Adai Dosa

My MIL makes sure that she cooks almost all our favorite dishes when we meet i.e. either during our India trip or when they visit us here in UK. She makes varities of dosas, idlis, avalakki and ofcourse kurkul tindis :).

During our last trip to India we were expecting our little son. Me being a fan of variety, need range in anything to everything :). At this stage my taste buds were full of life and I wanted attractive and flavorsome dishes. On the other hand I was keen on maintaining a healthy diet as well. This is the time when amma made those delicious and wholesome dosas called Adai Dosa and I quickly noted down the procedure :)!

I like it as it is quite convenient, and you need not have to wait for fermentation. (For me fermentation plays a major role, as the weather here is too cold). You can refrigerate the remaining dough after you have made the dosas.

Adai Dosa is a form of dosa (dosa is something like a pancake) prepared from the combination of dals and rice. Well…maybe you can call it a spicy dosa or green dosa, which is equally high in protein as my earlier 1 i.e. hesarubele payasa.
Here goes the recipe for Adai Dosa.

Ingredients:
Makes around 20 – 25 Adai dosas depending on the size.

1Cup Hesarubele/ Moong dal
½ Cup Uddinabele/ Urad dal
3/4Cup Togaribele/ Toor dal
3/4Cup Kadalebele/ Chana dal
1Cup Rice
Fenugreek seeds – 1tspn
Asafoetida – 1/4tspn
Curry Leaves – 1/4cup
Salt to taste
Ginger – 1inch
Pudina - 1bunch (this is optional)
Cilantro – ½cup
Dried red chilies – 3 or 4
Oil

Method:

• Soak all the dals, rice and fenugreek seeds together in water for 4-5hours or overnight.
• Drain the water. Grind this with rest of the ingredients leaving oil and salt to make a smooth batter. While blending, add few spoons of water.
• Add salt to the batter and mix. Add water as needed. (Actual consistency of the batter should be slighty thicker than the dosa dough. As this is made thicker and crispier than dosa. But if you want to make it thiner and crispier add more water).
• Use a non-stick flat skillet on a medium-high heat.
• Next pour about 1 cup or large spoon full of batter over center of the skillet and spread uniformly with the back of the spoon. Starting from the center, spiral outwards until it is equally spread.

• When batter starts drying, put 1 teaspoon of oil and spread over gently using a spoon. Wait for few seconds flip the dosa with a spatula, just as you would do a pancake.
• Let the other side of the dosa cook until golden brown in color.

Serving suggestion: Serve the Adai dosa folded with coconut chutney, tomato chutney, or just with some pickle and plain yogurt.

Variations: Recently 1 of my friends ‘S’gave me an idea of making number Dosa for kids so that they get fascinated in eating, so while trying out for kids you can make dosas in the shapes that your kid likes.

You can also substitue red chillies with green chillies, add cumin seeds…. go on experimenting…. And wait for another healthy recipe from me :)!!

Hesarubele Payasa/Moong dal Kheer

Feels proud to be a south Indian – familiar with varieties of dosas, idlis, avalakki, akki rotti etc. Most of them come under healthy dishes that I categorize as less oil and less masalas used.
Both my mom and MIL are south Indian cuisine experts, I was never eager to learn south Indian delicacies from my mom before marriage. Now that we have moved to a place in UK where we don’t have any south Indian restaurants, no traditional south Indian social gathering I mean wedding, namakarana or homas and poojas where u get delicious payasa, chitranna, kosambri, gojjus, maduve mane happala wow many more…. I miss out on all those characteristic authentic south Indian dishes here.
This time with the winter being severe, Flu became our February month’s Family activity :(. So during that time I hunted for Hesarubele payasa and got the recipe.
I felt it’s a very simple and speedy dish. Generally this payasa is prepared during festive season. It provides high quality protein and aided us during those medicinal times. This was a silver lining for us after repeatedly having a boring menu of kattu anna (plain dal in rasam form with some minimal tadka). Yes we had hot steamed idlis with hesaru bele payasa and I was totally impressed with it :). Realisation struck to my mind ‘the importance of Hesarubele payasa and its nutritive value’ that my mom used to tell me always :).

Here goes the components and process for making Hesarubele Payasa.

