Tuesday, October 14, 2008

BAKED GREEN GRAM DAL FRITTERS/ GAARELU

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The other day when i made gaarelu for the Dussera festival i was so happy with the outcome.Since it was the festival day i didnot want to experiment or offer the baked one's as naivedhyam.So just followed the traditional Deep-fry method.These traditional gaarelu are a must in every Andhra kitchen for any Auspicious festivals especilally Dussera.Theres a popular saying in Andhra:

.................“Thinte garelu thinali, Vinte Bharatam vinali“.......... which literally means

“Either have to eat gaarelu or have to listen Bharatam.” Bharatam/Mahabharat is a Sacred and India’s greatest epic. The reason it is related with the epic is bcause of its taste, a heavenly taste to say.

People usually in my house prefer eating with onions in them.But the one's that are being offered as naivedyam does not contain onions. Can try the other version namely "Ulli Gaarelu" with chopped onions in it. Since am not abig-fan of deep-fried snacks i thought of baking them for a change.I was inspired from Anudivya of ...And a little bit more's baked lentil fritters and immediately baked these the next day from the remaining batter (as not being offered to devi) adding onions to them.They came out so beautifully i jjust couldnt resist myself from eating those oil-free gaarelu......


INGREDIENTS:

Split Green Moong Dal/Pesara Pappu-------2 cups
Ginger------------------------------------------2" piece
Garlic-------------------------------------------5-6
Coriander Powder-----------------------------1Tbp
Green Chillies---------------------------------3-4
Curry leaves-----------------------------------few
Coriander leaves------------------------------chopped finely
Cumin seeds---------------------------------- 1 tsp
Salt------------------------------------------- to taste
Oil-------------------------------------------- to bake(i used Olive oil)
Onions---------------------------------------1/2 cup finely chopped


DIRECTIONS:

1.Soak moong dal in water for about 2-3 hours. Dont soak it more than that.

2.Drain the water and refrigerate overnight (without any water).Or you can just skip this step if you soaked and made gaarelu on the same day.

3.Next day or the same day put it in the mixer or a processor , just lightly grind adding very little or no water ,so that some of the dal is ground finely but some of it remains partial.

4.Along with dal grind green chillies,ginger,garlic,cumin seeds in small batches.

5. Dont grind it too much and make it a coarse paste not smooth .It should be slightly tight enough to make gaarelu like vada consistency.This is important for the gaarelu to be crispy.

6..Now add coriander powder,salt,curry leaves,onions,coriander leaves to it.

7.Preheat oven to 375 degree F and grease the muffin pan moulds with a little more butter/oil of ur choice.

8.Slowly place them in the muffin moulds upto 1/4th of height.If you put more it becomes too fat.. and takes more time to cook inside...so after baking few you can adjust them accordingly.

9.Again pour like 1/2 tsp of oil in each mould so that it wont become too dry on baking.

10.Now place in the oven and bake for 20 mins turning to the other side and baking for 20 mins or less depending on the oven.

11.Make sure to check that inside is prpoerly baked and it turns slight golden color.

12.You can bake for few more mins but the thing is they will turn out to be so dry and hard.

13.Hope you all will try this and enjoy.......

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Sending this to Pallavi's Yummy Festival feast-Diwali as well as Divya vikram's Diet Foods Event, to Haripriya's SWC-Andhra Event .

24 comments:

Recipeswap said...

healthy recipe....great photo

Ramya Vijaykumar said...

Healthy this time, mmm great the gaarelu's have come out really well...

Praneetha said...

wow. healthy garelu.so innovative.

Unknown said...

Muffin vadas!! TOo inviting..Have you lined the muffin pan with foil or is it the aluminium muffin pan that u have used?

Unknown said...

wow.. looks great... nice idea..

Cham said...

Baking vada! They look perfectly tasty!

anudivya said...

Wow! baking is a great healthy alternative to frying, and I love this. Will try it soon.
Have you lined the pan with something?

raaji said...

Divya Vikram:No divya i have used an aluminium muffin pan......

Anudivya:I dint line the pan with anything....Its an aluminium muffin pan divya

vandana rajesh said...

hi raaji first time here. Gr8 blog. Your fritters look really tempting.

Shreya said...

hi Raaji, such grt photos! love the baked gaarelu, amazing:-) Also, the capsicum in peanut sauce is so interesting, I have never had it. love the recipe..
Reg the cucumber used for cucumber coriander soup, I used the salad cucumber and not the curry cucumber (dosakai in telugu). You can try this method with dosakai, bottlegourd, and white pumpkin too..turns out very well:-)

Sum Raj said...

woo this is bked version...looks healthy and great ..looks cute

Adlak's tiny world said...

vadas in baking style. too healthy and too good to eat. thanks for sharing.

I hve added a beatiful baking blog in my blog list. want to know more abt.... then check up....

R said...

Healthy baked fritters... they look awesome, Raaji!

Priya Suresh said...

Baking is better than frying..amazing green gram fritters, looks delicious..awesome clicks..

ST said...

Healthy fritters gulit free so we can eat more as much as we want..

Finla said...

Wow you baked them, really clever.
And they look delicius.

Unknown said...

thats great, never thought of trying to bake indian snacks, good idea. and will surely try the bell pepper curry and let u know. thanks for visiting my blog!

Laavanya said...

So satisfying and healthy.. what more can one ask for.

Usha said...

Awesome...healthy and delicious....

Suganya said...

WOW.... This sounds to be a healthy version of gaarelu... Looks so good. Nice recipe. Great pictures...

Uma said...

nice idea to bake vadas in a muffin pan. they came out so well.

Deepthi Shankar said...

thatz a healthy dish .. looks yum

Anonymous said...

raji i tagged u in Meme check my blog

Anonymous said...

Raaji!!!!!U are so brilliant to bake those gaarelu....i still cant believe they came out so beautifully