Rava and Oats Dosa

I realise that in spite of spending all my life in North, I remain a South Indian at heart. I love all things South Indian, silk sarees, food etc. Even though I eat everything, my comfort food will always be idli, dosa, rice 🙂 

So today I am sharing the recipe of my favourite dosa, rava dosa and I think its safe to assume that rava dosa is your favourite dosa too? Well this one has a twist! It has a secret ingredient and that is Oats!! There.. I can not keep a secret for too long, can I! This I can say is one of those rare recipes which are healthy and tasty at the same time. With the goodness of oats and rava and the spice of ginger and green chilli it makes for a satisfactory breakfast or evening snack.

Onion, oats and rava dosa

So lets check out the recipe.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

1 cup Sooji rava (Upma rava)
1 cup Oats
1/2 cup Rice flour
1 tbsp sour curd (2-3 days old curd)
2 green Chillies
1 finely Chopped Onion
1/2 cup Chopped Coriander
1/2 tsp finely Chopped Ginger
1/2 tsp Jeera (Cumin Seeds)
Salt to taste

Heat 4 cups of water and switch off just before it reaches boiling point.
Add rava, oats and rice flour to water. Mix well and leave it for 20 minutes.
When the water is at room temperature, add rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Why hot water? Usually you need to soak rava for at least 40 minutes before it gets ready. I was running out of time so used hot water to speed up the process and it did help!

Now comes the tricky part, frying rava dosa.

If you are wondering why tricky, it is because the consistency of this batter is nothing like regular dosa batter. This is more watery and you can not use a spoon to spread the batter on pan.

Heat the pan until smoke appears. Turn the gas to medium heat, pour few drops of oil and wipe the pan clean using a tissue paper. 

Increase the flame, now take spoonful of batter and start pouring gradually from the outside and move inside, just the opposite of normal dosa. Also, pour without touching the pan. Turn the pan around to spread the batter evenly. Pour drops of oil around dosa and in the center and when it has turned brown, carefully turn it upside down. Continue to fry on high heat. 

It is done when it has slightly browned on other side too. 

Don’t start with huge portions of batter in the beginning. Check out this picture to see how tiny my first dosa was. When you get a hang of it, you can aim for bigger and bigger dosas.

You can have these oats and rava dosas as is or pair them with coconut chutney.

Have fun! 

Look at the beautiful texture..

Update (30 June 2016): This can be a yummy baby food too. If your baby (less than 1 year) is okay with tiny bits and pieces then go for this dosa. You may skip chillies.

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South Indian Pizza – Uttapam with spicy beetroot topping

I have tried most cuisines across India but South Indian is my favourite. I can have idli, dosa, uttapam for breakfast, lunch, dinner forever and not to forget, rice!! A die hard South Indian eh?! 😀

Okay, so I love to try different Uttapams. One such Uttapam turned out to be a huge hit in my family. Traditionally Uttapams are made up of chopped onions, tomatoes, green chillies and some ginger in dosa/idli batter. Here is another recipe to make Uttapams more interesting

Ingredients [There is no fixed quantity for any of the ingredients. You can use as much or as less as possible depending on your taste]

Idli batter [or Dosa batter ]

Finely chopped onions

Finely chopped beetroot

Finely chopped green chillies

1 heaped tsp Jeera

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Add some salt to the batter. If it is idli batter you are using then you need to add some extra water.

Mix onions, beetroot, green chillies, jeera and salt. 

Heat a frying pan, use a tissue paper and wipe its surface with oil.

Pour a ladle of batter and spread it to make a round shape of half inch thickness. 

Add the beetroot mix on top, spread it evenly, do not press. 

Pour some oil around the corners and on top, simmer the flame and let it cook for 2 minutes.

Flip and cook for another 2 minutes. Flip again, increase the flame and let the bottom turn brown by cooking for another minute.

