Grammathu Virundu - Feast from the villages

Villages, the backbone of India, are the rural parts of India where the age old traditions and practices are still in vogue. Sun TV the regional sattelite channel broadcasts a weekend food program called " Sunday Samayal ". This program has a series called Grammathu Virundhu - roughly translates as " Feast from the village " hosted by Paravai Muniamma.


Paravai Muniamma demonstrating - Courtesy suntv

She presents recipes that are from the olden days - truly nutritious and healthy without much hungama. I thought it would be good to present her recipes on my blog. This would be a nice place to collect all the village recipes - some with forgotten ingredients like ragi, millet, etc. In times where we do not even have access to mothers recipes, I think getting access to a grandmother's recipe from villages is worth treasuring. I might not try out all these recipes but thought I will try to capture them in my blog. If any of you try out these dishes please let me know, I will create a link.

Today the recipe presented was "Verkadalai vadai - Peanut fritters". Here is her recipe. She does not give the quantity of any of the ingredients. I will try to interpret what I have seen.


Ingredients :

- small onions ( pearl onions ) - 5, 6
- all purpose flour - 3 tablespoon
- rice flour - 3/4 cup
- roasted, powdered peanuts - 1/2 to 3/4th cup
- curry leaves 4
- coriander leaves - 2 tsps
- green chillies - 3
- salt
- oil for deep frying

Procedure :

- Mix all ingredients except oil.
- Heat oil
- Add a tbs of oil to the mixture of ingredients. Mix well. Add some water until the consistency of dough. ( dont add water to the hot oil mixture it will splutter )
- Flatten balls of dough and deep fry.