Kanchipuram Dosa

Event: Blogging Marathon #56
Theme: Breakfast
Country: India

I have been noticing this dosa in the web world for years now but never got around making it though I prepare dosa batter quite frequently. The dosa batter being the prerequisite for the recipe. I kept wondering whether the folks at home would love a spicy version of their beloved dosa and stuck to that apprehension until I tried Kanchipuram idli and Azhagar kovil dosai. Surprisingly the two spicy versions were received well at home and they have become a regular feature in my kitchen.

Most of the Kanchipuram dosa versions I found online were similar and so there was no particular source I can link this recipe to. There seems to be another masala version which has piqued my curiosity and is quite different than the regular masala dosa. Now that is for another time and let's come back to Kanchipuram dosas. If one is used to the regular dosa making, then this recipe would come across as a breeze. The batter used here is similar to the regular version except the addition of yogurt and spices to it. Those subtle changes create altogether a different and yummy version that yields soft, spongy and spicy dosas.

Ingredients:
2 cups rice *
1/2 cup urad dal / black gram
1 tbsp. chana dal /split chick peas
1 tsp. methi / fenugreek seeds
1/2 to 3/4 cup yogurt
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
1 to 2 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
1/8 tsp. asafoetida powder
1 tsp. grated ginger
Oil to make dosas (I use canola oil.)

* I used 1 cup of extra long grain rice and 1 cup of idli rice for this dosa. Any Indian variety rice except Basmati can be used.

Dosa batter preparation:
* Rinse rice, urad dal, chana dal and methi thoroughly and soak them in water for at least 3 to 4 hours. Drain before grinding.
* Grind the ingredients into a smooth, thick batter using water as needed. The batter should be on a very thicker side and not be runny.
* Transfer the batter to a container. Add salt and yogurt to the batter and mix well. The spices too can be added to the batter at this stage but I added them just before making dosas.
(The container should be big enough to allow the increase in volume of the batter during fermentation. If the batter is fermented properly, there will be an increase in the quantity of the batter and so always use a container which can hold more than the ground batter.)
* Cover the batter and allow it to ferment overnight or for at least 8 - 12 hours in a warm place depending upon the climate outside. 
* Add turmeric, black pepper powder, ginger and asafoetida to the fermented batter before making the dosas.

Making dosas:
* Heat a griddle / non stick pan on medium flame until a drop of water dropped beads on it.
* Pour a ladleful of batter on the griddle and with the backside of the ladle, gently shape it into a circle. Don't try to spread the batter thinly since these dosas are on a thicker side. Pour ½ tsp. of oil around the edges of the dosas and cook on medium flame until the lower side turns golden brown. Flip the dosa and cook on the other side too if needed. Remove the dosa with a spatula.
* Repeat the process of dosa making with the remaining batter.
* Serve dosas warm with chutney or a side dish of your choice.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 56

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An InLinkz Link-up

Saggubiyyam Dosa / Sago Dosa

My 3 year old niece is close to me despite the distance barriers. She makes sure that the adults at home call me frequently so that she can share the so called 'fun' things happening in her life. I got a similar call from her yesterday and the tiny one was all excited to share the news that she received 4 medals  in her pre-school sports day event, including the one for hosting the event along with her teacher in front of an audience of 100 plus. It is a remarkable feat considering that no one cannot elicit a single word from her in front of strangers though she talks a dozen to dime with those who are in her 'friendly' zone. Everyone at home is usually happy to hear her pleasant chatter and it is hard for us to escape from her charming and strong persona. Even my 16 year old who acts as if he is reclusive and doesn't show an iota of enthusiasm when he wins state and national level competitions at school couldn't escape from the excitement his little cousin was spreading and was chatting away enthusiastically with her sharing her sense of pride. 
My sister was mentioning that her daughter was acting as a mini adult these days and behaving so mature for her age. Gradually the conversation veered towards the food in general and the little one's preferences in particular. It seems that her daughter was bored with the same kind of dosas she was making and asked me for some varieties to rotate. For people who are in the same boat like my sister, here is one dosa made with sago. These dosas taste good when served warm along with a spicy chutney.

Ingredients:
1 & 1/2 cups rice (I used extra long grain rice.)
1/2 cup sago / tapioca pearls (Saggubiyyam)
Buttermilk (Majjiga)
Salt to taste
Oil to make dosas ( Canola / vegetable / peanut oil)

Method:
* Soak rice and sago pearls together for about 4 - 5 hours in water such that they are immersed well in water. Wash and drain the water after the soaking period.
* Grind rice and sago together finely into a thick batter, using butter milk. In absence of butter milk, add equal quantities of yogurt and water.
* Transfer the ground batter to a big container, add salt and mix well. Cover and allow the batter to ferment overnight. (I usually soak the ingredients in the afternoon, grind the batter in the evening.)
* When ready to make dosas, heat a griddle or a shallow pan. Pour a ladleful of batter at the center of the griddle and spread thinly into a 6 inch circle using the backside of the ladle. Drizzle 1/2 tsp oil around the edges and cook until the bottom side of the dosa turns light golden. Flip the dosa using a spatula, drizzle about 1/4 tsp oil around the edges and cook for about 20 seconds and remove.
* Repeat the dosa making process using the remaining batter.
* Serve dosas warm with roasted chickpea / peanut chutney.

