Beetroot Pancakes / Beetroot Dosa

Yesterday we were bored of eating rice and chappathi/paratha for dinner. So decided to have something simple yet nutritious and tasty. My husband mentioned about beetroot cutlet at his office canteen. Based on that he came up with this quick recipe for beetroot pancakes/dosa. It tastes very good with onion-tomato raitha.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Beetroot - 3 Grated
Cornflour - 2 tbsp

Rice flour - 2 tbsp

Salt
Curry leaves - few finely chopped
Green Chilli - 2 finely chopped
Yogurt - 3 tbsp
Oil

Method:

Mix all the ingredients to form a thick batter (more like idli consistency).

Heat a tava (griddle).

Pour a spoon full of batter on the griddle and spread it as thin as possible. You can use your hand to spread the dosa.

Pour a tsp of oil and roast both sides.
Serve hot with raitha.

Serves: 2
Preparation Time: About 20-25 mins.

Note: Alternatively leftover dosa batter can be used instead of corn flour and rice flour.

Pudina / Mint Rice

I had a bunch of mint leaves lying in my fridge for a long time. To finish the whole bunch at a shot, came up with this simple yet tasty pudina rice. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Vegetables like Potato, beans, peas, carrot etc cut into lengthwise (1 inch pieces)- 1 cup
Onion chopped - 1 big
Rice - 1.5 cups
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Cardamom - 1
Cloves - 2
Mustard - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Oil/butter
Salt

To Grind:
Pudina/ mint - 1 big bunch
Tomato -1
Garlic - 1 pod (big)
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Cinnamon - 1 small
Green chilli - 2 (can add more based on the hotness)

Grind the above ingredients to a fine paste without adding water and keep aside.

Method:
Roast cinnamon, cardamom and clove till you get a aroma. Add this to the rice and cook the rice with enough water and keep aside.
Heat oil/butter in a pan. Add mustard. When it splutters add cumin and fennel seeds. Then add the onion and fry for few minutes. Then add the vegetables and fry till they are cooked a little. At this stage add some salt and fry for some more time. Then add the ground pudina mixture and fry till the oil separates. Add 1/2 cup water (little less is also fine based on the quantity of vegetables) and cook the vegetables. When the vegetables are cooked add the cooked rice and mix well. Adjust salt. Serve hot with chutney or raitha.

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Serves: 4 people

Avarekaalu Akki Rotti

Its Avarekaalu season here in India and its wonderful to be here during this time :). I can try many of my favorite dishes with this tasty beans. Avarekaalu or Hyacinth beans is a favorite of any kannadiga. During the season, you can see in every house people buy these in loads and they all sit together to remove the beans from their pods ... A variety of dishes are prepared using these beans like sambar, usli, uppittu (upma), nippattu (snack), rotti...the list goes on.

Akki Rotti is perhaps a unique dish of Karnataka. Though it might sound similar to Thali peet of Maharashtra, this dish is prepared only with rice flour as a main ingredient. This is one of my favorite breakfast items. Generally it is prepared with only using onions and other spices but during Avarekaalu season you cant miss using them.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Rice flour - 3 cups
Chopped onions - 1 cup
Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup
Avarekaalu (cooked) - 1 cup
Chopped coriander leaves - 5-6 tbsp
Chopped green chillies - 2
Minced ginger - 3 tsp
Cumin seeds - 3 tsp
Salt


Method:
Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl and then add water slowly to make a thick dough as in the picture.
Since the rice flour does not have the elastic nature of wheat flour, it cannot be rolled out. Instead you have to use your bare hands to flatten them either directly into a pan, or use a moist cloth or plantain leaf. Here I am using plantain leaf.
Apply oil over the plantain leaf and your hands as well. Take a handful (large lemon sized) of dough and flatten it using hands over the leaf.


Heat a tava. Transfer the flatten rotti onto the tava and after 2-3 sec remove the leaf. Pour a tsp of oil and let it cook for 1-2 minutes and then turn the other side and pour a tsp oil and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Serve hot with chutney or brinjal ennegai (Recipe coming soon ...).

