Rava Dosa – Recipe

Onion Rava Dosa with Coconut chutney

If you are craving for dosa and if you have forgotten to soak the rice and dal the previous day and keep the batter overnight then you are in for a disappointment. That is when instant dosa comes to your rescue. This is one of the instant dosas and a yummy one at that . Here are the ingredients you’ll need

• Rava/Semolina – 1 cup
• Rice Flour – 1 cup
• Maida/All purpose flour – 1/2 cup
• Green chillies(finely chopped) – 3 medium
• Onion(finely chopped) – 1 large
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Hing/ Asafoetida – a pinch
• Ginger(grated) – 1/2 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Water – to make the batter
• Oil – for making the dosas

Method:

• In a mixing bowl, mix rava, rice flour, maida, chopped green chillies, cumin seeds, ginger, hing and salt.

Dry ingredients

• Then add water to this dry mixture. The consistency should be that of buttermilk. I tried getting a pic not sure if you can make out from the pic.

Batter consistency

• Keep it aside for 10 mins. Now heat the dosa-tawa, apply some oil and sprinkle a bit the finely shopped onion

Sprinkle Onion

• You cannot spread this dosa batter with a ladle like the other dosas because the batter is very thin. You need to pour the batter and swirl the tawa or sprinkle the batter starting from outside and finishing in the centre and filling the gaps later. In this pic I have sprinkled the dosa but the gaps need to be filled.

Sprinkle the dosa batter on the tawa

• Now put some more oil on the dosa. Keep the tawa on high heat and remember this one takes a little more time than your normal dosa. Once you see the dosa getting brown on the bottom side, flip it with a spatula.

Dosa on the tawa

• Don’t worry about the shape of the dosa when you sprinkle the batter like water you can’t expect it to take any shape that you can define unless it resembles a country map
• In case you cannot flip it, that means either you haven’t cooked it properly on the other side or that it is too thick. Don’t worry you can still cook and eat those dosa crumbles if browned properly
• Anyway if it doesn’t come out properly, don’t despair. For the next one pray to your favorite god and start again from cleaning your tawa, adding some oil and sprinkling some onions on it. Keep repeating the above steps till you get a nice, brown, crispy dosa. You will get it soon. It ain’t no rocket science!
• And once done, take it out on a plate and eat it hot with any of the dosa accompaniments.

Rava Dosa – ready to eat.
Awesomeness \m/

 

Methi Palak Paratha

Methi Palak Paratha

Methi Paratha and Palak Paratha are favorites at home. But I had not tried a combination before. I got this recipe for vinicooksveg and folks at home loved it. Only I did not add Fennel seeds and lemon juice and also decreased the quantity of coriander leaves. She has used yoghurt to knead the dough but I just added about 3 tbsp of yoghurt and used water to knead the dough. I don’t think she used hing, you can skip it too but at my place nothing can be prepared without hing.

Again this is tasty, healthy and easy to make and a great breakfast option.

Hail the greens!

Ingredients:

Methi/Fenugreek leaves(chopped) – 1 bunch medium
Palak/Spinach(chopped) – 1 bunch medium
Coriander leaves(chopped) – a few(you can increase the measure to 1 cup if you wish)
Whole wheat flour – 3 bowls
Chick pea flour/besan – 3 tbsp
Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
Asafoetida/ Hing – pinch
Ginger paste – 1 tsp (I used fresh ginger)
Garlic – 4 pods
Green chilli – 4 medium
Yoghurt – 3 tbsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 2 tsps
Water – to knead the dough
Salt – to taste
Oil – 2 tsp to knead the dough, 2 tsp for green leaves & the rest to fry the parathas.

Method:

• Grind the ginger, garlic and green chilli with salt to make a paste

Green Chilli, ginger & garlic paste with salt

• Heat oil in a pan and add the cumin seeds to it. As the seeds splutter, add hing and the green chilli paste and sauté for a minute.

Saute the paste and cumin seeds

• Now add the chopped greens.

Greens added

• Saute for a minute and add the coriander powder and garam masala powder. Saute for another two minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
• Now to the wheat flour add the chick pea flour, salt, yoghurt and greens mix.

Flour to be mixed

• Knead the dough and let it rest for 20-25 mins.

