Andhra Snack and Sweet Platter ~ Fried Cashews

Some 'platters' are going to be posted here this week, as part of the 'Indian Thaalis and Platters' themed month long marathon. I could not decide what to present under this theme among the jumble of ideas I had. Initially I wanted to do a colorful poori platter, a thought I have been nurturing for years now. I however discarded the idea when I cooked three pooris under breakfast theme. Some of the ideas I kept contemplating included a millet platter, steamed dishes one, a platter with variety of pohas, pakoda platter, vrat ka khana, a breakfast platter with Karnataka style 'bhaaths', 'rice' platter, parathas, dosas, guilt free snacks, sandwiches, fusion food and so on. I kept on listing the dishes that could go under each category but ended up altogether with something else when it was time to implement the ideas.

The first one in the series is a traditional platter that would have served as snack time food for kids, up until a generation ago in the state of Andhra Pradesh besides some of them being festive food. This is what my mother and her siblings would have as an after school treat, all freshly homemade and stored in big tins to snack on for a week or two. It was a time when people moved around a lot instead of being couch potatoes and no machines to substitute for their work. It was a time when kids played around instead of being glued in front of televisions and computers. Also a time when low-cal food wasn't a fad yet and hence no guilt attached to eat these high calorie foods. In fact, traditionally sunnundalu is considered to be one of the highly nutritious foods to consume.

I am not into frying that much and it would be a big fat lie if I say that I make these traditional goodies as regularly as my grand mothers used to make. Thanks to a wedding I attended in Los Angeles this February, this platter happened. The bride's parents who happen to be my cousin and his wife had brought all those sweets and chegodi from India and I happened to get a big batch of those. The rest of the savory snacks are store bought. The idea of this traditional platter occurred when I remembered that these were the snacks my mother grew up on. The only exception being jeedipappu burfi / cashew burfis that I included in this platter because I had them though my grandmother never made them. The cashews would be a special treat for guests.

I have ariselu, ladlu and cashew burfi under the sweets category.

Ariselu / Athirasalu - This is a traditional sweet prepared using freshly ground rice flour and jaggery syrup. Freshly ground flour is the key here. Store bought rice flour doesn't work in this recipe. Small portions of the dough is patted and deep fried. This stays fresh at least for two weeks or more. This sweet is commonly prepared in south India, Maharashtra and even in some eastern parts of India and go by different regional names. 

Boondi laddu - These laddus are one of the traditional sweets of India and popular through out the country. These laddus are made with fried, tiny chickpea flour balls added to sugar syrup and shaped into balls. 

Cashew burfi / Jeedipappu burfi - Burfis made with a cooked mixture of ground cashews and sugar.

Sunnundalu - A highly nutritious laddu from Andhra Pradesh which is prepared using black garm / urad dal, both with husked and skinned variety. It can also be made with moong dal. The recipe can be found here.

I have chekkalu, chakli, chegodilu, mixture, spicy cashews under the savory snacks. Chekkalu are fried rice flour crisps that are also made in other parts of south India. Both chakli and chegodi are rice flour based snacks that are deep fried. Chakli are spiral shaped where as chegodilu are tiny rings. Where as mixture is literally a mixture of boondi and spicy sevs with a tempering of curry leaves and peanuts.

The fried, spicy cashews are homemade which are quick and easy to make. They are a savory treat though high in calories. Any spice powders according to preference may be added but I added only salt and chili powder here as my grandmother used to make. Also remember not to fry the cashews in big batches. Cashews turn golden brown quick and by that time all the cashews are flipped / tossed, some may get burnt.

Ingredients:

Cashew nuts

Oil / ghee as needed for shallow frying

Salt to taste

Chili powder to taste

Directions:

* Heat ghee / oil in a pan and don't bring it to a smoking point. Add a handful of cashews.

* Fry them on low heat until golden brown on both sides, flipping them in between. Transfer them onto a plate lined with paper towel and fry the remaining cashews.

* Turn off the stove and transfer any remaining ghee / oil that was used to fry to another cup. Add the fried cashews back to the pan and add salt and chili powder. 

* Toss the pan well so that the cashews are coated well. Serve them immediately or store them in an airtight container.

