Pesarattu

My BM theme this week is Regional Specials - Andhra Pradesh. Check what the other marathoners in BM#6 have come up with, for today.

Today I am posting a recipe that is more popular among Indian bloggers than in the Andhra households itself. J I am just kidding but I have noticed that "pesarattu" and "gongura" are two popular items when bloggers not native to the region are posting about Andhra vegetarian recipes. I therefore initially thought to stay away from "oh, so predictable pesarattus" during this Andhra themed marathon. This weekend I however had second thoughts since this is one of those commonly prepared items in my household that has not yet got the opportunity to shine on my blog (even after four years). What a shame. L

And so here I am with one of those Andhra classic dishes, pesarattlu. Pesara (refers to the pesarapappu / pesalu) means green gram / moong dal and attu means dosa in Telugu. A pesarattu would therefore be a moong dal (whole green gram) dosa and the plural is pesaratlu. It is a power packed, traditional dish to start your day on a healthy note. And one better thing about these delicious dosas is that the batter need not be fermented after grinding. Just soak the dal and rice, grind and you are ready to enjoy protein rich, nutritious atlu for any meal.

Ingredients: (for about 15 dosas)
1 cup moong dal (green gram)
A handful of rice
4 -5 green chillies or to taste (I used Serrano peppers)
One inch piece of ginger
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
Salt to taste
Oil to make dosas
2 onions, finely minced (Entirely optional.)

Preparation of batter:
Soak moongdal and rice overnight or for a minimum of 3 - 4 hours. Discard the water used to soak dal and wash the dal again in one or two exchanges of water. Add the other ingredients (excepting the oil and onion) to the drained dal and grind into a coarse, thick batter adding only as much water needed. The batter should be not runny.

Method:
Heat a griddle / shallow pan. Sprinkle some water on the griddle. If the water sizzles and evaporates, then the griddle is ready to prepare dosas. Pour a ladleful of batter (about 1/2 cup) at the center of the griddle and spread it into a circle. Sprinkle some minced onion over it. Pour 1/2 tsp of oil around the circumference of the spread batter (and also onion if preferred). Flip the dosa after the bottom side is done and spread a few drops of oil again along the edges. Fry the other side too and remove the dosas. Repeat the process with the remaining batter.

Traditionally the dosas are served with allam pachadi / ginger chutney while we went ahead with mango ginger chutney.

This moong dal dish goes to Cook it Healthy - Proteinicious event.
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