Thats it! Uttapam is ready!! Enjoy it with your favourite chutney. Few chutney recipes can be found here.. Plain Coconut chutney, Tomato chutney, Coconut chutney, Turai chutney (Beerakaya pachadi)

P.s. For your reference.. how to make Idli batter, how to make dosa batter

Pav Bhaji

Healthy alternative to pav bhaji.. brown bread bhaji! brown bread lightly toasted using nutralite. If you havn’t tried nutralite yet, you better do it now. It is a great substitute for ghee/butter. Believe me, you will not compromise on taste and at the same time indulge in guilt free eating 🙂

Ingredients (Serves four)
4 potatoes
1 cup green peas
1 cup carrot pieces
1 cup tomato puree
2 capsicums finely chopped
4 onions finely chopped (2 for bhaji and 2 for serving)
3 tsp Pav bhaji masala (I prefer Everest over any other brand. Simply amazing)
1 tsp kashmiri lal mirch
1 cup fresh coriander leaves finely chopped
1/4 cup lemon juice or tamarind pulp
[For preparing tamarind pulp, remove seeds and dip tamarind in warm water, stuff the tamarind as much as possible, to avoid watery pulp. Put it in a mixer and grind till it reduces to pulp. For storing for future use, add a pinch of salt to the pulp and store in a dry air tight container in fridge]
2 green chillies
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil for bhaji
Brown bread
Nutralite for toasting bread

Now the simplest pav bhai recipe follows
Boil potatoes, green peas, carrots together and mash them.
Heat oil in kadhai, add 2 onions, capsicum and green chillies on high flame.
When onions and capsicum turns soft, add tomato puree and simmer the flame. Cover the pan with a lid.
Cook for 5 minutes or till oil separates from gravy.
Now add salt and pav bhaji masala and cook for another 2 minutes.
Simmer the flame, add boiled vegetables, tamarind pulp or lemon juice, 1/2 cup coriander, chilli powder, mix well, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile lightly toast brown bread in nutralite.

At the time of serving, sprinkle some coriander and onions on bhaji.

Enjoy the best and simplest pav bhaji ever!

Masala Dosa

Now that you know how to make dosa batter.. lets go to the next step.. masala dosa.

Masala dosa has evolved over a period of time. There are so many types of masalas that can go into dosa, some of my favourites are kaju curry (a speciality of Vizag), paneer curry and the latest addition is schezwan.
But lets not forget the original stuffing, alu masala.

The recipe you will find here is with alu masala.

Ingredients
Dosa batter

For the masala (4 dosas)
4 boiled potatoes peeled and mashed
1 green chilly finely chopped
2 onions cut julienne style
1/4 tsp ginger finely chopped
1 tsp udat dal
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp sarson (mustard seeds)
1/2 tsp jeera (cumin)
3-4 methi seeds
Pinch of haldi
Salt to taste
2 tsp oil

Tip
To avoid dosa batter turning sour after 3-4 days, you should store the batter in fridge immediately after grinding. Night before you want to make dosa for breakfast, take as many spoons of batter as required and leave it outside for fermenting. This way rest of the batter remains fresh for a long time.

I keep atleast 4 potatoes boiled and stored in fridge as they are very useful in urgency. When you do not have time to prepare anything, you can always make alu tadka. Store boiled potatoes with peel, they stay for long.

For making masala
Heat oil in kadhai. When oil is hot, add methi seeds, chana and udat dal and immediately when they turn little brown, add sarson. When sarson start crackling, add jeera. Now add onions and green chilly along with ginger. Mix thoroughly. When onions turn brown, add mashed potatoes, haldi and salt. Mix well. Cook for no more than 5 minutes and masala is ready. I add chana dal and udat dal make the masala crunchy, more fun.

For making dosa
Ensure that the non stick pan is hot. Now simmer the flame and spread thin layer of dosa batter. Now increase the flame, apply some oil around the corners of dosa and 1 or 2 drops in center. You will notice that the dosa will start to leave the pan from corners, then take a big spoonful of masala and smear a thin layer on one half of the dosa.  Now fold the other half to cover the masala. Remove dosa from pan.

Trick for making crispy dosa is to not flip it. You will know it is ready when dosa leaves the pan from corners. Just keep for 5 seconds more and remove it. Always simmer the flame when spreading batter over pan and always keep high flame when dosa is cooking.

Mooli ka paratha

Stuffed parathas have always come to my rescue when I had very little time to cook.. usually when I get late at work, parathas are my savior, specially Mooli ka paratha because you do not have to do any prior preparation like boiling. But, unlike aloo parathas, where you can boil potatoes and keep the stuffing masala in an air tight container and use it for couple of days, mooli stuffing has to be used fresh. 

Best compliment for any stuffed paratha is kachumber salad.

Lets quickly jump to the recipe.

Ingredients (4 parathas)

For stuffing

2 cups grated Mooli

[To save time, you can roughly chop them in a chopper. Use very little quantity at a time and run the chopper in small time bursts. With practice, you will realise there is hardly any difference in the end result.]