Dough for Methi-Palak Paratha

• Take a ball sized dough and roll it out using a rolling-pin. You can use any of the folding methods to fold the paratha. I made a triangle and rolled them out.

Rolled out

• Put it on a hot tawa and fry the paratha from both sides.

On Tawa

• Once fried, serve it hot with any of the paratha accompaniments. We had it the North Karnataka style. Add ತುಪ್ಪ(ghee) and ಪುಟಾಣಿ ಹಿಂಡಿ/ಚಟ್ನೀ( chutney), roll the paratha and gobble it up.

Add ghee and chutney

Rolled Paratha

Happy Weekend!

Palak Paratha/ Spinach Paratha – recipe

Palak Lachcha Paratha

The first time I thought of this dish was on the Irish festival Saint Patrick’s day. To say that we don’t celebrate it here even would mean that people know of this. But my Facebook wall was flooded with green pictures from my friends staying in North-America. Rivers colored green, people wearing green and even rivers dyed green. I wanted something green too. I couldn’t dye a river nearby but surely I could cook something green. Who better than Sanjeev Kapoor for a recipe. His recipe calls for only salt and ajwain but I have added a few more ingredients of my own to get a different taste in paratha. Hope you like it.

Goes without saying, it is healthy, wholesome and green . I have paired it with green coconut chutney to suit the green theme. You can have it with pickles, sabzi, curds or just a thick layer of butter. Also, the method used here for folding the parathas makes it a lachcha paratha. You can use any style you prefer.

This requires you to make blanch the palak/spinach. Blanching enhances the color and the flavor of the spinach and also makes it soft. After blanching, grind and make a paste of the spinach.

Ingredients :

Spinach/Palak – 1 small bunch
Whole wheat flour – 2 cups
Cumin seeds – 2 tsp
Ajwain/carom seeds – 2 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Till/ White sesame seeds – 1 tsp(optional)
Garam masala powder – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Milk – to knead the dough

Method:

• Blanch and grind the Spinach to make a paste.
• Add all the dry ingredients with the dough and mix them well. Later add the Spinach paste to it and mix.

Ingredients for palak paratha

• Use milk to knead the dough. And let it settle for 20-25 mins.

Dough

• Pinch a ball-sized dough and flatten it and start rolling it out using a rolling-pin

Ready to be rolled out

Rolled out

• Once rolled out now sprinkle a bit of flour and oil on the paratha. And start to fold it in the Japanese fan style. Then fold it to make it round. Sorry I couldn’t describe it any better. Please see the pics to get an idea.

Folding the paratha

Japanese Fan

Fold it to make it round

Lachcha paratha – Ready to be rolled out

• Now roll it out again using a rolling-pin. I couldn’t get the round shape. Swalpa adjust maadi(Please adjust). Knowing I couldn’t get a circle even with a compass in hand, I keep my expectations low w.r.t the shape

Rolled out

• Put the paratha on a hot tawa.

Paratha on tawa

• Fry the parathas with oil/ghee by flipping and frying on both sides. Once done, take it out and serve hot

Palak Lachcha Paratha

Avalakki/ Poha – recipe

Avalakki

ವಗ್ಗರಣೆ ಅವಲಕ್ಕಿ/Avalakki/Poha/beaten rice/flaked rice is a very popular breakfast in North-Karnataka and my all time favorite. I can eat poha all most everyday. It is light, healthy, quick and tasty.

Beaten rice is available in three types here. Thin,Medium and Thick. For this recipe, you will need the medium variety. In case you don’t find it then you can use the thick variety only you will have to wash the poha a little longer. This particular recipe is also called kanda poha(kanda=onions). You can also prepare it with potato which is called aloo poha. You can add fresh seasonal ingredients like green peas, fresh green chickpeas. You can also add tomatoes but we prefer it without them. What I have given is the way it is usually prepared at my home.

Ingredients:

Poha/ Beaten rice/ medium variety – 400 grams/ about 3 cups
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida/hing – a pinch
Onions(chopped) – 2 small
Curry leaves – a few
Green chillies(chopped) – 2 medium
Peanuts(dry roasted) – 1 tbsp ( non roasted is ok too)
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Oil – 5 tbsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Lime juice – 1 1/2 tsp
Fresh Coriander leaves/Cilantro – 2 tbsp

Chopped fresh ingredients

Method:

• Wash the poha in a colander. Make sure it is soft and not mushy. Which is why we don’t take the thin variety for this.

