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Ratalu is a type of Yam. It has nice violet colour and is generally available during winters.
It is used to make many dishes. Gujaratis make maximum use of it in their special mix vegetable dish named Undhiyu.
It is also used to make ratalu puri (a type of fritter dipped in gram flour batter). It is very tasty and is generally made during the night of Lord Krishna’s birth festival or Janmashtami. It is celebrated at midnight and we generally have stalls put up outside the temple of ratalu puri during this festival. People worship and celebrate the Lord Krishna’s festival in the temple and then come out and relish this hot ratalu puri.
Ratalu is mostly used by people during the fasts. This dish is also made during fasts. This is famous at Shreenathji temple (Nathdwara, Udaipur, Rajasthan) and relished by the devotees who come to visit the temple. Here the available dish is deep fried form. It is nice golden and crisp from outside and soft from inside. Almost like french fries. The seasoning sprinkled on it just enhances the taste. I have tried to balance the taste with health by shallow frying it. You get the same taste and texture. You can also bake them in oven. The seasoning can be tried and experimented . You can sprinkle dry mint leaves powder, dry mango powder , red chilli powder to give more tangy taste. For exotic taste sprinkle some oregano, mixed dry herbs, basil , etc. The seasoning can be any of your choice.

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5 from 2 votes

Roasted Ratalu (Violet Yam)

A snack made from violet yam . It is roasted on a pan and served by seasoning it with salt and pepper ans chat masala.

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time35 minutes mins

Course: Snack

Cuisine: Gujarati, Indian

Keyword: healthy, nonfried, panfried, snack

Servings: 2 people

Calories: 210kcal

Ingredients

• 250 gm violet yam (ratalu)
• 1 tsp rock salt
• 1 tsp black pepper powder (freshly coarsely grounded)
• 1 tsp chat masala
• 1 tbsp oil (shallow fry)
• water
• salt as per taste

Instructions

• Wash the yam with water. Peel it nicely and then again wash it with water so any dirt if there is removed. Pressure cook it for 4-5 whistles adding salt in it.
  
• After that remove and let it cool and then cut it into slices of any shape you want. Slice it after it is properly cooled so that it cuts with nice edges.
  
• Put some oil on griddle or tava and place them on it and then roast them on both the sides till golden in colour. Roast them on medium heat. Originally instead of roasting ratalu it is deep fried till golden. But this will give the same taste and with less of oil.
  
• Turn both the sides and roast till golden.
  
• Sprinkle all the seasoning and serve hot.
  

Notes

The same can be prepared with elephant yam, sweet potato, potato and even paneer.

If you want to have it during fast then sprinkle the seasoning which can be taken during fast like sindhav salt, black pepper powder.

Nutrition

Calories: 210kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 967mg | Potassium: 1033mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 200IU | Vitamin C: 29.7mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 0.9mg

Once i just happened to go through femina magazine (august 22, 2012 edition) and saw this recipe. I just could not resist to make it. It is from Avadhi cuisine and just gives the feeling of kings and their feast. Avadhi cuisine belongs to royals or nawabs as known. It is loaded with all the rich ingredients which gives the royal richness to it. So i just wanted to try them and make them for all my family members who are good food lover and also my critics. So i tried my hands on them with little change with ingredients and process. As now a days we are really health and calorie conscious i have to think over for the options for making it healthy and enjoy guilt free without compromising on the taste.

The recipe had stuffing made from cheese only. I have used paneer with a little cheese just for the taste and texture. I have used lots of coriander along with the mint leaves in the stuffing and have added pepper powder in it. Next for the outer covering in have used brown bread crumbs . The beauty of the recipe is that it has less of spices and yet is rich and exotic.

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5 from 2 votes

Nayab Chane Ki Shikampuri

The recipe is of Avadhi cuisine. It is made with all the rich ingredients and has a very rich taste. They are kebabs and are big in size like a big king size. The outer layer is made with the chickpea and hence nice crispy and the inner filling of the kebab is rich and moist with paneer, cheese, onions and green masalas. The kebab hence are crispy outside and melt in mouth inside. Though the kebabs are big in size you still will want it more due to its nice royal and exotic taste.

