Friday, April 11, 2008

Ready for Adai ?

Dear Foodies,


The recipes are back again on this blog, Yayyyy !! So before my blog gets branded as another no-recipe food blog ;), lets get cooking, shall we ?

I really love dosa's and idli's, they are so easy to make and you can either go ahead with the whole side dishes charade or make do with some pickles and podi's in your pantry. Either way, they are a great breakfast, lunch or dinner. And our love for this is more than evident with the number of recipe variations that we get to see on the blogs.

Since I started cooking here, I've never tried making my own dosa batter from scratch. One main reason being I am scared to even try fermenting it, and another equally strong reason is I don't have a good blender :D So whenever I want to get the satisfaction of making dosa's from scratch I jump over to Vaishali's instant recipe, otherwise its the pesarattu and rava dosa that are my go-to dishes.

The other favorite of mine is the Adai....

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup - Rice
  • 1 cup - mixed dals -- more of chana dal & toor dal and a little moong/urad dal
  • 3 nos - dried Red chillies or to taste
  • A pinch of hing/asafoetida
  • A sprig of curry leaves
  • Salt to taste
  • Oil for cooking the dosa - approx 2 Tbsp
Optional additions: 1" inch - ginger piece, a cup of drumstick leaves, Cilantro

Method:
  1. Soak the rice, dals and red chillies in water for about 3 - 4 hrs. If I want it quicker I just microwave them for a few minutes to warm the water and reduce the soaking time to 1 -2 hrs.
  2. Grind the soaking ingredients with the curry leaves and any or all of the optional ingredients to a coarse paste. The coarseness is what gives the adai the crisp texture.
  3. Add salt to taste and the asafoetida and mix well. Heat a shallow, wide pan for making the dosa's and spread a little oil on the pan and get started with the adai's. (check here for pics )
  4. The adai should be a little thicker than the normal dosa. To make it cook uniformly and also to make them extra crispy, make 1 or 2 holes at the center of the adai and add a drop of oil, this gives it the signature adai look.
  5. Serve hot with red chilli pickle, kara podi (gunpowder ;) ), jaggery and yogurt to make a perfect meal. For some extra touch, my mom would also add a small dollop of home made butter on the warm adai, the white colored one...yummmm
In our house we were totally spoilt. There were always more than 2 accompaniments to any of these tiffin items. I would have this queue system to optimize the dosa/idli between all the side dishes :)) So if you ask me, all those items mentioned are compulsory not optional :D

You could also add some chopped onions while making the adai and sprinkle some kara podi and grated jaggery...(yup, you cannot have just one thing)


and roll them up for the to-go person :)

I also tried my hand at my mom's Sponge dosa recipe. Since my blender did not give me a very smooth paste, I had trouble getting it to ferment well, and ya its the ~hand~ too :( So I added a tiny pinch of baking soda create the sponge effect :))


And most of you would have figured it out, this one is for Srivalli's dosa mela.

15 thoughts:

bee said...

lovely adais. i love adding whole moong to them. even sprouts work. any beans, really and when we use black rice, it gets a black colour - spooky adais. :D nice to see you posting again.

when you make didir dosa, does the damn thing ferment in your home?

Priya said...


Bee,I never tried wild rice, that shud be fun. Will try shocking my frnds with that :) but I do change the combo of dals based on my mood

And abt the dosa batter fermenting, ofcourse NOT :( The max I've seen is may be a rise of "1 cm" in the batter. It could well have been my mind playing tricks on me!! But I don't care, I once skipped the whole fermentation part itself, the dosa's are little on the crispier side, but thats how I like them anyways :D

Uma said...

looks delicious. I like the last picture.

Pooja said...

I am glad to see your yummy posts popping up in here again :).
Thats really a healthy adai recipe .thank for sharing :)

Lavanya Raj said...

Priya now your template looks cool.

ADAI is looking so good too.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the lovely adai priya...

Srivalli

Cham said...

Love ur adai recipe and spongy dosa look like appam but dosa shape :)

Meeta K. Wolff said...

The template is looking good and this adai looks even better. good to see you back!

Anonymous said...

Awesome Adais!!!!My Granny made them so tasty..Loved the To-go Pic!!

Priya said...



Thank you !

Anon, the to-go pic is my fav too :D

I placed an order for my new cam today so I shud be clicking all of this weekend {hopefully} See you soon :)

musical said...

If there is anything like more than ready, then i fall in that category :). Make some flying adai, so they can land here :-D.

The sponge dosa looks WOW! Gotta' try it sometime.

Andhra Flavors said...

nice post priya. Thanks for the Recipe

Anupama said...

Hi Priya, Love Adais and your post reminded me how long it had been since I made any. I am practically on my way to the kitchen to soak dal and rice. I love your Adai roll idea. My son would love that variety in his lunch box

KRISHNA TARANG TIRUMALA said...

Wow! Priya, u r awesome!
very very nice blog.. though I wish you would cook them for me so that I cud hav njoyed eating ;)
Well, now I know what to ask when I meet you.. Adai to-go! :D

La vida Loca said...

Thank you for this. I made it and loved it.

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