Idly Dosa Batter

Idly and Dosa is a comfort food for every south indian. A crispy dosa and soft idly combined with chutney and sambar makes it all the more better. But to enjoy these first we have to prepare the batter . That is not a quick process. Though its easy takes long time for the batter to be prepared.

 You can find dosa/idly wet batter in any Indian grocery shop and the dishes come really well with them but nothing like home made if its not made from scratch.

We usually prepare batter on weekend to be used for the whole week and depending on the number of people in the house the amount of batter increases. I remember from childhood there used to be 7 members in the house and my mom used to prepare a huge box of batter.

We need to soak urud dal and rice for atleast four hours and grind them and let it ferment for atleast 6-8 hours before it can  be used. Ive seen dosas prepared without fermentation though it comes good its quite raw and that fermeneted salty taste is missing.

And when preparing dosa there are two varieties of rice you can use normal raw rice or idly rice (par boiled one). raw rice better use indian varieties like (ponni or sona masuri) , dont use basmathi rice or thai rice varieties, it comes very bad speaking from experience.

The batter prepared with idly rice can be used as common batter for both idly and dosa . but if raw rice is used then only dosa can be made.

This batter recipe is for common idly /dosa.. for every busy women who dosent want to prepare multiple batters..

Recipe:

Ingredients:

urud dal - 1 cup
idly rice - 3 cups
salt as needed

Procedure:

• Soak dal and rice separately for atleast 4-5 hours.
• Once soaked use either wet grinder or mixie( food processor) to grind them to paste.
• first add idly rice to grinder and let it grind it coarsely and then add urud dal.
• dont add too much water the initial batter should be thick
• While grinding take the batter between fingers and feel the texture once its smooth its done.
• If we want to prepare for next morning.. soak today morning and grind them evening and let it ferment overnight.

Sponge dosa

We south Indians love Dosa. With so many varieties of dosa around you would never get bored all the week. With the same dosa batter we can prepare different dosa dishes, but have you tried different Dosa recipes.. with different batters. Sponge dosa or steamed dosa is a healthy and spongy alternative.

Ingredients:

urad dal / black gram without outershell – 1/4 cup
plain raw rice - 1/4 cup
par boiled rice - 1 1/2 cup
fenugreek seeds - 1 tbspn
salt - 1tbspn to taste
water

Procedure:

Soak urud dal, raw rice, par boiled rice and fenugreek seeds together for 4-5 hours.
Grind it to a smooth paste and add salt as required.
Keep it for 4-5 hours to ferment. The no of hours to ferment depends on the climate. If the climate is quite hot it will ferment in 4 hours , in cold climates it might take 8 hours to ferment.
To know if the batter is fermented the quantity of the batter increases and you see bubbles .

Once the batter is ready with fermentation. Add water to make it a watery mixture.for the quantity above add 1/4 cup of water assuming the current batter is thick. It should be thin than a normal pancake/dosa batter.

Place the flat pan/tawa on the stove. Once heated take a ladle of batter . As the consistency is watery it will spread nicely or just spread it lightly to form a circle.

It will start forming bubbles. pour 1/2 spoon oil around the dosa and cover it with a lid for 1-2 mins.
No need to flip the dosa . But you can flip it to roast the other side of dosa too.

Serve it with chutney or Sambar.

This dosa is used as part of Set dosa recipe and used as steamed dosa without pouring any oil.

Pudina paratha

I always love roti, I try different flavours of it so that it makes it different everyday and you never get bored of it. I always remember my mom making aloo paratha and me and my sisters trying to get different stuffing. One more flavour for the plain roti and very easy to make.

Was just trying to make some main dishes for the best homemade,mom-made avakaya ( mango pickle famous in Andhra Pradesh,India).

Ingredients:

wheat flour - 2 cups
pudina /mint leaves a bunch
salt to taste

Procedure :

Clean the pudina and make juice out of it by adding little water . In the flour add the pudina juice instead of water and some salt and knead the dough. take small sized balls and roll out into roti. place the rotis on the pan and cook till done.

Serve it with any curry or curd.

Palak paratha (Spinach paratha)

Palak/Spinach is the healthiest and tastiest green veggies. Popeye has been promoting spinach a lot and when we were kids just because we loved Popeye we used ask Mom to prepare spinach again and again. She used to prepare different varieties with it as we were too hard to please. Our favourite among all is the palak paratha. It was a pride to take to school this paratha and open it in front of all friends spreading the aroma around. 

Its easy and fast to prepare and healthy to eat.

Ingredients:

Spinach/palak leaves - 1 bunch

whole wheat flour  (atta) - 2 cups

salt - 1 tspn

chilli powder - 1tspn

garam masala - 1/4 tspn

coriander powder - 1/4 tspn

oil - 1 tbspn for dough

oil - for making paratha.

Procedure:

Finely chop the palak leaves. Itll taste better and spread across the paratha if its finely chopped. Once chopped clean it thoroughly to remove dust and sand.

In a bowl add the wheat flour, salt, garam masala, coriander powder, chilli powder and mix properly.

add the chopped palak leaves and mix it to form a dough.

Add water as needed to make a soft dough. The water from washed leaves should be enough . 

So first mix the dough without adding water and add water if its not enough.

Once dough is done add 1 tbspn oil and knead the dough for 10 mins.

Make gold ball size balls of the dough and keep aside.

Take one ball and spread it with a rolling pin to form a 7 inch circle or paratha. Dust flour as needed while preparing parathas.

Make all the parathas and keep aside.

Take a flat pan /tawa in medium flame.

Once hot add one paratha and let it slightly roast on one side. flip the paratha and spread few drops of oil across the paratha.

flip the paratha again and apply oil on the other side.

Once the paratha is roasted on both sides remove it from tawa and keep aside.

Paratha can be had with pickle and curd.

Beetroot parantha (Beetroot stuffed flat bread)

Beetroot paratha is one paratha I rarely heard from my friends around. When we can make with many veggies why not with beetroot. It will give a beautiful color and a nice flavour. I like experimenting with beetroot mainly coz of its rich color. The kids will love it and its very good for health.

Chemagadda (Colocasia) pulusu

Ingredients:

colocasia -1/2 kg
tomato -2
onions - 2
tamarind jus - 1/2 cup
salt
chilli powder - 2 tbspn
curry leaves - 4-5
mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

sugar/jaggery - 1 tbspn

Procedure:

Clean the colocasia well and boil them till almost done and keep aside. It should not be completely boiled else it will get smashed easily as it will boil along with pulusu.

in a handi pour some oil for seasoning and add mustard and cumin seeds, curry leaves.
once it splutters add onions and fry till tansluscent.
add chopped tomatoes and fry till tomatoes goes soft.
add the tamarind jus, salt and chilli powder . add some water so that its not thick.
boil it for 15 mins till its not too thin.

add some sugar/jaggery to get slight sweetness.

Peel the skin of colocasia and add them to pulusu.
boil for 15 mins on medium flame till colocasia absorbs the pulusu.

Methi paratha

Parathas have been our favourite since my mom introduced to it in childhood. Among all the varieties of parathas methi paratha has its own unique taste and flavour. Whenever Methi is brought we end up making either paratha or poori out of it. Now-a-days we found another great recipe from methi-- Methi tomato paneer  will post that too soon with my variations .