Cornmeal Idli

Cornmeal is coarsely ground dried corn.This is also very good for health like wheat,good source of proteins and vitamins.I have used yellow cornmeal to make idlis.
Cornmeal idlis are gluten free.These good for people with diabetes too.

Ingredients,
Cornmeal - 1 cup (I used yellow cornmeal )
Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Water-1 cup
Salt- 3/4 teaspoon
Eno/ Fruit salt - 1 teaspoon

For tempering,
Oil- 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds- 1 teaspoon
Cumin - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida- a pinch
Urad dal- 1 teaspoon
Chana dal- 1 teaspoon
Coriandder- 1/2 cup (chopped)
Curry leaves- 4 (chopped)
Green chillies- 1-2 (finely chopped)

1. In a pan roast cornmeal for 3-4 minutes.
2. Add yogurt,water and salt to this roasted cornmeal.Mix well
3. Take 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and add mustard seeds,as they splutter add cumin,asafoetida.urad dal and chana dal.Take the pan out of the hot stove.
4. Add finely chopped green chili ,curry leaves and coriander leaves.
5. Add this tempering to the cornmeal mix and soak for 1/2 an hour.
6. Add eno fruit salt after soaking for half an hour.
7. Grease the idli plates with oil and place broken roasted cashewnuts.
8. Pour in the prepared batter .
9. Put the idli stand in the cooker and steam for 15 minutes.
10. Do not remove the lid and let it settle for 5 minutes.
11. Remove the lid and let the idlis cool down completely.
12. Scoop out idlis with a spoon .

Roast the cornmeal for 3-4 minutes.

Take 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan

Add mustard seeds,as they splutter add cumin,urad dal

Chana dal and asafoetida.

Add chopped  green chilli,curry leaves and coriander 

leaves .

Add yogurt , water and salt to roasted cornmeal

and mix well.Add tempering.Soak for 1/2 an hour.

Add eno after saoking for 1/2 a hour.

Grease idli pans with oil and place broken roasted

 cashew nuts.

Pour in the prepared batter.Steam in a cooker with a

large plate covered for 15 minutes.Swtich off the stove.Do not 

remove the lid(large plate) for 5 minutes.Remove

 the lid and let the idlis cool down completely.Scoop out

the idlis with a a spoon and serve with chutney.

Winter Melon( Ash Gourd) Dosa

Winter melon/ ash gourd is a winter season vegetable.I make use of this in many of the curries that I make for rice.Making use of this in a dosa was the idea given to me by my Mother in law.
These dosas can either be made thick or thin and crispy.I preferably like them thin and crispy.There is no urad dal used in this recipe just sona masoori rice is soaked overnight or for eight hours and then grinded with ash gourd pieces.No need  to even ferment this batter and can be done immediately after the batter is prepared.

Ingredients,
Sona Masoori Rice  - 2 and 1/2 cups
Ash gourd( winter melon) - 2 pounds ( 6 cups of ash gourd  cut into 1 inch pieces)
Salt - 2 teaspoons.

1. Soak sona masoori rice for 8 hours or overnight.
2. Peel off the skin of the winter melon(ash gourd) and cut into small pieces.
3. Pour the ash gourd pieces at the bottom and then the soaked rice and grind it into fine batter.
4. (I first poured 2 cups of ash gourd and 1 cup of soaked rice and grinded into fine batter in 4 batches.)
5. Pour in all the grinded batter and mix well.
6. Add 2-3 teaspoons of salt and mix .
7. Heat your griddle and then lower the heat of the stove and pour on a hand full of water to cool down the griddle.
8. Pour 2 ladle full of batter and make dosas.
9. Increase the heat of your stove.Spread a spoon full of oil/ ghee on the dosa.
10. Flip it and bake on the other side of the dosa.
11. Serve hot with chutney.

Soak rice overnight.

Peel the skin of the winter melon and cut it into pieces.

Grind ash gourd and soaked rice in batches into batter 

without water.

Batter for dosa.Add 2 teaspoons of salt or salt according

to your taste.

Heat the griddle.

pour some handful of water to make the pan less hot.

This will make it easy to spread the dosa batter.

Keep the flame of the stove low.Let the water evaporate.

Spread the dosa batter.

Pour oil/ghee and flip it.

leave it for  a few seconds and serve hot.

Winter Melon Dosa.

Moong Whole Dosa/ Pesarattu

Pesarattu is a very popular dosa from Andra cuisine.My mom usually makes dosa with Split yellow moong dal.Making dosa with Whole moong makes the dosa more nutritious.
In Andra it is also served with Upma inside the dosa.I made coconut chutney for this dosa.
This dosa is made from soaked moong whole and rice,it does not contain any Urad dal.I have added spice like ginger,green chillies,asafoetida and coriander leaves while grinding the dosa batter.You can also add chopped onions while grinding to give it a slight variation.

