Poopidi

Poopidi – etymology: poo means flower and pidi means fistful in tamil; it is white in colour and is given shape by pressing inside the fist. Sometimes, I use cookie cutter to give it different shapes. This is akkama’s (my paternal grandma’s) delicacy that remind me of her every time I do it; this is one other simple and tasty dish. But there are variants in the same name which I shall share in one of my future posts.

Ingredients:

1.       Broken rice – 1 cup (We call this Upma kappi )

2.       Water -2 cups

3.       Salt as per taste

4.       Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

5.       Pepper – 2 tsp

6.       Coconut chopped finely – 1 tbsp

7.       Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Heat water with salt in a heavy bottomed pan. When it starts boiling, add the broken rice to it and stir constantly to avoid lumps.

Step 2: Heat oil in a small tadka ladle, crakle cumin seeds, broken pepper in it and keep aside.

Step 3: When the entire water is absorbed, add cumin seeds, pepper and coconut; then mix well and switch off the stove.

Step 4: When it is still hot, make small portions of it into your desired shapes; it can be moulded by pressing inside your fist or by making small balls or by patting them into small patties or moulded in small cups or using cookie cutters shape them.

Step 5: Steam these portions in a steamer and serve hot with chutney or idly podi.

Arisi Adai

Arisi adai in tamilnadu or akki roti in karnataka is a very common tiffin; it is had as breakfast in karnataka and dinner in tamilnadu. I've seen people adding greens in adai (Keerai adai) or carrot and adais are made with ragi flour in the same way. Conventionally, for adais the par boiled rice is soaked and wet ground and cooked partially to get dough consistency before making adais.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1.     Idli rice– 2 cups

2.     Salt as per taste

3.     Carrot – 1 grated

4.     Coriander – 1 tbsp chopped

5.     Green chilies – 1 chopped

6.     Ginger – 1 “piece grated

7.     Oil – 3 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak rice for a couple of hours and grind it into fine batter.

Step 2: Add salt and pour the batter in a non-stick handi and heat it by stirring. It thickens soon, add to it carrot, ginger, coriander, green chilies and a tablespoon of oil. Stir until you get a soft dough like consistency.

Step 3: While the dough is still hot divide into equal portions and roll them into balls. Now there are two ways of making them into circular shapes. On a plastic sheet either grease your hands and pat them thin or sandwich ball between two plastic sheets and roll into a thin disc. This needs some practice and also depends on dough consistency. Do this one by one.

Step 4: Heat the tava, grease some oil over it; carefully toss the adai from sheet to tava.

Step 5: Let it cook for a minute, then with dosa ladle flip it and cook the other side. This wil not brown much but you can see brown spots as in phulkas when done. Cook thoroughly; it takes about 3 minutes for 1 adai.

Step 6: Serve hot with jaggery and ghee or butter or chutney of your choice or pickle or even idly podi. I can have it without any supplement.

TIPS:

* Some people prefer to temper mustard seeds, curry leaves, asafoetida and saute the vegetables in it, mix in the dough instead of adding them raw.

* Some people add mashed stead- rice to get soft and textured adais.

*Instant adais can be made by kneading rice flour with other ingredients. The taste is not comparable to fresh ground wet flour though.

Vella Poori

Vellapooris are deep fried, spicy rice puris savoured in some parts of tamilnadu. These fully puffed puris are thin, crisp and stiff on one side and thick, soft and chewy on the otherside. Usually accompanied by coconut chutney they also go well with tangy rasam.

Ingredients:

1. Idli rice - 2 cup

2. Tur dal - 1/2 cup

3. Dry chilies - 2 or 3

4. Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp

5. Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

7. Garlic - 6 cloves crushed

8. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak rice and dal together for 2 hours.

Step 2: Drain the water and grind rice & dal along with coriander seeds and dry chilies with minimum water to get a  thick and coarse dough like mass. 

Step 3: Mix the turmeric powder, asafoetida, salt, crushed garlic and mix well. Cover the dough in a muslin cloth and leave it for 20 minutes. During this time the excess moisture is absorbed both by cloth and the coarsely ground rice.

Step 4: Heat oil in a deep kadai; take a 50gm -60gm portion of the tight dough place in on a piece of muslin cloth and pat into round shape of 2mm -3mm thickness.

Step 5: Place it on your hand with the cloth on the upper side and peel it gently; now slide the vellapoori gently into the hot oil.

Step 6: With slotted spoon (jalli karandi) slightly push the puri into the oil while they keep popping up, this helps to get the puris puff well and full.

Step 7. Flip on other side and get the vellapoori cooked well on lower side and crisp and golden yellow on upper side. 

Step 8: Once the bubbles subside, drain and  place them on kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil. Repeat for the entire dough.

Step 9: Serve hot with coconut chutney.

TIPS:

* The dough consistency is little tricky, here we are making a dough by wet grinding not batter. So far, I never got to make up a watery dough, so I do not have tips in stock. All my mom says is keep in fridge, let the excess moisture get absorbed by rice and use dry wraps of muslin to absorb. More moisture in dough will complicate making shapes and even dropping in oil will be difficult, in addition to drinking a lot of oil (tamil slang for absorbing more oil ;))