Chakka/Jackfruit Adai

The monsoon has arrived in my part of the world. The late arrival meant few more days availability of mango and jackfruit in the market. In case of jackfruit, once the fruit is cut open, the segments has to be used up in a day or two, in case of refrigeration. I usually buy a small piece from the market. Husband is not very fond of eating jackfruit. I like to eat but there is a limit to which how much I can finish. With the left over fruit segments, I make filling for elai adai, chakkavaratty, chakka pradhaman (Just realised I haven't posted this yet). After a round of all these, I was reminded of the chakka adai. Soaked boiled rice is ground with jackfruit pieces and jaggery. I like the adais not very sweet. The adai with slight sweetness from jaggery and flavor of jackfruit makes a filling  evening tiffin. Those who prefer some sweetness during breakfast can make it in the morning. Adai ,hot from the pan, with a blob of butter- you cannot stop with one.

The quantity of ingredients can be taken as a pointer and not necessary to be exact. Adjust the jackfruit and jaggery to suit your palate

 

Ingredients


Boiled rice/Idly rice - 1 1/2 cups

Raw rice - 1/2 cup

Ripe jackfruit bulbs - 10 nos

Grated jaggery - 1/2 cup

Salt - a pinch

Oil to prepare the adai

Method

Wash and soak the rice for 5 hours. You can soak both the variety of rice together. Grind rice coarsely. Add chopped jackfruit, jaggery and salt. Grind all the ingredients together. Don't make it too smooth. It will affect the texture of the adai. Let the batter be slightly grainy.

Heat a tava. Smear with little oil. When it is hot, pour a ladle of the batter and spread it like dosa. Don't make it very thin. You can use oil or ghee to make these dosas. Using ghee surely enhances the taste. When one side is cooked, flip and cook till it is golden brown. Enjoy hot with some home made butter.

Adai & Aviyal ~ Kerala Special

Adai, a mixed lentil pancake is very popular in Kerala, especially among Palakkad Iyers. Adai, compared to dosa, doesn't preparation much earlier, since it requires around 3 hours of soaking time only. Doesn't take much time to do the grinding and no wait period for fermentation. Even though the ultimate is paper thin crisp dosa, I love crisp adais very much. This is usually served as after-school tiffin at home. Each home has their own proportion for rice and dal used. For Karthigai Deepam festival, this adai is one of the neivadyams. As is the custom, par boiled rice is not used for neivadyams, its totally avoided when making for Karthigai. Whole pepper and tiny bits of coconut is also added to it. Here is the recipe which I follow on ordinary days.

Raw rice - 1 cup

Parboiled rice - 1/2 cup

Chana dal - 1/2 cup

Urad dhal - 1/2 cup (whole urad/split with skin)

Red chillies - 3 nos

Green chilly - 2 nos

Ginger a small wedge

Curry leaves

Salt

Hing powder - 1/2 tspn

Wash and soak both rice, chana dal and urad dal for 3 hours. Grind the soaked mix along with green chilly, red chilly, ginger, curry leaves and salt to a coarse batter. The batter should not be smooth. Else you will not get crisp adais. It will taste like dosa. Add hing powder and mix well. No fermentation required.

Heat a cast iron griddle. Sprinkle few drops of oil. Take a ladle of batter and spread into thick dosa/pancake. Make a hole in the center. This will enable to get crisp adai. Drizzle oil on the sides and in the hole made in the centre. When one side is cooked, flip and cook the other side. Cook in medium flame, so that its well cooked , since it is made relatively thicker than ordinary dosa. Traditionally it is served with powdered jaggery or butter or pickle.

I am not sure how the combination of adai and avial became popular. May be its the idea of some hotelier to combine two popular dishes of Kerala and serve as Malabar Adai and Avial. However it has become a huge hit. You are sure to find this combo in any Tamilnadu hotels. So here is the recipe for aviyal. I don't prepare aviyal for adai. Sometimes its just co-incidental.

Aviyal gets the unique taste from the assortment of vegetables that go into this dish. Veggies along with ground coconut and coconut oil used for garnish brings out the unique flavor. The vegetable which is used in large proportion for aviyal is ash gourd/poozhanikkai/kumbhalanga. Next comes pumpkin/mathan. I shall list the veggies that can be used for aviyal in the order of the proportion. There is no specific proportion to be followed. Its up to your intuition to add the veggies.

ashgourd/poozhnikkai/kumbhalanga

pumpkin/mathan

Yam/Chenai

Raw banana/vazhakka

Snake gourd/podavalangai

Drumstick/muringakkai

Raw mango one small

Cowpeas/payar
Carrot,beans are the latest additions.

Chopped veggies - 4 cups (Vegetables are cut in 1' inch long strips like for finger chips.)

