Bread potato rolls

I had some left over bread. Thought of doing some snacks for kids. Instead of making them in the regular circular shape, I made them into oval shape which will be handy for little hands. Served them with loads of salad.

Bread Potato roll served along with salad

Ingredients:

Bread slices - 4 make them into crumbs
Potato - 2 medium sized boiled and mashed
Onion - 1 small, finely chopped
Green Chilli - 2 finely chopped
Coriander - 1 tbsp finely chopped
Crushed Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Salt
Oil to deep fry

Method:

Except oil, mix all the other ingredients with hands in order to bind them well. If necessary, sprinkle some water and make them into rolls.

Heat the oil in a broad pan. When it is hot enough, gently slip the rolls into the oil and fry them till golden.

Serve them with salad or sauce... your choice....

Chapathi / Roti in milk

During the christmas holidays, I was feeling very lazy to prepare the meal in the morning. I was pondering about the ideas to escape from cooking. It just clicked me that I had some chapathis left over from last night meal.

Simplly tear 1 or 2 chapathi / roti into bite size pieces and soak them in warm milk for about 5 to 10 minutes. Just before eating, add some honey and nuts of your choice. Adding honey, dry grapes and nuts will enhance the nutrients. Not only that, they will draw the attention of those fussy eaters as well.

This is a nice substitute for cereals. A healthy breakfast too. Though the ready made cereals are branded as healthy, there are loads of hidden sugars and enormous calories which we ignore them unknowingly.

Idly with left over rice

This is another version of idly where cooked rice is the main ingredient. These are very soft in texture as we use lots of cooked rice.

Idly with left over rice

Ingredients:
Cooked rice – 2 cups
Rice Rava / Idly Rava – 1 cup
Urad daal (with skin)– 1 cup
Salt
Baking soda - 2 pinches

Method:
Soak urad daal for 4 hours
Grind the urad daal and cooked rice to smooth paste by adding enough water.
Wash, drain and add Rava into the ground paste along with some salt and mix every thing with out any lumps. Finally it should form thick creamy consistency.
Leave the batter for 8 hours in warm place to get fermented.
Add baking soda just before making the idly and mix the batter momentarily.
Grease the idly moulds and scoop the batter into each mould and steam for 15 to 20 minutes.

Time Management:
How I do …
Pour about 300 ml of water in the rice cooker or Idly steamer and turn on the heat.
Whilst the water is getting warm, I grease the moulds and scoop the batter into the moulds. Once the moulds are ready, place the mould stand in the rice cooker or idly steamer. In the mean time prepare chutney. Finally hot hot idlys will be served with chutney in less than 20 minutes.

Idly with Sambar and Peanut chutney

Pongal with left over rice

This is another recipe with left over rice. When my family members get bored with lemon rice with left over rice, the next best option for me is to make pongal. Trust me. No one will recognise that this is made with left over rice.

Pongal with left over rice

Ingredients:
Cooked rice – 2 cups
Moong daal (skin less) / Pesara pappu – 1 cup
Green chilli – 2
Grated ginger – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sring
Pepper corns – 1 tsp
Cashew nuts – 8-10
Cumin – 1 tsp
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Salt

Method:
Wash and soak the moong daal in 3 cups of water for about 1 hour.
Now mix the moong daal along with cooked rice and salt. You can either cook this in a pressure cooker or even in normal deep pan. Once it is done, keep it aside.
Melt the ghee in a small sauce pan. Add the cashews, grated ginger, green chili, cumin, pepper corns and curry leaves, one after the other. Saute for a while until cashews turn light golden colour.
Remove from the fire and add this seasoning to the pongal. Stir every thing and serve it hot..

Pongal Vada with Sambar and Coconut chutney

Chiyali

This is made up of with left over idlys. Can be served as it is with out any chutney as this itself good enough containing chilli, salt, lemon and coriander flavours. This is a nice alternative tiffin for those who don't like idlys.

Ingredients:

Idly – 8

Peanuts – 1 tbsp

Onion – 1 Chopped into small pieces

Green chilli – 2

Curry leaves – 1 string

Chopped coriander – 1 tbsp

Lemon juice – 2 tsp

Mustard + Cumin – ½ tsp

Turmeric – ¼ tsp

Salt

Oil – 1 tbsp

 

Method :

Cut each idly into 8 pieces or bite size. Heat a pan with oil. When it is hot enough add Mustard+Cumin. When they start spluttering, add curry leaves and chopped onion. Fry the onion until they slightly become tender. Now add the idly pieces, turmeric and salt. Toss every thing and cover it with lid for less than one minute, so that the idly pieces absorb the flavours.  Remove the lid, toss again and turn off the heat. Drizzle the lemon juice and sprinkle the chopped coriander. Toss again and serve immediately.

