Egg Dosa

Egg Dosa

Follow the same procedure for Dosa Batter and Errakaram as I have explained in Masala Dosa recipe.

Method:

Heat the pan and when it is hot enough, spread the dosa batter and immediately break an egg and spread it accross using spatula or fork as shown below

Dosa with egg spread

Drizzle some oil.  When it gets fried turn to other side and allow the egg to cook for a minute. Now turn the dosa back and apply Errakaram and serve hot.

Egg Dosa with Errakaram

Ulli Pesarattu (Green gram dosa with Onion)

Ulli Pesarattu

Ingredients

Whole green gram (Pesalu) - 1 cup
Rice - 2 tblsp
Ginger - 1 inch
Onion - 1 cut into small pieces
Green chilli - 2 cut into small pieces

Method:

Soak green gram and rice for 3-4 hours and grind into paste along with salt and ginger.

Green gram, rice and ginger

Heat a deep pan and add one tsp of oil. When the oil is hot add chopped onion and green chili and fry for 2 minutes using a dash of salt until translucent. Those who like raw onion, no need to fry.

Heat a tawa (Griddle), when it hot pour a laddle full of batter and spread it in circular motion. Sprinkle some oil and fry until it turns to gold colour. Flip to other side until it gets cooked. Turn it back and sprinkle the onion chili mixture.

Gongura Pullakura / Sorrel curry

This is one of my favorite tangy recipes. I always prefer to eat this with biryani or any other spicy rice. This is one of the best combinations for biryani. Not only that, this literally tastes more on the next day.

Ingredients:

Gongura leaves / Sorrel – 2 cups
Tomato – 1 Medium size cut into big pieces
Onion – 1 cut into big pieces
Tamarind – ½ lemon size
Green chillies – 8
Rock salt – 1 tsp

For tempering:
Garlic cloves – 3
Mustard +Cumin – 1 tsp
Chana daal – 1 tsp
Red chilli – 2

Fresh and tender home grown sorrel leaves

Method:

Heat a kadai / deep pan with one spoon of oil. When the oil becomes hot add gongura (Sorrel) leaves, onion, tomato, green chilies. Stir every thing and close the lid for 1 minute. Now add ¼ cup of water and close the lid. Stir occasionally until every thing is cooked and the water is evaporated completely. Remove it from the fire. Add rock salt and mash every thing into paste using pappuguthi (Wooden pastle). You can even use stone pestle or any similar thing. If you don’t have any thing, you can give a sturdy whisk with wooden spoon. Rock salt will enhance the taste. Not only that, it will make easy to mash the things due to its rocky nature.

For tempering:

Pound the garlic cloves (This will reveal the extra aroma which is not the case when you cut them into pieces)

Heat another small kadai(Pan) with 1 tblsp of oil. Add mustard + Cumin, when they start sizzling, add red chilli, chana daal and garlic and fry for 1 min.

Seasoning for Gongura pullakoora

Add the seasoning to the mashed gongura mixture. A nice treat for biryani or plain rice.

Gongura pullakoora

Masala Dosa

Masala Dosa

I still remember those olden days where my mom used to prepare the batter using Stone mortar (Rubbu roolu). Due to the heavy work involved in the preparation of dosa, and the size of the family (3 of our paternal uncles (babais) used to live with us) we used to get the feast once in a month only. Thanks for the technology and the evolution of many kitchen gadgets which makes women's life happy.

Bottom line – No matter how good the technology is, the taste of the batter prepared using the latest mixer grinders is no where close to the one prepared using old style Stone mortar.

Coming back from nostalgia, lets peep into the preparation of spicy masala dosa. To accomplish this you need to have Erra karam (Onion chutney), Aalu koora (Potato curry), pappula podi (Roasted channa dal powder)

For Dosa Batter

1 Cup – Urad dal

4 cups – Rice

Fistfull of cooked rice (Though optional, helps in quick fermentation)

Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp (gives dosa rich gold colour)

Soak all the above for about 6 hours and grind into smooth paste. Ferment it for 8 – 12 hours.

What I normally do is I will soak every thing first thing in the morning before I rush to work. When I come back I will grind it and leave it for fermentation until next day morning. You can refrigerate the batter once it is fermented. Do not leave outside for long if you are living in hot countries like India or even during summer in cooler places like US, UK.

For Chickpea powder

Roasted chickpea - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Grind roasted channa with cumin seeds and salt into reasonably fine powder and keep it ready for masala dosa.

For Erra karam (Onion chutney)

Onion and Red Chilli

Onions Medium – 2 ( I prefer Indian Onion as this tastes better)

Dry Red Chillies 4– 5 (As per your taste) – You can also substitute this with chilli powder, obviously the taste differs.