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Protein laddu

My parents used to subscribe a variety number of magazines while we were growing up. The subscription also extended to some of the kids' classics like chandamama and balamithra in Telugu versions  which were exclusively for me. Remember this was way before the kids started to glue on to television sets and I was content with my books and the neighborhood friends. Probably in guise, my parents were trying to see if I can pick up reading and writing skills in Telugu which eventually I did though I have never lived In Andhra and besides ended up being a bookworm. Meanwhile, my young and energetic mother would try the recipes from those magazines which caught her attention. Nowadays she sticks mostly to tedious, tried and tested traditional kind of snacks / sweets when it comes to festivals which I don't even dare to try. 

Nowadays she has this habit of noting down making my father note down any interesting and easy recipes that she come across on cooking shows or any magazines. It is done, keeping me in my mind as she knows that I like to try new dishes as long as they are easy and quick ones. This laddu recipe was one among the bunch that came from her a while ago. I tried a couple and this laddu was surely a winner in terms of taste and nutrition though they look rustic. They faintly reminded me of sunnundalu which are dear to me. I don't need to go on singing the virtues of these laddus as the ingredients speak for themselves. My daughter who doesn't like sweets in general had liked these and that is surely a winner recipe to me. As far I go, I am unable to stop myself from popping one into my mouth every time I am near the laddu container. 😋 Try these easy, yummy laddus for this Diwali and I promise that you wouldn't be disappointed.

I tried a small portion of the recipe and still got about 16 standard size laddus. The new peanut packet was misplaced and had only a handful in the bottle which filled up to 3/4th of a 1/4 cup measuring cup. I therefore measured my ingredients based on that but interchanging quantities slightly shouldn't affect the final product. If one is confused with the measurements I have provided, just use one measure each of lentils, peanuts and nuts and double the flours' measurements. Use jaggrey and ghee accordingly.  Also I need to mention that the jaggery I used was a sweeter variety and the laddus were sweeter with the amount of jaggery I used. One may need to adjust the jaggery quantity since the amount of jaggery used in the recipe depends upon the sweetness of the jaggery being used and the preferred sweetness of laddus. 

Ingredients: (Yield - 16 laddus)
3 tbsp. moong lentils (yellow moong dal) 
3 tbsp. black lentils (urad dal with husk)  
3 tbsp. peanuts 
3 tbsp. almonds
3 tbsp. cashews (I replaced half with pistachios.)
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. wheat flour
1/4 cup + 2 tbsp. finger millet flour / ragi flour
1 and 1/4 cup powdered jaggery
4 - 5 tbsp. melted ghee
Directions:
* Toast lentils in a pan individually on low flame until moong starts to turn slightly reddish and the black lentils start to change their color as well. Transfer them onto a plate.
* Next toast almonds and cashews individually. Transfer them to the lentils' plate.  
* Next add peanuts and toast on low flame until done. Let them cool and rub between your palms to remove the skin. Or for a quicker version, toast them in a microwave as I did. It takes around 3 to 4 minutes in a microwave to roast this small quantity but giving one or two intermittent breaks is recommended to avoid them from burning. This step can be avoided if using toasted and skinned peanuts.
* Toast flours individually on low flame until they start to change color slightly. I toasted them without adding any ghee but if preferred, it can be done so. 

* Let all the toasted ingredients come to room temperature.
* First the lentils need to be ground since they take longer than the rest of the ingredients. We like to keep our sunnundalu a tiny bit coarser and so I opted to do the same here as well. They can be ground very fine if one chooses to do so. It depends upon one's preference how the texture of these laddus should be. (I did use my blender for this part and continued the next steps in my food processor.)
* Next finely grind peanuts and the other nuts that are being used. Add the flours at the end and just pulse to combine.
* Finally add the ground jaggery and run the blender / food processor until the mixture is combined well.

* Transfer the mixture to a wide plate and run your hand through the mixture and break any lumps if present.

* Add ghee in increments to the mixture and keep working it into the dough. 

* Mix well so that ghee uniformly coats the mixture. Stop adding ghee when a small portion of the mixture can be easily shaped into a ball without breaking. (Initially about 3 tbsp. of ghee can be added and then the rest in increments and as needed. Mostly 1/4 cup should be enough.) 
* Make lemon sized balls out of the mixture and store in an airtight container. 

