Breakfast with Toast, Scrambled Egg & Potato

Having an omelet or scrambled eggs with toast or bread is a quick breakfast to fix. Now add some potatoes and scramble the eggs for a difference. You will get a more hearty breakfast, that is delicious and filling.

Ingredients

4 - Eggs

2 medium - Potatoes, boiled & cut to small pieces

2 to 3 - Shallots/ small onions, chopped

3 to 4 - Green chili, chopped

1/8 to 1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder

1/4 to 1/2 cup - Grated cheese

Few coriander leaves, chopped

Bread slices to toast

Tomato ketchup and butter to spread on toast

Method

1 ) Heat coconut oil in a pan, add green chili and shallots and fry till onion are fried to a light brown color. Then add turmeric powder and fry for a second.Add potato and fry the potatoes to a light brown color.

2 ) Meanwhile beat eggs with salt to taste, coriander leaves. Pour this beaten egg into the pan. Stir and mix well with the ingredients and cook till the eggs are cooked and scrambled. Take off the stove and set aside.

3 ) Toast 2 bread slices,then apply little butter on the toast if you like. Then spread tomato ketchup on top of the butter. Now place some scrambled potato and egg. Then sprinkle some grated cheese on top. Close with another toast and serve. Toast more bread and do similarly.

Serve for breakfast and i hope the meal will put a smile on your face :)

Coconut Sevai

Sevai / rice noodles is a popular southern indian dish that is steamed cooked and then seasoned. Different varieties of sevai's are prepared. Like the plain sevai, tamarind sevai, lime sevai, the yummy tasting coconut sevai.To make rice sevai from scratch will be time consuming for a person like me. So i went in for the ready to cook rice sevai available in the market.

Ingredients

200gm / 2 cups - Rice sevai

1 cup - Freshly grated coconut

2 tbsp - White sesame seeds,roasted & powdered

Seasoning

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds

1/2 tsp - Urad dal

1 tsp - Channa dal

3 to 4 - Green chili, chopped

2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Coconut or sesame oil

Method

1 ) In plenty of water, cook ready to cook sevai. Add salt to taste and little oil to the water. Once cooked drain all the water and set aside

2 ) In a kadai, heat coconut or sesame oil, add mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, peanuts, and let the mustard pop and the dals gets fried to agolden color. Then add green chili,curry leaves, 2 tbsp grated coconut and fry till coconut turns lightly golden.

3 ) Add the cooked sevai to the kadai and stir in well with the ingredients. Sprinkle the roasted and powdered sesame powder, adjust salt to taste. Stir and mix well. Finally add the freshly grated coconut and mix in well. Take off the stove and serve in a serving dish.

Serve for breakfast or for evening snacks.

Vegetarian Tomato Omelet

Other day a friend visiting me shared with me this vegetarian tomato omelet recipe. She is a vegetarian and doesn't eat any eggs. With a name tomato omelet, i assumed it was made with eggs and tomato, but besan is the base with strong flavors of tomato, onion, coriander and spices. This turned out to be a good snack that we had with tea. Here i find similarity with punjabi puda, which is also a besan based pancake.

Ingredients

1.5 cup - Besan / Gram flour
1 big - Onion, finely chopped
3/4 cup - Coriander leaves, finely chopped
1/4 tsp - Jeera powder
1/4 tsp - Coriander powder
1/8 tsp - Hing powder
1/4 tsp - Red chili powder
Salt to taste

Grind to a smooth paste

3 medium - Tomato, chopped
1 - Green chili
1 small size - Ginger

Method

1 ) Sift besan to remove the lumps into a mixing bowl. Add onion, coriander leaves, jeera powder, coriander powder, hing, red chili powder and salt to taste. Make a paste of tomato, green chili and ginger in a blender. Add this mixture to the mixing bowl and mix all the ingredients very well. Add little water if needed and make a batter that is like a pancake or idly batter consistency.

