Set Dosa

Set Dosa is a dish that is something very unique to Karnataka. It is never on the menu in restaurants here in the US and so has me craving for this now and then. With the in-laws visiting us, it was the perfect opportunity to learn and savor this recipe of my mother-in-law. Apart from the Mysore masala dosa, this one is a crowd-pleaser, especially because the dosa turns out soft and spongy. The sponginess comes from the use of puffed rice when grinding the dosa batter.

Set dosa tastes best with some coconut chutney and vegetable kurma or sagu. This is one of those guilty pleasures that takes me back to the Darshinis of namma BengaLooru. Without further ado here is an ode to namma BengaLooru.

Ingredients : Serves 4-5, makes around 12-14 dosas.

4 cups rice

1 cup puffed rice/mandakki/kadle puri

1/2 cup urad dal

1/4 cup methi/fenugreek seeds

1/2 cup poha/beaten rice/avalakki

Rinse the rice, urad dal and methi seeds thoroughly and soak them for about 5-6 hours. During the last 2 hours of this process, soak the avalakki and puffed rice.

Grind it to a thick batter with water to a thick pouring consistency. Ferment the batter overnight.

Heat a tava,  and pour a ladle full of batter, do not spread the batter too thin or else you will not get spongy dosas. Spray oil and flip the dosa once it is thoroughly cooked.

Strawberry-banana-oatmeal smoothie!

Smoothies are a great way to use up leftover or over-ripened fruit that you don’t feel like eating.

What’s more, it is also a breakfast on the go! I make it over the weekend and freeze it in single serving batches. The night before put it in the fridge to thaw and you are all set for a hearty breakfast.

I have posted a smoothie recipe before but this one has cooked oatmeal and Greek yogurt and makes it more filling. This is a slight variation of a recipe that I saw on pinterest.

 

 

Ingredients : Serves 2

Bananas – 2

Strawberries 1 cup

Zero fat strawberry flavored Greek yogurt 1 cup

Honey – 1 tablespoon

Almonds 8-10

Oatmeal cooked, 1 cup

Milk 1/2 cup

Blend together banana, strawberries, almonds. Add cooked and cooled oatmeal, milk, honey and Greek yogurt and blend well again. Enjoy a power packed breakfast!

Gojju avalakki/ Poha

Gojju avalakki is a common breakfast dish in Karnataka especially Bangalore and Mysore areas. Eaten with yogurt makes for a hearty carb laden breakfast. avalakki means poha or beaten rice in kannada. It is tangy, sweet, spicy all at the same time and hence the term gojju.

Ingredients : Serves 4-5

Beaten rice/poha 5 cups

1 1/2 – 2 tablespoons rasam powder

1 1/2 tablespoons tamarind pulp

2-3 table spoons jaggery powder

Salt to taste

2 cups water

For seasoning

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 tablespoon chana dal

1 tablepoon urad dal

2 tablespoons groundnut/peanuts

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 sprig of curry leaves

4-5 tablespoons oil

Using a blender, powder the poha until it looks like bread crumbs. In a mixing bowl, add rasam powder, jaggery,salt, tamarind pulp and add water. mix well until the jaggery dissolves. To this mixture add the powdered poha. Adjust the consistency such that you should be able to gather the mixture into a ball. It should neither be too dry or runny.

Heat the oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add the peanuts and saute for a minute. Now add the chana dal and the urad dal. Saute till golden brown and add the curry leaves. Now add the poha mixture and mix well. Cook on low heat until the poha becomes soft.

Adai Dosa/ Bele Dose/ Savoury multi-grain Indian Crepes

Call it by whatever name, adai dose is one tasty and nutritious breakfasts and easy to make. It doesn’t need to be fermented unlike other dosas.  Strangely enough I used to dislike this while growing up.  It is now a regular feature in my breakfast repertoire!

Ingredients : Serves 4-5

3/4 cup Toor dal

1 and 1/4 cup rice

1 handful of urad dal

1 handful of chana dal

1/4″ piece of ginger

Pinch of asafoetida/hing

1 cup chopped coriander/cilantro

4-5 dry red chillies

Salt to taste

Wash all the grains thoroughly and  let them soak in water for about 3-4 hours. Grind this mixture into smooth batter along with the ginger, red chillies and asafoetida. Let the batter sit for around 4-5 hours or overnight. This doesn’t ferment unlike the regular dosa batter.

Add salt and coriander just before making the dosas and mix well. The consistency of the batter is the same as dosa batter or it should be dropping consistency.

Heat a gridle and pour  about 1 and half ladles of the batter and spread it evenly. Spray oil around the edges. Cover and cook for a minute. Flip the dosa and cook on the other side.

Serve dosas with chutney or chutney power and ghee!

Idli and Sambar

Aaaand I am back…missed blogging but my sis made up for it with all those yummy posts. Between moving and setting up home and catching up with friends there was hardly any time to blog!

The recipe that I have today quintessentially south Indian and a healthy one too. Idlis can be eaten at any time of the day, not just breakfast!

And back home it is considered the safest and nutritious foods to have when one is sick.

Recipe for idli :

Ingredients  : Serves 4

1 cup urad dal

1 and 1/2 cups idli rice or idli rava (available in all Indian grocery stores)

Wash the urad dal thoroughly and soak it for about 4-5 hours. If using idli rice, wash and soak that as well.