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'Indian Sweets and Snacks' - A Recap

Readers who follow my blog might me aware that I am a part of blogging marathon group where we sign up to post recipes each month. April and September months are meant for month long marathons where we post recipes each day with set themes, barring Sundays. I have been part of these mega marathons since it started excepting a few owing to my India trips. I posted some traditional sweets and snacks from India this September. Before posting round up of those recipes, below are links for my previous mega marathons with the mentioned themes. If interested, click on those links and you will find about 26 to 30 dishes in each category.

Apr 2019 A - Z Indian Biryani / Pulao / Khichdi Series
Apr 2018 A - Z Indian Street Food
Sep 2016 A - Z Indian Rice Dishes
Apr 2016 A - Z Andhra Cuisine
Sep 2015 Buffet on the Table
Apr 2015 Fire up Your Oven (Baking Recipes)
Sep 2014 Around the World in 30 Days (International Recipes)
Apr 2014 Indian Food Odyssey - Recipes from 30 States
Sep 2013 A - Z Event with 4 Set Themes
Apr 2013 Event with 4 Different themes


This September's marathon was based on Indian sweets and snacks, divided between four themes. This marathon was a learning curve with some surprises thrown in, indeed. I would have never thought that I would even try making the tricky khandvi or the tedious khakras from Gujarat, at home. For a person who doesn't even make urad dal vadas to avoid deep frying, Uttar Pradesh's dahi gujiyas were a revelation. I had no idea such a recipe even existed where a batter would act as an outer covering for stuffing a gujiya instead of a flour based dough and more surprising was that I enjoyed it with full gusto. Neither I had an inkling that I get to try and enjoy a delicious treat sitting in my home, that was originally created for the officers of British Raj in Ooty, a hill station in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. There was this snack from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, a spicy sev that was created to satiate the Mughal emperors and now boasts a GI tag to it's name. What was new and extremely pleasing in the sweets category was a simple yet flavorful kheer made with coconut water, coconut milk and the tender coconut meat which has become now my 'favorite' kheer. The black eyed peas based dumpling, pandoli was an interesting addition to my idli repertoire. Apart from these, if you are interested to see what other delicious Indian snacks I got to try this marathon, check out the below links.


The first week was meant for sweets and I went ahead with simple yet festive treats keeping in mind Navratri and Diwali festivals. What conjures up in my mind when I think about an Indian sweet is a laddu / burfi / kheer / halwa, or a stuffed sweet rather than dairy based sweets. My mind automatically associates the latter category or the deep fried varieties like jalebis / jhangri kind to a sweet shop / bakery somehow. I included a recipe from each of the above categories along with the ever popular jamun recipe, a dry one this time. 

Malaadu / Hurigadale Unde (South India)

Dry Gulab Jamun (North India)

Coconut Burfi / Kobbari Mithai 

Almond Halwa / Badam Halwa

Elaneer Payasam (Tamil Nadu)

Godhuma Sojjappalu (Andhra Pradesh)

The second week's theme was to pick some traditional snacks from one particular state. I did not have to think much and blindly picked Gujarat, a state in the western part of India that happens to be the land of farsans aka snacks. The local cuisine not only has a wide range of deep fried snacks that have become popular among the Indian diaspora but also can boast about guilt free ones. I went ahead with the latter category picking the healthy, traditional snacks that can be enjoyed by everyone, including diabetics. Five of those dishes are steamed snacks and most of them can be enjoyed as a mini meal too. 

Damni Dhokla (Gujarat)

Doodhi Muthia / Lauki Muthia (Gujarat)

Dal Pandoli (Gujarat)

Sev Khamani (Gujarat)

Methi Khakhra (Gujarat)

Pressure Cooker Khandvi (Gujarat)

The third week was a free choice and we could pick whatever we preferred. I went ahead with some more guilt free, regional snacks that were mostly quick fix ones as well. None were deep fried except the kalmi vada chaat, where I used the vadas that were fried as part of the final week theme.

Bafauri (Chattisgarh / Madhya Pradesh)

Soy Beans Guggillu / Sundal (South India)

Jhal Muri (West Bengal)

Roasted Phool Makhana

Kalmi Vada Chaat

Spicy Corn Chaat

The fourth week was meant for eight traditional Indian snacks that were agreed upon beforehand by the participating team. The snacks chosen were from four corners of the country and a few proved to be new and delectable surprises to me.

