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.

Simple Onion Oothappam

A lazy weekend dinner... it was onion dosa with milakai podi. Honestly, I don't think if there is much difference between onion dosa and onion oothappam. According to me, onion oothappam is the righter phrase because on it onion pieces will properly get embedded as it is thicker than dosa.  I am a great lover of Surguru's (hotel in Pondicherry) onion dosa ever since I ate it almost during my childhood. This is non-boring tiffin for the most south Indians I guess.

Serves: 2

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Dosa batter – 4 cups

2.     Onion – 3

3.     Salt – 1 pinch

4.     Oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Chop onion finely and mix a pinch of salt to it else it will taste sweet on oothappam.

Step 2: Heat the griddle, grease the surface and pour a full ladle of dosa batter and flatten it to a thick circle. Let it cook for a minute in simmer.

Step 3: Spread onion on the surface of the oothappam and drizzle some oil around it. Press gently with the flat ladle onto the surface to let the onion sink in a bit.

Step 4: Check if the lower side has browned nicely and delicately flip it.

Step 5: Drizzle more oil if required else just press to cook evenly on the fore side  Repeat for the entire batter.

Step 6:  Serve hot with milagai podi or coconut chutney.

Palak Dosa

There is no need mention the health  aspects of spinach or palak for even a small kid would say how powerful the popeye becomes on consuming spinach, thanks to popeye (or whomsoever designed and linked the character with spinach) by whose courtesy feeding greens to kids have become way easier. I had some not-so fresh spinach in fridge and thought if I can color and fortify my dosas with that... and it worked.

Ingredients:

1. Spinach - 1 small bunch

2. Green chilies - 2

3. Dosa batter - 2 cups

4. Salt to taste.

Method:

Step 1: Clean and chop the greens and chilies and put them in a mixer and blend well.

Step 2: Mix it with dosa batter, adjust consistency and salt.

Step 3: Prepare palak dosas as normal dosas.

Step 4: Serve hot with chutneys or sambar.

TIPS:

*  Alternatively you can saute the chilies and greens slightly or steam them and then blend it,  if greens are not pre-cooked, the dosas take a slightly longer time to cook.
* You can add chopped onions to batter or spread them on top like in uttapams to mask the flavor of spinach if you do not like the flavor.

Sprouts Pesarattu

I had lots of sprouted moong and wanted to use it in the main course for dinner today and amma gave this idea of pesarattu with sprouts. Because consistency did not work out, I mixed some rava to it and it came out well.

Ingredients:

1. Sprouted green gram - 2 cups
2. Rava/ Sooji - 1 cup
3. Onion - 1
4. Green chilies - 2
5. Ginger - 2" piece
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil as required
8. Coriander chopped - 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: In a mixer jar take sprouts, green chilies, onion, ginger and grind well into thin batter.

Step 2: To the batter add rava, salt, chopped coriander and mix well. Leave it for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Heat griddle or a dosa pan and grease it with some oil. Pour a ladle full of batter and spread it with the back of the ladle into a medium sized circle.

Step 4: Drizzle little oil around it and cover it with a lid. Simmer the heat and wait until the bottom side browns.
Step 5: Flip the pesarattu delicately, drizzle oil if required and cook it uncovered for 1 minute.

Step 6: Serve hot with coconut chutney or coriander chutney. Actually it is flavorful and tasty even without any side dish.

Maravallikizhangu/ Tapioca Dosa

We can see tapioca sold on the roadsides in the market place or in the highways adjacent to the fields, in Tamilnadu; at least I have not seen them fancily packed and displayed in departmental stores here, as they are cheap and neither do they pay-off for the space occupied nor do have many takers. I have heard from my paternal grandpa that tapioca is consumed by villagers/ farmers during the famine period as a survival nutrient; may be that's why people in north eat it on fasting days. These days, not many recipes are very popular even though they make tasty and healthy dishes. Tapioca dosa one such recipe that I would like to share here.

Ingredients:

1. Tapioca - 1

2. Idli rice - 1 cup

3. Dry chilies - 2

4. Salt to taste

5. Asafoetida - 1 pinch

6. Oil - 1 tbsp

7. Mustard seeds -1 tsp

8. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

9. Urad dal - 1 tbsp

10. Curry leaves - 1 sprig

11. Onion - 1 finely chopped

12. Coriander - 2 tbsp finely chopped

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak the rice for about 3 hours. Grind it coarsely in a mixer with salt and dry chilies.

Step 2: Peel and grate the tapioca finely and mix with the ground batter.

Step 3: Prepare the tempering before preparing; heat oil, splutter mustard seeds & cumin seeds, sprinkle asafoetida, add urad dal, curry leaves and saute onion in that for just 2 minutes.

Step 4: Mix the tempering in the dosa batter, adjust salt and consistency.

Step 5: Heat the greased dosa tawa, pour a ladle of batter and spread with the back of the ladle into a circular shape. Drizzle few drops of oil on it and cover.

Step 6: Flip to the other side when one side is browned, do not cover on the flip side to retain crispness.

Step 7: Serve hot with any chutney or idli podi.

TIPS:

* Tapioca can be chopped and ground along with the rice to escape from painful task of grating finely and to do it quick.

* If you want to make it instant, rice flour can be used instead of wet grinding but there is a little compromise on taste and texture this way.

* Adjust consistency to make thin crisp ones or thick soft ones.

Besan Ka Puda

Chickpea flour is very rich in protein and in north I’ve heard people feeding this to babies that start eating solids. In the paying guest accommodation I stayed in, they used to prepare bread omelettes for breakfast and during those days vegetarians were served besan ka puda to replace the omelettes. I had it for the first time and was cool, huh.

Ingredients:

1. Bengal gram flour or besan – 1 cup
2. Potato grated – ½ cup
3. Onion chopped – ½ cup
4. Garam masala – 1 tsp
5. Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
6. Salt
7. Oil

Method:

Step 1: Mix all the ingredients except oil with water and make a thin dough
Step 2: Heat tawa and apply oil on it generously
Step 3: Now pour a ladle of dough on to the tawa and spread by rotating the tawa
Step 4: Roast it on low flame till done and toss it to cook other side similarly; sprinkle some more oil if required.
Step 5: Serve by sandwiching inside two raw bread slices or toasted ones
Step 6: Green chutney is a great combination with besan ka puda if had separately or even with bread, you can apply chutney on one side of bread.