Grind the urad dal into a smooth paste with just enough water to get the paste moving in the blender. Set aside. If using rice, grind that as well to a smooth paste. Mix the urad dal and rice paste together.

If you are using idli rava, wash the rava in hot water. The water should be as hot as you can handle and NOT boiling. Squeeze all the water from the rava and mix it with urad dal batter.

Cover the batter and place it in a warm place for fermenting overnight. If it is winter or you live in a cold place, pre-heat the oven to around 200F and after about 15 minutes, place the batter in the oven. The oven should be warm enough to kick-start the fermentation but not so hot that it cooks the batter! The next day the batter would have risen to about 1/4 or 1/2 inch and it fluffy and airy. Add salt to taste and mix well.

Spray some cooking oil to each of the idli plate and put the batter to each cup or hollow of the idli plate. Steam this in a pressure cooker or a crock pot for about 10-12 minutes. A good way to test if the idli is done is put a knife through the idli and it should come out clean.

Serve hot with sambar and coconut chutney.

Recipe for sambar

1 cup Toor dal

1 large onion or 2 small ones chopped lengthwise.

2 tomatoes

2 tablespoons of shredded coconut

2 tablespoons of rasam powder

1 tablespoons jaggery

1 sprig curry leaves

1/2 cup coriander leaves

2 tablespoons tamarind pulp

Salt to taste

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

3 cups water.

Cook the toor dal in a pressure cooker. Bring the water to a boil in  and add the onions. Once cooked, add the rasam powder, jaggery and tamarind pulp. Let it boil for 10-12 mins. Grind the coconut to a smooth paste and add this to the pot. Next add the tomatoes, curry leaves and coriander leaves. Let it boil for about 5 minutes. Add salt to taste.

Temper the sambar with mustard seeds.

Plain Akki Rotti/ Rice flour Rotti

As a follow-up to the badnekaayi yengai post,  here is the recipe for akki rotti. Following the instructions and the measurements always helps me get fool-proof akki rotti, everytime!

Ingredients : Serves 2-3

1 cup rice flour

2 cups water

Salt to taste.

Take a heavy bottomed vessel to heat up the water. Once the water starts boiling, add salt. In one swift action, heap the flour in the middle of the vessel. Do not disturb this or stir it. That is the key to get non-lumpy smooth akki rotti.

Cover the vessel partially and reduce the heat of the stove to a simmer. Set a stop clock or watch the time and let the mixture simmer for about 20 minutes.  Turn of the heat and then stir the entire mixture until you get a smooth paste.

Wait for a while for this to cool down so you can work with the dough. Make small balls about the size of an orange and knead it until it is smooth.

Dust the surface and the rolling-pin with flour and start rolling the rotti. Once you work the rolling-pin once or twice to flatten out the ball, pinch the edges of the rotti. This helps the rotti to not break up around the edges when rolling.

You can make these rottis ahead of time and stack them on a plate and refrigerate it covered. It will stay upto 2 days in the refrigerator. Bake the rotti on a tava and spread oil or ghee over it. Serve hot with yengaai palya or any other curry of your choice.

Basic French Toast

Another easy breezy breakfast i discovered is French Toast. It can be as healthy or as loaded with calories as you want it to be! I used 5 grain whole wheat bread and sugar for my version of French toast. You can make it with white bread and slather maple syrup over it if you are in a mood to indulge. Minimum ingredients and minimum fuss..perfect breakfast for a lazy sunday morning!

Ingredients : Serves 2

2 Medium sized eggs

1/2 cup milk

2 teaspoons sugar/honey

A pinch of grated nutmeg or cinnamon powder.

Butter for toasting

In a flat or a large bowl, add milk and break open two eggs. Add sugar and nutmeg and whisk it together.Heat a skillet and add 1/4 teaspoon of butter.  Take a slice of bread and dip both sides of the bread in this batter. Make sure both sides of the bread are well coated. Put the slice on the skillet, roast till both sides are golden brown. Sprinkle some sugar on both sides.

Raagi Shavige

Making a quick breakfast is always challenging. I prefer not to spend too much time on a weekday for making breakfast. I hate the extra effort to wake up earlier than usual just to make something elaborate for breakfast. On the other hand since i am at home and have a lot of time on my hands, i don’t like to eat a bowl of cereal for breakfast everyday. In times like these, that shavige comes to the rescue.

I  prefer the ragi shavige as it more nutritious. You can make a lot of variations with this.

Ingredients (serves 3-4)

1 packet shavige of your choice

3-4 green chillies

1 cup frozen/fresh peas

1 onion

2 tablespoons grated coconut (optional)

handful of fresh coriander/cilantro

Juice from 1 lemon

1 tablespoon oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 teaspoon each of urad dal and chana dal

salt to taste

 

Prepare the shavige as per instructions on the packet.

Heat the oil in pan. Once the oil starts smoking add the mustard seeds, reduce heat and then add both the dals. Fry till golden brown.

Next add the green chillies and onion and fry till the onion turns translucent. Add the peas and saute until they are soft.

Add the shavige, coconut, salt, cilantro, lemon juice and mix well.

 

Variations

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You can skip the mustard-dal seasoning, saute onions and add some pulao masala powder.

To make sweet ragi shavige, toast some white sesame seeds till golden brown.  Add coconut, jaggery or sugar and the sesame seeds to the ragi shavige and mix well.