Set Dosa & Parsi Dhansak

Set Dosa

I got the recipe for set dosa from a tele cookery show. At first, the name did not interest me much. But when I saw the soft fluffy dosa, I wanted to give a try. And since then, it has been a regular for breakfast at my table. As always, there must be umpteen number of so-called authentic recipe for set dosa and this is what I have been following for some years now and haven't bothered to look for a better recipe, since this works out perfect for me.

Parboiled rice - 3 cups

Urad dal - 1 cup ( I use de-skinned whole urad)

Aval/poha - 1 cup

Fenugreek/methi seeds - 1 tblspn

I don't measure with the standard cup, since with that measurement we two will have to eat the same breakfast for more than a week. I measure with a small glass which must be less than the standard half cup.

Wash and soak rice and dal together for 6 hrs. Soak methi seeds separately. Wash and soak poha around 15 minutes before you grind. Grind all the ingredients together with salt till smooth. Batter consistency should be like that of idli batter. Ferment overnight.

Heat and grease the griddle (preferably cast-iron) with little oil. Pour a ladle full of the batter. The thickness of the batter should be such as when poured on the heated griddle it should automatically set itself into a fine thick circle. So you need not spread like for usual dosa. It should be thick like uthappam/pancake. Cover and cook for 2 minutes. Flip and again cover to cook the other side. Serve with any chutney or gravy of your choice. I have served with dhansak.

I first read about this dish at Saffron Trail. I followed her recipe to T. We all liked it very much. I make this often as a side to roti/dosas and more often to have with rice. I feel it tastes better with rice.

Tuvar dal,moong dal,masoor dal - 1/3 cup each to make one cup

Cubed pumpkin -1 cup

Onion -2

Tomatoes-2

methi leaves - 1 cup

tamarind extract - 1 tblspn (Optional)

turmeric

salt

For Masala

Red chilly - 5 nos

cumin seeds - 1 tspn

coriander seeds - 1 tblspn

cinnamon - 1" piece

peppercorn - 4 nos
Ginger - a small wedge

garlic - 3 cloves

Roast the masala ingredients in oil till fragrant leaving out ginger and garlic. Grind together with ginger and garlic. Add water while grinding to get a smooth paste

Pressure cook 3 types of dal along with pumpkin. Make sure pumpkin size is big enough that it doesn't disappear in the dal on pressure cooking.

Take a pan and add oil. Saute onions till brown. Add the ground masala. Cook till oil separates. Add chopped methi and tomatoes. Cook till tomatoes turn mushy. I have used spinach/palak instead of methi this time. You can use dried methi also. Methi gives a nice flavor to the dish. Stir in the cooked dal and pumpkin. Add turmeric and salt. Adjust the consistency by adding water. Bring to a boil. Add the tamarind extract. Simmer for few minutes and remove from fire. Adding tamarind is purely optional. Add if you enjoy the slight tangy flavor. As I said before, Dhansak pairs well with dosa/chapathis/rice. Dhansak makes it to AFAM-Pumpkin hosted by Madhuram.

Set dosa goes to Srivalli's Rice Mela

Pazham Pori /Ripe Banana Fritters

Pazham pori/bajji is a vary popular snack of Kerala, especially in railway stations. I think this is one snack which is not confined to any particular region of Kerala. I always look forward to train journey through Kerala, for these Pazham pori's sold in the station. Its very easy to make, provided you have ripe nenthrapazham at hand. The only drawback is, it drinks lot of oil. I prepared using one banana, so that we will not have much to indulge in.

Ripe plantain - 1
Maida - 1/2 cup

Sugar - 1 tbspn

Rice flour - 1 tspn (For crispness)

salt, baking soda, yellow color - a pinch each
Oil for deep frying

Method
Mix maida, sugar, rice flour, salt, baking soda and yellow colour well. Add water to make a thick batter.

Cut the banana into two. Slice them into medium thick slices.

Heat oil in a kadai. When oil is hot, dip the slice in the batter and slide carefully into the oil. Deep fry in medium heat. when the banana slice floats in the oil, slowly flip it using a slotted spoon. Fry till it turns golden brown and drain on absorbent paper. Serve hot with a cup of tea/coffee.