Ingredients,
Moong whole - 1 1/2 cups
Rice - 3/4 cup (I used Sona Masoori rice)
Ginger - 1 and 1/2 tablespoon
Green chillies- 2
Cumin/ Jeera - 1 teaspoon
Green corinader leaves - 4-5 strands
salt - 1 teaspoon
Hing/ Asafeotida - a pinch

1. Soak Moong whole and Rice in water.Note that the moong whole and rice are going to saok water and rise,so add more water.Soak it overnight.
2. Take ginger,cumin,green chillies,chopped coriander leaves,hing and salt.Mix them.
3. Divide Moong whole and rice in 3 parts.
4. In a blender add the above mix and then add 1 part of soaked Moong whole and Rice.Grind this with 1/2 cup of water.(the reason why I add the ginger,coriander,green chillies,cumin,hing with salt first in a blender is that it gets mixed with better properly by grinding it finely)
5. Grind all the three parts with 1/2 cup of water.
6. Pour each batch of batter in a large bowl and mix well.
7. On a heated griddle pour 2 ladle full of batter and spread it in circular patterns.
8. Smear oil/ghee.
9. Fold it in half.If you want you can add chopped onions and coriander leaves before folding the dosa.
10. Put the dosa on a plate .Serve with Coconut Chutney.

Chop ginger,corinder leaves and green chillies.Also

take cumin seeds,hing and salt.

Soaked overnight Moong whole and Rice.

Grind Moong whole,rice,ginger,cumin seeds,green

chillies,coriander leaves,hing and salt.

Batter.

Once the griddle is hot put the stove on medium flame.

Pour batter on aheated griddle and spread in circular patterns.

Smear oil /ghee.

Fold it in half.

Serve with Coconut chutney

Black eyed peas dosa

This explicit  dosa is called  Yaadni  at our place.It is easy to make and a little quirky too.
Tastes amazingly great,it includes black eyed peas as the main ingredient along with black eyed peas,urad daal and channa daal.
Ingredients,
Black eyed peas-1 1/2 cup
urad daal( black gram)- 1/2 cup
channa daal( bengal gram) - 1/2 cup
ginger-1 tbsp ( cut in small pieces)
green chillies-3 to 4
Coriander leaves- 10 sprigs
salt -2 tsps
Asafoetida- a pinch

1. Soak Black eyed peas,Black grams and Bengal grams overnight or for 8 hours.Grind all the soaked ingredients with ginger ,chillies,coriander leaves with a pinch of asafoetida and salt with water
2. required enough to grind.
3. Dosa batter is ready to make dosas.
4. Once the tava is hot put the stove on low flame.Sprinkle some water and let it evaporate.
5. After the dosa batter is spread ut the tava on slightly higher than medium flame.

Spread dosa batter,Spread a spoon full of oil/ghee.

Flip it over and bake on the other side.

Mulgapudi Masala Dosa

Am so excited to pen down another of my alluring recipes,Mulgapudi masala dosa.When we had been to a vacation to Ooty ,Tamilnadu we had prorogated in a near by dhaba,well it was even more riveting for us because it was a dosa dhaba.Yes,as anybody can anticipate we ate a lot of dosas there.
All day we were traveling in a bus to take a panoramic view of the countryside of Tamilnadu and in the end having dosas ,couldn't get better than this for us.
Their special cuisine was Mugapudi masala dosa.Since I ate it I was planning to do it at home .i came across this groovy recipe which made me to try immediately.

Ingredients for Mulga pudi,
Urad daal-1/4 cup
Channa daal-1/4 cup
Moong daal-2 tbsp
Tamarind-1 tbsp
Coriander seeds-1 tbsp
Salt-1 tsp
Red chilli powder-1 tsp( spice it according to your taste)
Curry leaves-1 sprig( leaves only)
Asafoetida-1/4 tsp

Roast all of the spices in a pan till golden brown and make it into a powder ( I used coffee bean grinder from target to grind it into a fine powder)

Ingredients for the batter,
Uncooked  rice (sona masoori rice) -3 cups
Urad daal-3/4 cup
Methi seeds-1 tsp

Soak all of the ingredients overnight or 8 hours and then grind it into a batter with a little water( I divide the soaked ingredients in 3 batches and girnd each batch with almost 1/2 a cup of water).Ferment it for 8 hours.Add 1 tbsp of salt and a little water to it after the batter is fermented.