2 ) Heat a non-stick pan. Grease with little oil. When the pan is hot, add a ladleful of the batter and spread a little. Then drizzle some oil on the top and the sides. Bubble will start forming on the batter and the bottom will start turning lightly brown in color. Using a spatula, turn the pancake over and cook on both sides evenly. Take off the pan and serve hot.

You can serve this with tomato ketchup or any chutney.

Rava Idli

While those white idlis are a common sight and need ahead of preparation time for soaking and fermenting, rava idli is a quick fix in comparison. With the addition of veggies like peas, tomato, it's nutritious as well as filling.

Ingredients

1 cup - Sooji rawa

2 cups - Curds / yogurt

1/4 cup - Green peas (optional )

1/4 cup - Freshly grated coconut

1 to 2 - Green chili, finely chopped

1 small piece - Ginger, finely chopped

1 small - Tomato, chopped (optional )

1/4 cup - Coriander leaves, finely chopped

4 to 5 - Cashew, spilt into half's

1/8 tsp - Hing powder

1/4 tsp - Baking soda / cooking soda
1/4 tsp - Eno fruit salt

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds

1 tsp - Urad dal

3 to 4 sprigs - Curry leaves

3 tbsp - Ghee

Method

1 ) Heat ghee in a kadai / wok, add mustard, urad dal and fry till mustard has spluttered and dal has lightly browned. Then add green chili, ginger and fry for few seconds. Then add curry leave, coriander leaves and fry a second . Now add rawa, cashew nut and fry for 3 to 4 minutes on low heat till rawa becomes crisp or roasted lightly.

2 ) Now transfer to a plate and cool. Once rawa has cooled down,then do the next step. In a mixing bowl add curds and beat well.Then add green peas, tomato, coconut and salt to taste. Dissolve hing powder in little water and add to the batter. Then add cooking soda and eno to the batter and stir in well. Then add roasted rawa and mix well. The batter consistency should be like the idli batter ( add little water if the batter is too thick). Immediately go ahead and make the idli's.

3 ) Now steam idli's in an idli cooker, pouring the mixture into well greased idli moulds. Steam cook for 10 minutes. Once idli is cooked, remove from cooker and cool for 5 minutes then remove from the mould and serve.

Serve with chutney. Makes a good breakfast dish or a good evening snack. This batter yields about 10 to 12 idli's.

Note - If the curds/ yogurt is sour then don't add tomato. End result could be too sour idli. Use yogurt that is not sour for this recipe.

Broken Wheat / Lapsi Upma

Upma !! oh nooo.. that's what i used to say as a kid, whenever upma was served for breakfast. Times have changed and now i have acquired a taste and enjoy having upma with some steamed ripe plantains. But then i like upma made with coarsely ground rawa and not the fine semolina /rawa. I think there lies the difference in taste. I have used lapsi rawa ( that's the name given on the packet for this coarsely ground rawa, i used. )

Ingredients

2 cup - Broken wheat / Dalia

2 cups - Water

2 - Red onion Or 10 - big shallots

5 - Green chilies

1" to 2'' piece - Ginger, grated

2 - Tomato, chopped

Seasoning

2 tsp - Mustard seeds

2 tsp - Urad dal

2 - Dry whole red chili

3 to 4 sprigs- Curry leaves

Ghee or any other cooking oil

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a kadai / wok, add mustard seeds, urad dal and crackle mustard. Then add red chili, curry leaves and fry for a second. Then add onion, green chili, ginger and fry for few seconds. Then add tomato, fry for a few seconds. Then add rawa and fry for one to two minutes on slow flame.

2 ) Add 2 cups water to the kadai, close with tight lid and cook on very slow flame. Cook for 5 minutes. Open lid and stir well. Lastly add a little ghee on top and stir in well.

Serve hot for breakfast with steamed ripe & sweet plantain and if you like pappad.

Ethakka / Ripe Plantain Pachadi

A sweet and sour pachadi with ripe plantain will be a good addition to your sadhya. There is similarities in taste with mambazha pulissery , though this is a pachadi.