Preparation time: About 4-5 minutes for each rotti.
Serves: 5 people

Uppu puli dose

This is a variety of dosa prepared in South Canara district of Karnataka. It has an assortment of spices which is ground with Coconut and added to the Rice batter. This imparts all the flavors and the aroma to the dosa. The speciality of this dosa is that we do not use Urad dal. Instead, a tablespoon or two of coconut gives the softness to the dosa.

Ingredients to grind for the Dosa batter of 3 cups of ONLY Rice:


Grated Coconut- 2 tbsp
Coriander seeds- 1 1/2 tbsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds- 2 tsp
Red chillies- 4-5 [If they are not of the hot variety, you may add more chillies which gives dosa the unique color; unfortunately, the chillies, I'm using are real hot...hence, added only few :( ]
Tamarind pulp- Extracted from a Lemon sized ball of Tamaind
Jaggery- 1 tbsp (Optional)

Method:
Grind the above mentioned ingredients to a fine paste and add it to the Dosa batter which has only Rice. Keep for fermentation for about 6-8 hours. Check for salt and pour a ladle full of batter on the hot tava. Cove and cook the dosa on one side. You may relish this with a dollop of butter or jaggery!

Preparation Time: 5 Minutes for the dosa
Serves: 4 people.

Spiced Neer Dose

The base for this dish is Neer Dosa which is a special kind of dosa from Dakshina Kannada, prepared from rice and coconut. Neer in Kannada means ‘Water’. Traditionally, neer dosa is prepared by grinding soaked rice into a thin watery batter along with coconut and then made into thin pancakes. To add an extra taste to the traditional dosa, my MIL grinds the rice and coconut along with cumin seeds and curry leaves (added liberally) which tastes really good!!! There is no advanced preparation required to make this dosa. The best part is this dosa does not require any fermentation.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Raw rice (Sona Masoori) - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 small bunch (this gives a unique taste)
Salt to taste
Water (to grind)
Oil to make dosa

Method:
Wash rice and soak it in water for around 3-4 hours, I usually soak it overnight.
Grind soaked rice to a fine paste along with coconut. Now to the fine paste add cumin seeds, curry leaves and salt and grind this once. Add enough water to bring the batter to a thin consistency.



Heat a dosa griddle and pour 1 ladle full of mixture in center. Tilt griddle in all directions to allow batter to spread thinly. Alternately you can splash the batter on the griddle. Pour a tsp oil and close the griddle with a lid. After a minute or 2 lift the lid. If you see that the dosa has come up at the edges, then the dosa is ready. This dosa is roasted only on one side.

Serve hot with any chutney.

Gojju Avalakki or Huli Avalakki

Gojju Avalakki is an authentic recipe from Karanatka. Avalakki means poha or the beaten rice. During the Navarathri season this will definitely be a prasadam on any one of the 9 days at the temple. The ones made in the temple will have a divine taste :) . This tangy, sweet dish made of Poha is one of my all time favorites. It is a simple dish and can be made for breakfast or as a snack. This is made from either the thick or medium variety of poha. The paper thin variety cannot be used as it will turn mushy.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Coarsely powdered poha (Thick variety) - 1 cup


Tamarind - 1 lemon sized
Rasam powder - 2 tsp
Jaggery - 1 tbsp
Asafoetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp
Water - 1 1/2 cup
Turmeric
Salt
Groundnuts - 2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Channa dal/ Chick peas lentil - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6-7
Oil - 1 tbsp
Red chilli (broken into small pieces) - 1
Black sesame - 1 tsp
(I have used white sesame because I did not have black sesame.)
Dry coconut (grated) / Kobbari - 2 tbsp

Method:
Soak tamarind in water and extract the pulp.
Take this in a mixing bowl and add the remaining water.
Add rasam powder, hing, salt, turmeric and jaggery (powdered) and mix well.


To this add the coarsely powdered poha and leave it for 15-20 mins.
Do not add too much water as the poha will become mushy. The poha should be separate and remain in crumbles.


In a seasoning wok, add oil. When it gets hot add groundnuts and fry for some time. Then add channa dal and red chilli. When it turns almost brown add mustard. When the mustard splutters add curry leaves.
Pour this seasoning to the poha mixture.
Fry sesame seeds and powder them.
Add this along with dry coconut and mix well.
Serve along with yougurt.