Pour batter on the heated griddle and spread the batter in circular ways to make dosas,spread ghee/oil all over.
After you start seeing little brownish color,sprinkle the Mulgapudi on the dosa and roll it into a log shaped
Serve hot with Potato Curry.

Once the griddle/tava is heated put the stove on low flame ,add some water.Let the water evaporate and then spread the dosa batter.After spreading put the flame back on slightly more than medium until the dosa is browned and then remove the dosa from the tava..Repeat  this for each dosa.

Once the griddlw/tava is hot put the stove on

low flame.Sprinkle some water .After the water evaporates

por in 2 ladle full of beatter and spread in circular patterns.

Pour in oil/ghee and the masala powder.

As the dosa starts to get browned,scrape

off from all the sides.

Roll both sides into log shape.Serve with chutney.

Idli and Sambar

South Indian breakfast isn't complete without idli and sambar .Previously when I started doing this I did the most typical way ,by adding idli rava to saoked and ground Urad daal.Once I heard  that one of my friend does idlis by using idli rice.When we moved into a city where Indian stores where very far,and the kind of idli rava they used to sell were musty.Didn't had much choice but to go for idli rice.Once I started doing this,I never gave up using idli rice.I told my family members that the idlis taste just like the ones at hotels.So here comes my recipe for it.

Idli Rice.

Ingredients for Idli,
Idli rice- 2 cups
Urad daal-1 cup
Poha -1/2 cup
Bi carbonate of soda--1/2 tbsp
salt- 2 teaspoons

1. Rinse and soak the Idli rice,urad daal  in water ,so that they are completely immersed for 8 hours(i soak them in the morning and leave it to ferment overnight).
2. Soak poha in  a cup of water just before you grind them.Do not add too much of water while grinding.i usaually  divide the soaked ingredients into 3 parts and add 1/4 cup of water for each batch of ingredients while grinding.
3. Drain water from poha and then grind it along with the other ingredients.Make sure that the idli batter isnt watery.
4. Leave it to ferment for 8 hours or overnight.
5. Add bicarbonate of soda just half an hour before you start making idlis.Add salt according to taste.
6. Grease the idli pans with little oil and pour the idli batter into it.
7. I usually put water in a pressure cooker and put the idli plates inside it and cover the cooker with a big plate ,so that the water vapour can escape with little vents from the plate on top of it.
8. Bake the idlis for about 15 to 20 minutes.
9. Scoop out the idlis with a spoon.

Ingredients for sambar,
Potatoes-2 big or 3 small
onion-1 medium(Cut into 1 inch cubes)
tomatoes-2 small(cut into 1 inch cubes)
coriander leaves-6 to 7 strands (strands cut at the bottom and finely chooped)
curry leaves-4
tamarind juice-1/4 cup(soak a quarter size ,mean a tablespoon of tamarind in water for an hour and sueeze the tamarind to get the juice,substitute with tamarind pulp if you would like it)
sambar powder-1 tbsp(table spoon)
red chilli powder-1/2 tbsp(spice according to your taste)

1. Boil the potatoes and peel the skin and partially mash them.
2. Saute the onions and tomatoes in a teaspoon of oil and grind it along with coriander (add garlic if you like it)in a blender  with almost 1 cup of water and keep it aside.
3. For tampering ,take 1 tbsp of oil in a pan .When the oil is getting heated add of  1/2 a tbsp mustard seeds,as they splutter add  1/2 a tbsp of cumin seeds,a pich of asafoetida and 1/4 tbsp of turmeric.
4. Add tamarind juice to this,bring it to boil.Add sambar powder and red chilli powder.
5. Add the blended mix of onions and tomatoes with water required enough to grind.
6. Finally add the partially mashed potatoes to it(add 1/2 cup of water if required)  and boil it for 5 minutes.You can even grind this with the roasted onions and tomatoes and add it in the beginning it self.

serve with idlis

Idli batter after adding bicarbonate of soda

and salt.

Have enough water in your cooker till the plate immerses

and add a little more ,some of the water is lost while steaming.

grease the idli plates' pits with oil and pour in the batter.

Place the idli plates inside the cooker.Turn on the heat.

Keep it high until the water gets heated,then slowly keep it

to medium flame for 15 to 20 minutes .

Cover with a large plate make sure that the steam has a little way to 

escape.The cooking time depends on the consistency of the batter.

Slowly remove the plate,wait for a few seconds

and then poke a spoon inside the idli to make sure it is cooked.

If the spoon comes clean then the idli is cooked.

It wont take more than 20 minutes max.

the spoon came clean.

If the idlis are not cooked ,you can see the watery 

batter on the edge of the spoon.