Happy Ugadi to those who celebrate Ugadi! Even though I bake a lot of sweet stuff I usually prefer savory snacks. So when Red Chillies (RC) posted a recipe for savory onion crackers (nippatu) I wanted to try it immediately. She had prepared this from Ramya’s blog. So I would like to thank both of them for this awesome recipe. RC mentions that Nippatus are very famous in Bangalore but I have never heard of it until now, even though there are a lot of Bangalore Iyengar bakeries in Chennai, where I grew up.

The procedure for making/baking these cookies is as simple as kneading dough for rotis but the taste is too good for such a simple process. The taste is really addictive. These crackers have a melt-in-your mouth texture and you can’t stop with even 2 or 3.

I made two batches of the recipe as in RC’s blog. I was sending it with my husband (who was traveling to India) for my mother and in-laws. Everybody there loved it so much. I wish I remember how many crackers I got for the 4 cups of flour I used! It definitely made a huge batch of cookies. I made one batch at a time.

I wanted to try substituting half the flour with whole wheat flour but did not want to mess it up. So I will be trying it the next time. I would also try reducing the amount of oil and butter.

Changes I made:
1. Used red chili powder instead of green chillies, white onion instead of red onion.
2. Also I used “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter’s” cooking and baking blend instead of real butter. The ICBNB has 50% less saturated fat than butter, and 0mg cholesterol.
3. I didn’t use the entire 1/4 cup of warm water mentioned in the recipe. Use little by little as needed.
4. I omitted the sugar too.

This is my entry for this month’s MBP – Snacks and Savories event hosted by Ashwini. MBP originally created by Coffee.

Long time back in one of Rachel Ray’s show I saw her frying canned chickpea on stove top and she was mentioning that its a nice and crispy snack. I always thought that chickpeas and green peas were deep fried in oil to get that crunchiness. I used to love these while growing up. It was my grandmother’s favorite snack too but we never made it at home. We used to get it from Ambica Depot. After seeing the show I also wanted to prepare it but somehow did not get to it until last week. Instead of sauteeing it in a pan, I decided to roast it in the oven. Otherwise you would have to stand nearby and keep stirring it.

I immediately googled to see if somebody has already done that and found a lot of results. Here I thought I was the smart one, with this brilliant idea! So I was going through a lot of those recipes and found that the oven temperatures, time to roast were different in each case and the reviews of the result were also mixed. So I decided to follow my own method and was really surprised that it worked out very well. My son generally likes chickpea by itself, but he liked these roasted chickpeas even more.

The recipe is very simple, actually it’s not a recipe at all. You have to just keep in mind the oven temperature and the time to roast it. The amount of chickpeas you want to roast, the seasonings are truly your call. As mentioned before you can roast it in a frying pan on stove top itself.

This is my entry for
JFI – Chickpeas, hosted by MS. JFI created by Indira.
My Legume Affair hosted by Srivalli. The even originally created by Susan.

Next to cauliflower and broccoli, tofu is my husband’s favorite. Actually he would eat anything vegetarian if it’s healthy. For me the criteria is, it has to taste good. So I experiment with tofu to satisfy both our needs. So far our favorite is tofu paratha. I drain the tofu well, grate it, add some Indian spices and divide the mixture into small balls. Then proceed to prepare the parathas as usual, using the tofu stuffing.

The Tofu Mango Pudding did not get his vote. The truth is he is not a “dessert” person. My son, my mother and myself loved it so much.

Recently I was going through Mallika Badrinath’s cookbook and found a recipe for paneer tikkis. Again paneer is my most favorite and his least favorite. He doesn’t eat it because of the fat content and calorific value. I wish I have the self control like him, I would be 30 pounds lighter! I remembered having a packet of extra firm tofu in my fridge, so decided to used it instead of paneer and changed the seasonings to suit our taste.

J and B’s Baked Plantain Chips has become yet another favorite in our house.  This is the 2nd time I’m making it.  Before knowing this recipe I used to find plantains everywhere but I never used to buy it because I did not not know what to do with it.  Then one day I found this recipe and believe me or not I couldn’t find plantains anywhere.  I did not take pictures the first time I made it, because my husband was snacking it away and actually we did not have anything left to be taken with rice.  This time I managed to take a picture before we could gobble them up. 

As long as there is Parents magazine, I will not have any problem finding easy baking recipes.  This is one such simple and tasty recipe.  I tried it for the first time yesterday with one zuchini.  It was crispy on the outside and tender inside.  Zucchini being a soft vegetable, when it cooks, the inside is not as firm as the potato fries. It tastes similar to the South Indian appetizer Bhaji, which has a crunchy exterior and soft/mushy inside.

Ingredients:
Click here for the ingredients and the procedure.

My Notes:
1. I used bread crumbs instead of cornflakes.
2. I also added some pepper powder and chilly powder for the adults’ version.
3. Beat the yogurt with a fork nicely and pour it in a plate so that dipping the zucchini sticks will be easy.
4. Dip 2 to 3 sticks at a time and put them in the bread crumbs mixture and shake the plate, so that the crumbs get evenly coated throughout the zucchini.
5. Place them in a greased baking sheet. I baked it for around 23-25 minutes to get the desired crunch, even though the recipe mentions only 15 minutes.
6. One zucchini is enough for 2 adults.

Update:
One of my friend mentioned that the zucchinis burnt in the oven around 20 minutes.  As I have mentioned in the notes section the baking time in the original recipe is only 15 minutes.  But mine was not cruncy enough, so I kept increasing the time 2-3 minutes and was checking constantly and around 24 minutes mine was nice and crunchy.  I guess I coated the zucchinis with too much yogurt and/or bread crumbs. So I would advice to bake for 15 minutes first and then bake for some more time if necessary.

This recipe comes from Sunita, who is yet another inspiration for me. I think she is an “Ace of Pastries”. The coriander rosti is both simple and delicious. You can find her recipe here.

When I first came across this recipe I thought she had skipped some of the ingredients, so ignored it and went further. I went back once again and checked the comments section to see if I could gather some information. Then only I was assured that the recipe really required only 3 ingredients. Baking can’t get any simple!

Potato Rosti:

Baking it for the first time, I tried it with 1 large potato. Peel the potato, cut into 4 parts and microwave for 4 minutes. Cool it and grate it. I divided the grated potatoes into 2 parts. For the first batch I simply followed her recipe, mixed half of the grated potatoes, coriander, salt and pepper. Baked it for 40 min at 400F. It was very crispy and tasty. It’s a very healthy snack without oil. I think that depending upon your taste you can also reduce the baking time to 35 min, so you may not feel that the bottom is burnt. I got 8 rostis for this quantity. It was good by itself, we also had some ketchup with it.

Zucchini Rosti:

I always like to give a twist to a recipe by adding some other ingredient(s). I think it’s fun to experiment. Moreover with a toddler around, I have to do a lot of sneaking vegetables. I don’t know why I chose zucchini, but as soon as I thought about making some modification, zucchini just flashed in my mind. 

I used the other half of the grated potato, 1 medium zucchini (grated), coriander, salt and pepper to taste. Dropped spoonful of the mixture on a greased baking sheet and baked it for 40 min at 400F. These rostis were very green in color and the top was not fully cooked as in the previous case. So I set the oven to broil mode for another 2 minutes. I got another 10 rostis. The taste was very good but this one was not as crispy as the potato rostis. Either I should have reduced the quantity of zucchini or should have baked it for some more time. Anyway I was very happy because my son just loved it.