Thursday, June 19, 2008

The mouth water-ring Kodbale!

It all started with Amma coming to Chennai to see us off at the airport when A and I were leaving for the US. After marriage, that is. She thrusted, in my hand, a packet of the delicious Kodbale. At this point, I must say that I'm not a fan of fried stuff like Murukku or Kodbale, so I refused to take it citing weight issues. She anyway stuffed it in my bag.

We reach the US, unpack and fall ill, not necessarily in that order. Both of us come down with the Flu which was making its rounds in our region in the US. We were too tired to talk to each other, leave alone cook! However, that did not stop us from sorting out the 'kalyana bhakshanam' and other assorted eats sent by our parents. Imagine running a temperature of 104F and removing packets of Murukku and Kodbale and the numerous thokkus. Sigh.

Well, to get back, A's eyes fell upon these Kodbale and he devoured them in 2 days. A, being A called/emailed/voice-chatted with Amma and told her how much he liked the Kodbale and pestered her for the recipe. So one day, she gave it to us and A made it. And boy, can he cook or what! :) I was impressed. If anyone can make 'bhakshanam,' then they've arrived in my world! So, here is the recipe and see how ours came out!


Ingredients:

1 cup All-Purpose flour or Maida
2 cups Rice Flour
1/2 cup grated/dessicated coconut
3-4 red chillies
2 Tbsp butter
Salt to taste

1. Grind coconut and red chillies with very little water. Just enough for it to get mixed and still remain mostly dry.

2. In a mixing bowl, add Maida or All-Purpose flour, the rice flour and the salt. Mix these dry ingredients well. Once they are mixed and do not have any lumps, add the butter. Make sure the butter is fairly soft and not hard. This ensures that the dough comes out uniform, and more importantly, gets done fast! Now, mix all of this to make a dough. Do not add water yet.

3. To this mixture, add the coconut-chilli paste. Mix again. Then add water in very less amounts. We do not want a runny dough here. The dough should be fairly thick!

4. Now, take a lemon-sized ball and roll it horizontally to form what we used to call a snake when we were kids :)

5. Now, place this snake :) on a plastic sheet or a plate and roll it into a bangle. Yeah, 'bale' in Kannada is bangle! Like this -



6. You can either roll them out this way and then fry them in batches or do the frying of the Kodbales and the rolling on the side simultaneously. There is no danger of the dough getting dry or anything like that. Take another peek!


This recipe makes 20-25 Kodbales and is fairly simple to make. In fact, the very nutrition and calorie conscious A was shocked by the very less amount of oil that the snack soaked. The key was to add very less water!

This is our first post, and we are really excited about this blog :) Do let us know what you thought!

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kodubale! They look delicious, and they do seem pretty simple to make! I'm going to try it when I have the time! Thanks for the recipe!

amna said...

i guessed it was you the moment i saw ur comment :D my useless husband sitting next to me doing nothing and urs cooks!! sigh..

good going! wait for the avalanche of comments and a lot of attention now ;)

sunita said...

That looks like a yummy snack :-)

Btw, thanks for visiting my world and of course,do go ahead and add it to your blogroll.

Wish you happy blogging days ahead :-)

evolvingtastes said...

Just found your blog, and enjoyed your first (and only!) post. These kodbales look lovely, and you make it sound so easy.

A_and_N said...

@D - Will send you a batch the next time we make it :)

@ Nags: Yay! And *huuuuuuug* and thanks also :)

@ Sunita: Thanks! Nothing beats your baked food.

@ Evolvingtastes: We just started! And yay! thanks for commenting. Really means a lot.

FH said...

They are to die for! So glad to see them here. I will try for sure, I have posted about 3 of them in both of my blogs!:))
Great start for a new blog, enjoy and looking forward to many more from you.

HOW CAN SAY "NO" TO YOUR AMMA'S KODUBALE?! ARE YA CRAZY? ;D

@the_whisk_affair said...

wow, its just beautiful..great job on ur first post!! :-) loved it!

A_and_N said...

@ Asha: hehe, I do not hate them. Just that am bored of eating them ;) You guessed it right, I'm from Karnataka while A is from Chennai.

@ JZ: Thanks a lot :)

Veda said...

hey A and N,

Congratulations on ur new blog and thank you for stopping by mine. so awed to see ur hubby making such a delicious snack...u one lucky gal !!!!!!will drop here more often....good luck again!!!!

Veda

Ranjani said...

Welcome to the world of food blogging!

PG said...

N, you are surely lucky to have a hubby who cooks with so much pleasure. Mine does cook, but it is becoming more and more rare and does it only out of need that desire. Well, I don't want to complain. :)
Wish you both happy blogging too!

Deeba PAB said...

These look yummy...& my kids are huge murruku fans...back from Chennai. These are really cute too!!

Susan said...

Congratulations on your first post. A new blog is always an exciting & energizing pet project.

There is a trick to frying without much oil. Thanks for sharing. I'm wondering if moisture content is as important as fat temperature. Your kodbales look like really tasty snacks.

Lakshmi said...

I am smiling end to end and feeling happy imagining the taste of kodubale, not to forget about drooling over them. You have a nice blog here.

Namratha said...

I was soo happy to see Kodubale here, looks perfect and I can't wait to try it! thanks for the recipe :)

Anonymous said...

We would like to feature this recipe on our blog. Please email sophiekiblogger@gmail.com if interested. Thanks :)

Anonymous said...

Finally a kodubale recipe...must try this one.
I agree with Susan...fat temperature is important for the fried item not to soak up the fat.
30 years here and I NEVER refuse any homemade food I'm given when I'm returning from a holiday...just wait till your next viist.

Sushmita said...

Delicious. I made this today with also jeera in the coconut - red chillis mixture. Also like to add that bedgi chillis u need to put double the quantity in the recipe.