Tamarind paste – ¼ tsp or Tamarind 1 inch (Optional, but this will help to reduce the raw flavour)

Salt

Grind all the ingredients coarsely. To achieve this you need to switch the power on for less than a minute. Turn off, stirr the contents and start again. Need to repeat this until you get it done coarsely.

Errakaram

For Potato curry

Potatoes Medium – 4 -5
Onion Medium – 2 Cut length wise
Green chilli – 4-5 grind into paste
Tomato – 1 chopped
Oil – 3 tbsp

For tampering - Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, channa dal, Curry leaves, turmeric.

Boiled and mashed potato, onion, tomato, chillies

Method: Boil the potatoes, peel and roughly mash into small chunks and keep it aside

Heat a pan with oil. When the oil is hot, fry chana dal along with mustard, cumin and curry leaves. Then add onion, Chilli paste and salt and sauté until the onion looks tender. Add the chopped tomato and fry until the tomato becomes mushy. Finally add turmeric and mashed potato and sprinkle bit of water and cover with lid for 2 minutes. Stir once again and remove from the fire.

Ready to go for masala dosa

To prepare dosa, take full laddle of batter and spread it in circular motion over the hot pan. Drizzle some oil.When it is done flip into otherside and cook for 1 minute. Flip the dosa back and apply errakarm, sprinkle some chickpea powder and drizzle ghee (Clarified butter). Now place the potato masala in the centre and wrap the dosa.

Vuggani / Puffed Rice upma / Borugula upma

                                                 Vuggani with Mirapakaya bajji

Though this is a famous Karnataka recipe, people at rayalaseema, do prepare this a lot. I heard from my hubby that when he was doing his engineering in Karnataka, the restaurants used to serve this recipe as breakfast, lunch and even dinner as well.

Few people do call this as Buggani. We, at our mom’s family simply call it as borugulupma and at athamma’s family Borugula Thiragavatha

Let’s peep into the method of preparing the delicate recipe.

Mind you there are 2 varieties of puffed rice (as far as I know). One prepared from raw rice. Another variety is made from boiled rice. We call them as Vuppu Borugulu.

We need to soak the puffed rice made from raw rice for less time and where as boiled rice for bit more time.

Ingredients

Puffed rice (Murmur) - 1 big bowl (about 200 grams)
Bombay Onion Medium size - 2
Green chillies - 8
Turmeric - ½ tsp
Mustard - ½ tsp
Curry leaves – Hand full
Fresh Lemon juice - 2 tbsp (adjust as per your taste)
Oil - 3 tbsp

Finely chopped coriander – 2 tbsp
Salt as per your taste

For coconut powder
Dry coconut (Cut into thin strips) - Hand full or 3 tbsp
Roasted Chana dal - 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Soak the puffed rice in big bowl of water for about 5-10 min (until they are soft) depending on the variety as I explained above.

2. Take the soaked puffed rice into both the palms and squeeze the water completely and keep it aside.

                                                    Soaked and squeezed puffed rice

3. Cut the chillies length wise. If they are too long you can even cut them into half. Cut the onions also length wise and make sure onion slices should be thin.

4. Heat a pan and add 3 tbsp of oil. When the oil is hot enough add green chilli first and fry until you get a nice chilli flavour (for about 1-2 mins)

5. Add Onion, salt, Mustard and curry leaves and fry until the onion turns translucent. At the end add turmeric and fry for 1 min or so.

6. I always prefer to add salt along with onions. 2 reasons. a) The onion will get good taste. B) Onion will get fried quickly.

7. Now add the puffed rice to the tampering

8. Add lemon juice and mix gently.

9. Ground the dry coconut and roasted channa dal with pinch of salt.

10. Sprinkle the coconut + chanadal powder and the chopped coriander and mix all together gently and remove from the fire.

The best combination with this vuggani is mirapakai bajji

Nature

Jasmine from our garden

Accidentally I found a snail coming out

Almond and Raisin Semolina Halawa

Semilona halava is one of the most popular desserts served at Hare Krishna (Iskan) temples. Good roasting gives good quality halava.

Semolina, Butter, Sugar, Almond flakes, Raisins

Ingredients:
1 cup coarse semolina
2 cups water
¼ cup raisins
¼ cup Almonds finely chopped
1 cup Sugar (can also substitute this with Jaggery)
6 tablespoons butter

Method:

Combine water, sugar Almond flakes and raisins in a saucepan.
Place over moderate heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar

Bring to a boil, then cover with a lid
Meanwhile melt the butter in another pan over low heat.

Add the semolina and stir fry the grains slowly and rhythmically until they darken without scorching and becomes aromatic.

Pour the hot syrup into the semolina, stirring steadily over the low heat until the grains absorb the liquid, start to form a pudding consistency, and pull away from the sides of the pan.

Cover the pan with a lid and cook over the low heat for 5 minutes.

Turn off the heat and allow the halava to steam for another 5 min.

 Neivedyam for Srikrishna

Almond and Raisin Semolina Halawa