Washed Poha in colander

• To this add sugar, salt and lime juice and mix lightly.  Keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
• Once the mustard seeds splutter, add hing, curry leaves and sauté. If the peanuts are not roasted add them now.
• Add the onions and sauté for a minute.
• Now add green chillies and roasted peanuts, turmeric powder and sauté till the onions are done.

Poha vaggarane

• Add the poha that was kept aside and mix well. Garnish it with fresh coriander and serve it hot. You can also have it some sev or potato chips or South Indian style with some green coconut chutney.

Poha/ Avalakki

Happy Friday!

How to make Jowar Roti

Jowar/Sorghum

Millets have been a part of Indian diet for thousands of years and the health benefits are well-known. If you didn’t here are a few benefits for you.

• Gluten-free and non-allergic
• Higher in nutritional value than wheat, especially phosphorus and iron
• Non-acidic or alkaline and easy to digest
• Jowar is a rich source of Vitamin B-complex
• High protein content from 9% to 13% ( For all the meat-eaters who wonder where do vegetarians get protein from)
• Improved calcium retention as compared to rice
• Easier to digest
• Sorghum is rich in phytochemicals including tannins, phenolic acids and anthocyanins. Studies have shown that sorghum can reduce the risk of certain types of cancer in humans. The phytochemical levels are so high in this millet that they have shown potential usefulness in reducing obesity as well.
• So heart-healthy as well

Apart from jowar/sorghum/ಜೋಳ, the other popular millets found in India include pearl millet(bajra)/ಸಜ್ಜಿ and ragi/ರಾಗಿ. There is also foxtail millet/ನವಣಿ which isn’t that popular but healthy nonetheless.

Jowar roti/ಜೋಳದ ರೊಟ್ಟಿ/ಬಿಳಿ ಜೋಳದ ರೊಟ್ಟಿ  is a staple food in North-Karnataka and parts of Maharashtra. Jowar roti is unleavened flat bread made from jowar/sorghum. This doesn’t need any oil adding to the benefits above. It requires some skill( a little more than my skill level) to make soft and even rotis. So I happily clicked away while my Mom made them.

Ingredients:

Jowar flour – 1 cup
Water – to knead
salt – to taste

Method:

• In a small vessel take about 1/2 cup water and bring it to boil. Make sure the water is boiling and not just warm. Not sure if you can see the bubbles rising in the pic.

Boiling water

• In a shallow wide pan, take the flour and mix salt. Keep it ready to mix water as shown below

Flour in the pan

• Now add the hot water into the dough. Do not add all the water at once. Add only about half and keep adding as you knead. Also, use a spoon to mix the flour as you will be adding hot water. Hot water is required as there is no gluten in jowar. This is known as jigatu/ಜಿಗಟು in kannada.

Adding hot water to knead

• Once you have mixed it you can start using your hands to knead and add more water at room temperature if you need to add more. The dough will look something like this.

Jowar roti dough

• This does not need to be kept aside for settling. In fact, the rotis need to be made right away else you might have difficulty rolling them out later. Now pinch a round big ball sized dough to prepare rotis.

dough balls ready to be flattened

• To make the roti you should press/beat the circular dough with the palm of your hand on a flat surface such as the rolling board or your kitchen platform. Initially use the right hand to beat it in the form of a circle and use the left hand to maintain a circle. Once it becomes big you can use both hands to beat it to make it thinner. You could also a rolling pin but make sure you roll it out lightly. Traditionally it is made with hands.

Using the hands to make roti

Thin Roti ready to be put on tawa

• Heat the tawa well and put the roti on the tawa. In the next few seconds, as the roti gets a little dry, use a clean muslin cloth and apply a thin layer of water on the upper surface.

Applying a thin coating of water

• Let it remain till water evaporates a little and flip it over and press slightly with a soft cloth to make sure it is done properly on all sides.

Jowar roti

This can be served with any dry/gravy vegetables. The favorite traditional combinations though are Jhunka,stuffed eggplant/brinjal,hesaru kaalu/green moong pallya, shenga hindi and kosambari. Had to take this pic from the Internet as I forgot to take a pic before serving. Very soon I will replace this with one at home.