This goes to Blogging Marathon #50, under the theme of "One ingredient - Three different dishes". I have decided to showcase three different dishes this week using Sabudana / Sago / Tapioca pearls. Check out the link to find out what other marathoners are cooking.

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Chettinad Cuisine ~ Vellai Paniyaram & Milagai Chutney

This traditional combo dish was an interesting discovery for me during this marathon. I saw them under the list of combo dishes we could try for this month's marathon and straight away got confused these paniyarams with the jaggery version. I kept wondering why there was a spicy chutney to go with the sweet paniyarams and so thought of even asking Valli about them. However I checked online before embarrassing myself and they turn out to be a specialty of Cheettinad cuisine. In fact, they are so popular in the region that they are almost mandatory in all celebrations there, however big or small.

 

I had so far never come across this dish in my real / virtual worlds and so had no idea what a perfectly done end product should like / taste like. And the recipes I saw online kept mentioning that it was a tricky dish to master and so I had very little inclination towards this choice initially. After a little contemplation, I went ahead thinking that if my dish turns into a disaster, I still can use the remaining batter to make dosas without any regrets. I guess I have met with success to an extent and they tasted like fried, soft dosas / poories. And hopefully I achieved the expected curvy border too to an extent. Experts can correct me if I am wrong and share some helpful tips. :)

 

I noticed that how the ingredients measured traditionally for paniyaram preparation is also interesting. A cup is filled with rice and then leveled off  (use a knife if preferred or can be done with fingers). Then urad dal is heaped over rice, as much as the cup can hold. Most of the recipes mentioned urad dal and rice proportions to 1:4 but the traditional method uses a little less urad dal. 

 

Ingredients for paniyaram:

1 cup rice (I used extra long grain rice)

3 tbsp. urad dal 

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

 

Method:

* Wash rice and urad dal in two exchanges of water and soak for at least 3 hours. Drain and grind the ingredients adding water as needed, to form a batter like of dosa consistency. Transfer the batter to a bowl and add salt to it. Mix well and set aside. If your batter is too thick, add a tbsp. or two of milk to dilute it.

* Heat oil in a wide sauce pan. The heat should be medium and the oil should not be very hot as it happens when frying Indian savories. The oil should be medium hot through out the process.

* Pour a small ladleful of batter into the oil.

* Now immediately take the spatula (that you are going to use to fry the paniyarams), dip into the hot oil and start pouring the oil along the edges of the dough circle you formed. You start noticing the curves forming along the border.

* Then gently fry the paniyaram and it bloats up like a puri.

* When it is cooked, flip it and fry for few more seconds. Remove and transfer on to absorbent towels. No need to fry until golden brown. They should remain white.

* Repeat the steps with the remaining batter.

 

Traditionally these paniyarams are served with spicy milagai chutney. This chutney is almost similar to Rayalaseema's erra karam.  

 

Ingredients:

2 onions

1 plum tomato

2 red chillies (Instead I added 4 Byadagi chillies for color.)

Salt to taste

1 Tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

Few curry leaves  

 

Method:

* Peel and chop the onions into big chunks. Cut tomatoes into big chunks.

* Blend together onions, tomatoes, salt and red chillies in a food processor to a paste.
* Heat oil and add mustard seeds and curry leaves. When mustard seeds start to splutter, add the onion paste. Saute until the raw smell of the onion disappears. Turn off the stove and transfer to a bowl.
* This can be served with paniyarams / idlis / dosas.

This is my post under "Combo Dishes" theme for BM#36. Check here to know what other marathoners are cooking. 

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Kuzhi Paniyaram / Guntha Ponganalu

 

Soft and spongy ponganalu / paniyaram can be a perfect mess-free lunch / snack item for kids since they don't even need a side dish. They happen to be one of my son's favorite lunch box item since his kindergarten days. When he was young, I just used to pack them, cut in halves along with a fork and the box used to come empty. Of course now he is older and I pack a side dish too.

I follow my mother's recipe usually but previously during one of the marathons I had come across this recipe. I was intrigued to see idli rice and sago in the recipe and had tried it immediately. Trust me, this recipe is a keeper. I was so glad that I thought of giving this recipe a try. It yields soft, flavorful and very tasty paniyarams.

