Hello friends,

When it finally starts raining after a scorching hot summer season and drop in temperature gives you goosebumps and chills, all you want (if you are like most Indians) is to have a cup of steaming hot tea and some crispy fried snack. While there are several options here that suit the occasion like Jodhpuri Pyaaz/Onion Kachori, Poha Cutlet or Indori Patties but you definitely want to keep trying different thing every other time. So to add one more option in your list of your “rainy-day” recipes, today I present a very popular, super tasty and crunchy Chai-time snack – “Moong Daal Vada” a.k.a. “Mongode” or “Moong Bhajji”. The recipe is pretty easy but the result is very satisfying. So, next time when you extend your hand out of your balcony to feel the rain-drops on your palm, try this delicious “Moongode” to give the monsoon a warm hot and crispy welcome!!

Ingredients:

• 2 cups- Whole moong daal (khadi moong daal)  Note:- This moong daal is overnight soaked and washed.
• 7 to 8- Garlic Cloves (Lehsun) (optional)
• 1 inch- Ginger (Adrak)
• 1 to 2- Green chilies ( Hari mirch)
• 1½ tablespoons- Cumin seeds (Jeera)
• 1½ tablespoons- Rice flour (Chawal ka aata)
• ½ teaspoon- Asafoetida (Hing)
• ¼ cup- Chopped onion (Barik kati hui pyaaz) (optional)
• Salt (as required)
• Oil for frying

Method:

• Take ½ cup whole moong daal in grinder, ginger root, garlic cloves, green chilies, ½ table spoon cumin seeds, salt and 1 or 2 table spoon water (don’t take too much water). Grind it into a fine paste. Take out this paste in a big bowl.
• Now take all the remaining whole moong in the grinder and grind it coarsely (You can take a little amount of water if required).
• Now take out coarsely grinded moong into the same bowl, mix it with the previous paste to make a batter. Now add rice flour, remaining cumin seeds, chopped onion and asafoetida into the batter (At this stage you can add more salt if required). Mix everything well..
• Heat oil in a kadhai/deep pan on high flame, take small portions of the moong daal batter with your fingers and drop vadas into hot oil (you can use spoon as well for dropping batter). Slow down the flame and let them fry on low flame for 2 to 3 minutes (this will help vadas to cook from inside) now put flame on high till the vadas are brown in color.
• Take out these deep fried vadas in a paper towel to absorb excess oil. Repeat the above process with remaining batter to make vadas.
• Serve hot with tea and green chutney/ garlic chutney/ sweet and sour chutney.

Pyaaz kachori finds its roots in Jodhpur city of Rajasthan state (India). This is a very popular snack and available in many Rajasthani snack/food joints in India. Steaming hot spicy Pyaaz Kachori, with rounded shape is a burst of flavors. Usually these joints serve these kachoris with khatti-meethi (sweet-sour) chatneys but I am adding a twist and serving them as ”Pyaaz Kachori Chaat”. So go ahead and give your chaat craving taste buds another reason to be delighted. The best thing is that the Ingredients used in the recipe are commonly available in every Indian kitchen and doesn’t need any preparations in advance.

Ingredients:

Ingredients for Dough:

• 1-1/2 Cups- All-purpose flour (Maida)
• 2 tablespoons- Clarified butter (Ghee) or Oil
• 2 teaspoons- Carom seeds (Ajwain)
• 1 teaspoon-Salt or as per taste

Ingredients for Filling and Frying:

• 1 Cup- Chopped onion (kate hue pyaaz)
• 2 tablespoons- Gram flour (Besan)
• 1- Boiled potato small (Ubla hua aalo)
• 2 to 3 – Finely chopped Green chilli (Barik kati hui hari Mirch)
• 2 teaspoons- Ginger paste (Adrak ka paste)
• 1 tablespoon- Fennel seeds (Saunf)
• ½ tablespoon- Coriander seeds (Khada Dhaniya)
• 1 tablespoon- Cumin seeds (Jeera)
• 1 teaspoon- Red Chili powder (Lal Mirch powder)
• 1 teaspoon- Turmeric powder (Haldi powder)
• 1 teaspoon- Coriander powder (Dhaniya powder)
• 2 teaspoons- Dry Mango Powder (Amchoor powder)
• 1/2 teaspoon – Asafoetida (Hing)
• 1 to 2 tea spoons- Sugar (Shakkar)
• ¼ cup- Finely chopped coriander (Barik Kata hua Hara dhaniya)
• Salt as per taste
• Oil for filling and frying.

