Urad Dal Ladoo

Urad dal as we know is good for health and very strengthening especially for girls during puberty and for women during pregnancy. I tried this recipe from nishamadhulika.com first time when I had visited my sister during her pregnancy. All of us loved it and I had made it many times after that, thanks to Nishamadhulika. In north India there is a habit of making these kinds of healthy ladoos when winter arrives to keep the body warm unlike we in south make sweets only during festivities or for occasions.

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: Yields 20-25 ladoos

Ingredients:

1.     Urad dal – 2 cups

2.     Bura or tagar – 1 ½ cups

3.     Ghee – 1 cup

4.     Cahew nuts – 4 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Roast the urad dal in simmer until done and nice aroma emanates. Let it cool down.

Step 2: Grind the urad dal in a mixer to get a slightly coarse flour.

Step 3: Melt ghee, add chopped nuts and urad flour to it. Mix tagar or bura to it and mix well.

Step 4: Roll into ladoos between your fists.

TIPS:

*Check for the tagar or bura recipe from Besan ladoo recipe in this blog.

*You can add cardamom powder if you do not like urad flavour.

*Add nuts of your choice along with cashew nuts.

*Adjust sweetness and ghee according to taste.

*If you live in cold weather, heat the ladoo in microwave while serving to get the ghee melted and be flavourful.

*If the bura or tagar has lumps pulse it in the mixer.

Masala Dosa

I am sure at least every south Indian (Except for people who want to avoid potato) is always an ardent lover of masala dosa. Ironically, though it is simple to make at home, most of us eat it only in restaurants. As we live in a locality that does not give us the luxury of stepping into a decent tiffin centre as when we want, I was elicited to prepare masala dosas for dinner on a week day. They indeed tasted in comparison to the restaurant ones.

Preparation Time: NA

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1.     Dosa batter – 2 cups

2.     Potato – 3

3.     Green peas – ½ cup

4.     Onion - 1

5.     Green chilies – 2

6.     Curry leaves – 1 sprig

7.     Oil – 1 tbsp + as required for greasing

8.     Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

9.     Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

10.  Asafoetida – 1 pinch

11.  Urad dal – ½ tbsp.

12.  Gram dal – 1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Boil the potatoes, peel and mash them well. Blanch the shelled green peas with a pinch of salt.

Step 2: Heat oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds & cumin seeds, roast urad dal & gram dal until brown, sprinkle asafoetida, add chopped green chilies & curry leaves and sauté the chopped onion in it until translucent.

Step 3: Now add the mashed potatoes & blanched peas and sprinkle enough salt. Add enough water and get a juicy & soft consistency. If it is watery, it will soak the dosa and it won’t taste good. Keep masala aside.

Step 4: Heat dosa tava, ladle batter in the center and spread it around the tava till thin. Drizzle oil around and cover with a lid.

Step 5: Open lid when the top the dosa is done (white batter turns off-white), with the help of flat ladle flatten the top surface of dosa and spoon the masala in a vertical line of about 3” width.

Step 6: Check it the dosa has turned brown enough; when done fold both sides towards center like in the image. You can make triangular dosas as well.

Step 7: Serve hot with chutney or sambar or both.

TIPS:

*In my hostel, they smear spicy chutney over the dosa before placing masala into it; however I’m not a big fan of it. This chutney is made by grinding garlic cloves, soaked red chilies and salt together.

Samba Wheat Idli

This was another easy and healthy tiffin recipe. I had some finely broken samba wheat but as we usually prefer upma made from coarser wheat rava I had to try idlies with this one. I prepared it like my grandma used to prepare rava idlies and it was soft and fluffy. However, as a big fan of rava idly Kundan did not score it high; sometimes health comes at the cost of taste you see…

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1.     Samba wheat rava (finer one) -  2 cups

2.     Curds – 2 cups

3.     Salt as per taste

4.     Cooking Soda – 1 pinch

5.     Oil or ghee – ½ tbsp

6.     Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

7.     Pepper corns – ¼ tsp

8.     Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Method:

Step 1: Beat the curds into smooth consistency, mix salt and wheat rava to it. Stir well and rest for 30 minutes.

Step 2: Heat oil/ ghee in a tempering ladle, splutter cumin seeds and pepper corns in it. Roast the curry leaves in it until crisp and add this to the batter. (I didn't have curry leaves)

Step 3: Start heating the idli cooker. Grease the idli plates with some oil.

Step 4: Now add cooking soda to the batter and adjust consistency by adding water if required.

Step 5: Ladle batter into the idli plates (Idlies will rise and so make sure you don’t over-fill the batter) and steam them for 7-10 minutes.

Step 6: Serve hot with chutney or sambar or podi.

Sprouted Moong Salsa

This is a simple salad that I make often at home for it is tasty as a chaat and good as a salad. I have named it sprouted moong salsa because I use all ingredients that go into salsa plus the sprouted green gram to make this salad. Another best part of this salad is just with a tad bit of salt it strikes so well without any other seasoning. It is so simple to make with every ingredient usually available at home all the time yet is very refreshing and healthy.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: Nil

Ingredients:

1.      Sprouted green gram – 1 ½ cups

2.    Onion – 1

3.    Tomato – 2

4.    Green Chilies – 2 (you can replace with 2 pinches of pepper if serving for kids)

5.     Coriander – few sprigs

6.    Lemon – ½

7.     Olive oil – ½ tbsp

8.    Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Take sprouted moong in a mixing bowl.

Step 2: Finely chop onion, tomato, green chilies, coriander and add all these to the moong.

Step 3: Drizzle olive oil, sprinkle salt and squeeze half a lemon into it.

Step 4: Toss the salad well and adjust salt if required.

Step 5: Serve it fresh before it starts to water.

TIPS:

*Mint leaves can be used instead of coriander.

*In the absence of fresh coriander or mint, dried herbs like Italian seasoning can be used to flavour the salad.

Mint Chutney

As Kundan is very fond of pudina I make pudina thovials frequently but I prepare pudina chutneys only for chaats. Yesterday, I had prepared a hybrid of thovial and chutney to accompany dosa. To be honest he didn’t like it as much as his favourite thovial but what I liked was the bright green colour & taste. It was very fresh and you can feel the taste of mint while in thokku or thovial though the flavour is stunning, the taste is dominated by tamarind, dry chilies and salt.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time 20 minutes (for cleaning mint)

Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Mint – 1 bunch

2.    Coconut grated – 2 tbsp

3.    Ginger – 1” piece

4.    Green Chilies – 3

5.     Tamarind – 1” piece or 1 tbsp pulp (Alternatively you can add juice of half a lemon)

6.    Salt as per taste

7.     Oil – 1 tbsp

8.    Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

9.    Urad dal – ½ tbsp.

10. Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Method:

Step 1: Clean and wash the mint leaves thoroughly. Sauté it in a tsp of oil only until it softens and colour changes. Let it cool down.

Step 2: Prepare tempering by sprinkling asafoetida & spluttering mustard seeds in oil and then roasting urad dal in it till brown. Keep this aside.

Step 3: Sauté green chilies in the same kadai with grease left in it.

Step 4: Now in a mixer jar take mint, coconut, peeled & sliced ginger, green chilies, tamarind, salt and grind it well. Add water as required and adjust salt.

Step 5: Take it into a serving bowl and pour the prepared tempering over it.

Step 6: Serve with idli or dosa.