Beetroot Kola Urundai - Chettinadu Special

Coming to the day 2 of mega BM under Journey through the cuisines A-Z series is a Chettinadu Special.
Chettinadu recipes are popular all over the world and they use varieties of spices and make the food unique.
As my maternal grandfather's base is from Karaikudi,the food culture reflects in our everyday cooking in the kitchen.Some of the dishes such as masala seeyam,kandarappam,vella paniyaram appears often in our households.
When I was thinking about the alphabet B,my sister suggested boondi,bajji and beetroot.As I have the recipe for the boondi laddu,wanted something different.
Suddenly one day got the idea of making beetroot kola urundai  after I got the fresh beets from the nearby farmers market.
For non-veg lovers,this same kola urundai is made with minced mutton instead of beetroot.The beetroot kola urundai can be served as a snack or appetizer.This method of making kola urundai is an instant method where there is no soaking of dhal.The kola urundai can be made with dhals which I will share the recipe soon.
In some of the families,a simple masala kulambhu is made and the urundai is soaked in the kulambhu and served for rice.Will share the kulambhu recipe soon in a different alphabet for this series.

                                                                      

                                                            
                                                Beetroot Kola Urundai

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   Basic Information

   Preparation time ~ 20 minutes
   Cooking time ~ 15-20 minutes

   Makes ~ 25-30 

   

  Ingredients

  

Ingredient	Quantity
Beetroot (grated)	1 cup
Coconut (grated)	1 cup
Roasted gram dhal/pottukadalai	5 tbs
Shallots/chinna vengayam	5-6
Garlic/poondu	2 -3 cloves
Ginger/inji	1 inch piece
Red Chilly/varamilagai	4-5
Fennel seeds/sombu	1.5 tsp
Cashews/mundiri	4-5
Curry leaves/karivepillai	1-2 sprigs
Coriander leaves(finely chopped)	1-2 tbs
Salt	1.25 tsp
Oil	for frying

  Method 

• Powder the roasted gram dhal and set it aside.Now in a blender jar take the grated coconut,red chilly,shallots,garlic,ginger,curry leaves,fennel seeds,cashews.Pulse it without adding any water,if needed use around 2 tsp of water.Then to this pulsed mixture add the grated beetroot.If the beetroot has lots of water content after grating,then squeeze and remove the excess water.Grind it to a bit coarse paste.

• Now take the ground paste in a bowl and to this add the powdered roasted gram dhal,salt and finely chopped coriander leaves.Mix it well and make small gooseberry size of balls out of it.Keep it on a plate.

• Heat the oil in a pan and the flame should in a medium high.Once the oil becomes hot drop in 7-8 rolled balls and fry it till it becomes nice and brown.Remove it from the oil and drain it on a paper towel.

• Serve it as a starter/snack or an accompaniment for rice varieties.

                                                                                                                        

                                    

•  If the batter becomes watery add little more pottukadalai powder or besan.
• Green chillies or red chilly powder can be used.
• Oil should be in a medium flame,if the oil not hot enough the balls may separate,too hot means it changes color without cooking inside.
• Don't make the balls too big,a gooseberry size is good enough otherwise it won't cook properly or chances are there for disintegrating in the oil.

Enjoy.........................

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