Wheat Flour Dosa

I make these instant dosas anytime, day or night, when nothing but dosas will do for a meal. While I love the traditional dosas, making them requires a little bit of planning and preparation. The batter for wheat dosas is ready in less then 5 minutes and does not require any soaking, grinding or fermenting.

Ingredients:

(For 12 -14 paper-thin dosas)

• 2 cups wheat flour
• ½ cup rice flour
• ½ cup buttermilk
• ½ -1 tsp cumin seeds
• A pinch of asafoetida
• 2-3 green chillies, finely chopped
• A sprig of curry leaves, chopped
• Salt to taste
• Water, to make a thin and watery batter

Method:

Mix together the ingredients listed above and add enough water to form a thin and smooth batter.

Heat a cast-iron skillet until hot and pour a ladleful of batter onto it. Lift the skillet off the heat and tilt it around so that the batter is distributed evenly over it. Since this is a very thin batter, spreading it using a ladle like you normally would for other dosas  will not work. Add a couple of drops of oil around the edges of the dosa and cook till done. Then flip over and cook the other side.

Serve hot with chutney.

Lemon Rice

It has been a while since I posted a South Indian dish here. Here’s something simple and quick that I made for dinner yesterday.

Ingredients:
1 cup uncooked basmati (or any other long-grain) rice
2 Tbsp oil (gingelly/sesame oil would be ideal here)
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
2-3 red chillies
A pinch of asafoetida
½ tsp turmeric powder
3-4 green chillies, minced
4-5 curry leaves
½ onion, finely chopped
¾ tsp ginger paste
A good handful of coriander leaves, chopped up
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used 2 large and juicy lemons)
Salt
Sugar

Method:
Cook the rice. (I always use the microwave for this.)

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large pan. Add chana dal, urad dal, mustard seeds, red chillies asafoetida, turmeric powder, green chillies, and curry leaves. Next add the onions, ginger paste, and salt. Cook till the onions soften.

Add the hot rice and mix well. Turn off the heat; add lemon juice to the rice. Add a touch of sugar too if you so desire. Keep for at least 30 minutes before serving to allow the rice to absorb the lemon juice and all of the other flavors.

I normally use rice that has been left over from the previous day to make preparations like tomato rice, tamarind rice, ghee rice, etc. In the case of lemon rice though, I have found that it tastes best when the rice used is fresh and steaming hot.

Tomato Dosa

I first saw these dosas on Laavanya's blog over a year ago, and what I liked most about the recipe was the fact that the batter was really easy to prepare and did not involve fermentation. I have since been making it very frequently.
These dosas make for a perfect breakfast/brunch over the weekend when you don't feel like doing much, or for that matter, on a busy weeknight when you just can’t!

For Laavanya's recipe, head over to Cookery Corner.

Here's what I did.
Ingredients:
1 cup raw rice, soaked for at least an hour
3 large tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds
3-4 red chillies
A few curry leaves
2 Tbsp grated coconut
1 Tbsp tomato paste
Salt to taste

Method:
Grind everything together, adding water as you go along, to get the right consistency for the batter.
Go ahead and make those dosas now! Everyone knows how to make dosas, right? I have a thing for thin and crispy dosas, so that's how I made mine.

Here are some other dosas I make very often-
Adai
Cornmeal dosa
Jaggery dosa
Plain dosa (instant)

Rava Idli

I made these soft, fluffy and tasty rava idlis for breakfast yesterday. I came across the recipe for instant idlis on Anita's blog a relatively long time back. I am one of those South Indians who prefers dosas over idlis any day, but the recipe looked too good not to try. I love the fact that there is no soaking or grinding involved here.

For the original recipe, head over to Anita's A Mad Tea Party. I had to make a couple of changes to the original recipe since I had to work with what I had. I really wish I had had curry leaves, green chillies and coriander though. You can add whatever vegetables you want to the batter. I only had a couple of baby carrots and some scallions.

