Pesarattu with Upma and Coconut Chutney

Pesarattu with upma and coconut or ginger chutney is a hearty Andhra breakfast, which could very well be a brunch to be enjoyed on a weekend. Pesarattu, made with whole green gram, is high in protein, upma gives the carbs, thus balances the meal. Pesarattu, upma and chutney is the combination which is popular in Andhra.

Ingredients to make pesarattu

1 cup - Whole green gram dal / Whole moong dal
1 to 2 - Green chili
1 '' piece - Ginger
Salt to taste

To garnish

Little finely chopped onion
Little green chili, finely chopped
Little coriander leaves, finely chopped
Little jeera
Ghee or butter

Method

1 ) Wash and soak green gram dal overnight. Grind dal with green chili and ginger to a fine paste with little water. Batter should not be too thick nor too thin. Add salt to taste and stir in.

2 ) Heat a non-stick pan on medium heat. When the pan is hot enough, add a little amount of the batter and spread into thin round.

3 ) Drizzle some ghee around the edges and some on the pesarattu. Sprinkle little, jeera, onion, green chili and coriander leaves on the top.


4 ) Once the edges have cooked to a light brown, flip to the other side and press down with flat spatula to press down the sprinkled ingredients to stick to the pesarattu. Flip back and take off the pan to a plate. Cook rest of the batter in the same manner.

Now Pesarattu can be served with just the chutney. But when you want to have a elaborate breakfast, it is served with upma. Upma is made with rawa that is not roasted and the cooked upma is not too dry.

Ingredients for making Upma

1 cup - Rawa / fine Sooji
3 cups water
Salt to taste

To season

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
1 tsp - Urad dal
1 tsp - Chana dal
1/4 tsp - Jeera
5 to 6 big - Shallot, finely chopped
1/2'' piece - Ginger, finely chopped
2 - Green chili, finely chopped
1 sprig - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a saucepan, add mustard and pop it. Add urad dal, chana dal, jeera and fry on till dals are lightly browned. Add shallot, green chili, ginger and curry leaves and fry till the ingredients a fried lightly.

2 ) Pour 3 cups water, 2 to 3 tsp ghee, salt to taste and bring to a good boil. Lower heat, pour in rawa and as you are pouring in rawa, stir continuously. Water will be sucked up by rawa, then close with a tight lid and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Open and stir well. Close with lid and as the upma cools down will be all set to serve.

Place some upma along with pesarattu while serving with chutney.

This recipe is for a small quantity of coconut chutney

To make Coconut Chutney

1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut
1 tbsp - Chana dal
2 - Green chili
1 to 2 pinches - Seedless tamarind
1/4 tsp - Jeera
Salt to taste

To Season

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
1 sprig - Curry leaves
Oil

Method

1 ) Fry green chili and chana dal in little oil, lightly. Cool and grind along with coconut, tamarind jeera to a smooth paste with little water. Add salt to taste.

2 ) Season with mustard and curry leaves. Heat oil in pan, add mustard and curry leaves. Pour the seasoning on chutney and mix in.

Serve Pesarattu with upma and coconut or ginger chutney.

"Srivalli of Cooking 4 All Seasons" is very enthusiastic about different varieties of dosa's and is hosting a Dosa Mela. I am making my contribution with pesarattu to this event.

Other Andhra recipes -

Undrallu and Ginger chutney
Green chili chutney
Brinjal chutney
Peanut chutney

Peanut Chutney

Peanuts contain the good monounsaturated fat, protein, antioxidants and having a good amount of peanut provide good health benefits. Roasted peanut chutney goes well with dosa.

Ingredients

1/2 cup - Roasted Peanut

1 big - Shallot, diced

2 - Dry red chili

3 tbsp - Yogurt/Curds ( medium sour )

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp - Jeera / cumin seeds

A pinch or two - Hing / Asafoedita

1 sprig - Curry leaves

2 - Dry red chili

Sesame oil

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a pan, add shallots, dry red chili and fry lightly till shallot is fried a bit. Cool.

2 ) Into a blender, add roasted peanuts, fried ingredients, yogurt, salt to taste and little water and grind to a smooth paste.

3 ) In a pan heat oil, pop mustard seeds, then add jeera, dry red chili, curry leaves and hing. Pour this seasoning on top of the chutney and mix in.

Serve with dosa.

To roast peanuts in microwave - Place 1/2 cup peanuts in microwave safe plate and microwave for 2 minutes. Stop in between and stir and then continue cooking. Cook with caution, as peanuts can burn, if over cooked.

Undrallu with Ginger Chutney

Undrallu is a savoury steamed rice ball, which is offered as a neivedyam during Ganesh Chaturthi. These taste like upma made with rice rawa. Undrallu is an Andhra name for these steamed rice balls. Undrallu goes well with ginger chutney, which taste like the kerala Inji puli. When offering to Lord Ganesha, only Undrallu is offered as neivedyam.

Ingredients for Undrallu

1 cup - Rice ( Basmati , sona masuri or long grain rice )
2 tbsp - Chana dal, washed
1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds / Jeera
2 tbsp - Grated fresh coconut
1/2 tsp - Salt
2 cups - Water

Method

1 ) Wash rice well and drain all the water. Spread on a paper napkin to dry out all the water. Rice grains have to be fully dry. It could take about one hour or so.

2 ) Grind the rice grains in a blender/ grinder to a rawa consistency.

3 ) Place a saucepan on the stove with water, chana dal, cumin and salt. Bring the water to a boil, reduce the heat to a medium heat, pour in the rice rawa slowly into the boiling water and keep stirring. Stir till all the water is absorbed by the rice rawa. Add grated coconut and stir in well. Turn off the stove, cover with a lid.

