder
½ tsp of asafoetida / hing / perungaayam
1 onion, sliced thin
½ tsp of powdered jeera
¼ tsp of ajwain / omam (optional)
1 tsp of salt (adjust to taste)
1 tbsp of rice flour or semolina / rava
2-3 cups of oil for deep frying (depending on size of your pan)
Instructions
1. Mix together besan, rava or rice flour, onions, salt, chilli powder, ajwain, jeera, and hing.
2. Add enough water to make a thick batter that falls off your spoon with some resistance
3. Mix in the methi leaves
4. Heat oil for deep frying
5. Using a tablespoon, add spoonfuls of pakoda batter into the hot oil
6. Fry the pakoda until golden brown
7. Drain and set aside on a plate lined with a kitchen towel
8. Serve methi pakoda hot with ketchup or mint chutney
# Garlic Cheese Bread
Ingredients
1 baguette (mine was about 1 feet long)
4 tbsp of butter, softened to room temperature
½ tsp of salt (if using unsalted butter)
2.5 cups of grated mozzarella + cheddar
3 tbsp of chilli flakes
6-8 cloves of garlic, minced (I finally put my garlic press to good use)
Instructions
1. Pre-heat your oven to 300F / 180C.
2. Slice the baguette into ¾" thick pieces. You can go thicker or thinner as you like, I like it neither here nor there. I am grey (I didn't mean to rhyme, sorry).
3. Mix the minced garlic and butter along with salt if you are using unsalted butter. On that note, I used Amul salted butter and it was delicious, but we all know that already. Slather a good layer of butter on one side of the bread pieces evenly.
4. Add the grated cheese on top and garnish with chilli flakes. You can be as generous as you want but don't even think about being skimpy. Skimpy and cheese don't go well together. Since I was serving pizza next, I went a bit easy on the cheese for the garlic bread, but note how I didn't just make plain garlic bread, I had to add some cheese!
5. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 5-6 mins until the edges of the bread slices turn crisp and the cheese melts. Don't let it sit in there too much even thought you are tempted because if you over-bake them, they turn out like rusk when slightly cool.
6. You can use a baking tray but I didn't have any spares since I was using them for the pizza so I directly put them on the (clean!) oven racks.
# Aloo Bhajiya
Ingredients
1 large Potato
3/4 cup Besan / Kadala Maavu / Gram Flour
1/2 tsp Red chilli powder
1/4 tsp Hing / Asafoetida
A pinch Turmeric powder
A pinch Baking soda / Soda powder
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
Method
1. Cut the potato in half and then cut further into thin discs. I make the pieces as thin as possible to ensure even cooking but don’t make they too thin otherwise they will lose their shape and crumble.
2. Make a thick-ish batter with water and all ingredients above except the potato. To test if the batter is right, dip a piece of potato in and see if it coats it well without dripping off.
3. Heat oil in a pan and when it just about starts to smoke, add the potato pieces dipped in batter. To test if the oil is hot enough, drop a small amount of batter into it and see if it immediately sizzles to the top.
4. Fry the bajjis in small batches in medium heat until golden brown. Remove from oil and drain on a paper towel.
# Masala Paniyaram
Ingredients
2.5 cups of dosa or idli batter
1.5 tsp of oil
¼ tsp of mustard seeds
A generous pinch of hing (asafoetida)
2 tbsp of chopped onions or shallots (chinna vengayam)
2 tbsp of grated coconut (optional)
2 tbsp of chopped coriander leaves or curry leaves
4-5 tbsp of Indian sesame oil, for cooking
Salt to taste
Instructions
1. Heat the 1.5 tsp oil and add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the hing and chopped onions or shallots. Fry until light golden brown.
2. Turn off heat and add the coconut, if using.
3. Let the coconut get lightly toasted in the remaining heat and add to the dosa batter along with the chopped coriander leaves and salt to taste.
4. Mix well and set aside. The batter shouldn't be too runny, the consistency of batter for making idli is perfect.
5. Heat the paniyaram pan and fill the each hole up to ? with oil. You can add a bit less if using a non-stick pan.
6. Once the oil is heated, pour enough batter into each hole to fill it. The oil will float to the top and spill over to the other holes. This is fine, paniyara pan is a way of deep frying the items and yet retaining the shape perfectly.
7. Patience is required at this stage. On medium-low heat, cook the paniyaram for a good 3-4 mins until the bottom is nicely browned. Take care to regulate the heat properly otherwise the inside will not cook properly.
8. Once the top of the paniyaram has risen a bit and is no longer too runny, gently flip them with a skewer. Take care while doing this. Once all are flipped over, let the other side cook for 2-3 mins.
9. Once both sides are golden brown, gently remove using the skewer on to serving plates.