This is my entry to Sunday Snacks- Fry it event, hosted by Hima

Thengai Sadam/Coconut Rice

In my childhood days, kalandha sadham/ mixed rice preparations was not very common at home. It made occasional appearance when packing food for travel and invariably for Pathinettamperukku(Aadi-18). We used to look forward to the lemon rice, coconut rice, puliyodarai prepared for the same. That used to be the after-school tiffin for us, with generous helping of karuvadam and rice vadams. Later on,things changed. It was prepared when ever we wanted and we needn't wait for Aadi to arrive. And coconut rice tops my list of favorites. This is how I prepare it. Its ideal for lunch box too.

Rice - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 1 cup

Coconut oil- 4 tblspn

Mustard seeds -1 tspn

Urad dal - 1 tspn

Red chilly- 2nos

Hing - a pinch

Curry leaves - few

Salt

Pressure cook rice and spread on a plate to cool. Rice should not cook mushy. It should be cooked but the cooked rice grains should be separate.
Heat a tablespoon of coconut oil. Add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add urad dal, chillies broken into two,hing and curry leaves. Roast till dal turns light brown. Pour the seasoning over the rice. In the same pan, heat 3 tblspn of coconut oil and add the grated coconut. Roast the coconut till light brown. Add the roasted coconut along with salt to the rice. Mix gently. Serve with applams or any other deep fried fritters. For a change, I have served with an easy potato curry.

Pressure cook cubed potatoes, chopped onions, green chilly and ginger with salt and turmeric. Mash lightly with a ladle. Season with mustard and cumin. A tasty side dish is ready.

This is my entry to Rice Mela hosted by Srivalli

Print Recipe

Pazha Pradhaman.

A payasam/kheer is referred as Pradhaman when the main ingredients are jaggery and coconut milk. The basic recipe for any pradhaman except Palad is the same. The key ingredient like pazham/chakka/chana dal/moong dal is cooked in jaggery and coconut milk. Pazha pradhaman is a Kerala speciality where ripe Nenthrapazham is used. Make sure the bananas are very ripe, else you taste the raw flavor in the pradhaman.

Take two very ripe bananas and steam cook till soft. Remove the skin and slit the banana vertically. Remove the inner black portion. Mash the banana to pulp. You can pulse for few seconds in the mixie or use a hand blender.

banana puree - 1 cup

jaggery powdered - 1 1/2 cup

coconut milk extracted from one big coconut

chopped coconut pieces - 2 tblspn

ghee - 2 tablespoon

Extracting coconut milk
Grate the coconuts. Add one cup of water and grind in the mixie. Extract the thick milk using a cheese cloth. Add another 1 1/2 cups of water and repeat the step of grinding and extracting. You get a thinner extract of coconut milk. Once again add 1 1/2 cups of water and extract the last set of very thin milk. I don't use the store bought coconut milk. Its always fresh milk extracted. So if you are using store bought, adjust the consistency of the milk, accordingly.

Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a pan. Add the mashed banana and saute for few minutes.Melt jaggery with 1/2 cup of water. Strain to remove any impurities. Mix in the mashed banana puree to the jaggery syrup and the third coconut milk. Bring to a boil and let it simmer. When it starts to thicken, Stir in the second milk and bring it to boil. Finally add the first thick milk and remove from fire. Stir well to mix the thick milk added. After adding the thick milk, it should not be heated to avoid curdling.

In a pan, roast the coconut pieces in ghee till brown and garnish the pradhaman with the roasted coconut pieces. Usually cardamom is not added, but if you wish, you can add some cardamom powder too.

This goes to Sunshinemom's FIC-Brown.
If ghee replaced with some vegan butter, its a vegan sweet. And it joins the cleberation at Vaishali's vegan kitchen.

Award
Malar and Sowmya has passed on the Butterfly award for the coolest blog. Thanks Malar and Sowmya for thinking of my blog.