Jolada rotti with side dishes

The thali shown above with rice is a complete meal. It is called as rotti meals or Joalda rotti thali here.

Diwali Special at home – Pithiwali Puri

Akash Butti

Diwali is the time of indulgence. And what better way to start indulging than a sumptuous breakfast in the morning. Happy Diwali all again and here are pics of akash butti/kandil/lantern at our home and a rangoli near our home. Dazzling lights and colours, one can’t ask for more. Add to that sweets, gifts and loads of new stuff.

Rangoli

Pithiwali Puri is urad dal stuffed puri. Found this recipe from Sanjeev Kapoor’s Khanakhazana.

I definitely wouldn’t put this in the healthy category but amazingly tasty yes. If you are calorie conscious this is not for you. But you can indulge once in a while. As they say if you are not committing any sins, you are probably not having a lot of fun.

Ingredients for the dough:

Whole wheat atta – 1 1/2 cup
All purpose flour – 1/2 cup
oil – a little oil in the dough makes it soft
salt – to taste
water – for kneading

Ingredients for the stuffing:

Urad Dal/Black gram split – 1/2 cup(soaked for 2 hours and drained)
Ghee – for tadka
Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp
Cinnamon – 1 inch stick
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Hing – a pinch
Green Chillies – 2 medium
red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Coriander/Cilantro(finely chopped) – a few leaves
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Soak urad dal for about 2-3 hrs, drain and keep it aside

Urad dal soaked and drained

• Knead the dough for puri, cover it with a soft cloth and let it settle for about 20-30 mins.

Puri dough

Heat ghee in a pan, add cumin seeds, hing, coriander seeds and cinnamon and sauté. Add drained urad dal and continue to sauté.

Urad dal in the pan

• Now add salt, green chillies, red chilli powder, coriander leaves and mix well. Now remove from heat. Let it cool slightly. Grind the mixture to a coarse powder.

Coarse mixture after grinding

• Now take a small ball from puri dough and flatten it with your fingertips. Place the mixture in the centre and close it from the edges to make a small ball.

Dough with filling

• Now with a rolling-pin roll the ball to a nice round puri

Puri rolled put

• Heat oil in a deep pan and deep fry the puri till golden brown.

Deep fried puri

• Now serve hot puris with hot potato sabzi

Pithiwali puri with sabzi

Bon appetit!

Spring/Green Onion Paratha – Recipe

One of the best things about paratha is the variety. One paratha place in my area has 99 different types on their menu. You can have it plain, stuff it with one of your favorite veggie, or two veggies or mix them all and call it a mix-veg paratha Have also posted beetroot paratha previously. This is one of the many varieties you should try out some time. A spring onion or a green onion paratha.

Spring Onion Paratha

Ingredients required:

Finely chopped spring onion(green part) – 1 cup
Finely chopped Onion – 1/2 cup
Wheat atta – 1 and 1/2 cup
Besan/Chickpeas flour – 2 tbsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala powder – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Moong dal(soaked for about 2 hours) [optional] – 1/2 cup
oil – 1 tbsp to knead the dough
Ghee – to fry the parathas
water – to knead the dough

Ingredients for Spring paratha before kneading

Method
Mix all the above ingredients and knead it into a soft dough with the same consistency as Chapathi dough. And let it rest for about 30 mins.

Spring Paratha dough

Pinch out required quantity of the dough to make a small ball. Dust the pinched out ball in wheat flour and roll it out using a rolling-pin to a round shape(or at least nearly round as in my case ) . Then sprinkle some flour on it and lightly coat it with ghee/oil.

Pinch some dough to make a small ball and dust it with wheat flour

Roll it out a little to a round shape( at least nearly round)

Fold it twice to make a triangle.

Spring paratha triangle

Now roll it out to make a nice paratha.

Paratha rolled out

Heat a tawa and when heated put the rolled out paratha on the tawa and add ghee on one side. When done flip and apply ghee to the other side as well.

Spring Paratha on the tava

Once it is done properly on both the sides take it out and serve it hot with curds or pickle or tomato ketch and some potato chips as I did.

Spring Paratha – ready to serve

Happy Eating!

Channa/Chole Masala – Recipe

If you ever find somebody who doesn’t eat Indian food, make them taste a Punjabi dish and you have a convert. Punjabi cuisine is food from the Punjab region of northwestern India and eastern Pakistan. Punjabis are large-hearted, and known to live life to the fullest. Their food reflects this attitude too.

