Topi/cone dosa

I used to get fasinated by the conical shaped dosa served in restaurants. 

Though we make dosa at home, I know the batter we make is much softer. 

I was wondering if we experiment on the ratio of boiled rice to whole urad dal and add thick poha will it be possible to get the consistency?

So here is the recipe that I have tried today.

Ingredients

2 cups boiled rice

1 cup whole urad dal

1 tablespoon methi seeds

1/2 cup thick poha/flattened rice flakes

Method

*Wash all the ingredients three times and soak together in a bowl. 

* We are going to use the same water in which the ingredients were soaked. So keep it. 

* Grind to a smooth batter in mixer or grinder by adding little water at a time. 

*Leave the batter on the kitchen counter for fermenting about 8 hours.

*Just before making dosa, mix in the batter with a ladle.

*Heat dosa tawa, pour one or two ladleful of batter, spread into a thin dosa, pour a little ghee or gingly oil, you will notice the edges are crispy and dosa well cooked.

* Flip the dosa, let it cook both sides, take a clean kitchen scissor, cut the dosa in one side till the middle, fold it into the conical shape.

*Serve hot with chutney.

Notes

*Consistency of the batter is very important to get perfect, crispy, topi dosa.

*If you add more water to the batter for making dosa,you will not get the conical shape.

*Here is the result of adding more water while making. So don't make that mistake.

More water in batter and dosa not crispy enough to hold the shape.

Overnight soaked oats and chia

I was listening to a short video on how 80% of people don't eat right. Though we have everything in our kitchen to create great food, we lack nutrients and especially micro and macro nutrients in our meals.

Most of us eat idli sambar but don't eat 50% of our foods in raw form.

I thought for a while, we don't have the habit of eating different kinds of salads as a part of our extremely evolved cusine. 

Taking few baby steps in adding more nutrition in our every day meal, I first started soaking whole moongdal,chana, peanuts and rajma, most of the time allowed it to sprout a little.

Yet we don't have the habit of eating them raw, it's always well cooked and added to different dishes.

Fruits are of course taken in raw form.

Then I started to try different dishes with very less quantity of sprouts with vegetables. 

Adding raw leaves in our salads are a great way to get the nutrition. 

Plus enjoy the seeds which are available in the kitchen, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, chia seeds all have the micro nutrients we need in small quantities.

Overnight soaked oats and chia, pudding,  is a great option when you want to have low carb breakfast.

It takes a few ingredients to prepare this tasty bottle/glass of breakfast.

Ingredients

1 cup milk/ yogurt

2 tablespoons of chia seeds

1 -2 tablespoon of roasted oats

One teaspoon of honey/maple syrup

A pinch of cinnamon

Method

*In a bottle or tall glass add all ingredients, close the lid, leave it on the fridge overnight.

* Add a handful of chopped fresh fruits/ dry fruits just before serving.

*Its quite filling and taste good.

A low carb breakfast option. 

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-benefits-oats-oatmeal

Baked carrots and sweet potatoes

Baking is fun, especially when you enjoy the subtle flavours of garlic and herbs.

Today I will bake sliced red carrots and sweet potatoes with a little olive oil, garlic, salt, mixed herbs and homegrown basil and oregano. Interesting, isn't it?

Baked carrots and sweet potatoes

Ingredients

3 large, long red carrots

2 medium-sized sweet potatoes

5 garlic, peeled and sliced

2 tablespoons of olive oil

Salt as required

1/2 teaspoon of hand-crushed peppercorns

Few oregano and basil leaves, I have used homegrown fresh, you can use dried ones if you want.

Method

*Wash, clean and peel carrots,garlic (optional) cut into thick pieces.

* wash, clean and cut sweet potatoes with it's outer skin into large pieces.

*In a baking tray, spread olive oil add the chopped vegetables, salt, garlic, mixed herbs and fresh herbs. Could you give it a toss? It helps in mixing the veggies with seasonings evenly distributed.

* I have kept it at 200 degrees for 30 minutes. Let's see how it turns out.

Happy baking!

*Bake in 

Oats porridge with vegetables

Oats porridge with vegetables

1cup oats, roast in low flame

5 beans

1/2 a sweet corn

1/2 a carrot

A small piece of cabbage

1 medium onion

A few cauliflower florets

A small piece of ginger grated

One green chilli chopped 

Salt as required

1/2 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns

1tablespoon olive oil 

Method

*Dry roast oats for 5 minutes.

* Pour olive oil in the pan add sliced onion, saute for a minute, add green chillies and ginger.

*Add carrot, beans, cabbage and sweet corn and cook for 5 minutes in high flame.

*Boil one litre(4cups) of water in electric kettle.

*Add oasted oats with cooked vegetables. Mix in.

* Pour hot water to the oats, bring it to boil. Add salt, cook for about 5 minutes, the vegetables and oats will become tender off the stove.

*Pour the porridge into casserole. Garnish with freshly cracked pepper and serve hot.

*Its filling and tastes good.

*Please try and leave a comment.

Matar paneer stuffed puri with Aloo subzi

The beautiful winter mornings and abundance of fresh winter vegetables, the foodie in me is happy spending a couple of hours in the kitchen!

Making those tasty puris is a painstaking job, given the notion round puris! I end up making heart shaped puris!