Print Recipe

Molagootal & Vazhathandu Pachadi ~ Lunch Series#2

The next in my lunch series is again Molagootal. But this one is different from the Keerai molagootal blogged earlier. When it is said only molagootal, then it refers to the one which I am posting here. If any greens take the place of veggies, then it is specifically referred as keerai molagootal. The basic method is same for both. Veggies/leaf cooked in dal,coconut gravy. The common veggies used are ash gourd(elavan/puzhinikkai),vellarikkai, raw banana, yam, snake gourd,koorka and the like. Ash gourd is a must. Rest of the veggies are just add-ons to increase the taste. Most of the times its elavan/ash gourd only molagootal. Sometimes, depending on the veggies availability and time, I add few pieces of those.

Ingredients
Ash gourd/elavan chopped into small cubes - 2 cups

moong dal - less than 1/2 cup

salt

turmeric - 1/4 tspn

For grinding

grated coconut - 1/2 cup

red chilly - 1 no

cumin seeds/jeera - 1 tspn

Method

Pressure cook chopped veggies, dal and turmeric with enough water. Grind coconut, red chilly and jeera to a smooth paste by adding required water. Take the cooked dal veggie combo . Mix salt and stir in the ground paste. Adjust the thickness of the gravy by adding water. Bring to a boil and simmer for few minutes. Season with mustard seeds and garnish with curry leaves. This is a bland dish. But it makes a wholesome nutritious soup if u make the consistency thinner. While serving molagootal with rice, add a teaspoon of ghee to the hot rice. Its really yummy.

Usually the side preferred to molagootal is spicy/tangy one. Here it is Vazhathandu/banana stem pachadi. It is very fibrous and is known to remove kidney stones. Drinking vazhathandu juice is highly recommended for kidney stone problem. The outer layer of the stem is removed and then chopped into round pieces. While chopping each pieces, remove the fibre by rolling the finger around the thandu. Put the pieces in water mixed with some buttermilk, to retain the color. Take 3/4 round pieces and chop them into tiny cubes and put them back in water. Use a skewer and rotate it in the bowl of chopped banana stem along with water to remove any left out fibre. Cleaning and chopping the stem is time consuming, but its qualities makes the effort worth.

Chopped banana stem - 2 cups

tamarind - gooseberry sized

turmeric

salt
For grinding
grated coconut - 1/2 cup

green chilly - 2

red chilly - 1

mustard seeds - 1/4 tspn

Soak tamarind in a cup of warm water for 10 minutes. Extract juice and add turmeric and salt to it. Bring the tamarind water to boil. Add the chopped banana stem and let it cook till soft. Grind the coconut,green chilly,red chilly and mustard seeds to a smooth paste. Add to the cooked tamarind mixture. Adjust the consistency by adding water to get a medium thick gravy. Bring to a boil and garnish with curry leaves. Season with tablespoon of oil and mustard seeds.

Usually rasam is also prepared whenever molagootal is made. If it is only for two of us, then I omit rasam, since my husband is not very keen on having rasam.

Dates Cookies and a Cake (Eggless)

Dates is a regular in my pantry. Though, I just like to eat it as it is, I sometimes chop them and add to my cup of cornflakes or salads. It also is made into milkshakes. Ever since I saw Shilpa's Eggless Dates Cake, I have baked it more than once. It is not only the most popular post in her blog, I think its one of the most tried out recipe in the blogosphere too. There isn't nothing much to go wrong in this cake. Even a beginner can make an attempt without any worries.

Ingredients
Dates - 100 gms /18 nos

Milk - 3/4 cup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Maida - 1 cup

Oil - 1/2 cup

Baking soda - 1 tspn

Chopped cashew - 1 tblspn (optional)

Method
De seed the dates. Soak the dates in warm milk for an hour. This will make the dates soft and easier to grind. Depending on the type of dates you use, the soaking time can vary. Add sugar to the soaked dates mix and grind them to a fine paste. Add oil to the ground mixture and keep it aside.
Sift maida and baking soda. Slowly stir in the flour to liquid mixture. Add nuts and mix. Transfer to a greased tin and bake in a preheated oven at 190 C for 40 minutes or till a skewer inserted comes out clean.

