Rice bhajias (Rice fritters)

Rice bhajias are my old time favourite comfort food for weekend snack.  It's perfect for using up left over cooked rice. You can serve them as snacks with any dip.  They make a perfect starter too.

Ingredients for 20-25 fritters

2 heaped cups of cooked rice
250 grams of chick pea flour (also known as besan)
1 grated onion
2-3 chopped green chillies
1 chopped red sweet chilly pepper
1 tbls grated ginger
2 tbls whole coriander
2 tsps ajma (carom seeds)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp coarse black pepper
2 pinches of soda bi carbonate
1 pinch of turmeric
350 cc warm water
1 litre oil for deep frying

Method:

1.  Transfer the rice to a large mixing bowl.

2.  Add the chopped onions and red peeper, chilies, ginger and garlic

 3.  Add the spices - salt, pepper, whole coriander,ajma and turmeric.

4.  Add the chickpea flour and mix it using the warm water. Go easy on the water as you may not need to use all of it.   The mixture shouldn't be too runny.

 

5.  Heat the oil and drop a small piece of mixture in the oil.  If it rises up -the oil is ready for frying the bhajias.  Add a couple of pinches of soda bicarbonate to the mixture with a tablespoon of the hot oil from the fryer.  Mix this and using a tablespoon, gently drop small bhajias in the oil.  As soon as they rise up, turn them and cook until golden brown. 

5.  Serve them hot with any dip or chutney.

6.  When entertaining, you can make a variety of bhajias - spring onion bhajias; onion bhajias; lentil bhajia; bread bhajias; maru bhajia

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Mixed Bhajias (Fried pokoras)

Today is the start of my busy Easter break.  My son is home from Uni and he and his friends have been doing the rounds of spending time at each other's homes.  8 of them are spending Good Friday and Saturday morning with us so it will be a busy time for me BUT fun too as I am keen to cook some new dishes and see whether they enjoy them.  I find that it's always more fun cooking when you have a people visiting.   For that reason, I spent most of evening tidying up and shopping.  I wasn't in the mood for eating a full Indian meal after all that hard work so decide to make a mixture of bhajias.

I made my favourite maru bhajias and Onion bhajias.

I also make some fenugreek bhajias and rice and onion bhajias for which recipes will follow soon.

I served these hot and spicy bhajias with a tamarind sauce and finished the meal with a slice my almond barfi and a hot cup of chai.

Tomorrow's starter is butternut squash soup served with hot French bread  For the main course I will be serving cannelloni with roast potatoes, green beans and a rocket salad.  To finish the meal we have New York Cheese cake  - so watch this space for all the recipes. (Not to mention the Graze box of crisps and pop corn that gets eaten during the night!!)

Have a great Easter Break and enjoy your Easter eggs.

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Crispy Potato Bhajia often referred to as Maru's Bhajia

These crispy bhajias are also called Maru na Bhajia (meaning Maru’s bhajia). Maru is the name of a restaurant in Nairobi and they make these crispy potato bhajias and East African's all over the World  still  talk about them.  My recipe makes bhajias similar to Maru Bhajias.


Ingredients for 2 servings:

5-6 Medium white potatoes
1 cup chick pea flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chilly powder (optional)
1 teaspoon ajwain (Carom seeds)
1 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of soda bicarbonate
Very small bunch of finely chopped coriander
1 teaspoon of a mixture of minced green chillies and ginger (optional)

Method:

1. Peel and slice the potatoes. My potato grater has 2 sizes and I chose the thicker slices.

2. Wash and soak the potato slices in salted water for 15 minutes.

3. Mix the salt, pepper, (chilly powder) ajwain and turmeric with the chick pea flour.

4. Sprinkle this mixture thinly on a tray.

5. Sprinkle some coriander, chillies and ginger mixture thinly on the chick pea flour.

6. Drain the potatoes and layer them on top of the chickpea flour and spices..

7. Sprinkle the chick pea flour mixture on top of the potato slices topped by the coriander, chilly and ginger.

8. Repeat this until all the potatoes have been used up.

9. Keep this mixture to marinate for 30 minutes.

10. Add the bicarbonate of soda to the mixture now and using your hands, mix the potatoes well until they all get thinly covered with the flour and spices mixture. Do not add any water to this mixture.  The salt and washed potatoes will create some moisture to enable you to cover all the potatoes with the spicy chickpea flour.

11. Heat some oil in a wok and fry these potatoes. Keep the heat high for the oil.  Check that it's reached the temperature for putting a couple of drops of the potato mixture.  If it rises quickly to the top, your oil is ready.  Now lower the heat and fry the bhajias at medium heat to allow them to cook well and crispy. You may need to adjust the heat occasionally to ensure the bhajias cook well and crispy.

12. Enjoy them with any chutney or dip.

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