2 green chillies finely chopped

1 onion finely chopped

1/2 tsp coarsely ground ginger

1 tsp coarsely ground garlic

1 tsp jeera
Pinch of garam masala 

Salt to taste

Pinch of haldi

For dough

2 cups atta

3/4 cup warm water

1/4 tsp ajwain

2 tsp ghee/oil

pinch of salt

Oil/ghee for frying parathas

Sprinkle pinch of salt on mooli and set aside for 5 minutes. Squeeze mooli using your hands to remove excess water.

Add rest of the ingredients and mix well. Stuffing masala is ready.

Mix the dry ingredients for dough and knead a soft dough. 

Tip for making soft parathas or rotis or phulkas: Warm water ensures super soft dough. When you have little or no standing time for dough, if you knead using warm water, you can quickly jump to making paratha/roti/phulka

Make atta balls and stuffing balls twice the size. 

Make yummy parathas!

Tips for soft parathas
– Always fry paratha with ghee if you wish to retain their softness  when carrying in lunch box.
– Wrapping in aluminium foil helps keep parathas soft , specially in air conditioned environment. It will not keep them hot but definitely soft.
– Apply oil/ghee only after paratha has started to turn a little brown on both sides.
– If you wish to use extra stuffing without the hassle of stuffing spilling out of paratha, you can make two small balls,roll each one into thick enough rounds and put stuffing in between both. Seal the ends of the both rounds. Do not use lot of pressure while rolling.

My latest fascination.. fried onions

I went for grocery shopping last weekend and stumbled upon a big pack of fried onions and since then I have only been cooking up stuff that would taste even better with a dash of fried onions. 

So, what are fried onions? Simple! they are fried – onions. The onions are cut julienne style and deep fried until crisp. They are little sweet and crisp and usually sprinkled on top of a dish at the time of serving. Some popular dishes where they are used the most across India are Biryani and Khichda (Khichdi with meat).
In most dishes you will be using them directly but you can also caramelize them further and use them in a variety of dishes. I will share some of the recipes that I tried at home.

Many (including myself until now) used to fry onions whenever the need arised but these days you get ready made packets.. so why bother! 

I had decided to make hot dogs that night and I also wanted to use fried onions. The result was hot dogs with fried onions! Weird huh?? but trust me it was awesome!! 

Simplest and fastest way to mouth watering treat, here it goes..


Ingredients (Two hot dogs)

2 hot dog buns
4 Chicken sausages (I used Venkys Cheese stuffed chicken sausages)
1 cup raw onion cut into rings
4 Cheese slices 
Barbecue sauce
Mayonnaise
Mustard Sauce
Half cup fried onions
Black pepper, salt to taste
1 tsp olive oil

Make a horizontal slit on the bun for making hot dog.
Place the hotdogs upside down on a baking tray and microwave in convection mode at 200 degrees for 2 minutes to lightly roast the bread. This step is optional.

Heat oil in frying pan and lightly fry the sausages along with onion rings, sprinkle some black pepper and salt. Leave the onions crunchy.

Apply mayonnaise sauce on the bread, place the cheese slices, sausages and onions. Spread barbecue and mustard sauce.

Now comes the twist, at the time of serving, sprinkle some fried onions on top. 

Yummy mouth watering hot dogs are ready!! You will absolutely love the crunchy sweet texture of fried onions when you take the first bite and you will remember me 🙂

ps: Make sure to get the best quality pack as some turn soggy.

Pizza bites

I couldn’t think of a better name than this.. 🙂
It started off with the plan of making garlic bread in the morning. As I prepared the garlic butter, realized that I also have mozzarella  and some veggies! This is garlic bread topped with choice of vegetables topped with mozzarella cheese. At the time of serving, you may sprinkle some chilli flakes and your choice of herbs such as thyme, oregano. Like it sweet? add a dash of ketchup on top. In short, use your imagination!



















Let us first start with the recipe for garlic butter

Ingredients (1/2 cup butter)
1/2 cup butter
5 garlic cloves
1/4 tsp black pepper
[You may add more]
Salt to taste
[If you are using salted butter such as Amul, you may not even need to add extra salt]

Coarsely grind garlic cloves. Mix butter, pepper, garlic and salt. Garlic butter is ready.

Recipe for Pizza bites

Ingredients
Slices of bread (Wheat or plain flour)
Chopped capsicum (long pieces)
Onion juliennes
Chopped tomatoes (long pieces)
Mozzarella cheese grated
Ketchup (optional)
Oregano (optional)
Chilli flakes (optional)

Spread generous amount of garlic butter on bread.
Put some veggies on top. I had used raw veggies directly because I like them half cooked but if you prefer roasted veggies then shallow fry them in 1 tsp butter before using.
Top it with grated cheese.

