Maddur Vade

 It's been a long time I blogged....so today I thought of writing and saying hellos to all my readers and friends.

 I always felt when I heard "In the scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest,how much is your pain" that, it's very subjective! And when I have been asked that question I would always answer as 2, though the pain might be more than 10, because the tolerance level differs for each and every individual! Some people can tolerate pain,in the scale,say up to 10, but there are many people who may not be able to tolerate pain, in the scale, even when it might be 2 or 3!

 So it's the tolerance level that matters! I just started to explain by taking the example of pain tolerance. So it is same when it comes to dealing with issues,problems,facing crisis.......,how much you can tolerate and how would you deal with the problems!

 I faced "Hurricane Sandy", last week! You always learn and grow, from what you go through in your life,people you meet,the circumstances you deal with. Though I also had quite an experience during hurricane, I stood outside, the things happened and watched and observed as a spectator of the whole thing!

 YES,there is no doubt that there is lot of damage but when it comes to tolerance level, I felt that people here are not able to tolerate,in the scale,even 1 or 2 level!! There is no shortage of gas supply,but because of power outage, they are not able to open gas stations, so government asked to fill gas on alternate days! That, people could not take it and got panic about it.

  There was no power,yes,we also did not have power for 5 days and after 3 days, spending in dark and bearing freezing cold,we went to our friend's house,to sleep over,who had power and heat! Since there was no power,the refrigerator was not functioning and milk,yogurt,veggies etc had to be thrown.  And also we were scared what if basement flood,if it rains heavily,since sump pump was working on battery and battery life was only 8-10 hours!!

 But still I felt it was not "horrible"!! It was one of those "down" moments in life, which was not under your control, so it passed by and it was "tolerable"!!!! This again I feel that we,Indians would not felt, in the scale of 1 to 10, it was 10,unbearable! Our tolerance level is higher and dealing with no power,standing in line for gas(it was hardly 10 mins standing,though,unlike in India,we stand in a long line for many hours) will not be a big deal!

 America has everything in abundance and people are so used to luxury and comfort that, despite government working so hard, spending billions of dollars to make sure people can get back to their normal life, they get panic and one of my neighbor went to Florida, because there was no power and no heat!

 Government immediately released billions of dollars as hurricane relief and started to work around the clock, got help from other states to get back the power, power company people who are working hard though it's cold and freezing........still people are unhappy and complaining! That's the height!

 But I felt WOW for the government, who is working so hard and put our lives back to normal,after such a disaster happened. So I guess we,Indians, has lot of tolerance,patience,endurance compared to Americans, since we always face scarcity,rationing,waiting and lot of other issues and problems in day to day life, has made us tough and strong.

 Anyways......that was my analysis about tolerance! It's been snowing like crazy since late afternoon and it's going to continue until tomorrow morning, so my kids,and my husband were feeling bored,cold, hungry, so I thought of trying something new......! I got this recipe of Maddur vade, this morning from my mom, so thought it would be best on a chilly,snowy evening. It's a very simple recipe and quick and easy to make, hope you will enjoy as much as my husband and kids did.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour(Maida) 1 Cup
Rice flour 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Pinch of sugar
Green chillies to taste
1 big onion finely cut
Oil for deep frying

Method:

 Mix, All purpose flour,rice flour,salt,pinch of sugar,finely cut onion,finely cut green chillies in a bowl. Warm up 3-4 tsp of oil and mix well. Then add water to make it to a firm dough. Do not add lot of water,since all purpose flour gets soggy easily.

 Heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Grease your palm with little oil and make a small ball of dough and press it on your palm,evenly. Deep fry until golden brown on both sides, on a low heat.

 Enjoy hot maddur vade with a cup of hot coffee with your family or grab a book or watch your favorite show on TV!

Everybody's favourite Ambode

Ambode! Thats the deep fried appetizer, which was one of the first thing I learnt when I started cooking. And somehow every single time I made it people loved it so much. Today its raining and cold and my husband's dialogue would be "Oh! ITs a nice weather to eat Ambode"! My brother always liked the dough, and would eat it before frying! So today I thought of sharing the recipe with you, hoping that you will like it!

Ingredients:

1 cup Channa Dal

Asafeotida (Hing,white hing,I always use it which has a great aroma,the SSP brand or Hotel Special brand is great,you get it in Bangalore,but I havent seen any here in Patel Brothers)

1/4 Tsp Turmeric
5-6 Green Chillies (adjust according to taste)
Salt to taste
1/2 cup coconut
Coriander leaves
Onions(Optional)
Oil for deep frying


Method:

Soak Channa Dal for half an hour. I soak exactly half an hour, looking at the clock, like if I soak at 11 I would grind at 11.30. Each and every step is important and if done according to the recipe the ambode comes out great!

And grind soaked channa dal with turmeric,salt,green chillies,asafeotida very coarsely. This is very important. So sometimes I grind green chillies once before adding the channa dal, so that green chillies are atleast mashed and then add channa dal,turmeric,asafeotida,salt and grind corasely. Another very important thing is dont use any water to grind. Thats how I make, if its too dry, just sprinkle water but dont use water to grind.

Put the grounded channa dal in a container and mix with grated coconut,and finely chopped coriander leaves. South Indians make Ambode for festivals so in festivals we dont use onions,thats why I have written as optional. But it would be great with onions also,which should be very finely chopped and mixed.

And if you are not making the ambodes immdiately you can put it the refrigarator, until you fry them.

While frying, take a deep pan or kadai, put enough oil(I use canola oil),for frying and make sure that oil is hot before making the ambodes.

When the oil gets hot, keep a cup of water aside, and grease your left pam with water and take the channa dal batter and gently press it, make sure that you dont press it very hard. Make sure that it binds and holds totogether, and dont make it flat, let it be little bulge and now put that in the hot oil and fry until golden yellow. You can put 5-6 ambodes at a time for frying.

Serve hot immeditely. This does not require any chutneys!

Tips: You can mix finely chopped dil with onions that would taste great.
If I had put the batter in the refrigarator, I dont put it outside to get that to the room temprature, I take out from the refrigrator and make it immeditely and if the batter is left I put it back again.