Potato Quick Roast

Accompaniment to Rice, Roti, Parathas

Potatoes - 2-3 medium sized
Oil - 2 tblsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Mustard - 1tsp
Aesofidita
Red Chilli Powder
Salt to Taste

Wash potatoes well and dice them to even sized pieces.
Take oil in a pan. When it heats up add mustard and let it sputter. Add aesofitida and turmeric. Then add the diced potatoes and toss them well. Add red chilli powder and salt to taste. Let it cook. Takes about 10 minutes to cook. Once cooked, you can let it rest in the pan in simmer mode on the stove and let a light yummy golden crust form on the base.

Uppu Kozhakattai

Accompaniments: Chutney, Milagai Podi/ Spicy Gun Powder, Sambhar

Idli Rava - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Red Chilli - 2 to 4
Green Chilli - 2 - 4 (Finely chopped)
Urad Dal - 1 tsp
Channa Dal - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1/2 inch (Finely grated)
Grated Coconut - 2 tbsp
Curry Leaves - 4 to 6
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard
Asafetida

Optional(Use any or all):
Finely diced onion, garlic, carrot, capsicum

In a vessel, take oil and let it heat. Add mustard seeds and when it sputters, add asafoetida, curry leaves, red chilli, green chilli, ginger, urad and channa dal. If you intend to add vegetables on the the listed optional items, add then and add a pinch of salt and let it cook. When its half cooked, add 2 cups of water, salt as needed and let it boil. Once it boils, add the idli rava and the grated coconut to it and stir well. When it solidifies, take it off the stove(do not let it cook fully as you will steam it later) and let it cool a little. Once cooled, take a handful and make into oval shaped balls. Now place it on a idli plate and steam it for 10 to 15 minutes.

Paruppu Thogayal

Accompaniment to Dosa, Milagu Kozhambu, Rice, Parota, Yoghurt Rice

Tur dal- 1 cup

Little red chili - 4 to 6

Pepper - 4 to 5

Roast in oil. 

Add water and salt and grind in mixie.

Milagu Kozhambu

Accompaniment to Rice. Goes well with Paruppu Thogayal.

Soak some tamarind in warm water for half hour.

Urad Dal – 2 tsp

Peppercorn – 15 to 20

Red Chilli – 2 to 4

Asafetida/Hing

Curry Leaves – 5 -6

Roast in little oil. 

Optional: Grandma and Mom adds: Add a little raw/frozen grated coconut – 1-2 tbls

Grind everything in mixie to a nice paste.

Take the tamarind pulp in a vessel. Add water and let it boil till raw smell goes.

Add salt as needed. Add the ground mixture and let it boil and thicken.

[If needed thicken with a couple of tbsps of rice flour mixed in water and let it boil]

Optional: Temper: Mustard split in hot oil. 

Neeru Dosa

Accompaniments:
Any spicy gravy dish, Milagai Podi (Edible Gun Powder), Mangalore Red Chilli Mango Garlic Chutney, Aviyal, Thogayal, Pickle

Raw Rice(Sona Masoori/Ponni/Idli Rice) - 2 cups
Flatened Rice/Poha (optional) - 2 tablespoons
Shredded Coconut (Frozen or Fresh) - 1 tablespoon
Sugar - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste

Step 1: Prep:
Soak the rice and coconut in water for 3 to 4 hours. Add the sugar. Grind in a mixer/industrial grade blender into a fine watery paste.
This better needs to be very water unlike other dosas.

Step 2:
Take a pan and heat it in medium flame. Pour the batter into the pan and tilt the pan to spread the dosa batter. Cover the dosa and let it cook for about 15 to 30 seconds. These dosas generally do not need to be turned over. Make dosas in medium-low flame.  These dosas are super soft and will be white in color.

Adai

Accompaniments:
Any spicy gravy dish, Milagai Podi (Edible Gun Powder), Green Chilli Chutney, Aviyal, Thogayal, Pickle, Jaggery/Jam/Ghee and Sugar for kids

Raw Rice(Sona Masoori/Ponni/Idli Rice) - 2 cups
Tur Dal and Channa Dal combined - 3/4 cup (equal quantity)
Urad Dal - 1/4 cup
Red Chilli (Dried) - 5 to 10
Hing

Step 1: Prep:
Soak the above ingredients for 3 to 4 hours. Grind the soaked mixture in a mixer or an industrial grade blender. Let the better be thick. Before the last 2 swirls in the mixer, add salt. Let the batter be slightly grainy when done.

Step 2: Fermentation:
Transfer this mixture to a large vessel and let it ferment in an insta-pot on yoghurt mode for 8 to 10 hours. The fermented batter will raise to 1.5 to 2 times its quantity. Add water to the batter to get a thick flowy consistency. Batter is ready to use. Store in a refrigerator.

Optional:
Add finely diced onions, coriander, curry leaves to the adai while making it.