Use a wired rack in grill mode for crispy bread. I have noticed that when you place the bread on baking tray it tends to become soggy at the bottom. To ensure it gets crispy on both sides without having to flip them you need to place the bread on wire rack as shown in the picture. Set the oven in grill mode for 5-7 minutes (till bread becomes crispy). Check after 5 minutes, if need be, grill for another few minutes as required.






Yummy veggie pizza bites are ready! Top it with some ketchup, chilli flakes and herbs for extra flavor.
This morning I made some scrambled egg along with it for a wholesome breakfast.

Sevaiya (vermicelli) Pulao

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You may have it as heavy breakfast/ brunch/ lunch or dinner.

Ingredients(serves 2)

2 cups vermicelli sevaiya
1/2 cup peas
1/2 cup sweet corn kernels
2 carrots cut into thin long pieces
1 chopped onion julienne style
1 yellow capsicum – medium size pieces
8 curry leaves (kadi patta)
1/4 cup Cashewnuts
1 tsp split Bengal gram (chana dal)
1/4th tsp rai (mustard seeds)


Masala

5 laung
2 inch long cinnamon stick
1/4 th tsp green elaichi powder
3 green chillies
2 tsp oil

Dry roast vermicelli in hot pan till it browns a little.Alternately, you can microwave for 90 seconds.

In a hot wok, add oil. When oil is hot, add rai, when it splutters, add kadi patta, chana dal and all masala ingredients and stir on low flame for 5 seconds. Add cashew nuts and fry for 10 seconds.

Add chopped onions and fry till it turns golder brown.

Add all vegetables and fry for 5 minutes. The vegetables should be left crunchy, should not be overcooked.

Add salt to taste.

Pour 2 1/2 cups of water and bring to boil. Take a little bit of that water in a spoon and check the salt. If its not enough, add some at this stage.

Simmer the flame and add roasted vermicelli. Mix well.

Cover and cook for 5 minutes on low flame.

Mix one more time and cover and cook for another 5 minutes.

Sevaiya pulao is ready!

Bread Upma

Ingredients

6 Wheat breads
2 onions finely chopped
1 cheese cube
2 green chillies finely chopped
1 tsp split bengal gram(sabut chana dal)
1 tsp split black gram(udat dal)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds (Rai)
3/4 tsp chopped ginger (thin and small pieces)
1/2 tsp jeera
Pinch of haldi
salt to taste

    

Stack bread slices one on top of another, cut them into bite size pieces, keep aside.
Add oil to non stick pan on high flame. When its hot, add mustard seeds(rai) , when it starts to splutter, add jeera, chana dal and udat dal. When they turn brown, add green chillies, onion and ginger. Fry on medium flame until onions cook.
Add salt and haldi and mix well.

Now, add bread pieces and mix well.
Fry for 2 minutes on high flame.

For serving
Place upma on serving plate and add grated cheese on top.Serve hot!

ps : it can be a delicious snack in your lunch box too 🙂

Oats Uttapam

var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push([‘_setAccount’, ‘UA-36452076-1’]); _gaq.push([‘_trackPageview’]); (function() { var ga = document.createElement(‘script’); ga.type = ‘text/javascript’; ga.async = true; ga.src = (‘https:’ == document.location.protocol ? ‘https://ssl’ : ‘http://www’) + ‘.google-analytics.com/ga.js’; var s = document.getElementsByTagName(‘script’)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); Another variant of my favourite South Indian breakfast, Uttapam.
There are several ways of making Uttappam with the main ingredient being Dosa batter!

Ingredients(Makes 4 medium size Uttapams)

2.5 cups dosa batter
1 cup Oats (coarsely powdered)
2 Onions finely chopped
1 tomato finely chopped
4 green chillies finely chopped
3/4 cup finely chopped coriander
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

Mix all ingredients and batter is ready!
Heat a non stick pan and pour 5-6 drops of oil, use a half cut onion (plain side) to spread the oil evenly on the pan.
When the oil is hot, simmer the flame, pour 2 tbsps batter on the pan and spread to make 1/2 inch thick pancakes.
Sprinkle few drops of oil on top and cover the pan with lid.
After cooking for 4 minutes, flip the uttappam and let it cook for another 4 minutes in open pan.
Oats Uttapam is ready! Serve hot with coconut chutney(will update soon).