Ingredients

2 - Very ripe plantain, chop very finely
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Red chili powder
Salt to taste

Grind to a smooth paste

1/2 cup - Grated coconut
1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
1 to 2 - Green chili
1/2 cup - Medium sour curds/ yogurt

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 sprigs - Curry leaves
2 - Whole dry red chili

Method

1 ) Cook plantain in little water with red chili and turmeric powder along with salt to taste. cook till plantain is a bit mashed.

2 ) Add ground ingredients to cooked plantain, add little water just enough for a thick gravy and bring to a boil. Lower heat and cook for 2 minutes. Adjust salt to taste. Add beaten curds, mix in and when about to boil, take off the stove.

3 ) In a pan heat oil, add mustard seeds and pop it. Add curry leaves and dry red chili. Fry for a minute and pour over the pachadi.

Serve with rice.

Aval Upma

A quick and easy upma to make, if you have the ingredients ready. I love to have this upma with boiled eggs, seasoned with pepper and salt on the side. Sometimes i mix scrambled egg with the upma in the end. On it's own, it's a tasty upma. Aval is the malayalam name for poha / rice flakes.

Ingredients

2 cups - Beaten rice / Aval / Poha / Rice flakes

1 cup - Water

5 big - Shallots, chopped

4 to 6 - Green chili, chopped

1/4 cup - Freshly grated coconut

Salt to taste

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds

1 tsp - Urad dal

2 Sprigs - Curry leaves

Coconut or sesame oil

Method

1 ) First moisten beaten rice. For this, add salt to taste to one cup of water and stir. Now sprinkle water on the beaten rice little by little and moisten beaten rice well. Beaten rice will soak up the water little by little. Use up one cup water to moisten beaten rice and keep it ready.

2 ) Heat oil in a swallow pan, add mustard seeds and pop mustard. Then add urad dal, curry leaves, stir for a minute. Add shallots and chili and fry to a light brown color. Simmer heat to a low and add moisten beaten rice mix with seasoned ingredients. Add grated coconut, cover with a tight lid and cook for 5 minutes on very low heat. Turn off the stove, open the lid only after 5 minutes. Stir and mix.

Serve hot. Makes a great breakfast.

Note : Aval will lose moisteness and become dry if you have this after 2 - 3 hours of cooking. Best when still warm. If dry, you can sprinkle some water and microwave.

Kanji for the Soul

This rice porridge is so nourishing, wholesome, fulfilling and very much a comfort food. Rosematta rice is used to cook this kanji along with green gram dal and chana dal. Ghee and coconut enhances the flavour and make this kanji so very tasty and delicious.

Mallugirl of Malabar spices is hosting a Summer express cooking event. Sending this dish for this event. This kanji is simple to make and can be prepared within 30 minutes.

Ingredients

1/2 cup - Rosematta rice
1/4 cup- green gram dal
1/4 cup - Chana dal
8 cups - Water
2 tbsp - Ghee
1/2 cup - Freshly Grated coconut
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Add rice, green gram dal and chana dal into a pressure cooker. Add water, close the lid and bring the pressure cooker to a full cooking pressure. After the first whistle, simmer and cook for 20 to 25 minutes. Take off the stove and cool.

2 ) Open the pressure cooker,add salt to taste, ghee and coconut. Stir in well and serve. The rice and dals should be well cooked, almost like it is over cooked.



Serve hot with pappad.

Check out Kanji & Payar recipe from kitchenmishmash

Chakka Pathiri and Neipathiri / Neypathal

I had to be creative to be a part of "Jihva for Ingredients" and this month jackfruit is the chosen ingredient. Chakka pathiri is a innovation to incorporate jackfruit as an ingredient.
Pathiri, neipathiri or poricha ( fried ) pathiri are some of the specialities among Mappila (Muslims) in kerala.
Pathiri /Neriya pathiri is rolled out very thin and puffs up when cooked on a tava. Neipathiri denotes, pathiri fried in ghee. Present days other healthy oils are used instead of ghee.
Chakka is the malayalam name for jackfruit and pathiri is like a pancake made out of rice flour.