My next recipe is a dates cookie tried from DK's blog. It was an instant hit. Do visit her blog for the step-by-step pics.

Ingredients

Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups

Baking powder - 1 1/2 tspn

Butter -4 tblspn

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Chopped dates - 1/3 cup

Milk- 1/3 cup
Melted butter for glaze.

Method
Sift flour, salt and baking powder. Rub in butter to the flour mixture to resemble bread crumbs.
Mix in sugar and chopped dates. Make a well in the centre add milk. Knead to a soft dough. Adjust the quantity of milk since you may not need the full amount of milk. Knead the dough on a floured surface for few seconds. Roll into 1/2 inch thickness. Cut into circles or any desired shape. Brush with butter for glaze. (I forgot this part). Bake in a preheated oven at 220 C for 20 minutes or till it rises well and turns golden brown. It was very crisp with a soft inside.

These dates goodies are making to Sunshinemom's FIC-Brown

Soya Chunks in Moong Gravy

I include lot of whole moong in my cooking compared to other beans because of the nutritional benefits. Most of the times I don't stick to any particular recipe while cooking the moong beans gravy. I had some soya chunks which need to be used up, else it will find its way to the bin, very soon. So decided to add those soya chunks to the moong bean gravy, I was to make as a side for roti. This is a simple recipe yet very flavorful with the ingredients in the ground paste. And easy to prepare.

Whole moong dal- 1 cup

Soya chunks - 10 nos

Sambhar powder - 2 tspn (optional)
Salt

Turmeric - 1/2 tspn

For ground paste

Grated coconut - 2 tbpsn

Chopped coriander - 4 tbspn

Chopped mint/pudina - 2 tbpsn

Green chilly - 3 nos

Pearl onion - 5 nos

Garlic - 2 pods

Grind all the ingredients to a fine paste

Seasoning

Oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Jeera - 1/2 tspn

Pressure cook whole moong. Moong beans doesn't require pre-soaking. I cook the bean with out soaking. It turns mushy on pressure cooking. If you have the habit of soaking them, do soak and proceed with cooking. Soak the soya chunks in hot water for 10 minutes. It must have puffed up well by then. Squeeze and drain the water. Wash the chunks in cold water with two changing of water. Chop the chunks into 2/3 pieces.

Heat kadai with a tablespoon of oil. Add the seasoning ingredients - mustard and jeera. Add cooked moong beans, soya chunks, salt and turmeric. Bring to a boil. Add ground paste and let it simmer for 5 minutes till flavors sink into the gravy.

Enjoy with hot rice/ chapathi

Athirasam

Athirasam was not a very common sweet in my home and as a place where I was bought up too. Neiappam took the place of athirasam in all our functions. But Athirasam is a very much common in all functions of Tamil Iyers. We get to taste this sweet occasionally for marriages where the girl is from a Tamil Iyer family. I was introduced to this sweet when I was a kid aged 6 or 7. My neighbor's daughter was married to a Tamil Iyer family and they had insisted on Athirasam as part of Cheeru. Those were days, when the whole village took part in the preprations of marriage. Murukku and athirasam was prepared at my home. I had watched my neighbor hood aunties making these discs. Amma was also part of the team. But the sweet was not prepared at home.

For long I was thinking of trying it at home. I have heard its not easy to get it right at the first attempt. I rang up my Amma to ask about the measurements. She told me for one glass of rice, one glass of jaggery and explained the steps. I took mental note of all that she said and proceeded. Amma specifically asked me to leave the dough for few hours. I get impatient soon. After 5 hrs. started making it. When I started making I felt the dough has turned stiff. Added few drops of milk and kneaded it. Made a disc and slowly slided into oil. I could see some formations coming out of the disc. Slowly each layer was coming starting off from the outer end. In seconds the whole thing disintegrated and the result was some fried crumbs. I felt jaggery is too much and thought may be Amma has got the measurement wrong (!!!) since she doesn't make this at home. I added some rice flour and tried again. I was confronted with the same result. I felt its better to stop it there. The fried crumbs was very tasty and it got over in no time. I updated Amma of the outcome. She was very much perplexed about the result. Next day, early morning I got a call from Amma. She has found out where I had gone wrong. She said I have misunderstood the measurement. Amma had told 1 glass rice and I took it as 1 glass flour. Then I adjusted dough accordingly and this is the result you see. Started with a disaster and ended with a not so perfect looking but soft athirasams.