4 ) After 15 minutes, spread on a lighlty greased plate. With wet hands make small balls. Sprinkle some water if rawa is too hard or breaking.

5 ) Use a idli steaming stand to steam these rice balls. Place rice balls as shown in picture below.

6 ) Place idli stand in a pressure cooker with little water to steam. Cover the pressure cooker and steam for 10 minutes.

Serve hot with ginger chutney

Ginger Chutney

This is a chutney that is a bit sweet with the jaggery, tangy with the tamarind, spicy with the chilies and ginger. A chutney that goes well with dosa, idli, vada or Mysore bonda

Ingredients

3 '' inch piece - Ginger, chopped to small pieces

1 tbsp - Coriander seeds

1 tbsp - Urad dal

1/4 tsp - Methi seeds / Uluva

4 to 6 - Dry red chili

2 tbsp - Jaggery, grated

2 flakes - Garlic, chopped ( optional )

1 lime size - Tamarind, seedless

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds

1/2 tsp - Urad dal

1/2 tsp - Chana dal

1/4 tsp - Jeera / Cumin seeds

2 pinch - Hing

1 sprig - Curry leaf

Method

1 ) In a kadai, pour 1 tbsp oil, add urad dal, coriander seeds, methi and fry lightly on low heat. Add chilies and fry lightly. Drain the fried ingredient out of the oil, transfer into a blender. Run the blender and powder the ingredients.

2 ) In the same kadai with oil, add ginger, garlic and fry lightly, till the raw smell goes away. Doesn't have to be crisp. Transfer ginger & garlic into the blender.

3 ) Soak tamarind in little water and make it soft. Add tamarind & jaggery into the blender. Grind all the ingredients together to a smooth paste. Add salt to taste and very little water to just make the blender move.

4 ) To season, on a low heat, heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and let it pop. Then add urad dal, chana dal and fry it lightly. Then add jeera, hing and curry leaves. Now add ground chutney and mix in well.

Serve with Undrallu.

Latha of The 'yum' blog is hosting festival cooking event for Ganesh chaturthi. Sending Undrallu as an entry for this event.

Chili Chutney

Chili peppers contain antioxidants and a lot of health benefits. There are different varieties of chili peppers available, which have their own unique factors like the taste, shape, color, the level and degree of pungency.

This is a green chili chutney, in which Serrano peppers are used as a main ingredient. Select fully dark green colored peppers for this chutney. Other chili peppers can also be used to make this chutney. Got this chutney recipe and suggestions, from a good friend of mine. Chutney goes very well with dosa, idli, rice, chapati and bread. Even though a lot of serrano peppers are used to make this chutney, it is not very spicy as one might conclude.

Ingredients

10 - Serrano pepper, slit lengthwise and chopped
2 tbsp - White sesame seeds
small key lime size - Tamarind
1/2 tsp - Jeera /Cumin seeds
2 flakes - Garlic
1/4 cup - Water
Salt to taste

Seasoning

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
1 tsp - Urad dal
1 tsp - Chana dal
1 sprig - Curry leaves
1/4 tsp - Hing
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 - Whole red chili

Method

1) Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped green chili to it. Fry for a minute and then close with a lid and cook on low heat till the chili is cooked and soft. Add salt to taste when cooking.

2 ) Meanwhile, dry roast the sesame seeds in another pan to a light brown color. Take off heat and cool.

3 ) To soften tamarind - Place tamarind in a microwave safe bowl, add little water and cook for less than a minute.

3 ) To a blender, add cooked chili, sesame seeds, jeera, tamarind, garlic and salt to taste. Grind to a smooth paste. Add water little by little as needed.

4 ) To season, heat oil in a pan and add mustard, urad dal, chana dal,curry leaves, whole red chili, hing & turmeric powder.

5 ) Add this seasoning to the prepared chutney and serve.

Serve as a side dish to go with dosa, idli, rice, chapati or bread.

This is my entry for JFI - Chillies. The ingredient chosen is chillies by Nandita of "Saffron trail " fame, who is hosting JFI for the month of August.

Brinjal Chutney

I was introduced to brinjal chutney, through a Andhra friend. I was not sure how a brinjal chutney will taste. I was really surprised by the unique taste that comes out when mixed with other ingredients.

Ingredients

5 medium - Brinjal or one big eggplant, chopped

3 to 4 - Green chili, slit in center

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

Small piece - Tamarind ( about half a key lime size )

2 flakes - Garlic

1/2 tsp - Jeera

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds

1/2 tsp - Asafoetida / Kayam / Hing

1 tbsp - Channa dal

1 tsp - Urad dal ( Optional )

5 flakes - Garlic crushed

2 to 4 - Whole red chili

1 sprigs - Curry leaves

1/2 cup - Chopped coriander leaves

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a pan, add green chili and fry for a minute or two. Take it out of the oil, to a plate and set aside. To the pan add chopped brinjal. Stir and fry. Sprinkle turmeric powder and salt to taste. Close with a lid and cook on low flame till the brinjal is well cooked and looks mashed up. Take off the stove and cool.

2 ) To a blender add tamarind, garlic and jeera. Grind these ingredients. Then add the cooked brinjal, green chili and coarsely grind.

3 ) For seasoning, heat oil in a pan, add mustard, then chana dal, urad dal, whole red chili, Asafoetida, curry leaves and crushed garlic. Stir and fry for a minute. Then add coriander leaves, fry for minute. Add ground brinjal to the seasoning and stir in well. Cook for a minute or two. Take off the stove and serve.

Serve with rice or chapati.

Tip

Chutney with cucumber, cabbage, red bell pepper, zucchini can be made following the same method.