Ingredients

2 cups - Rice flour
2 cups - Water
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

To grind

1 cup - Raw jackfruit, chopped
1/2 tsp - Jeera / Cumin seeds
2 - Shallot / small onion
1/2 cup - Grated coconut

Method

1 ) In a blender, grind coconut, jeera and shallot without adding any water. Then add the chopped jackfruit and grind the ingredients together.

2 )Heat water to a boil with salt. Add the ground ingredients to the water and bring water to a boil again. Simmer heat, slowly add rice flour and stir well with a spoon. Turn off the heat and close with a lid. Open the lid after 5 to 10 minutes and when it is still warm, but manageable to knead, knead well without adding any more water. Knead to a smooth dough.

3 ) Make small balls of the dough....



4 ) With a rolling pin, roll the dough balls. Dust with rice flour as needed to help rolling the dough to a round shape. Use a round cutter or a lid to get a perfect round shape.
5 ) Heat oil in a wok or kadai. Slide in the pathiri and fry on both sides. Take off the oil to a serving plate.


Serve with sweetened coconut milk or goes so very well with non-veg, mutton and chicken curries.

This chakka ( jackfruit ) pathiri is my contribution to JFI for this month, hosted by Jai & Bee of Jugalbandi.

To make Neipathiri, ingredients are similar, except for jackfruit. Method is the same as above. This is known as neipathiri or neypathal in the malabar region.

Ingredients for Neipathiri

2 cups - Rice flour
2 cups - water
Salt to taste
Oil for frying

To grind

1/2 cup - Grated coconut
1/2 tsp - Jeera
1/2 tsp - Fennel seeds
2 - Shallot

Method

1 ) Grind the ingredients listed to be ground without any water in a blender. Heat water to a boil with salt. Add the ground ingredients to the water and bring water to a boil again. Simmer heat, slowly add rice flour and stir well with a spoon. Turn off the heat and close with a lid. Open the lid after 5 to 10 minutes and when it is still warm, but manageable to knead, knead well without adding any more water.

2 ) Make small balls of the dough and roll out with a rolling pin. Dust with rice flour to help in rolling out. Cut with a round cutter or a lid to get a good round shape. Pathiri will be little thicker.

3 ) Heat a wok or kadai with oil on medium heat. Slide pathiri into the hot oil and fry on both sides. Take out off the oil and transfer to a plate.


Serve with non-veg curry. Try with -

• mutton masala chops
  
• Kori kari
  
• Aattirachi (Mutton curry)

Note

1 ) You can dry roast the rice flour lightly and use. This will help in the rolled out pathiri not breaking. I have not dry roasted rice flour for above recipes.

2 ) Instead of frying neipathiri, you can roll out a thin pathiri and cook in a tava or non-stick pan. Flip and cook on both sides.

Kadala Curry

Puttum kadalaum...hmm....irrestible combo for a malayali. There are other combinations with which puttu is had with, but this the most popular one. Black chickpea is used to make kadala curry. Kadala curry goes so well with vellayappam too. A detailed post on how to make puttu, was posted before. So here is the kadala curry i learned from my mother.

Ingredients

3 cups - Kadala / Kala chana / Black chickpea ( cooked )
1 medium - Tomato, quartered
2 - Green chili, slit in center
1'' piece - Ginger, grated
2 to 3 tbsp - Coconut cut to small bit's ( Thenga kothu )
3 to 4 sprigs - Curry leaves

To Roast & grind to a smooth paste

1 to 1.5 cup - Grated coconut
4 big - Shallots, chopped
6 big - Garlic flakes
1 medium size stick - Cinnamon
2 - Clove
1 tsp - pepper corns
1 - Star anise
1 - Cardamom
2 tsp - Fennel Seeds / Perumjeerakam
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tsp - Red chili powder
3 to 4 tsp - Coriander powder
3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Seasoning

2 tsp - Mustard seeds
1/2 of one - Onion, chopped
Coconut oil or Seasame oil

Method

1 ) To cook kadala - Soak kadala over night, then pressure cook for 30 minutes, with little turmeric powder, a small stick of Cinnamon, salt to taste and enough water.