Ingredients for garnishing:

• 2 tablespoons- yogurt/ Curd (Dahi )
• 2 teaspoons- sugar (Shakkar)
• 1/4 cup- water (Pani)
• Tamarind and date chutney
• Mint-coriander chutney
• Chat Masala
• Nylon sev

Method:

The entire cooking process for Pyaaz Kachori, is divided into following four steps:

1. Dough Preparation:

• Take all-purpose flour, Carom seeds (crushed between palms) and salt (½ teaspoon or as per your taste) in a bowl and mix well.
• Now add ghee in flour and mix with your fingertips until you get crumbling texture.
• Add water in parts and knead a soft dough.
• Let the dough rest while covered for at least 10 to 15 minutes.

2. Filling Preparation:

• Heat a pan and dry roast Cumin seeds, Coriander seeds and fennel seeds . Once roasted, coarsely grind in a grinder and keep the spice mix aside.
• Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan. Add spice mix, asafoetida, ginger paste, chopped green chilies. Roast everything for a minute.
• Add chopped onion and salt in masala mix. Give it a good mix and cook it for 2 to 3 minutes.
• Now add coriander powder, turmeric powder and red chili powder. Mix everything and cook for another minute.
• Now add gram flour, mash boiled potato and sugar in the filling mixture for 2 more minutes, add dry mango powder and sprinkle chopped Coriander, mix and keep it aside to let it cool down.

3. Stuffing and Frying:

• Smooth the dough and divide it into equally small sized balls.
• Take a ball and flatten with your fingertips or roll it into a shape of “Poori” with the help of rolling pin. Keep the edges thin.
• Now place the small amount (approximately a tablespoon or according to the size of your Poori) of stuffing mixture on the flattened dough. Bring the edges of the dough together and join it (Remove or pinch off the excess dough). Press the stuffed Kachori gently with the help of palms.
• Make all the Kachoris as the process mentioned in the previous step. Keep Kachoris covered to avoid getting cracks from being dried.
• Heat oil in a deep pan/Kadhaai for frying. Keep the heat on low. When the oil is hot enough for frying (to check whether the oil is perfectly hot, first drop a pinch of dough).
• Carefully slide the Kachoris one by one into the frying pan. Once the Kachoris start puffing and the color changes to slightly golden from the one side then gently flip them over.
• Fry the Kachoris until they become golden and crispy from both sides. Turn them often and regulate temperature from low to low-medium as required to get even color and crispy texture.
• Take out Kachoris on kitchen towel/absorbent paper to remove excess oil.
• Fry all Kachoris as per the process explained above.

4. Garnishing & Serving:

• Take yogurt in a bowl add 1 to 2 tea spoons of sugar and water. Mix it with the help of whisk into a smooth batter like consistency.
• Take a serving plate/bowl, crack the top of the kachori , now top it with yogurt, tamarind-date chutney, mint-coriander chutney and sev. Sprinkle some chat masala over it and serve hot.

Note: You can also enjoy these Kachoris without toppings as a tea-time snack.

Here is a an easy recipe for a home-made source cream dip to serve along with nachos/chips. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup- Sour cream
• ½ tea spoon- Garlic powder ( lehsun powder)
• 1 tea spoon-Oregano/Italian seasoning
• ½ tea spoon- Black pepper powder (Kali mirch powder)
• Chili flakes to sprinkle (optional)
• Salt (as needed)
• ¼ cup- finely chopped onion (barik kati hui pyaaz)
• ¼ cup- finely chopped capsicums/bell peppers (barik kati hui shimla mirch)

Note: I’ve used red, yellow and green bell peppers to give it some colors, you can use whatever is available.

Method:

• Take a bowl and add sour cream, chopped bell peppers/capsicums, chopped onions, garlic powder, oregano, black pepper powder and salt.
• Mix everything uniformly with the help of a spoon.
• Keep it in a refrigerator for at least an hour before serving. Refrigeration will help spices to blend with each other perfectly and it will become more flavorful.
• Sprinkle some chili flakes (optional) and serve cold with Nachos or chips.
• This Sour cream dip can be kept refrigerated in an air tight container for up-to a week or so.

Note: Please don’t keep Sour cream dips at room temperature for more than 2 hours or else it will release water and become watery. If you’re making this dip for a picnic, outdoor get-together or potlucks, you can carry this in an ice cooler and putting ice cubes under serving bowl will help it to stay creamy and stiff for longer time.