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.

Munakkaya Pulusu - Drumstick cooked with Tamarind

Dear Foodies,


I only recently realized that our Indian store stocks frozen drumsticks, and from then on I get a pack of these every time we go grocery shopping. We use it in Sambar and Pulusu, this one above is Munakkaya Pulusu. The difference between Sambar and Pulusu, is that the latter either has no dal in it or very little dal unlike Sambar.

Will be back with the recipe in awhile :-)

I wanted to write about the different tamarind based dishes that we make in our house, but I haven't been able to manage time for that. So I am going to directly jump to the recipe and reserve that thought for another post. This pulusu is extremely easy to make, you will know once you see the ingredients list itself !! I myself was a bit stunned while writing it down and tried hard to see if I missed something ..hehe. All it needs is some tamarind extract, a veggie and some sambar powder. Just leave it to boil to all its glory and its ready to serve :-)

Ingredients:

• 5-6 nos - Drumstick pieces, 3" in size

• Golf ball sized Tamarind, pulp extracted or 2 Tbsp - Tamarind Extract

• 1 1/2 Tbsp - Sambar Powder

• 1 tsp - Turmeric powder
  

• Salt to taste

• 2-4 cups - Water

• 1 tsp - Oil

• 1 tsp Mustard seeds
  

• 1-2 nos - Dried red chillies

• 2 tsp - Rice flour

Procedure:

1. Microwave the tamarind in a cup of water and extract the pulp.
   
2. In a vessel, take 2 cups of water and add the tamarind extract and allow it to boil. Also add salt, sambar powder and turmeric powder. If using fresh drumsticks add them to the water and cook. Since I used frozen ones which turn soft when thawed, I added them after the tamarind water came to a boil.
3. Once the tamarind has lost its raw smell check to see if the tangyness of the pulusu is to your taste and add water accordingly.
   
4. To make the pulusu thick, mix a spoon of rice flour in 2 Tbsp of water and add to the tamarind water and allow to boil.
5. Do the popu/tadka by heating the oil, add the mustard seeds, once they pop add the red chillies and turn off the heat.
6. Add this to the Pulusu and serve hot with rice or chapatis !!

Notes:

• You can use okra, pearl onions, bottlegourd and make a similar pulusu. The okra and onions will have to be sauted in oil before adding the tamarind water.