2 ) To make masala for the gravy - Heat little coconut oil in a pan, add coconut, fennel seeds, star anise, cardamom,cloves, cinnamon, stir and roast till coconut turns medium brown in color on a low flame.Transfer to another utensil to cool.

3 ) Now add little coconut oil to the pan, add pepper corn, small onion, garlic, curry leaves - stir on low heat. Add turmeric, red chili and coriander powder, stir till the powders looses the raw smell. Take off the stove and cool.

4 ) Transfer browned coconut and roasted masala powders to a blender. Grind the ingredients to a smooth paste with water.

5 ) To make the curry - To a big utensil, add cooked kadala, stock from the cooked kadala, tomato, green chili, ginger, curry leaves , coconut bit's and cook the kadala till the tomato gets cooked. Then add the ground coconut masala paste to the kadala. Add enough water to make a semi thick gravy. Bring to a boil, adjust salt to taste.

6 ) Seasoning - Heat coconut oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and pop it, then add onion and brown the onion to golden brown color. Pour this seasoning on the curry and mix in.



Serve for breakfast with puttu or appam to experience keralites favorite breakfast.

Ela Ada - Steamed Sweet Dumpling

Ela Ada is a traditional kerala dish, which makes a great breakfast or a evening snack. Ela in malayalam means leaf and the leaf used in making this Ada is banana leaves. Before using banana leaves to make ada, the banana leaves has to be mildly wilted. By holding the banana leaf on top of a low flame for a few seconds, this can be done.Then cut the leaf to small desired pieces.
This is my first shot at making ela ada and i am satisfied with the outcome. I have tried with rice dough and ragi dough.

Ingredients for rice dough

1 cup - Rice flour, lightly roasted
1.5 cup - Water
1 tbsp - Oil
Salt to taste

Ingredients for ragi dough

1 cup - Ragi powder
1/4 cup - Rice flour
Salt to taste

For filling

1.5 cup - Grated coconut, fresh
150 gm - Jaggery
2 - Cardamom, powdered
3 - Ripe plantain, cut to small pieces
1 cup - Beaten rice / Aval / Poha

For wrapping

Banana leaves

Method

1 ) To make rice dough - Boil water in a pan, add salt and oil.To boiling water add rice flour, put off the flame, stir and mix the flour very well. Close with a lid and set aside for a while. When the dough cools, but still slightly warm, knead the dough well and then make balls out of the dough.

2 ) To make ragi dough - Use enough cold water and mix all the ingredients listed for ragi dough.

2 ) To make filling - Boil little water & jaggery in a pan. Once the jaggery has dissolved, filter it and remove any dust particles. Then again boil melted jaggery to a thick syrup. Add coconut, beaten rice, Cardamom powder & banana pieces. Mix all ingredients well and cook till the filling is thick. Take off the stove.

3 ) On a small piece of banana leaf, place one rice dough ball, press and spread out on the leaf. Dipping your fingers in water will make it easy to spread the rice dough on the leaf.
Make small balls of ragi dough and spread out like the rice dough was done.

4 ) Spread the filling in the center, like in the picture. You can even just use grated coconut as a filling.

5 ) Now after the filling is done, fold the leaf in half and then press. Press the sides as well, so that the filling will not come out.

6 ) Place the prepared banana wraps in steaming vessel and steam for 10 to 15 minutes, till it is fully cooked.

7 ) Take the steamed ada out of the banana leaf wrap and serve.

Enjoy this delicious Ela Ada for breakfast or as a sweet treat.

If banana leaves are not available then parchment paper is used to make this ada. Check out Surya's Healthy N spicy and Priya's Kitchen to make with parchment paper.
Ammupatti's thoughts have displayed in a video, how traditionally elai adai is made.