Components:
Hesarubele/Moong dal – 1/2Cup
Ghee- 1Tbspn
Jaggery – 1/4Cup
Fresh grated coconut – 1/4Cup
Cardamom powder – 1/2tspn
Water – 1Cup
Milk – ½ to 1cup (as desired consistency)
Dry fruits roasted in ghee – cashew, dry grapes

Process:

• Roast the hesarubele/moong dal with the ghee in a pan on a medium heat till it gives out a nice aroma and slightly red in color.
• Cook dal with water in a pressure cooker. This might become a bit mushy.
• Meanwhile grind coconut and jaggery in a mixie to a fine paste.
• Add this paste, milk and if required a bit of water to the cooked dal and mix it well and bring it to boil. Make sure you stir it continusouly as it might catch the bottom.
• Add the cardamom powder.
• Garnish with dry fruits and its ready to be served.

Checkout for another easy and healthy south Indian recipe next Friday, till then have a great week ahead and Happy Shivaratri!!

Vegetable Pakoras – An All Time favorite Snack – Perfect For A Rainy Day Or A Cocktail Party!!!

Vegetable Pakoras – kind of fritters, which are yummy with some spice in the batter :). A smack of mint-yogurt dip cools the palate. You can serve with anything u want like sauce, mint chutney, chili sauce etc…. I have tried out with some potatoes, onions, cauliflower, and broccoli. You can also try out with different veggies like sweet potato, broccoli, zucchini etc

Ingredients:

1cup besan (gram flour)
3 tablespoons rice flour (optional- its added to get the crispness)
1 tablespoon of coarsely ground coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1chopped green chilies (u can adjust according to ur taste)
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Salt adjust to taste
3/4 cup of water (Use water as needed)
Oil to fry
Thin slices of – Potato, onions, broccoli, cauliflower as shown in the below picture.

Method:

• Mix all the dry ingredients together : besan, rice flour, coriander powder, and salt.
• Add the water slowly to make a smooth batter – batter consistency should be similar to that of a dosa or a pancake batter.
• Next, add the green chilies and cilantro. Mix well.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan on medium high heat. Dip the vegetable slices in the batter one at a time and drop in the frying pan.
• Fry the pakoras in small batches. Fry them until both sides are golden-brown.
  

Enjoy your crispy delicious Pakoras with a hot cup of chai or as appetizers.

This recipe has been submitted in the Event 'Sunday Snacks - Chaats/Indian Street Foods'

Baby Corn Masala

How can I miss on my favorite baby corn recipes in my blog? I love trying new recipes and eating new dishes, of course vegetarian. Sometimes I do modify a recipe to my liking.
I was bored making regular dishes with the available vegetables here. Open the fridge to see the same veggies every week, O sometimes it becomes so unexciting to cook, wish we get those avarekalu, tondekayi, shamegedde, boodgumbalakayi…. here too.
Soon I realized I don’t have much of a choice. But yet I wanted to make things interesting u see…so decided to try out my own recipe something tangy and colorful with baby corn and peppers.

Let me not bore u guys with my personal touch in every post ;). So here comes the recipe.

Ingredients

Baby corn- 165gms

Green pepper - 1
Red pepper-1
Ginger garlic paste -1/2tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2tbsp
Pinch of turmeric
Pinch of hing
Dhania powder - 1tbsp
Red chili powder (I prefer using Kashmiri mirch powder) - 1/2tbsp
Amchur –1tbsp
Salt
Lemon juice
Coriander leaves finely chopped
Besan-2tbsp {dry roasted on low flame for 2mins or until the raw smell disappears}

Method

• Cook the baby corn in pressure cooker or in MW and keep aside. After it has cooled cut baby corn into circles.
• Heat oil in a pan on high heat, add cumin seeds and wait for it to crack and then add ginger garlic paste, turmeric, and hing.
• To this add both the colors peppers and fry on high flame till the peppers are almost ( but not completely) cooked and then lower to medium heat.
• Add the cooked baby corn to this mixture along with salt, dhania powder, red chilly powder and mix well for a min.
• Then add besan and mix till it is coated well. Now sprinkle amchur powder, mix it for a min and take off the heat.
• Top it with some lemon juice and fresh coriander leaves. Baby corn masala is ready to be served with chapattis.

Enjoyyyy…Will be back next FRI with another new recipe.
Have a colorful weekend!