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time20 minutes mins

Total Time50 minutes mins

Course: Snack, Starters

Cuisine: Avadhi, Indian

Keyword: appetizer, chicpea, cutlet, kids, paneer, patties

Servings: 4 people

Calories: 133kcal

Ingredients

For Outer Layer

• 2 cup Chickpeas (Kabuli Chana or Chhole Chana soaked overnight)
• 6 slices Bread (have used brown bread cut and churn into crumbs)
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• 2 tsp ginger garlic paste Freshly made
• 1 tsp dry mango powder
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 4 cup water
• salt (as per taste)

For stuffing

• 250 gm cottage cheese (paneer, grated)
• 2 cubes processed cheese (grated)
• 1 onion (finely chopped)
• 3 tbsp mint leaves (pudina, finely chopped)
• 3 tbsp coriander leaves (finely chopped)
• 2 green chillied (finely chopped)
• 2 tsp black pepper powder (freshly grounded if possible)
• salt (as per taste, cheese also contains salt)

Instructions

For Outer Layer

• Wash and pressure cook chickpea with ginger garlic paste and salt till soft.
  
• Mash chickpeas. Add breadcrumbs and spices.
  
• Bind together and set aside.
  

For Stuffing

• Mix the mint, coriander, green chillies, paneer, cheese, onion, coriander and salt and pepper and prepare the stuffing.
  
• 

For Kebabs

• Make balls out of the chickpeas mixture, flatten and stuff it with the prepared filling. Shape into balls again.
  
• 
• 
• Shape them nicely into kebabs. if they become dry then apply little water and give a proper shape.
  
• 
• Dust the kebabs with corn flour or maida and deep fry until crisp and done. Serve hot with mint chutney or sweet tamarind chutney or ketchup.
  

Notes

If the outer mixture becomes dry while filling the stuffing then just apply some water and smoothen the kebab with it. I generally roll the kebabs and refrigerate them for half hour so that they absorb less oil while frying. The kebabs should be fried on high flame otherwise it will break if the oil is not heated properly. It is better to dust them with cornflour or all purpose flour  (maida) and then fry them.

Nutrition

Calories: 133kcal | Carbohydrates: 6g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 21mg | Sodium: 476mg | Potassium: 178mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 200IU | Vitamin C: 2.5mg | Calcium: 110mg | Iron: 1.1mg

This is a traditional maharashtrian recipe and is usually prepared during the month of shraddh while they do shraddh pooja in their homes. Shraddh or also known as pitru paksh is observed in the month of september -october immediately after the Ganesh festival on the full moon day till the new moon day.

So during these sixteen days people pay homage and perform some shraddh pooja with all the family member for their ancestors. They offer different kinds of food and even offer them to the Brahmins and to cows, crow and dogs. This is the time when all the family memebers are together and perfom pooja and have food together.
This time we have decided to perform our grandfather’s shraddh at our place. We generally prepare rice kheer also known as dudhpak in gujarati. It is prepare from milk and rice. This rice kheer is also considered to cool our body from the october heat or bhadharwa month garmi. The other accompaniments are puri, rice, dal or kadhi, some vegetable (brinjal/mixed cauliflower / lady’s finger/ potato) and farsan. But all these food items should not have onion and garlic in them as they have to be eaten along with rice kheer which is prepared from milk. And so i wanted to prepare these shraddh vada at my place because it does not contain garlic and onion and also the name itself signifies its importance during the shraddh. When i was in 11th and 12th standard, i was at ahmedabad and was staying with a maharashtrian family.They use to perform this shraddh pooja every year and they made always these vadas on these occasion. This is the traditional which their ancestors followed.These vadas are really yummy, crisp and blended with all the flavors of curry leaves, ginger, green chilli and coriander.and no one can just eat them one. We used to just feast on this vadas for the whole day. They tasted equally good when cold and hence use to eat them again with the afternoon tea. So I was keen to make them on this shraddh occassion at my home. I called my aunt in ahmedabad and took the recipe from her. She advised me with some care to be taken while making these vadas and some tips while making vada. I have mentioned them for you. I just tried the recipe as per her instructions at my home. But during my first attempt with it the vadas did not came crispy as we use to have at her home. The taste was perfect but there was no crispiness in it and they seemed to be densed. so tried my hands on it next day for my sons lunch box. This time i ground the flour more and made it almost like semolina texture and then increased the proportion of water to flour. My aunty told me the recipe will have same 1:1 ratio for flour and water. And this time the vadas came up super crisp and soft and everyone in my mother in law after tasting them gave me permission to make them for the whole family. And believe me I had made them twice on the day of shraddh and they just were enjoyed by all. Thy were hit in my family and loved by all from kids to old. Since they were finished in the afternoon and my jijaji was coming in the evening for dinner i made them again in the evening and they were fininshed fast again.