Channa/Chole Masala

One of the world-famous Punjabi dishes happens to be Channa Masala/Chole Masala. This is usually teamed with Batura but you can also eat it with any Indian bread like roti, naan or kulcha. Tried it out at home and it came out wonderfully. We had it with whole-wheat paratha. Just sharing my experience and the recipe here.

Batura

The recipe requires channa masala powder which can be brought from stores. I didn’t have the masala powder neither did I have amchoor powder and Pomegranate seeds to make it at home so I used Garam Masala powder + Coriander powder + cumin powder instead. And tamarind paste + lemon juice instead of amchoor and pomegranate for tanginess. The result turned out to be pretty good so I think I can repeat the process whenever I don’t have the channa masala powder

The main ingredient here is the channa/chickpeas which needs to be soaked overnight or upto 6-8 hours.

The Channa soaked over-night

Pressure cook the Channa. You can also add a tsp of tea powder/ 1 tea bag in the cooker to get the nice dark color. You need not throw away the water after draining. You can use the same while cooking. My drained water looked like this.

Water drained after cooking the chole.

Ingredients:

Calcutta Channa/Chole/Chickpeas – 200 gms
Onion(finely chopped) – 2 medium
Tomato(finely chopped) – 3 medium
Green Chilli(finely chopped) – 2-3
Garam Masala – 1 & 1/2 tbsp
Coriander powder – 1/2 tbsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
Hing/Asafoetida – a pinch(optional) – Hing is an essential ingredient in our kitchen
ginger garlic paste – 1 tbsp
lime – 1/2 medium
Salt – to taste
Oil – for tadka
Fresh Coriander leaves/Cilantro – for garnishing

Method:

Heat oil in a deep sauce-pan and add cumin seeds. Once they splutter, add hing and ginger-garlic paste and sauté. Add Onion and green chilli and sauté till the onion turns golden brown.

Tadka with onion

Now add turmeric and tomatoes. Let the tomatoes cook nicely. And then add salt and all the other dry powders to it. Saute for a minute.

Tomatoes added

Now add the channa to the above and mix. Later add the drained water to the mixture. Add tamarind paste and lime. Cover it and let it cook for 5-6 minutes. Once it is cooked take it out in a serving bowl, garnish with fresh coriander leaves and a dollop of cream.

Channa Masala – ready to eat

Tips: Make sure your channa is cooked properly in the cooker. If it is half done you wont be able to cook it properly later.
You can also garnish with chopped onion and a wedge of lime as it traditionally done.

Happy Eating!

Homemade Potato Chips – Recipe

I wonder what would life be without deep-fried potatoes. Can there be anything better than crispy,crunchy, deep-fried potato slices? May be in some parallel universe. For now here’s how you can make some awesome crispy potato chips at home which are way more better than the store-bought ones – no preservatives, no unknown ingredients, you know what kind of oil you have used and not to forget more economical.

The potatoes need to be fresh and firm for this to get nice results. Look for firm potatoes without any green spots or sprouting.  Here are the ones I used.

Potatoes

Peel the potatoes nicely and wash it clean. Slice the potatoes even and thin. Evenness ensures that the potatoes are cooked evenly. To slice, you can use a knife, peeler or a slicer like the one I used.

Slicer

Soak the slices in a cold water(with a pinch of alum) for 10-15 mins. This helps remove the excess starch. The alum helps retain the color.

Soaked potato slices

Drain potato slices and dry them thoroughly with a clean kitchen towel or layers of paper towels.

Potatoes dried using a cotton cloth

Heat oil in a large, deep pan. Add potato slices to the oil and fry them till golden brown. Fry them on a medium heat instead of high to make sure they become crispy.

Chips frying in the pan

Transfer the chips to a paper towel and sprinkle some salt and black pepper powder or any other seasoning you like. Let them cool before transferring the contents to an air-tight container. These can be stored up to a month. That is, if any, remains un-eaten for that long.

Crispy, Crunchy home-made potato chips. No one can eat just one

My Tasty Curry: Breakfast with George Colambaris Masterchef Australia at Olive Beach New Delhi

My Tasty Curry: Breakfast with George Colambaris Masterchef Australia at Olive Beach New Delhi.