Preparation: About 45 mins (including the soaking time)
Serves: 2 people

Ulundu Adai

Ulundu adai can be called the king of adai! Traditionaly adai is made with a mixture of toor dal (pigeon pea), muzhu (whole) ulundu (black lentil) and par boiled rice. The wonderful aroma which comes when this adai is roasted in the griddle is from the generous amount of curry leaves and asafoetida that goes in during the grinding process and the ginely oil used for roasting the adai. I add cumin seeds as it is very healthy and also gives some extra taste to the adai.

My mom makes one of the best adais I have had ... always very cripsy and red in color.

Adai is an oil guzzler.Experienced housewives, use their bare hands to spread the batter on the hot tava. Once you make the batter, you can store in the refridgerator and use it for a week. With fresh batter you can always make crisp adai. The refridgerated batter will yield adai that are very soft but tastes good because it has fermented well.

I am sending this recipe for MyLegumeLoveAffair-14 hosted by Susan of The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Here is the recipe from my mom's kitchen.

Ingredients:
Boiled rice - 1 cup (Idli sooji can also be used. The proportion is same)
Muzhu ulundu/black lentil/white lentil- 1/2 cup
Togari bele/Toor dal/Pigeon pea - 2/3 cup
Red chilli - 4-5
Pepper corns (optional) - 5
Cumin seed (optional) - 2 tspAsafoetida - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 15-20 leavessalt
Gingely oil - for shallow frying
Note: Traditionaly ginegely oil is used as it imparts a wonderful aroma to the adai. But any other refined oil can also be used for roasting.

Method:
Soak the rice black lentil and pigeon pea overnight.
Grind them coarsely along with red chilli, curry leaves, asafoetida and salt. The ground batter should be of thick consistency.


Heat the griddle or a flat pant. Pour a ladle full of the batter and flatten the adai with hand in a circular motion dipping the hand often in cold water to avoid burning of the hand.
You can spread it using the back of the ladle, but since the batter is thick in consistency, this would make the adai thick.
Optionally you can add some water to the batter to make it thin in consistency and use the back of the ladle to flatten the adai.


Make a small hole in the centre with spoon and pour oil generously (1 tbsp). Drizzle oil on the sides as well.


Let it brown, flip over. Pour another helping of oil, for this side to be fried. When both sides are evenly fried, to a golden brown colour, the adai can be removed from the tava.
Before the next round, take a piece of moist cloth or Vazhai Pindi (banana stem), and clean the tava of the left overs.
Your next adai will also come out as good as the previous one.
The adai can be served with butter.
Personally I love to have adai with orange peel pulikachal (recipe coming soon).

Preparation time: About 10-20 mins (grinding), 5 mins (To roast the adai)
Serves: 4 people

Capsicum Rice

I was really tired of preparing the same dishes like pulao, bisibelebath, vangibath etc for the lunch box. Not that I dont like them, its just that sometimes we crave for a different taste.

There were different colored bell peppers lying in the fridge. So I decided to make capsicum rice. I don't know the actual recipe, so I decided to make it in my own way. The recipe is fairly simple. I mixed ground spices to fried capsicum giving it a nice flavor and stirred it with cooked rice. You can also fry onions along with capsicum.

This recipe is off to Chaitra's RiceFeast event.

Here is the recipe. Hope you all will like it.

Ingredients:
Capsicum - 1 cup
Rice - 1 cup
Salt
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 5-6
Turmeric - a pinch
Oil - 4-5 tbsp

Masala:
Dry roast the below ingredients except tomato and ginger separately. Grind them to a fine paste together with tomato and ginger.


Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
Coconut scrapped - 3-4 tbsp
Fennel/Saunf/Sombu - 1 tsp
Tamarind - small piece
Groundnuts - 1 tbsp
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp
Channa dal/Gram dal - 1 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Ginger - small piece
Toamto - 1 medium sized
Asafoetida - a pinch

Method:
Cook rice such that each grains are separate. Keep is aside.
Heat gingely oil in a pan. When it is hot add the mustard and when it splutters add the curry leaves and bell peppers and saute till the bell peppers are fried properly. Add salt and turmeric. Then add chopped tomato and saute till the they are cooked. Then add the ground masala and fry.
Finaly add cooked rice and mix well. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Note: If you are using normal rice (not basmati) then cool the rice before mixing. This will prevent the rice being mashed in the process of mixing.

