Vegetable Uthappam

Ingredients:

Raw Rice : 3 cups
Black Gram : 1¼ cup
Onions : 2 (finely chopped)
Tomatoes : 2 (finely chopped)
Coriander Leaves : 2 tsp (finely chopped)
Salt : to taste


Preparation:

Wash and soak rice and gram seperately. Grind gram to a smooth batter and grind rice to a coarse batter.

Mix both the batters to gether and let it ferment for about 8-10 hours.

Just before making dosas, add salt and chopped onions and tomatoes.

Pour the batter on dosa tava and spread it to make thick dosas. Sprinkle oil and fry on both the sides. Serve with coconut or coriander chutney.

Onion Paratha

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour : 2 cups
Bengal Gram Flour : 1 cup
Onion : 1 big (chopped)
Green Chilli : 1 (chopped finely)
Ghee : 1½ tbsp (chopped)
Red Chilli Powder : ½ tsp
Garam Masala Powder : ½ tsp
Coriander Leaves(Optional) : 1 tsp (chopped)
Salt : to taste
Oil : for roasting
Water : to make dough


Preparation:

Mix together wheat flour, gram flour, onion, green chilli, salt, garam masala, ghee, coriander, chili powder. Add enough water and kead the mixture to make a soft and stiff dough. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it stand for half an hour.

Knead the dough again. Make big lemon sized balls from the dough. Roll each ball into a circle. Roast the parathas on a hot giddle applying oil on both side till it forms brown specks on bot the sufaces.

Make egg sixed balls from the vegetable mixture and flatten each ball to form cutlet shape. Roll all the cutlets in bread crumbs. Heat oil in a tava, and shallow fry the cutlets. Serve with tomato sauce.

Serve parathas hot with yoghurt!

Raagi Rava Dosa

We all have eaten crunchy, paper like rava dosa. I wanted to make something different, which was quick, easy and also healthy. Did you know that Raagi contains high protein. Raagi flour has advantages of slow digestibility and high calcium content as well.

So, I changed the recipe for rava dosa quite a bit. Tried this twice at home and each time it was a super hit. So, here comes the recipe for Raagi-Rava dosa.

Ingredients:

1 cup Raagi flour - Raagi hittu
1 cup Rice flour
1/2 cup Rava -
1/2 cup Besan flour or Kadale hittu
1 tsp Jeera
2 finely chopped green chillies
salt to taste
1 onion finely chopped
Method:

Mix all the above ingredients 1-7 with water except onion. Make sure there are no lumps at all in the dosa batter. The consistency should be as watery as Lassi or Neeru majjige. Heat a non-stick pan or tava. I didn’t use a non-stick pan; used a normal Iron tava. I saw this trick in youtube by VahRehVah chef. The chef there puts onion first on the Tava, and then sprinkles dosa batter on the Tava. It wasn’t easy for me to do that, so I did pour the dosa batter the normal way, but didn’t spread the batter on the tava.

So, first and foremost sprinkle onion on the tava As shown below. This is optional and you can leave it if your are making this on days during which you don’t eat onion.

Next, pour the batter as thin as possible on the pan, and add oil on top and sides of the dosa. Don’t spread the batter at all. See the image below:
Once the dosa is done on one side, turn over and let it cook on the other side as well. Serve with pickle, chatni or even better my daughter’s favorite Jam. Enjoy crunchy Ragi-Rava dosa.

Semiya Upma Recipe

Prep & Cooking Time: 20 mts

Serves 4-5 persons

Cuisine: South Indian.



Ingredients:

-> 2 cups vermicilli, roast in a tsp of ghee for 4-5 mts till golden brown

-> 1 finely sliced large onion

-> 3-4 slit green chillis

-> 1″ ginger finely chopped

-> 1 large tomato, chopped

-> 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (optional)

-> 1/2 tbsp oil

-> 1 tsp ghee or butter

-> salt

For seasoning:

-> 1 tsp mustard seeds

-> 1/2 tbsp split blackl gram

-> 1/2″ cinnamon stick (optional)

-> 12-15 curry leaves

1 Boil 4 cups of water and add the vermicilli along with 1/4 tsp salt and 1 tsp oil. Once the vermicelli is cooked (it should be just soft and not mushy), turn off heat, pour the vermicilli into a colander to drain completely and pour cold water over it and keep aside.

1 Heat oil in a cooking vessel, add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add the black gram and curry leaves and saute them till the dal turn slightly brown and a nice aroma emanates the kitchen.

2 Add the sliced onions, green chillis and ginger and saute for 2 mts.

3 Add the chopped tomatoes and saute on medium heat for 4 mts. Add salt to taste (remember you have already added salt to the boiling vermicilli, so add accordingly).

4 Now, add the cooked semiya to the sauteed onion-tomato base and mix it lightly and see that no lumps form and it combines well. Add a tsp of ghee or butter and combine well. Garnish with coriander leaves.

5 Serve hot with chutney or pickle of your choice.

Note:

For variation, garnish with grated coconut and add 1″ cinnamom stick (during seasoning). You can added roasted cashews too.