Ingredients: (for 24 small idlis)
1 cup rava (I used fine)
About 3/4- 1 cup of yogurt (I did not really measure this)
2-3 Tbsp buttermilk
6-8 baby carrots, finely chopped
3 scallions/ spring onions, finely chopped
1 tsp baking soda
Salt

For seasoning:
2 Tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 Tbsp tsp urad dal
1 Tbsp chana dal
¾ tsp of red chilli flakes
A pinch of asafoetida


Method:
Heat oil in a big pan. Add the ingredients for the seasoning followed by the carrots and scallions. Cook for a minute or two.

Add the rava to the same pan and roast it for a few minutes till it smells done. Cool. Transfer to big bowl.

Add yogurt, buttermilk, salt and baking soda and mix well. Add enough water to make a batter that is sufficiently thick yet pourable.

Pour the batter in greased idli trays and steam for 12-15 minutes in a pressure cooker (without the weight). Allow the idlis to rest for a few minutes in the tray itself (very important to avoid a sticky mess) before plating them. Serve hot with accompaniment of your choice. We had ours with coconut chutney.

I have to say that the idlis turned out pretty well, considering the fact that this was my first time ever making idlis of any kind, and they were rather delicious, especially with the spicy chutney that we had it with. I did think that the idlis tasted a lot like the upma I make though. :D

Cornmeal Dosa

Here’s a recipe for a dosa that does not require any soaking, grinding or fermenting. This instant dosa makes an occasional appearance at my place during weekends. I also add different vegetables depending on what I have on hand, to make it more substantial.

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups cornmeal
½ cup rice flour
¾ -1 tsp red chilli flakes
½ - 1 tsp cumin seeds
½ onion, finely chopped
5-6 baby carrots, finely chopped
A handful of cilantro/coriander leaves, chopped
¼ - ½ cup buttermilk
2 Tbsp desiccated coconut
Salt to taste
Oil for making the dosas


Method:
Mix the ingredients together in sufficient water to prepare a batter that is neither too thick nor too watery. (A consistency that is slightly thicker than that of buttermilk would be perfect.)
Set the batter aside for about 20 minutes.

Heat a cast-iron skillet/griddle until hot and smear it with a little bit of oil.
Pour a ladleful of batter onto the skillet. Lift the skillet off the heat and tilt it around so that the batter distributes evenly. (Spreading the batter into a circle using the back of the ladle doesn’t work well here.) Add a couple of drops of oil around the edges of the dosa, turn down the heat a bit and cover and cook till done. Then flip over and cook the other side.

Serve hot with your favorite chutney.

We had it with some onion chutney and chutney podwer.

Other dosas on this blog-
Plain dosa
Jaggery dosa

Yellow for Bri

First, please do take a look at this post if you haven't seen it already. This one’s too important to have been missed.

Please contribute generously to help Bri and her family. Let us all keep her in our thoughts and prayers.


CLICK is a monthly theme-based photography contest hosted by Jugalbandi. This month’s theme is: YELLOW for Bri

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Mysore Rasam
I am home alone a lot these days and rarely feel like making something nice just for myself unless it’s blog-worthy. I usually make do with leftovers or store-bought frozen meals or even cereal (yes, sometimes I like to have it not just for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner too!). Today I felt like making something special for myself. I was going through my blog list of old favorites and came across Mika’s blog. I went through her archives and saw this recipe for Mysore rasam and decided that it just had to be tried out immediately. I make rasam frequently, but this was something I had only eaten at the typical South Indian hotels back home, and had never prepared before. So I got to work in my kitchen.
Ingredients:
3-4 Tbsp cooked toor dal (yellow pigeon peas)
1 ball of tamarind (lemon-sized), soaked in hot water and juice extracted
1 tomato, chopped
¼ tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
For roasting and grinding to a paste:
1 Tbsp ghee (using oil just will not give you the same taste!)
2 tsp chana dal (split chickpeas)
1 tsp toor dal (yellow pigeon peas)
1 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander seeds
6-7 black peppercorns
3-4 red chillies
3 Tbsp grated coconut
A big pinch of asafoetida

For seasoning:
1 Tbsp ghee
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds

For garnshing:
Coriander leaves.