Ingredients

2 cups rice flour
1 cup jaggery powdered
1/4 cup water
1 tspn cardamon powder
Oil for deep frying

Soak 1 cup rice in water for 45 minutes. Drain and spread on a kitchen towel. When it is still moist and not dried fully, powder it in a mixer grinder and sieve to get fine flour. I get them powdered in a near by flour mill.

For one cup rice you will get 2 cups of flour. I am not sure about the results with store bought flour. You will have to try at your risk.

Prepare jaggery syrup by heating jaggery and water to single thread consistency. If you drop a teaspoon of syrup in a cup water, you should be able to roll into a soft ball. Remove the syrup from fire. Add a teaspoon of powdered cardamom to the syrup. Slowly stir in the rice flour to the syrup. Mix and knead to form a dough similar to that of chapati. Leave the dough overnight or at least 5 hrs to get soft athirasams.

Take lemon sized ball off the dough. Press into discs of the size of pooris on your palm. Slide into the hot oil. Deep fry. After you slide them into the oil, wait for it to rise to top. Gently flip and then fry of few seconds. You get 15 nos with this measurement.




Update: If the flattened discs fall apart on deep frying, add some more of rice flour to the dough and try again. This may be due to more amount of jaggery.


This deep fried goody is off to Mythrayee for her Deep fried/Steam Cooked sweets event

This also makes to Sunshinemom's FIC-Brown

And to Vasihali's Vegan Sweets

Keerai Molagootal and Nellikkai Archukalakki ~ Lunch Series #1

I have been planning a lunch series featuring the ordinary lunch menu at my home, which most of the time is traditional dishes. I took few pictures also. It ends there. I kept on procastinating the posting part. Finally I have come around to posting stage.I didnot want to stop it after 2/3 posts and leave it there. I wish to feature atleast the most common recipes in this series. Hope I will do minimum justice to it. A normal lunch consists of a gravy/kootan as referred in Palakkad Iyer lingo, upperi/dry curry, rasam(not everyday), mor/buttermilk and pickle. I had not doubt to what will be my first post in this series. What else other than Molagootal, the signature dish of Palakkad Iyers, to kick start the series.

Keerai molagootal (Spinach in dal and coconut gravy)

Arakeerai/Amaranth leaves (the one with small leaves) is the best variety for molagootal. Palak/Spinach is also good. Most of the times I end up buying palak since it is easy clean, where arakeerai takes quite some time to separate the leaves and tender stem.

Roughly chopped keerai - 3 cupssaltturmeric
Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup
Cumin Seeds/Jeers - 1 tspn
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
For roastingUrad dal - 1 tspnRed chilly - 1 no

Seasoning

Oil - 2 tspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Method
Ccook the spinach leaves in 1 cup of water till the leaves are withered. Alternatively Mw for 3 minutes. Leave it to cool . Pressure cook tuvar dal till soft. Mash the dal well. Roast urad dal and red chilly in a tspn of oil till dal turns light brown.

Pulse the keerai in the mixer for few seconds. It should be pureed but not too smooth.Grind the coconut,roasted dal and chilly and jeera to a fine paste.
Coimbine spinach puree, mashed dal and ground paste. Bring to a boil. Season with mustard seeds.

The preferred sides for molagootal is puli pachadi (tamarind based), thayir pachadi(with yogurt base) thogayals (chutney) or arachukalakki.

Now I am posting the recipe for nellikkai arachukalakki. Arachukalakki literally translates as Ground and Mixed.Here it is grounded gooseberry and coconut with chilly mixed with yogurt. Chenai/yam, kanni manga (salt pickled small mangoes ) are generally used for preparing arachukalakki.

Gooseberries pickled in salt - 10 nos.