Payathamaa Dosa

Accompaniments:
Any spicy gravy dish, Milagai Podi (Edible Gun Powder), Chutney, Thogayal, Pickle, Jaggery/Jam/Ghee and Sugar for kids

Raw Rice(Sona Masoori/Ponni/Idli Rice) - 2 cups

Green Moong - 3/4 cup

Yellow Moong Dal - 1/4 cup

Green chili - 4 to 10

Ginger - 1/2 inch

Curry leaves - 8 to 12

Coriander - optional

Soak for 3 hours. Add raw jeera 1 tsp. Grind little naranara(not a fine batter) in a mixie/industrial grade blender. Add salt before the last time you grind.

Let it ferment in an insta-pot between 8 to 12 hours. Make delicious dosas.

Paruppu Dosai (Cheela)

Accompaniments:
Any spicy gravy dish, Milagai Podi (Edible Gun Powder), Chutney, Thogayal, Pickle, Jaggery/Jam/Ghee and Sugar for kids

Ingredients:

Moong Dal - 1 cup

Channa Dal - 1 cup

Raw Rice(Sona Masoori/Ponni/Idli Rice) - 1/2 cup (add more rice if you want the dosa to be crispy)

Optional(use as many as you need from the below list) : 

Ohmam  - 1 teaspoon

Jeera -  1 teaspoon

Black Peppercorn -1 teaspoon

Green chili - 4 to 8

Pudina - as needed

Cilantro - as needed

Step 1: Prep:
Soak above ingredients in water for 2 to 4 hours. 

Grind in mixer/industrial grade blender into a fine batter.

Optional add to the batter. 

Mustard -1 teaspoon (splattered in a few drops hot oil)

Step 2: 

Make dosas with it immediately. This batter will not taste very good for more than a couple of days. 

Idli/Dosa Batter (Idli, Dosa, Utappam, Kuzhi Paniyaram)

Accompaniments:
Any spicy gravy dish, Milagai Podi (Edible Gun Powder), Chutney, Thogayal, Pickle, Jaggery/Jam/Ghee and Sugar for kids

Ingredients

Raw Rice - 4 cups (Sona Masoori/Ponni/Idli Rice or a combination)

Whole Urad Dal - 1 cup (If using split urad dal use 1.25 cups)

Step 1: Prep:

Soak the above 2 ingredients in water separately (minimum 3 to 4 hours)

Step 2: Grinding:

Grind Urad dal in Indian wet grinder (I prefer ultra wet grinder) into a fine buttery paste adding water to the grinder only as required. Grind it into a think mixture. Transfer the ground batter to a large vessel.

Next grind the soaked rice into a thick paste (a little thinner than the urad dal paste) in the wet grinder. Add it to the vessel with the urad dal batter.

Let this cool. Once cooled add rock salt to taste and mix the batter with clean hands. Ensure that you whisk the batter well with your hands to let air in the mixture.

Step 3: Fermentation:

Ferment the batter in an insta-pot for 10 to 12 hours in yoghurt mode to let the batter rise. The batter can be stirred well and used for making idlis or moved to the refrigerator after this.

Step 4: Use the better:

This batter will be good for idli the first couple of days. 

Day 3 on, one can make crispy wafer thin  dosas. 

Last day make uttappam or kuzhi paniyaram can be made by adding finely diced onion, tomatoes, green chilli, curry leaves and coriander.

Pongal

Accompaniments:
1) Eggplant in tamarind sauce (Kathrikkai Puli Gothsu)
2) Sambar/Kozhambu/Menthiya Kozhambu/Vathhakozhambu/Mor Kozhambu/Kootu
4) Chutney/Pickle/Thogayal
5) Aviyal

Ingredients:
Raw Rice - 1 cup (Sona Masoori or Ponni)
Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
Water - 4 to 5 cups
Salt to taste
Asafetida(Hing) - 1/4 teaspoon
Ginger - about half an inch, grated [Do not peel, as long as its cleaned well]
Jeera Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Peppercorn - 10 to 12 seeds
Curry leaves - 7 to 10
Cashews - 7 to 10 (optional)
Ghee/Clarified Butter - As needed

Step 1: Prep
Pressure Cook:
In a vessel add rice, moong dal, asafoetida and water and pressure cook it. This needs to be over cooked and not cooked to the consistency of rice. Once pressure valve is released, take the vessel out and mash the mixture well. I use a pav bhaji masher for this.

Step 2: Cooking
In a pan take a teaspoon of ghee. Roast the cashews and set aside.
To the leftover ghee in the pan add jeera seeds, peppercorn, finely chopped curry leaves, grated ginger. Toss it well and then add the mashed rice, moong dal mixture and salt to taste and mix well. Once required consistency is achieved, add 1-2 teaspoons of ghee and mix well. Hot Pongal is ready to eat.