So enough of my talks .
This recipe has two stage. I have narrated both the steps in the recipe below
1. To prepare the dry flour mixture (shraddh vada flour).
2. making of shraddh vada.

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5 from 2 votes

Shraddh Vada

A very crispy vada blended with all the flavors of curry leaves, ginger, green chilli and coriander.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Snack

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: fritters, multigrain, snack, teatime

Servings: 15 vadas

Calories: 244kcal

Ingredients

Shraddh vada flour

• 3.5 cup whole rice
• 1.5 cup chana dal (split yellow gram)
• 0.5 cup urad dal (split black lentils)

Shraddh vada

• 1 cup shraddh vada flour
• 1.25 cup water
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp asafoetida
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 20 curry leaves (kadi patta. nicely washed and chopped)
• 0.5 cup coriander (nicely washed and chopped)
• 1 tbsp sesame seeds
• 1 tbsp ginger paste
• 1 tbsp green chilli paste. (can be added more or less as per taste)
• 2 tbsp green chilli chopped
• 2 tsp red chilli powder I used kashmiri red chilli powder. it can be added more or less as per taste
• salt as per taste

Instructions

Shraddh vada flour

• Grind all the ingredients in the dry mixer grinder. It should have the texture like fine semolina (sooji). If you get more coarse mixture while grinding then try to grind more and if still you have coarse mixture then can sieve the mixture through the semolina sieve. If the mixture will be too coarse then when we prepare vada from it will become rough and grainy and you wont get the crispy taste in it.
  

Shraddh vada

• Put a thick bottom pan on flame. Add oil the pan. When it is heated add asafoetida, turmeric powder, curry leaves, sesame seeds, chopped green chilli, ginger paste, chilli paste, red chilli powder and salt as per taste. saute it for few seconds.
  
• Add water in it.
  
• Add coriander leaves to it and bring it to a boil.
  
• As soon as the water boils add the flour and switch off the flame. stir the flour mixture nicely so that no lumps are formed and then cover the pan and keep aside to cool till lukewarm.
  
• After the flour mixture is lukewarm remove it in a plate. Grease your palm with the oil and then knead the mixture till smooth like dough. The more you knead till the mixture the nicer the vada becomes. Smoothen the mixture and form a log from it. Grease the palm again. Take a ball from the mixture and roll it nicely to a lemon size ball. Flatten the ball and make a hole in it as shown in the picture. Shape all the other vadas in the similar way. Keep aside.
  
• Heat sufficient oil in the kadai or heating wok. To check whether the oil is heated drop a small ball of the flour mixture into it. If the ball comes up immediately then the oil is nicely heated but if the ball stays in the bottom and comes up slowly then the oil is not ready and wait till it is heated. Once the oil is ready drop one by one vadas and then lower the flame and fry till golden and crisp. Do not overcrowd the kadai while frying. I generally fry four vadas at a time. Remove the vadas on the absorbent paper and serve them hot with corainder-peanut chutney. The vadas can also be relished once cool.
  

Notes

Few tips

1. The grounded flour mixture should not be coarse. It should have the texture like fine semolina or sooji. If while grinding in the mixture jar you do not get the required texture then just sieve it.  If the mixture is coarse the vada will become dense and you will not get the desired crispiness in it. Grind the flour with the given proportions.
2. While boiling the flour for making vada the water and flour ratio should be maintained. Whatever size of cup you measure the for the flour the same cup should be taken for measuring water.
3. The water should not overboil . after one boil immediately add the flour to it and switch off the flame otherwise the water ratio will become less and you dont get  a soft dough.
4. if even after following these instructions while kneading the mixture if you find it dry and not soft then add a tablespoon or two of lukewarm water while kneading and make your dough soft.
5. Dont add more oil. Only two tablespoon is required while making vada dough for one cup of flour. More oil will break the vadas while frying and will absorb extra oil.
6. While frying the oil should be nicely heated the do not overcrowd the heating wok with too many vadas. i generally add four at a time. lower the heat of the wok once you drop vadas  and then fry them till golden.
7. Making hole in the centre of the vadas ensures that they cook evenly from all the sides.
8. The masalas added should be strong so that they retain the taste even after boiling and frying stage.

Nutrition

Calories: 244kcal | Carbohydrates: 29g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 14g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Sodium: 39mg | Potassium: 560mg | Fiber: 17g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 400IU | Vitamin C: 15.7mg | Calcium: 220mg | Iron: 8.5mg