(Usually these berries would have turn soft on soaking in salt water. If you find them firm, u can steam cook/MW for few minutes to make them soft. )
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

green chilly - 3 nos

whipped curd - 1/2 cup

Seasoning

oil - 2 tspn

mustard seeds - 1 tspn

red chilly - 1 no

methi seeds - 1/4 tspn
Remove the seeds from the berries. Grind together GB, coconut and green chillies.
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, followed by red chilly broken into two. Finally add methi seeds. When methi starts turning brown, add to the ground mixture. While the pan is hot, add the whipped curd to the pan and pour over the seasoning. Mix well. Since salt in the gooseberries will be enough, additional salt will not be required. Though check if needed.

Keerai molagootal is going Sunshinemom's FIC: Green

Nellikkai Arachukalakki is my entry for AFAM:Gooseberry hosted by Illatharasi.

Oatmeal Chocolate Squares

Ingredients

Quick cooking oats - 2/4 cup

Cornflakes - 1/4 cup (Can use 1 cup of oats alone. I added cornflakes to give a crunch.)
Sugar -1/2 cup
Unsweetened coco powder - 2 tspn

All purpose flour/maida - 1 tspn (for binding)
Water - 2 tblspn

Method

Take oats in a MW safe bowl and MW for a minute. Keep it aside.
Take a MW safe bowl with sugar and water. MW for 4 minutes. Sugar must be completely dissolved and syrup must be sticky. Mix maida and cocoa powder well. Stir in maida, cocoa mixture without forming lumps. Add oats and cornflakes. Mix well. MW for 2 minutes. The mixture should come together and must be moist too. Don't let it turn dry. If you feel it has dried, add a tspn of water and MW for 30 secs. Either drop spoonfuls of the mixture on a greased plate or press them down and mark squares when warm.

It was tasted by my friends who was visiting us and they enjoyed it very much. This is my entry to Srivalli's MEC-Chocolate

I am sending this to The O Foods for Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month Contest. The contest seeks to raise awareness and money for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund through recipes for "O Foods," foods that start or end with "O". For more info visit here.

Cheese Garlic Biscuits -MBP

My bookmarked recipes folder is ever growing and my attempt to bring the number down is not showing any results. When you have so many wonderful cooks around, dishing out equally appealing dishes, I think the only way I can clear up my bookmarked folder will be to start a new one. So I get a false joy of clearing the folder. Though I know there is a new one growing at the other drive. When the theme for MBP was announced by Siri, I knew what I was going to make, since this recipe is bookmarked ever since Cham posted it in her blog. As she says, its easy to make. I replaced all purpose flour with wheat flour/atta, since AP was out of stock. May be I would have used half and half. Except for that, I have followed her recipe.

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 tspn

Baking powder - 1 1/2 tspn

Baking soda - 1/4 tspn

Butter - 1/4 cup

Grated cheese - 1/2 cup

Garlic - 2 cloves, finely chopped

Buttermilk - 3/4 cup

Preheat the oven at 230 C
In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into flour to resemble crumbs. Add the garlic and cheese and stir in buttermilk to form a dough.Either roll to 1 inch thick dough with some flour and cut into any desired shape, else drop spoon full of the dough onto a cookie sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes or until top is brown.

P.S
I was in a hurry while mixing the ingredients that I forgot to add the baking powder. So mine did not rise well. It had a crisp crust but inside tasted like garlic bread. Later I popped them in MW for a minute and it was crisp in the inside too. Now I have a reason to bake it again.

Wheat in Bisibelebath and a salad

Bisibelebath with broken wheat

I use broken wheat for making pradhaman. Other than that it doesn't feature in our regular menu. So when bought for making payasam, usually there will be left over, since only a small quantity is required for the preparation. When I had some broken wheat to be used up, I was thinking of recipe where I can replace rice with wheat. I had posted pongal with wheat before. The next trial was making bisibelebath out of broken wheat. Broken wheat is not the same as wheat rava. This is coarser. Believe, broken wheat made good substitution for rice. Unless told, you cannot make out the difference. From then, I have been regularly including broken wheat in my shopping list.

