Banana vada
It was vade panchami few days ago – it is celebrated at my kuldevasthan – family god’s temple at Ankola. Thousands of deities gather for the pooja. One of the biggest things (other than super delicious lunch) during this function is these banana vada prasad – so the function is called vade panchami. Many men gather to make these vadas and then the vadas are deep fried in huge pan. Some remove the vadas from the hot oil just by their bare hands without a ladle/spoon. It has been a long tradition going on for decades. I found this video on youtube of this . I have explained more about vade panchami in this post .
I was missing all these celebrations, so decided to try something similar. Ofcourse this is not the recipe followed at our temple but I just made it up. The vadas came out so delicious that I think I have to save the recipe.
Pictorial:
Ingredients: 1 and 1/2 cup rice flour 1/2 cup almond flour 1/2 cup coconut 1 cup milk 2 tbl spn jaggery 1 big banana (about 2/3rd cup mashed banana) Salt Oil for deep frying
Method: Mix all the ingredients except oil in a bowl. Take a big ball of the mixture and flatten it on a plastic. Gently pick up the vada and deep fry in hot oil. Enjoy while it is still warm with chutney.
Makes about 8 Preparation time :30 mins
Note: If you don’t have almond flour, substitute with wheat flour or rice flour.
Bittergourd/Karate is one of the vegetables that is full of medicinal values. I have tried including it in our diet as much as possible. Few days ago aayi told me about this delicious karate goaD nonche (bittergourd sweet pickle) prepared by my sister in law. Aayi usually prepares the spicy version of karate nonche , so this was new to me. I prepared it here and it was lipsmacking good. This pickle does not stay for too long. Refrigerate it after it is completely cooled down and finish it off in couple of weeks.
Fresh bittergourd
Remove the seeds
Cut into thin strips
Apply some salt and keep aside for 15-20mins
Fry them in little oil for 10mins
Add chilli powder, tamarinc, jaggery
Mix very well
Make the spice mix with fried mustard, methi, hing
Add the spice powder and mix. Cool well.
Ingredients: 2 cups bittergourd pieces 2 tbl spns jaggery 2 tea spns chilli powder 1 tea spn thick tamarind extract 2 tea spns oil 1 tea spn mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn methi seeds A small stone of asafoetida(hing) Salt Method: Remove the seeds from bittergourd and cut into thin pieces. Apply salt and leave it aside for sometime. If you want, squeeze them to remove the water, but this also removes the nutrients, so I use them directly. Heat a little oil and fry the pieces for 10mins on a medium low heat. Add chilli powder, jaggery, tamarind. Mix well. Heat remaining oil, fry mustard seeds, methi seeds and asafoetida. Powder them when they are slightly cooled. Add the powder to bittergourd pieces and mix well. Take off heat, cool down to room temperature. Store in an air tight container in refrigerator.