So here is a technique I tried to make stuffed puris and it was quite successful.

Two small puris, matar paneer stuffing inside.

Cutting the puri into perfect circle.

Remove the excess dough.

Deep fry the stuffed puris.

Stuffed puris making procedure

*Roll out two small puris, place the stuffing in one and place the other puri on top, use rolling pin to slightly roll out.

*Use a circular lid/glass/bowl to cut out the extra dough.

*Gently lift the puris and deep fry in hot oil. Serve immediately.

I will share the recipe for stuffed puri

Ingredients

For the dough

4 scoops whole wheat atta

1scoop maida

Salt as required

A pinch of kolonji

A pinch of heeng

1/2 jeera powder

2 teaspoon gingly oil

For kneading

Water as required to make a solid dough.

Method

In a bowl add all ingredients, sprinkle water a little at a time and make a solid dough. Keep aside.

For the stuffing

2 cups green peas( grind in the mixer into a coarse paste)

2 green chilies, finely crushed

A large piece grated ginger

150 grams paneer crumbled

A few pudina leaves

Two tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves

3 tablespoons of besan(optional)

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder

1/2 'teaspoon coriander powder

1/2' teaspoon cumin powder

Method

In a large bowl add all the ingredients make a soft paneer, matar filling. I have added besan as the filling was little wet. While grinding the matar I have added a few teaspoons of water.To make the filling dry I have to add besan.

The stuffing before kneading.

Now once the puri dough and stuffing is ready we can start rolling out them.

I have made approximately 20 stuffed puris.

Heated peanut oil and deep fried the puris in batches. As each of us ate our breakfast, hot steaming delicious puri served with aloo subzi and red chilli pickle.

Aloo subzi

Ingredients

3mediun sized potatoes (boiled, peeled and cut into cubes)

2 onions, finely chopped

2 green chilies, finely chopped

One piece of ginger grated

A few curry leaves

A tablespoon of chopped coriander leaves

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice extracted from fresh lemon.

For the tadka

One teaspoon ghee

1/4 teaspoon of mustard seeds

1/4 teaspoon of urad dal

1/4: teaspoon of chana dal

Method

*In a pan add oil,add mustard and let it splutter, add urad and chana dal, let it turn into golden brown.

#Noa add chopped onion,ginger and green chilies, saute for a few minutes.

*Add cubed potatoes, salt and turmeric. Mix well, add a cup of warm water and cook until all the vegetables are soft and tender. Off stove garnish with chopped coriander leaves and a little lemon juice. Serve with freshly made puris.

Koftas (Paneer,matar)

Ready to be served with green chutney.

Added matar and other ingredients, it will be made into a coarse dough.

Coarsely grounded matar.

Matar ready for grinding.

Paneer, khoya, matar, bread slices and spices.

The recipe for this easy snack require a few ingredients available at home.

Ingredients 

200 grams paneer grated

100 grams khoya grated

100 grams coarsely grinded matar/green peas

2 green chillies

One small piece of ginger grated

Two tablespoon chopped fresh coriander and mint

Salt as required

4 bread slices

1/2 teaspoon gram masala

1/2 teaspoon coriander powder

1/2 teaspoon jeera powder

2 tablespoons of maida

Water to make a thin batter

Method

*In a large bowl add all the ingredients and make a soft dough. 

*Divide into 20 parts, roll into small balls.

* Heat the appe pan pour oil, allow it to heat up, reduce the flame to medium. 

*In a small bowl mix in maida and water. 

*Dip each small balls in maida batter and slowly put in the hot oil in the appe pan. Cook until it's crispy and mild golden brown.

*Serve with green chutney or you can use it as koftas.

 

Frittata

An Italian egg based breakfast dish called frittata is similar to vegetable omelette. We basically cook all the vegetables first then add beaten eggs to this dish Thus the eggs settle in the bottom then cook the dish in the preheated oven.

Here is the step by step procedure of making frittata.

Slice it before serving.

The test to check whether frittata is done is to gently dip a butter knife. If it comes out without any raw egg sticking it means the frittata is well cooked.

A well baked dish looks very beautiful.

The vegetables are added at each stage. Added 3 more beaten eggs at this stage.

A layer of veggies going into the dish.

The leek, onion and garlic are the first to get mildly sauteed, then pour in beaten eggs.

A quick saute with a dash of salted butter.

Garlic is sauted.

The tray of chopped fresh vegetables.

Four eggs going to get beaten up.

Finely chopped leek.

Preparation in progress.

Frittata

Ingredients

7 eggs

1 leek

10-15 onion shoots

10 button mushrooms

1 tomato

1 onion

1/2 capsicum

3-4 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon of mixed Italian herbs

One handful of shredded cheese

1/2 teaspoon of salted butter

Method 

* cut all vegetables 

*beat eggs with 2 tbsp milk.

*over the stove, on shallow flame heat oil and sautee all garlic and onions and other vegetables. They don't need to be cooked completely.

*Pour in the egg mixture and let it be on the heat just until the edges turn pale white.

*Put shredded cheese on top and some Italian herbs.

*Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes at 180°C until vegetables and egg are cooked.

Recipe by Arundhathi

Picture courtesy: Jayanthi Narayan