Cold idly turned into hot & spicy chiyali

Punugulu, Fritters made with dosa batter

These fritters are prepared with leftover idli or dosa batter. I normally prepare them when the batter is not  enough for the whole family or at least not enough for kids.This recipe is quick and easy to prepare. Unlike the other fritter,s where normally we use the basin / Rice flours with added salt and chilli powder, these punugulu are bit smaller in size and enriched with extra spices like pepper, cumin and coriander seeds grounded into coarse powders along with onion, green chillies and curry leaves.

Punugulu

Ingredients:
Idly / Dosa batter – 1 cup
Maida / Plain flour – 2-4 tbsp
Cumin – 1 tsp
Coriander seeds – ½ tsp
Pepper – ½ tsp
Green chili finely chopped – 1 tsp
Curry leaves
Onion – 1 finely chopped
Salt
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Heat the oil in a pan. Simultaneously coarsely ground the pepper, cumin and coriander seeds and add to the batter along with plain flour, chopped green chili, onion and curry leaves. Adjust adding the plain flour depending on the consistency of the batter which you are using. At the end, the whole mixture should resemble the onion bhaji / cake batter consistency. When the oil is hot enough drop the mixture little by little and deep fry them. Usually the professional chefs use just one fingure to pick and drop the batter into the oil.

Punugulu with hot beverage

Serve them hot. They are light on the stomach unlike the other  fritters which are prepared using basin.

Upma Dosa

This may sound bit funny… but trust me it is worth of trying. Not only that, we can make use of the leftovers in an efficient way.

I got left over upma from the morning breakfast which is not enough for the whole family. At the same time I had left over Dosa batter which is not sufficient either. So, I thought I can mix both and prepare Upma dosa. Yya,,,,, hoo… grand success.

Ingredients:

Upma – 1/2 cup
Dosa batter – 2 - 3 cups

Leftover upma and dosa batter

Method:
Mix upma with dosa batter absolutely with no lumps. Add bit of water if required. Take a ladle full of batter and spread on tava as normal dosa. This is not only tasty but also crispy.

Dosa for our Saturday dinner

 Upma Dosa with Coconut Chutney

Pongal / Pulagam Roti

Pulagam roti

I was bit surprised when I hear about this recipe. The main ingredient of this recipe is, left over Pulagam or Pongal. Easy to make, yet a very good treat for our tongue.
I got some left over Pulagam / Moong daal rice, which I made last night. I thought of doing some pulagam roti as breakfast.

Ingredients:
Pulagam / Pongal - 3cups
Rice Flour – 3 heaped tablespoons
Salt – 1 pinch (Just enough for the rice flour0
Onion – 1 finely chopped
Chilli paste – 1 tsp
Coriander – chopped 1 tbsp

Method:
Mash the pulagam / pongal thoroughly with out any lumps. If you feel rice is bit hard, microwave it for 1 minute or so. It is easy to mash when it is warm. Slowly add rice flour, salt, chilli paste and coriander.

Pulagam, Onion, chilli paste, Rice flour

Mix every thing until if forms like dough consistency.

Divide the dough into equal parts and make round balls.

Heat the tava (Time management), smear each dough ball or even your palm with little oil and start pressing the dough with palm to make it flat and thin like roti.

Either you can use a plastic sheet or wet cloth or even butter paper. I have used butter paper, as I can directly lift the roti along with the butter paper and place on the hot tawa. When the roti is ready, drizzle some oil on hot tava, and gently place the roti and drizzle some more oil on top.

When it is done on one side, turn the roti to other side, drizzle some more oil and allow it to cook.

Serve hot with a dollop of butter.

Pulagam Roti with butter

Potato Stuffed chilli bhaji

There is some left over potato masala from the morning breakfast Masala Dosa. I got some banana pepper sitting in the fridge doing nothing. I thought to prepare stuffed mirchi bhaji with this masala aalo. See Chilli bhaji for the whole procedure.

Potato Masala and the banana peppers

Split the chilli and remove the seeds and blanch. Stuff each chilli with the potato masala and keep them ready.

Prepare the basin batter by adding salt,soda and water. Dip each chilli in the basin batter and deep fry.

Serve them hot.

Stuffed Chilli bhajis with Potato masala.

Chilli bhaji with potato masala

Idly roast

There were few left over mini idlies not eaten by my little one, during morning rush. When I asked him to eat them in the evening, he said Naaaa…So, I have implemented modification.com

Roasted Mini idly

Ingredients:
Mini idly
Grated carrot - 2 tbsp
Chopped capsicum - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves
Mustard seeds
Salt

I have used this special pan (Ponganala penam)

Method:
Smear the moulds with little oil
When it is hot, place the mini idllies into each mould and fry them until golden colour. Turn them and allow frying the other side.

Take a deep frying pan and add 1 tsp of oil.
When it is hot add mustard, curry leaves, grated carrot, capsicum and a pinch of salt. Stir for a minute, still capsicum and carrot should retain their crunchiness
Finally add the roasted idly to the mixture, toss it and serve warm.

Roasted idly - crunchy outside and soft inside