Oats Pongal

There is a big fan club out in Tamil Nadu for this incomparably scrumptious dish, venpongal. Some people reluctantly avoid it only for its high calories; the oats twist makes this dish inviting. Oats pongal is gooier than the regular pongal which makes it even more striking. It is very pertinent baby food by picking out the pepper corns.

Serves:  2

Preparation Time: NA

Cooking Time:  15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Oats – 1 cup

2.    Split green gram – ½ cup

3.    Ghee – 2 tbsp

4.    Salt to taste

5.     Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

6.    Pepper corns – 1 tsp

7.     Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Method:

Step 1: Wash the dal and cook it until soft and mushy.

Step 2:  In another vessel cook oats in salted water just as we make porridge until done but not too mushy. Add the cooked dal to this and adjust salt.

Step 3: Heat ghee in a tadka ladle, splutter cumin seeds & pepper corns and pour over the hot pongal.

Step 4: Yes it’s that simple. But for adults the seasoning can be made more elaborate by adding cashew nuts, grated ginger and curry leaves.

Step 5: Serve hot with coconut chutney.

Lentil Pancakes or Manjal Dosai or Paruppu Dosai

Few days back I had just reinvented this traditional recipe usually use only tur dal and rice but I have given it some twist. The dish might be humble in its looks, don’t under estimate its flavour, taste or nutrition. There are two kinds of lovers of dosa; one the crisp dosa likers and other the soft dosa likers, former being the majority. This lentil dosa can cater to both the types of people by adjusting the proportion of rice-dal used, to get the texture you prefer.

Serves:  2

Preparation Time:  15 minutes

Cooking Time:  5 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Idly rice – 1 cup

2.    Tur dal – ¾ cup

3.    Bengal gram – ½ cup

4.    Urad dal – ½ cup

5.     Moong dal – ½ cup

6.    Dry red chilies – 2

7.     Coriander seeds – 2 tbsp

8.    Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

9.    Fennel seeds – 1 tbsp

10.            Pepper corns – 10

11.   Salt to taste

12. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

13. Coriander chopped – a fistful

14. Oil as required

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak all the lentils and the rice together for a couple of hours.

Step 2: Then drain the soaked mixture (saving the water for later use) and grind it in a mixer jar along with other dry spices.

Step 3: Add the soaked water to coarse grind into a thick batter.

Step 4: Transfer to another vessel, add turmeric powder, salt and chopped coriander and mix well adjusting water to get a dosa batter consistency. Preferably set this aside for 15 minutes before using.

Step 5: Heat the dosa tawa, grease it with oil and while hot enough pour a ladle of batter and spread it into a nice circle using the back of the ladle. Drizzle few drops of oil after a minute and cover with a high lid.

Step 6: After about 2-3 minutes or when the bottom side is browned enough, remove lid and flip the dosa.

Step 7: Lentil pancake is ready to be served with chutney of your choice.

Palak Phool Gobi / Spinach Cauliflower

I have adapted this ‘palak gobi’ recipe from Priyanka Panigrahi’s tasteofparadiseblog.com and altered slightly for convenience. I always had only option to cook green leafy vegetable for roti which is palak paneer, this gives another choice. I had packed it for his lunch the other day and it came out decently. I would like to try it with few other locally available green leafy vegetables.

Serves:  3

Preparation Time:  10 minutes

Cooking Time:  20 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Spinach/ Palak – 1 bunch

2.    Cauliflower – 1 head (small)

3.    Tomato – 1

4.    Onion – 1

5.     Green chili – 1 or 2

6.    Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tsp

7.     Cloves – 3

8.    Cardamom – 2

9.    Cinnamon – 1 “ piece

10.   Oil – I tbsp

11.  Ghee – 1 tsp

12. Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

13. Chili powder – 1 tsp

14. Coriander powder – 1 tsp

15.  Cumin powder – ½ tsp

16. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Wash and chop palak/ spinach, make bite sized cauliflower florets and wash them in salted warm water, chop green chili, onion and tomato.

Step 2: Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the cauliflower florets so that they get nice brown spots and flavour. Drain and keep aside.

Step 3: Temper the same oil with the cloves, cinnamon and cardamom; sauté ginger garlic paste, green chili, onion and tomato in it. Add all dry masala, salt to it and fry until mushy.

Step 4: Add chopped spinach to it and mix well; cook by closing the lid and occasional stirring until the vegetable is soft and cooked.

Step 5: Turn off heat, once it cools down grind it into a smooth paste in mixer jar.

Step 6: Bring it back to boil in the same pan with some more water. Add the fried cauliflower to it, check for spices and cook until the gravy gets thicker and cauliflower becomes soft.

Step 7: Finally drizzle with few drops of ghee and relish with phulkas or rotis.