Only when I searched my archived to link this to bisibelebath post, did I realise, that I haven't posted the recipe yet. So here is my recipe.

Broken wheat - 1 cup ( Usually rice is used)

Toor dal - 1/2 cup

peas(fresh/dried) -1/2 cup

chopped veggies - 1 1/2 cups (carrot/beans/potato/capsicum)

shallots/pearl onion - 15 nos

tamarind -small lemon size

sambhar powder - 1tspn (optional)

turmeric powder

salt

Seasoning

Oil

mustard seeds

red chilli - 2 nos

curry leaves

For masala

red chilli - 6 nos

coriander seeds - 1 tspn

cloves - 4

cinnamon - 1" piece

hing - 1/2 tspn

grated coconut -1/4 cup(kopra is preferred.)
If fresh coconut is used, saute them till lightly brown. Grind all the ingredients for the masala to a smooth paste.

Soak tamarind in warm water for 10 minutes and extract pulp.

Wash, broken wheat,dal and peas.If dried peas is used, soak them for 5 hours.Pressure cook them together. Keep it aside

Heat oil in a pan, add the seasoning ingredients. Saute the onions till golden. Add the chopped veggies, turmeric and salt. When it is half cooked, add the tamarind pulp. When the mixture starts boiling, stir in the ground paste and mix well. Cook for 10 minutes. Mix the cooked wheat-dal mixture to the cooking masala and mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes till the flavors seep in the wheat-dal combo.Heat one tablespoon of ghee in a seasoning pan. Add a teaspoon of sambhar powder and pour on top the cooking mixture. This step is optional. But it does enhances the flavor of bisibelebath. Remove from fire. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with papad.

Sprouted Wheat berry salad

I buy whole wheat to make dosa. My co-sister always sproutsome of the soaked berries. Ever since she told gave me the idea, whenever I soak berries for dosa, I keep aside a handful of the soaked berries for sprouting and use that in salad. Steam cook the berries before using for salads. These will be chewy, but very tasty. Toss in any veggies(I have used grated cucumber and carrot, onion and tomato) you have and sprinkle some salt, pepper and lime juice and teaspoon of olive oil for dressing. You can have the bowl of healthy salad as a meal by itself or use it in wraps.

Wheat berry salad is my entry to EC's : WYF- salad/soup/starter

Diet friendly bisibelebath and salad is making to Divya's Diet Food Event

Rice Wade

Rice wade / rice pooris is in my to-do list for a long time. Somehow I was skeptical about the outcome. All I knew was pooris out of wheat flour and maida. And I have not heard of this before. Nevertheless, I was tempted to try it, when I saw the recipe in Sanjeev Kapoor's Dal-Roti book.

I was not disappointed with the end result. Only thing unlike regular pooris, this cannot be rolled with a rolling pin , but each one had to patted with the fingers.

Here is the recipe

Rice flour - 2 cups

fennel seeds (saunf) - 2 tblspn

fenugreek seeds(methi) - 1 tblspn

salt to taste
water - 1 1/2 cups

Oil for deep frying

Boil 1 and half cups of water with fennel and methi seeds for about five minutes. This is to extract their flavor.Strain and reheat the water. Stir in the salt and rice flour to water. Stir continuously till it comes together and the mixture leaves the sides of the pan. Transfer the dough to a bowl. If you want you can add some grated onion to the dough at this stage. I did not add. Grease you palm with oil and pinch off a lemon sized dough. Pat it to the shape of a poori , using your fingers. Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry till it is golden and cooked. Drain on absorbent paper and serve hot.

It did not puff much for me. May be on next attempt ,I will improve. It is the first time I am tasting this. I liked it with the subtle flavor of saunf and methi. Its indeed a good alternative to our regular pooris. I served with simple moong dal tempered with the usual mustard, green chilly, grated ginger. Since I had prepared on an no-onion day, there is no onion in the side too.

Rice Wade goes to Think Spice Think Fenugreek event, guest hosted by Kittie

And also to Herb Mania - Fenugreek hosted at Redchillies

On a different note:

Have a look at the pookalam done by my parents at my sister's home in Gurgaon.