Puttu - Steamed Rice Cake In Coconut Shell

This breakfast dish is so common and very popular in kerala. It's called ' Puttu '. Steaming is the method used to cook puttu. Puttu is made with different cereal grain powders like, Rice, wheat, Ragi..... to name a few popular powders used. Puttu and kadala curry is a popular combination. On the other hand, rice puttu with banana, pappadam, some ghee and sugar, mixed is really a mouth watering combination. In my house Rice puttu and Potato ishtoo is very popular. I could never have enough of this combination. Every one has their favourite combination to have puttu with. The utensil used to cook puttu is called 'Puttukutti'. Here i have used the shell of a coconut to cook puttu in. A half of a coconut shell, to which 3 holes are made in the bottom. This will allow the steam to pass through.

Ingredients

1 cup - Rice flour
1/2 cup - Freshly grated coconut
Pinch of salt
water as required
1/2 cup - Extra grated coconut

Method

1 ) In a pan, add rice flour and dry roast lightly. Stirring continuously. The white color of the rice flour should change very lightly. Take care not to burn the powder. Cool the powder.

2 ) To the rice powder, add 1/2 cup of the grated coconut, mix and rub in with the rice flour. Dissolve salt in half a cup of water. Sprinkle this water on the rice flour, little at a time and with hand mix the flour. Repeat sprinkling water till the flour is wet.

3 )To know if the mixture is right to start steaming, just take some mixture in the hand and clasp with the palm. If the mixture holds together (like a solid shape, at the same time fall apart, when pressed slightly) you can proceed to make puttu. Otherwise sprinkle little more water.

4 ) Below is a pot shaped utensil with water. Placed on top of the pot is the coconut shell. There is a round steel with holes placed in the bottom of the coconut shell. This will help the contents put in the shell, not to fall out through the holes in the shell. Use a utensil on which the coconut shell can sit tightly.

5 ) Place the utensil on the stove. Fill half the utensil with water and boil the water. Meanwhile, in the coconut shell place the steel filter. Add some grated coconut, then the prepared rice flour mixture. Fill up the coconut shell fully.



6 ) Place the coconut shell on top of the utensil tightly. Cover the shell with lid. Steam for 5 to 10 minutes. Steam will come out, from the top of the coconut shell. Once the puttu is cooked. Take the coconut shell off the utensil, invert it to a serving plate. Puttu will come off the coconut shell.

Serve hot and enjoy puttu with your favourite combination of curry. Try with potato kurma and pappadam....or with egg curry

{ Don't be scared, seeing the lengthy explanation......it's not really all that complicated to make the simple and humble puttu :-) }

Wheat Puttu

Use one cup wheat flour instead of rice flour and follow the same method as above. With wheat flour, you have to be careful not to sprinkle too much water. It can end up becoming a dough, instead of a wet mixture.

You can serve with kadala curry, Erachi /Mutton curry or just have it plain with some pappadam.

Rawa Puttu

Making this puttu takes a bit more longer time, since there is two steps to follow to get a soft rawa puttu.

Ingredients are same as listed for rice puttu. Instead of rice flour, use one cup of rawa or cream of wheat.

Method

1 ) Dry roast the rawa lightly. Take off the stove and cool.

2 )Wet the rawa well by sprinkling water and mixing with hand.

3 )In the first step, steam the wet rawa. Take the wet rawa mixture and fill it into the puttukutti ( the utensil to steam ) and steam for 5 to 10 minutes, till a steady steam is coming from the top of the lid.

4 ) Push out the steamed rawa puttu to a plate. Then break and crumble the puttu to a powder form with a spoon. Let it cool a bit, then sprinkle more water and mix the mixture well.

5 )In the Second step, layer and fill the puttu kutti or coconut shell. First with some grated coconut and then with the rawa mixture.

6 ) Place the Puttu kutti or coconut shell on the utensil with boiling water and steam for 5 minutes, as in above pictures. Take off the stove and serve in a plate.

