Mango Thokku

Ingredients:

2 cups grated raw green mangoes
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
pinch Asafetida
2 tsp salt or to taste
2 tsp red chili powder
1 tbspn dried methi leaves (Fenugreek)

Method:
1. Heat oil on high.
2. When oil has heated add mustard seeds.
3. When seeds pop, add mangoes, Asafetida, salt and chili powder. Fry for 5 minutes.
4. Add methi leaves. Fry another 5 minutes. Final product is pasty.

Vada

Ingredients:

2 cups urad dhal
1 cup diced onion
2 green chilies finely chopped
1 tsp pepper powder
10 curry leaves - chopped
10 small cubes of ginger (about 1/8 inch cubes)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt (or more as per your taste)
Rice Flour
Vegetable oil for frying

Method:

1. Soak urad dhal in 2 times the water for 4-5 hours.
2. Grind the dhal in sparse water after soaking into a fine, silky paste.
3. Put other ingredients into batter except the rice flour and stir

thoroughly.
4. Add rice flour until it becomes a thick paste.
5. Form into donut like formations and fry in hot vegetable oil.
6. Taste first one for salt and adjust accordingly.

** Forming into donut formations is challenging. I am yet to perfect this.
One tip I have from a pro in making this is to cool the batter slightly in
fridge. Take batter out to make 5-6 at a time. When batter is slightly
cool it is easier to form into the donut like shape. If you have tips on this
add below in comments.

Photo by Krishna Kumar.

Indian Steel Tumbler

Photo by Krishna Kumar.

Idli Cooking Gadget Photo

Photo by Krishna Kumar.

Kanchipuram Idli

Ingredients:

1 cup Idli Rice
1 cup Urad Dhal
10 methi (Fenugreek) seeds.
2-3 tsp salt
10 peppercorns
1 tsp Cumin seeds
10 pieces of cubed ginger (1/4 inch)
Pinch of Asafetida
15 Cashewnuts- chopped or crushed
2 tspns Ghee
1/2 cup Sesame Oil


Method:
1. Soak both rice and urad dhal with a pinch of
methi seeds for 3 hours.
2. Grind rice with sparse water into a silky paste.
3. Add required salt and let it fermentation about
8-10 hours. (If you live in hot climate, you can set
it in the sun. If you live in cold climate, you have
two choices.
First choice: Heat oven, turn off and cool. Keep the
oven light on and keep batter in 6-8 hours to ferment.
Second choice: Place the batter near or close as
possible to a heating vent overnight.
Fermenting will allow batter to rise and also smell
slightly sour.)
4. After fermenting, add sesame oil, peppercorns,
ginger pieces, and ing (Asafetida) into the batter
and stir well.
5. Heat 1 tsp ghee.  Add cashewnuts and cumin
seeds until the cashewnuts lightly brown.  Add to
mixture, mix well.
6. Take a pressure cooker, without the weight.
There are two choices on how to pressure
in tumbers.
First choice: Place a metal cooking rack on the
bottom of the cooker and take 3-4 Indian steel
tumblers.  Tumblers can sit on the rack.
Second choice: If you have a dhokla rack, keep only
the bottom most rack in the gadget, place the
tumblers on this.
8. Coat tumblers with sesame oil, fill tumber 3/4
full with idli batter. Set tumblers on your rack.
Close pressure cooker without using weight.
9. Once the steam starts coming from the cooker,
time steaming for 20 minutes.
10. When done, you can take the idlis out easier by
pouring cold water on the bottom of the tumblers.
A blunt object may help get them out as well.
11. Keep repeating steps 6, 7, and 8 until batter is over
or required amount is made. 
12. Serve with chutney, sambar or dhal powders.

Notes:
1. After making the first batch note how heavy the idlis
appear. If they seem heavy or thick, add some water to
the batter and test another few tumblers. Idlis should be
somewhat light and airy when steamed.
2. Leftover batter can be kept for several days after it is
made.

**This is Kanchipuram style due to being steamed in. You
can also steam in regular idli pans too. 

I will post photos of these gadges in separate posts. (I
tried in this post and it did not work properly.)
Photo: Indian Steel Tumbler
Photo: Idli Cooking Gadget Photo
This recipe is adapted from the recipe posted on Bawarchi.com.