Grated coconut - 1 cup

Green chilly - 7 nos

Whipped curd - 1/2 cup

Turmeric

Salt

Cook the veggies with turmeric and salt added. Don't over cook the veggies. It should be soft yet firm. Yam can be pressure cooked or cooked separately since it takes longer time to cook.
Grind together coconut and green chillies to a fine paste. Add just enough water to grind.
If you want to serve the aviyal as side, remove the excess water from the cooked veggies. Add the ground paste and stir in the whipped curd. Bring to a boil. Don't let it simmer.
Add a tablespoon of coconut oil and fresh curry leaves.

I am sending Adai to Srivalli's Rice Mela

Award

Shama, Viki and Vidhas has passed the Inspiration Award to me. Thank Shama,Viki and Vidhas for your sweet gesture. It means a lot to me.

Corn meal methi Adai

Corn meal is one of the recent additions to my pantry. I am trying dishes with corn rava by replacing rice/wheat. I have tried kichadi and kozhukkatai with this. Both turned out well. And this is another such recipe which is inspired by the wheat rava adai. Needless to say, this also, is a winner.

Corn meal(rava texture) - 2 cups
Pearl onion(Sambhar vengayam) - 10 nos
Green chilly - 3 nos
Small wedge of ginger
Salt

Onion -1
Chopped methi leaves - 1 cup

Soak the corn meal, with just enough water to cover it, for an hour. Grind the pearl onions, green chilly,ginger and salt together. Add the soaked corn meal and buzz till everything blends well.
Add the chopped onion and methi leaves to the batter.

Take a laddle full of the batter. Lightly spread it in the form a circle. The batter is in semi sold state and corn being gluten free, it doesn't spread like our usual dosa/adai batter. Still it is spreadable. Drizzle oil on all sides. When one side is cooked , flip over to cook the other side. Its crisp on the outside and soft as you bite into it. Also it tastes good when cold too. Methi give a nice flavor to the adai. You can serve with pickle or any gravy.

I liked it with grated jaggery. Jaggery compliments well, the slight bitterness of methi.

Next time, I shall try adding dal to it , as in normal adai.

This is my entry to the current edition of WBB-Grain-In_My-Breakfast, hosted by Aparna, an event started by Nanditha.

Also this is making to the Herb Mania-Fenugreek at RedChillies.

And to JFI-Whole grains, guest hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes.

Elai Adai - A traditional Kerala special

This is a very traditional sweet made in Kerala. Its mostly kind of a seasonal recipe, since ripe jackfruit is the key ingredient. When jack fruit is out of season, nenthrapazham ( a Kerala speciality banana) or avil (beaten rice/poha) is commonly used. This adai is even offered as prasadam in Thirumandamkunnu temple at Angadipuram near Malappuram dist.

Ela Adai is jaggery+jack fruit+coconut mixture with rice covering ,steam cooked in banana leaves. The banana leaves indeed give a unique flavor to the adai. During the season, jack fruit is preserved as chakkavaratti (jackfruit and jaggery). When fresh jackfruit is out of season, this adai can be prepared using the chakka varatti and coconut mixture for filling.

For the outer covering
Raw rice ½ cup

Boiled rice ½ cup

Salt - a pinch

Inner filling

Ripe jackfruit 1 cup

Jaggery ½ cup

Grated coconut 4 tbsp

If you are using chakka varatti then

Grated coconut 1/2 cup

Jaggery 1/2 cup

Chakka varatti 4 tbsp (jackfruit jam made with jaggery)

For the outer covering

Soak equal amounts of raw rice & boiled rice for 2-3 hrs. Grind fine adding salt. The consistency should be slightly thinner than dosa batter.

To prepare the filling

Remove the seeds and the hair on the outside of the jackfruit bulbs. Mince it fine. Take a kadai. Add half cup of water and the minced jackfruit. Cook for a while & add jaggery. When the jaggery and the pieces combine well, add the grated coconut. You should get the dough like consistency.

If you are using chakka varatti, first mix grated coconut with powdered jaggery and put it on fire & stir till they both combine and add the chakka varatti and stir for 2 minutes.

Take plantain leaves and cut them to roughly 6”square. Clean & show them over the stove flame for a few seconds to make them flexible.

Spread 2 tbsp ground batter on the leaf like a thin dosa. Since I had to grind the rice before the required soaking time, you can find grains of the parboiled rice in my batter. But it did not affect the taste.

On another leaf, spread 2 tbspn of the filling

and then invert the leaf over the spread batter. Carefully lift the leaf and fold the adai like a packet.

Steam adais in the pressure cooker or idli steamer for 10 minutes.

Serve hot or cold. This tastes best when served cold.