Preparation time: About 30 mins
Serves: 4 people

Idli Upma

If you have lots of left over idilis and wondering what to do with them, then here is a simple and tasty recipe. I am sure many of us idli lovers would eat them any how...but for some people out there who don't like idli, this is a tasy option.

Apart from the ingredients mentioned below, you can make this more healthier by adding vegetables like carrot, beans, bell peppers etc.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Idlis - 10
Onion chopped - 1 big
Chilli chopped - 2
Mustard - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Coconut scrapped - 5-6 tbsp
Curry leaves - 5
Salt
Coconut oil or ghee - 3 tbsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Coriander leaves chopped - 3 tbsp


Method:
Mash the idlis coarsely in hand. (Note that the idlis should not be mashed to a paste).
Heat the oil/ghee in a pan. Add the urad dal. When it turns brown add the mustard. When the mustard splutters add the turmeric and chilli and fry once.
Add the curry leaves and chopped onion and fry till the onion turns golden.
Add the coriander leaves and fry once.
Then add the coarsely mashed idlis and salt and mix well. Add the scrapped coconut and serve hot. Generaly we eat it without any side dish as it is very tasty by itself. But you can serve this with chutney or sauce.

Preparation time: 15 mins
Serves: 2-3 people

Bread Masala

Bread masala is one of the easy dishes to prepare and very tasty. It is also good for the lunch box. I normally prepare this when we are bored eating rice. It tastes good when the bread is toasted but we can use the bread directly as well.

Ingredients
Bread - 10 slices
Onion chopped - 2 medium sized
Tomato chopped - 2 medium sized
Green Chilli chopped - 2 to 3
Ginger finely chopped - 1-2 tsp
Mustard - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - 5-6
Coriander leaves chopped - 4 tbsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp
Ghee - 2 tsp

Salt

Method:
Toast the bread in a toaster or a normal tava (without oil/ghee). Cut them into small squares and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, when they splutter add the chopped green chillies.
Then add the curry leaves, turmeric and fry little.
Add the chopped onions and fry them till they turn golden.
Then add the chopped tomato and little water incase the tomatoes are not juicy. Don't add too much water as the bread will become soggy.
Add enough salt and mix well.
Now add the bread pieces and ghee and mix well.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.
This does not require any side dish to accompany with it.

Preparation time: 20 mins
Serves: 2

Idli

Idli is one of the basic recipes but sometimes the basic recipes could be problematic. When I started cooking my idli's always turned harder than what mom made at home. But after continued efforts and persistence, my idli's are better now. Here is the recipe.

Inredients:
Boiled rice or Idli rava - 3 cupsUrad dal/white gram - 1 cup
Salt
Method:Soak the rice (if you are not using idli rava) and urad dal seperately for 5-6 hrs.
Grind the urad dal to a very smooth paste adding little water as it should be of a thick consistency. The more it is ground the better the idlis will turn out.
If you are using boiled rice, grind it coarsely adding little water.In case if you are using idli rava instead of rice, wash the idili rava and if the rava is bigger you can grind it with little water for sometime. Do not grind this for long as it should not become too smooth.
Mix the coarsely ground rice or idli rava with the urad dal paste, adding enough salt.

Leave it overnight in a warm place for fermentation.
The next day the volume of the batter would have increased if it has fermented properly.
Once the batter has fermented, grease the idli plate with either oil or ghee.Pour the batter in each plate.
Steam them for around 15 mins. If you are using pressure cooker, do not use the weight.
Leave it for around 5 mins before opening the steamer/cooker. Remove the idlis from the idli plate and serve hot with chutney and sambar.