Rava Dosa

Ingredients:

-> 2 cups semolina/rava
-> 1/2 cup rice flour
-> 1/2 cup maida (all-purpose flour)
-> 1 1/2 tsps cumin seeds
-> 1 tsp grated ginger
-> coriander leaves - 2 tbsps (optional)
-> curry leaves - few (optional)
-> finely chopped green chillies - 1 or 2
-> salt to taste
-> water - 6 cups (approx)
-> oil as required
Combine all the above ingredients except oil and let the rava dosa batter sit for half an hour to an hour. It might thicken after a while as rava absorbs the water. At the time of making dosas add more water such that it is of pouring consistency (like thick buttermilk). Pre-heat an iron tawa on high for a minute. Do the water test (sprinkle few drops of water over the hot tawa such that it sizzles) and reduce heat. Pour a ladle full of dosa batter from the outward base of the tawa in a circular motion (as shown in the picture below). Fill the gap in the middle with dosa batter. Don’t drop batter like a thick lump but pour all over, evenly, filling the gaps. Pour 1-2 tsps of oil like drops along the edge of the dosa and the gaps in the middle.



Increase heat to medium flame and let the dosa cook for around 3 mts. At this point increase flame to high and let the dosa roast for a half a minute or so. If you want a slightly softer dosa, remove the dosa at this point.



But for a crisper dosa, let the dosa roast further on high for another one mt or till it reaches a nice golden brown stage like shown in the image below. Serve hot with chutney or sambar.



It takes practice to prepare rava dosas. You need to keep in mind a few things while making dosas.
~ Prepare the batter at least an hour or half an hour before you actually want to eat the dosas.
~ There is no need of fermentation for ravva dosa batter unlike masala dosa batter. Its instant.
~ The batter should not be thick but of pouring consistency like a thick buttermilk consistency.
~ Letting the batter sit in the refrigerator for a few hours also helps in attaining crisp dosas not that you cannot prepare crisp dosas with batter sitting for just an hour. Infact the dosas you see in this post were prepared from dosa batter that was mixed just an hour before preparation.
~ Infact the most important factor in the making of ravva dosa is adjusting the heat control. An iron tawa requires higher heat as compared to non-stick pan. I have used an iron tawa and so adjust heat according to the pan you use to prepare dosas. You need to be around the stove while preparing these dosas.
~ There are many variations in preparing rava dosa. You could add grated carrot and coconut to the batter along with rest of ingredients. Or add some sliced onions while the dosa is cooking. Broken cashewnut pieces can also be added to the dosa batter.
~ At the time of preparing rava dosa, use the ladle to stir the dosa batter well, as the flours tend to sink to the bottom of the vessel like a thick residue. So combine well each time you pour the dosa batter over the tawa.
~ You can flip the dosa and cook the other side as well but I don’t usually flip the dosa. I let it cook on one side only.
~ A cast-iron tawa is best or a non-stick pan (used exclusively for dosas) can be used to prepare rawa dosas.
~ Don’t skimp on the oil to save a few calories, as it helps the rawa dossa get crisp. (don’t ever think of calories when you want to relish rava dosa):)
~ The batter can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days after which it will turn sour (i.e the dosas prepared from batter more than 3-4 days old).

Dosa

Here is a simple dosa recipe.
Ingredients
Urad Dhal – 1 cups
Rice Flour – 2 cup
Method
Wash and soak the dhal overnight.
Grind it to a paste and mix in the rice flour.
Let it ferment overnight and then store the batter in the refrigerator for up to a week.
To make Dosa’s
Take a little batter and mix in salt and add water to make a reasonably thin batter. It should not be watery though, but should flow easily.
Using a ladle pour a ladle full of batter on to a hot pan. ( a seasoned non stick pan works best)Quickly spread the batter out in a circular motion from the center to out.
Nowdrizzle a little oil on the top of the dosa.
When the color turns to a nice golden brown, fold in half and serve immediately, with hot sambar and coconut chutney.

Idli

This is a common South Indian Breakfast/ Snack item.There are a lot of variations to the basic recipe. For now I will just list a simple one. The variations will follow later.
I am not going to try trace back the origins of Idli. I will leave that job for the historians. If you are interested though here is a link from wikepedia which talks a little about it. Most other sites have copied the same info and presented it as their own.
Ingredients
Urad Dhal – 2 cups
Idli Rava – 1 cup
Method
Soak the dhal for a couple of hours. I usually leave it overnight.
Grind the dhal with a little water. The consistency should be like cake batter. Not thick and lumpy but at the same time should not be thin.
Mix in the rava and let it ferment overnight. ( it is usually takes less time in summer than in winter)
The batter is now ready and can be stored in the refiridegerator for a week.
To make Idli’s
Take some batter and dilute with a little water. About a couple of tablespoons or so. Add a little salt for taste.
Grease the Idli molds with oil or clarified butter. Pour batter upto ¾ full for each mould.
Remove from molds using a butter knife.
Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambhar.