Wheat Dosa

This is an instant dosa recipe. Its healthy because it is made of whole wheat flour. This can be made in minutes. We can add twist to it by adding chopped onions, green chilli and curry leaves. I like both plain and with chopped onions.

Idiappam - String Hoppers

Ingredients:
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 1 - 1.5  cup
Salt to taste

Method:
Mix rice flour and salt together
Bring the water to boil.
Mix it with flour and make it into a soft but stiff dough
Keep it covered with wet cloth.
Grease the idli plates with little oil and press the dough using idiappam maker.
Serve with any spicy gravy or just milk and sugar.

Aapam - How to make the perfect soft spongy aapam batter

Ingredients:
Raw rice - 1 cup
Cooked Rice - 1/4 cup
Sago / Javvarisi - 1/4 cup
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Banana - 1 ripe
Old Idli Maavu - 1/4 cup (replace with 1/4 urad dal for soaking if you don't have)
Salt - to taste

Method:
Soak rice and javvarisi together for atleast 4 hrs.
Grind all the above listed ingredients to a very smooth batter with dosa batter consistency.
Leave it overnight for fermentation.

How to make:
Heat the appam pan on stovetop. Take a ladle full of batter, Pour it on the pan and spread it on the pan by rotating the pan in circular motion. Cover and cook it on medium flame till the ends become crispy and the centre gets cooked.
Serve with Chutney, Sambar, Coconut milk or stew.

The Batter

Heat the aapam pan

Pour and spread the batter

Close and cook

Cooked Aapam

Enjoy :)

Coconut Chutney

This is a very basic recipe which most of us will know. This is just my cookbook so just making a quick note of how to make it is added here. This is like instant chutney which doesnt need any work over stove except tempering.

Ingredients:
Cocunut - 1 cup
Roasted gram - 1/4 cup
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Salt to taste

To temper:
Oil
Red chilly dried - 1
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp
Curry leaves - a spring

Method:
Grind everything in a blender to smooth or coarse paste as how you want. Then take everything in a bowl. Heat oil in a pan and add items under to temper, then add it to the ground mixture. Serve with dosa, chutney or aapam.

all ingredients

take in a blender

To temper

add tempered,mix well and serve

Coconut Stuffed Dosa

          This is also a recipe which brings my childhood memories. It's my sis fav.. After marriage I found that its my husband's fav too. Its quite simple to make. Once you prepare the batter and stuffing its done. It hardly takes 15 mins to prepare the batter and stuffing. Yummy yum.. Now to the recipe

Ingredients:
For the batter:
Maida - 1 cup
Water - as required
Salt - a pinch

For stuffing
Coconut - a cup
Sugar - as needed (you can replace with jaggery for healthier version)
Cardamom - 1 or 2 crushed

Method:
Mix maida, salt and water in a bowl to dosa batter consistency.
Mix the ingredients for stuffing in another bowl.
Heat a tawa pan, spread the batter like dosa, spread the stuffing over dosa. Cover and cook.
Cover like a semicircle. You can eat as such. Yummy yum :) Sure give a try :)

Batter

Stuffing

Spread the batter

Add stuffing

Cover and cook

Ready :)

Vermicelli Upma

Ingredients:

Vermicelli	1 cup
Channa dal	2 tbsp
Mustard seeds	1 tbsp
Mixed vegetables (Carrot, beans, peas)	1 cup
Onion	½ chopped
Curry leaves	Few
Salt to taste
Green chillies	2 chopped

Method:

1.       Dry roast vermicelli and keep it aside.

2.       In a pan, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds.Add channa dal and curry leaves.

3.        Saute onion, green chillies, add the mixed vegetables and water (2 times vermicelli). Cover and cook the vegetables.

4.       Once done, add salt to it. Then add the fried vermicelli to this mixture and cook till it becomes soft.

 

5.       Garnish with coriander leaves.

Aval Upma

Today was the laziest Sunday I ever had. My day started with a tea made by my husband(Hurray!!!). I was surprised indeed. I was thinking what to do for breakfast. I really miss the food made by my amma. One of the best things a girl misses after her marriage is the food made by her mom. No matter how best the girl cooks, nothing can replace the lovely food made by mom. I was wondering which food I can make what amma makes. I wanted to spend only 5 minutes for cooking break fast today. The bulb glew.. And Idea!! Aval Upma. My mouth started recalling the taste of it made by amma. I thought to try for the same taste. I got 50% in it. The rest which was missing in it is the love of a mother.

                I used the medium size poha/aval for the upma. It is one of the easiest recipe I knew.

Ingredients:

Serves 2

Aval	3 cups
Coconut	2 tbsp
Mustard seeds	1 tbsp
Curry leaves	Few
Red chillies	2 or 3
Urad Dal	2 tbsp
Onion	Half finely chopped
Salt to taste

Method:

1.       Soak the aval for 2 mins and drain the water and keep aside.     

2.       Heat oil in a pan, splutter the mustard seeds. Then add the urad dal, curry leaves, red chillies and fry for a second.

3.       Add the onion and fry till it becomes transparent. Finally add the aval and fry for a min. Garnish with coconut and give a stir fry. Serve hot.

Pesarattu (Green gram dosa)

                I tasted this dosa for the first when my friend Lalitha made it for the combined lunch. She said it is a famous Andhra cuisine. So thought why not give a try. Sharing the recipe with you so you can also give a try. I didn’t have time to soak the green gram for long time. When soaked overnight, the taste also will get enhanced.

Ingredients:

Green gram	1.5 cups soaked overnight
Idli rice (optional)	1/4 cup
Jeera	1 tbsp
Ginger	1/2 inch piece
Asafoetida	A small hing
Green chillies	2 or 3
Salt to taste

Method:

1.       Wash and soak the green gram and idli rice overnight.

2.       Grind it along with jeera, green chillies, ginger and asafoetida to a very smooth paste. (Add little water to grind)

3.       Add salt to taste and mix water so that it reaches dosa batter consistency.

4.       Heat dosa tawa, apply oil and make like normal dosas. Enjoy with coconut or ginger chutney. I served with coconut and tomato chutney. :D

Rava Pongal

I am not a great fan of pongal.. came across this recipe while browsing for something else. Gave it a try today and am going to be a fan of pongal from today. It is lighter than the usual raw rice pongal. So here comes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Rava/Sooji - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Pepper corn - 1 tsp
Jeera/Cumin - 1 tsp
Cashew broken - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - a spring
Asafoetida - a hing
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Pressure cook the moong dal along with asafoetida and mash it well.

 2. Then in a pan, heat half the ghee, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves and allow to splutter. Then add the pepper corns, jeera and cashews and fry till they turn golden brown.
3. Then add the rava and fry it till a nice aroma comes. Add the mashed moong dal to the rava and mix it well.
4.Add 1.5 cups of water to the rava by stirring continuously without forming any lumps.Add salt to taste. Serve hot with chutney and sambar.

Rava Idli

                     Hii all.. this is a easy and tasty recipe to do as tiffin.Many of you might have heard of the instant mix.. But this is much more tasty one than that.Try out and let me know your comments.

Ingredients:

White rava/sooji-1 cup
Carrot-a small one grated
Ginger-1 inch piece grated
Curd-1 cup fresh one with a little sourness
Salt
Channa dal-2 tsp
Curry leaves-a spring
Soda salt-a pinch
Mustard seeds-1 tsp
Oil-3 tsp
Coriander leaves-a bunch chopped

Method:

1. Dry roast the sooji well and set aside.Take care not to burn it.You will get a nice aroma.
2. Heat oil in a pan and splutter the mustard seeds and curry leaves.Then fry the channa dal and grated ginger and mix it with the sooji.
3. Then add the grated carrot and chopped coriander leaves also.Using curd mix everything and bring it to idly batter consistency.Add salt to taste.
4. Add the soda salt to make soft idlies.Though i didnt use it,yet i was lucky to get soft ones [:)]
5. Put the batter over the idly plates and steam it.Rava idlies will be ready in ten mins.Serve hot with cocunut chutney.

                                  I made this when we had guests at our home.And got good comments too :)