Nivedhanam

Bajji is a famous snack in South India. It tastes best when served hot. Bajji can be done with a variety of vegetables like Potato, Carrot, Brinjal (Eggplant), Snake gourd, plantain, bell pepper, onion, bottle gourd, chili etc. Famous ones are potato, chili, plantain and onion. Adjust salt and chili powder to taste.

Today’s recipe is a snack that is commonly served when relatives and friends visit us.. Talk about evening tiffin or snack, bajji and bonda always comes in the list.. Much before the baked goodies came in to our kitchen, it was the bajji, bonda and other snacks that were prepared for snacks..

Pakoda is a famous snack in South India. It tastes best when served hot. This is a regular in our house as it is one of the most favorite snack / tiffin, but never get a chance to click as it is mostly done while I am cooking itself.. By the time I am done with final round of frying, the earlier rounds of pakoda are over. Even today, I took the clicks in a hurry and hopefully I will be able to do the justice on photo for this delicious pakoda. Adjust salt and chili powder to taste. You can make many varieties like cashew pakoda, mint pakoda, masala pakoda etc.. Today my choice is the very famous onion pakoda.

If there is one type of food which is enjoyed in many parts of the world, then it has to be chips.. Ranking top on junk food, these are irresistible and a lot of times you cannot stop with one.. There are many branded chips available, but make them at home and make it even more irresistible. I have tried the baked version here, but this one is the sinfully delicious fried one. You can add any seasoning powders of choice, but I kept it simple this with just salt and chili powder.

For this week BM we will be seeing a variety of snacks starting with a type of Bonda today. Fried items are many people's weakness.. You can just stop with one.. Same holds true for this delicious bonda. This bonda is made with a variety of lentils (parupu) along with spices ad herbs.

Come and visit the state of Uttar Pradesh. Uttar means North and Pradesh means place.. So come to the state which is in the Northern part of India. Uttar Pradesh was home to the very powerful empires – Magadha, Mauryan, Gupta etc. If you read Indian history, you will surely read about Uttar Pradesh. If you read Indian Ethics, then also you will come to Uttar Pradesh which has Mathura city. If you are tourist, one of the important places – Taj Mahal is here. Also two main Indian rivers – Ganga and Yamuna join at Allahabad and then flow as Ganga further east. Coming to today’s recipe it is a delicious sweet which is so tasty and authentic. I got this recipe from a few places on Internet. Some websites tell to add sugar to the dough, some do not. I chose the option of adding the sugar to the dough as it will give a caramelized sugar taste and also helps in browning better. Make sure you have the oil on low medium or the inside will remain uncooked.

Today we travel to Central India to the State of Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh is a newly formed Indian state and was born on November 1st, 2000. Chhattisgarh is known as the rice bowl of India and has a rich varieties of rice and rice based dishes. A lot of the traditional foods are prepared with rice, rice flour, curd and green leafy vegetables. When coming to sweets, Gulgula is one of the popular sweets from this state. I got this recipe from here. A delicious sweet from the state of Chhattisgarh. This is so quick to make and also very delicious…

Vadai is my favorite deep fried item.. So perfect for tiffin or for breakfast. This is the sweet cousin of the Spicy Medu Vadai. This gets its taste and sweetness from the honey added. You could add more honey if desired. I saw this in a TV show and loved it.. It will be in darker color compared to its spicy cousin due to its sugar content..

Lavang Latika, known by several names like Lavanga Lata, Labongo Latika etc is a very delicious and flavorful sweet.. It is a small pocket filled with mawa, sugar and nuts, deep fried in oil and coated with sugar syrup. They look so cute from their tiny pocket appearance with the clove acting the beautiful and elegant accent to the bag... I have bookmarked this sweet from a cooking show sometime back, but never got to try it until now when Sanoli announced it as a challenge for this month’s Southern Team of SNC which was started by Divya and I am so happy that I finally made this…This makes 20 pieces.. The flavor of the clove, the delicious filling and a lightly crispy outer with a  sugar coated exterior makes this delicious sweet..