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.