MYSORE BONDAS - HEALTHY VERSION

Happy Pongal to you all!!! இனிய பொங்கல் நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்
 Pongal is a festival of farmers,  celebrated widely in Tamilnadu ,Andhra, and Karnataka. It is also called Shankranthi.  Sweet Pongal is offered to Lord Surya, and this festival denotes the harvest of rice. This is a special festival for farmers. Farmers make pongal in their fields by 12 noon, when the Sun God will be right on top of them, and offer Pongal to HIM
This is also the beginning of Uttarayana ("Uttar" in Sanskrit means North, and "Ayana" means Journey or movement. This denotes the journey of Sun towards the northern hemisphere.) Uttarayana brings in lot of Health, Wealth and Prosperity.
The 6 months of Uttarayana is a single day for the Devas, and the 6 months of Dakshinayana is a single night for them. We all know very well, Bheeshma Pitamaha,, on the death bed of arrows, was waiting for this sacred Uttarayana to commence , to leave this world.
Isha Sadguru says, "Human system is more receptive to grace during this period".

Now...enough of all this ....and back to our food related stuff.........

Here are the Chakkarai Pongal & Ven Pongal and you may please check the links for the detailed recipe.

Mysore Bonda is a scrumptious snack, quite filling, and it goes along with other tiffins too, as a snack on the side. Why it derived its name??? no idea.
Ever since I saw a recipe by Tarla Dalal, making vadas in Kuzhi paniyaram pan (Aebleskiver pan, as  called in the US), I have been wanting to make use of this pan for some fried snack. To my surprise, it came out very well, had some guests at home, they were astonished!!

Ingredients

Whole urad dhal-1 cup, soaked for 2 hours, and drained

Rice (raw or boiled) - 2 tsps

Ginger - a small piece, shopped fine

Green chillies - 2, finely chopped

Salt to taste

Hing powder - 1/4 tsp

To add to the ground batter

Coconut pieces - 2 tsps, finely chopped

Whole pepper - 1 tsp

Curry leaves

Recipe Cuisine: South Indian; Category: Snacks

Prep time: Grinding: 20-25 minutes; Cooking time: roughly 30 mts

Yields 25 bondas

Soaked and drained urad dhal along with rice, ground with ginger,  green chillies, and  hing powder

Top up the batter with the above mentioned things, and if it is not still the time to make the bondas, you can refrigerate the batter, and keep it out 1/2 hour before you make. You must remember not to add the salt now, then the batter might become soggy. But, since you must not forget, I have just added salt too (shown in the picture), but not mixed it.

I tried both versions. In the kadai with oil, I just made 3. Heat the Kuzhipaniyaram pan, with 1 tsp oil in each round.

Wet your hands with water, mix the batter very well, take out small balls and drop into oil / drop into the pan.

You can see how well the bondas are getting cooked in the pan also. Flames to be kept at the lowest.

Serve hot with coconut chutney. Bonda split open and shown...crunchy outside, but very very soft inside.......and.....the 3 bondas in the extreme left are deep fried. They are not uniform in size, probably, trying to remind us about our size becoming unshapely. The rest are perfect in size, if we make and eat like this, our shape also stays perfect!!!

This post first appeared in www.malpatskitchen.com

Notes

*Adding finely chopped green chillies to the batter is optional. When you bite the bonda, a piece of green chilli might also come in your bite. If you like it, you can do this.

*I haven't seasoned the coconut chutney. You can season it with mustard seeds and split urad dhal. 

*If  you make bondas this way, no used oil will be left, and we do not have to waste it by pouring it down the drain, since it is very very bad to re- use the once-used oil.

*Many add a couple of teaspoons of rice flour to the ground urad dhal batter, but I prefer to soak rice along with urad and grind. This rice is supposed to prevent the bondas from drinking oil, and believe me, these bondas did not have a trace of oil at all!!!

Categories: Festival Delicacies, Healthy Cooking, Janmashtami neivedhyams, Low-Cal Snacks, Navarathri Neivedhyams, Snacks, Starters