Paalak Roti and Mirchi Ka Salan

I make it a point to cook leafy veggies at least once in a week. Making roti with spinach puree is one way of using them apart from preparing gravies. This roti is very soft and flavorful with chilly and ginger in the puree. You can do away with one cup of fresh curds as side.

Wheat flour - 2 cup
Oil - 1 tspn
Curd - 2 tblspn
Salt

Water to knead

For palak/spinach puree

Washed and chopped palak - 2 cups
Green chilly - 3 nos
Chopped ginger - 1 tspn

Blanch the chopped palak in hot water for 5 minutes and drain. Alternatively MW the leaves for a minute.
Make a puree of chopped spinach, green chilly and ginger in a mixer. It need not be very smooth. Mix in the puree to the wheat flour. Add oil,salt and curds. Mix well. You will not require water to make the dough. Add water only if needed. Keep it aside for 30 minutes.

Prepare rotis the usual way.

Yummy flavorful rotis are ready. As I said, simpe yogurt dip is enough to go with the rotis. I served with Mirchi ka salan. I had prepared salaan the day before as side for fried rice. But was unable to click then. Next day i served the left over with chapathis. It did make an yummy combo. So they both are here together.

Mirchi Ka Salan

On googling for RCI-Hyderabadi Cuisine, I zeroed in on this dish. When I searched for the recipe of the same, I came across many versions. Needless to say, I adopted the easiest one (that too from a Hyderabadi kitchen!!) and referred Zaiqa's too and did some minor additions.. I haven't tasted salan before and I can't say if it had the authentic taste. We liked this spicy, tangy mirchi. So here is my version

Long green chilly - 12 nos
Fairly big Onion - 1
Ginger garlic paste -1 tblspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Cloves - 5 nos
Curry leaves
Tamarind - lemon size
Oil - 4 tblspn
Salt

For the Salan paste
Grated coconut - 4 tblspn
Peanuts - 3 tblspn
coriander seeds - 1 tblspn
sesame seeds - 1 tspn
cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn
pepper corn - 5 nos
red chilly - 3 nos

Medium spice chillies are recommended for this gravy. I have used a local variety which is very much on the milder side.

Chop and grind the onion to a smooth paste.
Dry roast the ingredients for the salan paste and grind them together.
Slit the green chillies.
Soak the tamarind in warm water and extract the juice.

Heat 4 tblspn of oil in a pan and shallow fry the chillies in batches. Keep it aside.
In the same pan, splutter mustard seeds and cloves and curry leaves. Add the onion paste and saute till the raw smell disappears. Stir in the salan paste and saute for a minute. Add extracted tamarind juice along with water to get the required consistency. Let it simmer for 5 minutes or till the gravy starts thickening. Add salt and the fried green chillies to the gray and cook for a minute. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Palak roti is going to Sunshinemom's Food in Colours -Green and

Sangeeth's Eat Healthy-Calcium Rich event

Mirchi Ka Salan joins RCI -Authentic Hyderabadi Cuisine at Zaiqa's

Eggless Oats-Cocoa Cookies

Recipe source - Sailu's kitchen

I followed Sailu's recipe to the T. No modifications made. I had to bake few minutes more than what she had mentioned.



Ingredients


Quick cooking oats - 1 1/4 cup
Vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
Maida - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1 1/2 tblspn
Baking powder - 3/4 tspn
A big pinch of baking soda
Vanilla essence - 1 tspn


Method

Sieve maida, baking powder, baking soda and cocoa powder.

Blend powdered sugar and oil, till smooth. Fold in the sieved ingredients into the sugar-oil mixture. Add vanilla essence, oats and knead to a soft dough. If you are not able to bring together, add little milk. I did not require milk. In case of adding milk, chill the dough for 5 minutes before you proceed.

Pinch off small balls from the dough and flatten them. Arrange on a greased baking tray and bake at 180 C for 15 minutes.

Crisp and melt in the mouth cookies are ready. I had sent some cookies for my friend's son. She called me to say they all liked it very much and will be happy to receive some, during my next bake. This is a keeper recipe for sure.