Boorelu

Happy Sankranthi to all!
The Harvest festival Sankranthi is celebrated in most parts of India. The best place I ever celebrated this festival is at my grandparent’s village in West Godavari district. Front yards are decorated with beautiful rangoli and gobbemmalu, haridasu along with his gangireddu (decorated ox) comes to each house. Young girls dance around the gobbemmalu in the evenings. The atmosphere there in January is absolutely beautiful and festive.

It is a celebrated over four days. The first day ‘Bhogi’ is celebrated with a bon fire early in the morning. Second day ‘Sankranti’ is the day we all wear new clothes, pray and distribute sweets and gifts to farm workers and to domestic help. Third day is ‘kanumu’ and the fourth day ‘Mukkanumu’ is celebrated with variety of non vegetarian dishes.

Boorelu take the top spot in the sweets for this festival. They are made in huge quantities and become the main sweets of distribution.

Channa dal and jaggery are cooked together and formed into balls. These balls are dipped in urad rice batter and deep fried into a golden color.

Ingredients:

Stuffing (Poornam):
1 cup channa dal
1 cup grated or crumbeld jaggery
1 tbsp fresh grated coconut
Pinch of cardamom powder

Batter:
1 cup rice
½ cup urad dal
Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:
Soak rice and urad dal for 6 – 8 hours.
Blend them into a smooth paste using little water.
Add salt and set it aside for about 4-6 hours.

Cook channa dal in water until the dal is cooked. Drain excess water.
Mix jaggery and cooked channa dal together.
Cook in a thick bottomed pan to make poornam. Stir continuously so that it is not burnt.
When it comes to the consistency to form a firm ball remove from flame.
Add grated coconut and cardamom powder.
When it is cool enough to touch, shape poornam into small balls (size of table tennis ball).
Make sure the batter is thick enough to coat the balls evenly.
Heat oil in a wide pan.
Dip each poornam ball in the batter and gently leave it in the oil.
Do not crowd them in the pan. Place them few inches away from each other.
Fry on medium heat until they turn into golden brown color.

Serve them warm.

Make a small hole on the boori and pour in ½ tsp melted ghee to elevate the taste up another notch.

Vegetable Cutlet

Vegetable cutlet -- crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside is an absolutely satisfying snack with evening tea. While coarsely mashed potato takes the top spot as the main ingredient, sautéed onions and green chilies add flavor, fresh coriander and ginger add wonderful aroma and bread crumbs form the crisp texture.


Ingredients
3 large potatoes boiled and semi mashed
1 medium onion finely chopped
3 green chilies finely chopped (adjust to taste)
½ cup peas boiled
½ tsp coriander powder
2 tsp grated ginger
2 tbsp finely chopped coriander
2 tbsp all purpose flour
½ cup bread crumbs
3 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Sauté onions and green chilies in 2 tsp of oil. When the onions turn transparent add boiled peas and sauté for couple more minutes.

Add boiled and partially mashed potatoes and mix all ingredients together.

Add salt, coriander powder and mix well.

Remove from stove, add grated ginger and chopped coriander. Let it cool.

When it is cool enough to touch, make large lemon size balls.

Mix all purpose flour with ½ cup of water. Consistency should be thin, it should lightly coat the balls when dipped in it.

Sprinkle bread crumbs generously on a large plate.

Dip the potato ball in the flour batter. Let it coat evenly. Then roll it on the bread crumbs to evenly coat with crumbs on all sides.

Gently press with your fingers to change the shape into a patty.

Repeat this procedure for each potato ball.

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a wide pan. Place patties gently next to each other.

When they turn golden brown flip them to other side, let the other side turn into golden brown too.

Mouth watering cutlets can be eaten with ketchup or any other sauce of your choice.