This is a bit longer method to follow.....but in the end you get a very soft rawa puttu. Taste more or less like rawa upma minus all that oil and other ingredients in upma.

Tags : Indian cooking , kerala puttu

Idi Appam

Ingredients

1 cup - Rice flour
1.5 cup - Water
1 tbsp - oil
1 cup - Grated coconut

Salt to taste

Method

1 ) In a pan dry roast the rice flour till light brown in colour. Take off stove and set aside to cool.

2 ) Boil water,salt and oil together.To the boiling water, add rice flour slowly and keep stirring it. Take off the stove and mix the dough very well. Cool for a while and make small balls of the dough.

3 ) To steam idi appam use idli making tray. Grease the idli tray and add a little grated coconut in each mould.Put the dough balls into the idiappam presser and press into the moulds.

4 ) Steam for 5 minutes . Serve with thick coconut milk which is sweetened with sugar or with vegetable stew or kurma or else with Egg masala curry

Idi appam is a popular kerala breakfast. It's great to have for a brunch, on a sunday and enjoy with family.

Idli, Sambar & Chutney

Presenting a delicious South Indian breakfast.....or it could be a snack for you !
Idli is steam cooked. Steaming the batter made from urad dal (black lentil) and rice to a smooth paste and fermented over night. Its often served with chutney, sambar or the idli podi. This is a great breakfast to start off the day. Very filling and satisfying meal.
Ingredients

1.5 cup - Long grain rice

1/2 cup - par-boil rice
1 cups - Urad dal
1/4 cup - cooked rice
Salt to taste

Method

1) Soak separately rice and urad dal in enough water for atleast 6 hours.

2 ) Grind urad dal in a grinder or blender. Add water little at a time and grind to a smooth paste. Add cooked rice when grinding urad dal .

3) Then grind soaked rice to a smooth paste with water. Mix all the paste together in a utensil and add little salt.

4 ) Rest the batter in a warm place to ferment overnight. The fermented batter will rise 2 to 3 times it's original volume.

5 ) Use the fermented batter to steam idli's in a greased molds of an idli tray.

Serve idli with sambar and chutney.

Sambar recipe without the coconut

Ingredients

1/2 cup - Tuvar dal

1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder

Juice extracted from lemon size ball of tamarind

3 tbsp - Sambar powder ( see below for recipe)

Salt as per taste

Vegetables

2 - drumsticks

6 - lady's finger

2 - brinjals

For Seasoning

1 tsp - mustard seeds

1/2 tsp - Asafoetida

Sesame oil

For garnishing

A few coriander leaves and curry leaves

Ingredients for sambar powder

10 - whole red chilli

1/2 tsp - fenugreek seeds

2 tbsp - coriander seeds

1/2 tsp - asafoetida

1 tsp - Channa dal / bengal gram

1 tsp - Urad dal

Roast all the ingredients together and grind to a fine powder. Store and use as per use.

Method to make sambar

1 ) Pressure cook dal with turmeric powder till done. Mash well and add chopped vegetables. Add salt and let it simmer.

2 ) When the vegetables are almost done add the tamarind juice. Add the sambar powder,when it begins to boil .

3 ) Meanwhile, heat oil and add mustard and asafoetida to it. When seeds begin to sputter pour over the sambar.

Garnish with coriander and curry leaves. Serve with idli, dosa or rice.

Chutney for idli or dosa

Ingredients

1/2 cup - grated coconut

2 tbsp - channa dal

3 - green chilli, slit in center

5 - curry leaves

3 tbsp - curds

For Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard

4 - curry leaves

3- whole red chilli

sesame oil

Method

1 ) Heat oil in a pan and fry green chilli's. Then add curry leaves and channa dal and fry channa dal till crisp. Take off stove and cool.

2 ) In a grinder, add grated coconut and the fried ingredients. Grind adding curd to it and a little water to a smooth paste. Pour to a serving dish.

3 ) Heat oil and add mustard, curry leaves and whole red chilli. Pour the seasoning over the chutney and serve with idli.