Method:
Cook the chopped tomato cubes in tamarind water to which turmeric powder and salt have been added.

In a small pan, roast the above mentioned ingredients in a bit of ghee. Cool and grind to a paste.

Add the ground paste and the cooked toor dal to the tomato-tamarind mixture. Adjust to the consistency you reqire by adding desired amounts of water.

Bring to a boil. Season with cumin and mustard seeds. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot.

I had this along with rice and

this koora.

Kathirikai Pitlai (Eggplant/Brinjal curry)

The eggplant is not one of my favorite vegetables. I rarely buy one and when I do, I end up making the one dish I am most familiar with- baingan bharta. I recently bought home a few baby eggplants with the intention of trying out something else for a change. As always, I looked toward Taste of India for some much needed inspiration and it came to me in the form of these two wonderful pitlai recipes. Pitlai, I understand, is a very popular preparation in the Tamil Brahmin community. This is how I made it.

Ingredients:
6-7 brinjals, cubed and placed in a bowl of salted water to prevent discoloration.
A big ball of tamarind soaked in hot water
1-2 tsp brown sugar or jaggery (optional)
½ cup cooked toor dal/split pigeon peas

For roasting and grinding:
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp urad dal/white lentils
1 Tbsp chana dal/split chickpeas
1 ½ Tbsp coriander seeds
5-8 red chillies
2-3 Tbsp coconut

For seasoning:
I Tbsp Oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp urad dal/white lentils
4-5 curry leaves
A pinch of asafoetida

Method:
Cook the eggplant cubes with some salt in the tamarind extract. Add the jaggery. Cook till eggplants are soft.

Add the roasted and ground spice mixture to the cooked eggplants and cook on medium heat for 2-4 minutes.

Add the cooked dal to the above mixture. Add desired amounts of water depending on the consistency required. Cook for 5 minutes or so. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat.

In a small pan, heat the oil and add all the ingredients for seasoning. Pour the seasoned oil over the pitla.

Serve hot with some rice and appalams.

This is the first time I have used eggplants in this manner and I can’t say that I was too disappointed. It tasted really good!


This is my entry for Abby's Vegetables, beautiful vegetables.


On another note, Court Cooks considers me worthy of this.



Anjali has passed this onto me.



Thank you for thinking of me! I really appreciate the friendly gesture, Court Cooks and Anjali.
I’m going to be a spoilsport now, and selfishly hang onto these for as long as I can. ;-)

Radish Kootu

Kootus are essentially vegetable and lentil based dishes which are semi-solid, i.e., less aqueous than sambhar, but more so than dry curries. Rice and kootu is a common and simple Tamil meal. In Tamil cuisine kootus are considered substitutes for both curries and sambhar.(Source: Wiki)


I’ve made kootu with a couple of different vegetables depending on what I have available. Most members of the gourd family- bottle gourd, chayote (chow-chow) to name a couple- are excellent choices for a kootu.

This is a very simple and tasty kootu that I often make with radishes.

Ingredients:
10-12 radishes cut into small pieces
1 ½ cups cooked toor dal/split pigeon peas (I pressure cook dal in large quantities and freeze in separate batches for later use.)
A pinch of turmeric powder
Salt to taste.

To be ground to a paste:
4 Tbsp coconut
1 tsp cumin seeds
5-6 red chillies

For seasoning:
1 Tbsp oil
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp fenugreek/methi seeds
4-5 curry leaves
A pinch of asafoetida

Method:
Cook the radish pieces along with a few curry leaves, salt and turmeric powder in some water on medium heat till the pieces turn soft.

Add the ground paste of coconut, cumin and red chillies to this and continue cooking for another 3-4 minutes.

Now add the cooked toor dal, mix and allow the mixture to come to a boil. Continue cooking for 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

Heat oil in a pan and add the ingredients for the seasoning. Add to the kootu and mix.

Serve with steaming hot rice.