'Aakukoora' Pappu Chekkalu (Andhra Pradesh)

Baked 'Millet' Handvo (Gujarat)

Ratlami Sev (Madhya Pradesh)

'Jowar' Kothimbir Vadi (Maharasthra)

Kalmi Vada (Rajasthan)

Ooty Varkey (Tamil Nadu)

Dahi Gujiya (Uttar Pradesh)

Vegetable Chop / Bhejetebil Chop (West Bengal)

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#104.

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Godhuma Sojjappalu / Cracked Wheat Halwa Appam

My final post of this week, which featured 'Sweet' series. Next week, I am onto savory snacks from the state of Gujarat. So far in the series,
Malaadu / Hurigadale Unde
Dry Gulab Jamun
Coconut Burfi / Kobbari Mithai
Almond Halwa / Badam Halwa
Elaneer Payasam

Sojjappalu is one of the sweets prepared as a neivedyam on festival days in Andhra Pradesh. The 'sojja' refers to the semolina halwa filling used in the appams. I sometimes prepare these for Varalakshmi Vratham, substituting with other fillings. I made the filling with cracked wheat halwa this time which was equally delicious. I made a small portion but this can be easily doubled. The cracked wheat halwa filling I prepared here is sweet to eat as it is but becomes a mildly sweet filling for appalu. If one prefers appalu on a sweeter side, then increase the sugar quantity and cook until the halwa thickens.

Somehow, I find the preparation of sojjappalu simple compared to the bobbatlu / poli recipe. An outer layer dough is prepared using all purpose flour and a sweet filling of halwa is prepared. The sweet halwa filling is encased in a dough disc, rolled into a palm sized one and are deep fried to golden brown. They are not rolled as thin as a poli and they puff up while getting fried. There is no need to worry in case if they don't puff up. They end up getting flattened once they cool down, just as pooris do. I usually pat them into a thick disc but this time, I rolled them thinner. 

(1 cup = 240 ml)
Ingredients: (Yield - 5 to 6 appalu)
1/2 cup maida / all purpose flour + extra for dusting
A pinch of salt
1 tsp. oil
Oil / ghee to fry appalu

Ingredients for filling:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup fine cracked wheat
1/2 cup sugar *
1/8 tsp. cardamom powder
1 tsp. ghee
* The filling is sweet to eat as it is but becomes a mildly sweet filling for appalu. If one prefers appalu on a sweet side, then increase the sugar quantity and cook until the halwa thickens.

Directions to prepare the outer covering:
* Combine flour, 1 tsp. oil and salt in a mixing bowl. Add water as needed and form a firm, pliable dough (I added about 2.5 to 3 tbsp. water.) Cover the dough and rest it for about 30 minutes or so.


Directions to prepare the sweet filling:
* Toast the cracked wheat on medium flame for a couple of minutes and keep it aside.

* Bring 1/2 cup water to a rolling boil in a pan. 

* Add the cracked wheat to the hot water and stir well to combine. Lower the heat and cover the pan. Cook the cracked wheat for a couple of minutes.

* Add sugar, ghee and cardamom to the cracked wheat and continue to cook.

* The sugar melts and loosens the mixture. Cover and continue to cook.

* Turn off the stove when the mixture is well cooked and comes together as thick mass. If the mixture appears runny, cook further until the mixture thickens. Leave the mixture to cool.

Directions to prepare appalu:
* Divide the dough into 5/6 equal portions and roll them into smooth balls. Similarly, divide the stuffing into 5/6 equal portions and roll them into balls. Grease your palms with ghee if needed.
 
* Dust the work surface with flour if needed. Roll a dough ball into a thin circle of about 4 inches diameter. Place the stuffing at the center of the circle and bring the edges of the rolled dough together. Roll them into discs. Or grease your fingers if needed and pat into a circle of 1/4 inches thickness.
 
* Heat oil / ghee in a frying pan. Pinch a small portion of the dough and drop into the oil to check the readiness. If the dough sizzles and comes to the surface then the oil is ready to fry. Slide the rolled disc into the hot oil carefully from the side of the pan.

* Fry on low flame, flipping in between until the disc turns golden brown on both sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on a plate covered with an absorbent towel. Repeat the steps with the remaining dough and the filling.

* The appalu puff up while frying but they get flattened once they cool down.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#104

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