Pick any style, make a delicious starter for your meal.

Considering we are in times where starters are constantly skipped, below are some of the ways we can make them attractive and delicious to try.

Preparing Stuffed Fried Pickles

Ingredients

for 6 servings

• 6 dill pickles
• 6 sticks mozzarella cheese
• 6 slices ham
• 1 ½ cups (185 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 ½ cups (75 g) panko breadcrumbs
• 3 large eggs, beaten
• oil, for frying
• spicy mayonnaise, for serving

Preparation

1. On a cutting board, slice the ends off the pickles and place vertically on the board.
2. Using an apple corer, hollow out the pickles and reserve the centers for frying.
3. Place a slice of ham on the cutting board and roll it around a string cheese stick.
4. Stuff the ham-covered cheese stick in a hollow pickle. Repeat with the remaining ham, cheese, and pickles.
5. Cut the stuffed pickles into ¼-inch (6 mm) slices.
6. Place the flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in 3 separate medium bowls. Dip each pickle slice in the flour, eggs, then panko, making sure each slice is fully coated.
7. Dip each cored pickle center into flour, eggs, then panko, making sure each one is fully covered.
8. Heat the oil in a medium pot until it reaches 375˚F (190˚C). Fry the pickle slices and cores for 1-2 minutes, or until golden brown.
9. Serve with spicy mayonnaise for dipping.
10. Enjoy!

fresh crispy Stuffed Fried Pickles

Preparing Onion Cabbage Bonda

Onion Cabbage Bonda is an easy to make Indian tea time snack. It is basically a deep fried onion, cabbage fritter made with chickpea flour.

Cabbage is a good anti oxidant alongside onions makes them good anti oxidants that help in a good nutrition diet. The bonda is very crispy on the outside due to the sliced onions and cabbage. It is a delicious meal to try out.

Below are the preparations for the onion cabbage bonda.

Ingredients

• Gram flour | Besan Flour – 1 1/4 Cup
• Rice flour – 3 Tbsp
• Baking sodaa large pinch
• Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp
• Salt – 1/2 tsp (adjust per taste)
• Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp
• Jeera powder – 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
• Cabbage – 1 1/4 Cup (julienned)
• Onion – 1 large (sliced)
• Green chilli – 1 small (finely sliced)
• Coriander leaves – 2 Tbsp (chopped)
• Curry leaves – 1 sprig (chopped)
• Oil – 2 tsp + for frying

Instructions

1. First slice the onions and julienne the cabbage as shown in the pics below.
     
2. Then, take a large mixing bowl and add all the dry ingredients listed from Gram Flour until turmeric powder. Give a quick mix. Add the remaining ingredients (cabbage till curry leaves + 2 tsp oil) to the mixing bowl. Mix well. Sprinkle just a little bit of water and mix well to form the batter, with consistency as shown in the pics.

     

     

3. Now heat the pan with oil for deep frying. Check the oil for its hotness by dropping a pinch of the prepared batter in the oil. If the oil is hot enough, reduce the flame to medium. Take a hand full of the batter, shape it into a rough ball and drop it gently in the oil. When the bonda color changes to golden brown, remove it from oil and place in a paper towel to remove excess oil.

     

     

4. Serve hot with chutney or ketchup.

   

Notes

– Sprinkle only very little water to make the batter. After adding the cabbage, onions, 2 tsp oil to the flour mixture, your batter will turn sticky. I sprinkled only about 1 Tbsp of water.

– The batter should not be too watery, else the bonda will absorb more oil while frying. The batter should not be too dry, else the bonda will turn hard.

– Adjust spiciness (green chilli and red chilli powder as per taste).

– You can also add jeera seeds instead of jeera powder.

– Fry the bonda in batches and medium flame so that the inside gets a chance to get fully cooked.