Preparation time: 25 min

Serves : 4-5

Poori

Weekend breakfasts back home would always be something special. One of them being Poori. Poori is one of the items which is everybody's favorite. My mom would make nice puffed and soft poris. I never managed to do it. After marriage it was my husband who actually taught me how to make puffed poori. According to him the making of good poori starts from the 1st step of preparing the dough itself. If the dough is too soft then the pooris will come out flat (it will not puff) and also they absord a lot of oil. After 3 years I can say I have finally learnt how to make nice pooris. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Oil - 1 tbsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
Water - enough to make the dough
Oil - for deep frying

Method:
Mix flour,oil and milk and add enough water to make dough which is not too soft as chappathi dough. Knead thouroughly and keep aside for 10 to 15 mins. If the dough is left longer, it will absord lot of oil.


Take a portion of dough and make small ball (size of a tiny lemon)
Roll them into round shape using rolling pins. The pooris should be rolled a little thicker so that they puff. While rolling use oil instead of flour because the flour sticking on the poori will absord more oil.



Meanwhile heat oil in a deep frying pan.
Fry the pooris on both side till brown.
The hot pooris can be enjoyed either with Potato masala or vegetable sagu.

Preparation time: 30 to 40 mins
Can make about 20 to 25 poori depending upon the size of the poori

Verumarisi Adai

Verum arisi adai is one of the simplest dish as it does not require much preparation time except for grinding. It is a Palakkad speciality. "Verum arisi" literally translates to just plain rice. This adai is prepared using hand instead of ladle.

As a kid this was one of my favourite breakfast item. My mom prepares crispy adais. It tastes so good that it never requires any side dish like pickle or chutney powder.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Par boiled rice - 2 cups
Red chillies - 4 to 5
Fenugreek/Methi seeds - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 tspSalt - as per taste
Water - as requiredGinely/Sesame oil (Refined oil can also be used but tastes better with gingely oil)
Drumstick leaves (optional) - handful

Method:
Soak rice and fenugreek/methi seeds together overnight and grind them to a paste adding red chillies, asafoetida and salt as required. The paste should not be too smooth like dosa batter. Dont add too much water as the consistency of the batter should be thicker than dosa batter.
This batter has to be kept outside (overnight) for fermentation. Then it can be kept in the refrigerator. It stays good for a week.


Before preparing the adai, take out enough portion from the refrigerator and to this mix chopped drumstick leaves if you are using.
Heat the dosa tava. Pour a ladle full of the batter and flatten the adai with hand in a circular motion dipping the hand often in cold water to avoid burning of the hand.


Cook on both sides. Serve hot.
Alternately instead of red chillies and asafoetida, you can make them plain but when preparing the adai, you have to add 1/2 cup of grated coconut . This gives the adai a softness.
Method is same as above.

Preparation time: About 10 - 20 mins (grinding) , 5 mins (To roast the adai)
Serves: 2 people ( If left in the refrigerator for a week)

Manjal Dose

Manjal Dose acquires its name from the yellow (Manjal in Tulu) color it gains from turmeric powder (Manjaltho podi) which is added to the dosa batter. This is added for enhancing the aroma of the dosa; whilst the variation in the color creates enthusiasm in children to eat more :)

The other typical characteristic of this dosa is the holes which are formed on it, as it cooks. This is attributed to the addition of Fenugreek seeds in little excess while grinding the batter.

Ingredients:
Par boiled rice- 3 cups
Urad dal- 1 cup
Note: This Rice:Urad dal ratio of 1:3 is for grinding the batter in mixie. The ratio can be modified upto 1:6 when the batter is ground in a wet grinder.
Fenugreek seeds/ Methi seeds- 4 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:
Soak Urad dal and Rice along with Fenugreek seeds for upto 6 hours/overnight. Grind them separately. Mix the rice batter with Urad dal batter adding enough salt.Leave for fermentation for upto 8 hours. Before preparing the dosa, add the Turmeric powder.

Mix well and pour a laddle full of batter on the hot tava. Speard the batter evenly and pour few drops of ghee on top of the dosa. Cover it with a lid. Allow it to cook for about 3 minutes. Remove the dosa and serve with chutney.

Preparation Time: Grinding- 30 Minutes; Preparing Dosa- 5 Minutes
Serves: 4 people