Karadayan Nombu Adai (Sweet & Salt)

I know I am late in posting this. Better late than never. My system was down for two days and was busy reviving it. Then it was already late with Arusuvai. So posted that first. This year nombu was celebrated on 14th March. Unlike other festivals, nombu is observed during a specific period of time of the day. The time period is the ending of the month of Maasi (Kumbham) and beginning of Panguni(Meenam), which is called Sankramam. This year it was a convenient time of between 8:00 A.M and 8:30 A.M. After S left to office (he leaves by 7:00 A.M), me and my MIL started with the preprations. The flour was made ready two days before. We prepared both salt and sweet versions of the adai, though only the sweet ones are offered as neivedyam.

Preparing the rice flour for the adais

Wash and soak 3 cups of rice in water for half an hour.

Drain and allow to dry on a kitchen towel for half an hour or so. It should not be dried completely. Some moisture left on it is good.

Powder it from a flour mill or in a mixer grinder.

Seive them to get the fine powder.

Dry roast the rice flour in a kadai till they turn light brown.

You may have to seive again, since some lumps can be found.

Those lumps can be powdered again by giving a run in the mixie again.

Cool and store in an airtight container.

Preparing the Vella Adai
Roasted rice flour - 1 cup

Water - 2 cups

Powdered jaggery - 1 cup

Cooked black eyed peas(vellapayar/karamani) - 2 tblspn

Coconut pieces - 2 tblspn

Ghee - 1 spn

Boil the jaggery along with the measure water. When the jaggery is fully dissolved, remove any scums.

Transfer the strained jaggery water to a kadai. When water starts boiling, add chickpeas, coconut pieces and slowly add the rice flour.

Keep stirring while you add so that it doesn't form lumps. Add a teaspoon of ghee.

Cook till the water is fully absorbed. Leave it to cool.

Take a lemon size of the dough, flatten it on a banana leaf.

Arrange the leaves on a idli mould and steam cook for 10 mitnutes. The test is the adais would have shiny texture.

For neivadyam, adai is offered with a blob of fresh butter. Adai with fresh home made vennai (butter) is heaven.

Uppadai (Salty adai)
For seasoning

Mustard - 1 tspn

Green chillies- 3

Red chilly -2

Coconut pieces- 2 tblspn

Chana dal - 2 tblspn

Oil

Roasted rice flour -1 cup

Water - 2 cups

Salt

In a kadai, do the seasonings as given.

Add water and salt.

When waters starts boiling, tip off the flour into it.

Cook till it reached the upma consistency. Cool and prepare adais in the same way as sweet ones.

Muringa ila Adai (Drumstick Leaves Adai)

In my home, adai is normally prepared for evening tiffin. Since it cannot be munched easily for breakfast, when we will be rushing to catch the bus to school. Amma prepares 3 types of adai - Uzhundumarisi adai (dals ,rice combo), verum arisi adai(involves only rice) and this muringaila adai. The batter for verum arisi and this adai is the same, except for the addition of drumstick leaves. Grated coconut can be added for both the types for additional flavor.
As I mentioned, Rice is the only major ingredient in this recipe.

Ingredients
Parboiled rice/idly rice - 2 cups

Salt as per taste

Grated coconut - 3 tblspn (optional)

Drumstick leaves - 1 cup

Method

Wash and soak the rice for 4 hrs.

Grind coarsely with salt.Add coconut and drumstick leaves. Mix well.

Batter consistency should be thicker than the dosa batter. This doesn't need any fermentation.

Heat a tawa. (Iron tawas are better). Grease the tawa with gingely oil.

Spread a laddle full and spread like dosa with little thickness. Traditionally, the adai is spread on the tawa using hand. The batter will be thick enough to be taken in the hand.

Make a hole in the centre using the spatula.Add oil around and in the hole and cook on medium heat.

Cook both sides till crisp.
Serve with a blob of butter or pickle.

The other side of the adai -

Wheat Rava Adai

An easy to prepare nutritious adai. (Adai is a form of dosa with little thickness)


You need

Wheat rava - 1 cup
Green chilly - 5 Nos
Small Onion(Sambar onion) - 10 nos
Tamarind paste - 2 tspn
Onion - 1
Coriander leaves
Salt

Preparation

Soak wheat rava for 2 hours. Just add enough water to cover the rava.
Dry grind green chilly,small onion, tamarind paste and salt in a mixer grinder.
Add the soaked rava to the grounded mixture and run the grinder once. This is just to blend all the ingredients.
The mixture should be in a semi solid state. It should not be watery at all
Add chopped onions and coriander leaves.
Mix well.

Heat an iron girdle or a non-stick pan. Grease with oil.
Take a lemon size of the mixture. Place it on the pan.
Flatten it using your fingers to the size of a puri.
Depending on the size of your pan, you can make 2/3 adais at a time.
When it is cooked on one side, flip over and cook the other side also.

You can serve the hot adais with tomato chutney or any pickle of your choice