Note to Self:
1) If you need it to be healthier, feel free to reduce the rice to 3/4 cup and add 1/2 cup Moong Dal
2) Substitute pepper corn with finely chopped green chilies for a completely different flavor

Correction Notes: Everyone makes a cooking blunder!!

Incase you do not cook the rice enough and the consistency is not mushy, do not fear!! Add a little more hot water and close your pan and cook a little more and mash it as needed.
Alternately, if you added too much water and its more soupy than mushy, the best way to remedy teh situation is to microwave the contents till the required consistency is achieved. Microwaving dries the food and you will be able to get the required consistency faster.

Puri (Fried unleavened bread)

Accompaniments:
1) Potato Gravy Dish (North Indian)
2) Dry Potato Dish (South Indian)
3) Dal
4) Pithla
5) Mint/Coriander Chutney

Ingredients
Whole Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Semolina (Fine Rava) - 1 tablespoon
Oil - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Cold Water - as needed

For rolling:
A little cooking oil to glaze/spread-on the rolling bench

For Frying:
Cooking oil in a pan

Step 1: Prep:
Making the Dough:
Take the whole wheat flour, semolina and salt in a mixing bowl. Add water as needed and knead into a soft dough. Once kneaded add the oil and knead a little more. I tend to bounce the dough in the mixing bowl to ensure that the kneading is uniform. Cover with a moist tissue/cloth and keep aside.
After about 15 minutes to half hour, make small sized balls from the dough.

Step 2: Frying:
Take oil in a deep fryer/frying pan/kadai. Heat the oil in medium flame.
Take a rolling bench and pin. Glaze the rolling bench with a little oil. (This step can be repeated as needed when you roll out the puri's). Using the rolling pin roll out each ball into round that is saucer sized.
Now the puris are ready to be fried. The puris should puff out and be fried in medium heat until golden.

Note to Self:
1) Frying puris in high flame will leave red puffy puri on the outside that is uncooked on the inside. So fry in medium flame only.
2) Puris originally were made from all purpose flour. However to slightly enhance the health quotient, I have used whole wheat flour. If you choose to go the traditional way, simply replace the whole wheat flour in the recipe above, with all purpose flour.

Correction Notes: Everyone makes a cooking blunder!!
If you add too much water while making the dough, just add more flour as needed to get the required dough consistency.

Pithla (Besan Dal- Proteinlicious)

Accompaniments:
1)Any Indian bread (Parathas/Stuffed Parathas, Bajre ki Roti, Puri, Malabar Paratha, Kulcha, Naan/Stuffed Naan, Phulka, Thepla)
2) Cooked Rice, Flavored Rice, Veg Pulao

Ingredients:
Onions -  1 medium
Garlic - 3-4 cloves
Green Chilli - (To taste) [Anywhere between 2-6]
Coriander Leaves - 1 tablespoon
Curry Leaves - 6 to 8
Gram Flour (Besan) - 1/2 cup
Water - 2 cups (For mixing)
Oil - 1 tablespoon (Any cooking oil)
Asafetida (Hing)
Mustard Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Red Chili Powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt - (To taste)
Dry Mango Powder - 1 teaspoon
Citric Acid - 1/4 teaspoon
Water for cooking - as needed.

Step 1: Prep: (About 10 minutes)
Dicing:
Onions - Peeled and cut in lengthwise slices
Garlic -  Peeled and finely diced
Green chilli - Washed, stem removed and then finely chopped
Coriander - Washed and finely chopped
Curry leaves - Washed and finely chopped

Mixing:
Take a mixing bowl and add gram flour to it. If you have had the gram flour in your pantry for too long, then it wouldn't hurt to pass it through a sieve so that the flour is fine. To this add red chili powder, turmeric and salt. Add a little water and make a smooth paste of it. Make sure that the paste is smooth and does not have chunks of flour in it. Add the rest of the water to this paste and mix it well and keep aside.

Step 2: Cooking (About 15-20 minutes)
Take cooking oil in a pan and heat it. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds to it and let them crackle. Add aesofidita. And stir it. Next add the garlic and curry leaves. Add the turmeric.When garlic turns translucent, add the onion and let it cook till translucent. Stir as needed.
Add the gram flour mixture and stir continuously to ensure even cooking and also to make sure that no lumps are formed. Keep adding water as needed to get the right consistency. Add the chilli powder, raw mango powder to it. Now close the lid and cook for 8 to 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. The right consistency is achieved when its like a thick soup. Take the pan off the stove, add the citric acid and stir well. Then garnish it with the chopped coriander.

Correction Notes: Everyone makes a cooking blunder!!
If you stop cooking it too early and feel its watery, do not fear! Just get the pan back on the stove and stir till the required consistency is achieved.
Alternately, if you cook too much and it cakes up, do not fear! Add a little more water, stir well and reheat it on the stove till the required consistency is achieved.