Ingredients:

1 cup idli rice

1/2 cup raw rice (I used extra long grain rice)

1/4 cup sago / sabudana

1/4 cup skinned black gram / urad dal

1 tsp fenugreek seeds / methi seeds

Salt to taste

2 onions - peeled and finely chopped

2 tbsp minced coriander leaves

For seasoning / tadka:

2 tsp oil, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tbsp chana dal, 1 tbsp urad dal, few minced curry leaves and 2 minced green chillies if not serving kids

Method:

* Soak rices, uard dal, sago and fenugreek seeds in sufficient quantity of water for 4 - 5 hours.

* After the soaking period, discard the water, wash the mixture with fresh batch of water. Grind them fine using water as needed to form a thick batter. The batter should not be runny. Add salt and mix well. Allow it to ferment overnight in a warm place or about 8 - 10 hours.

* When ready to prepare paniyarams, heat oil in a small pan. Add mustard seeds, urad and chana dals to the oil. When dals start turning reddish, add the minced curry leaves and green chillies if using.

* Add this tadka, minced onion and cilantro to the fermented batter and mix well.

 

* Heat the ponganalu skillet and add a few drops of oil in each mould. Then fill them with batter.

* Cover the ponganalu skillet with a lid. Turn down the heat and cook for about 5 minutes or till the ponganalu batter doesn't appear raw.

* Then flip them, add a drop or two of oil and cook till the other side lightly browns as well.

* Repeat the process with the remaining batter. Serve warm paniyarams with chutney.  
They store well in refrigerator for 2- 3 days. And they freeze well too for a handy breakfast on a busy work day.

This is going to be my contribution to "Mess-Free Kids' Snack / Lunch Dishes". Check what other marathoners are cooking at BM #34.

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Sanna ~ Mangalorean Idlis

Blogging comes across as a rewarding experience whenever I get a chance to try out a new recipe - a recipe that turns out great and  satisfies our palates beyond our expectations. A recipe that I have pretty slim chances of trying out personally, if not for blogging. My interest is piqued more when the recipe is an authentic, traditional one and the blogger appears to have a local knowledge about the recipe in a true sense unlike the cookbook authors. That's what happened when this month's Indian Cooking Challenge "Sanna" was announced. We got introduced to a new recipe which I am going to cherish forever.
The recipe came from Shireen's blog Ruchik Randhap , sannas being a speciality from Mangalore / Goan regions. Practically my whole life in India was spent in Karnataka but still I had never heard of "sanna". The reason being the differences between Bangalore and Mangalore / Konkani cuisines are as wide as chalk and cheese. Now I have heard about it, I am  wondering how to pronounce the name. :)

 

Now coming to what sannas are, they can be loosely translated as cousins of fluffy, soft idlis - another speciality of the south Indian region. Rice - urad dal mixture is ground and fermented like idlis albeit the sanna recipe uses yeast / toddy / arrack to ferment. And needs less time to get fermented when compared to idlis, given that it is warm outside or the batter is fermented in a warm place. And one more pronounced difference is that the sannas are steamed in ramekins called gindul and steamed in a special steamer called tondor. In absence of those, one can use any stainless steel / aluminium small cups and a steamer / pressure cooker. Idli stand should work too but I am guessing the shapes of idlis / sanna vary slightly. Preparing sanna is a breeze if you know how to make idlis. Even if you haven't, the detailed pictorial description below should give you a decent idea. It is not really hard as it sounds.

It was mentioned that the batter left overnight to ferment turns sour. Owing to the weather I have in my neighborhood, I can never get the batter ready for breakfast at 6 am in the morning. What I did was soaked the ingredients overnight, ground the batter around 7 am in my wet grinder and had the batter ready by 11 am so that I could have my sannas for lunch. The extras I refrigerated and again steamed them for few minutes next day morning for breakfast. They taste fresh and good as a new batch. Preparing them in advance for next day's breakfast sounds sensible.

Ingredients: (yield a dozen)
3/4 cup parboiled rice (I used idli rice.)
1/4 cup raw rice (I used extra long grain rice.)
2 Tbsp / a fistful skinned black gram (urad dal)
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar (for yeast solution )
2 - 3 Tbsp tepid water(for yeast solution)
Salt to taste
1 tsp sugar

Note: I have noticed that parboiled rice and idli rice are not one and the same though par boiled rice is called idli rice. Parboiled rice is slender, and beige / creamish colored while the idli rice pictured below is short and white. Correct me if I am wrong and those two rices are the boiled and unboiled versions of the same rice.

I was skeptical initially about the yeast and was worried about the smell it may impart to the dish. However after trying out the recipe which indeed yields true kind of fluffy, light, soft sannas, the light yeast odor was negligible. I was mostly worried about my husband's response as he is a great fan of idlis. To my surprise, he was the one who enjoyed them most saying that they were really good. We had them with chutney and sambhar.

Preparing the batter:
* Soak rices and urad dal separately for a minimum of three hours. 
Throw away the water used to soak and wash them once with fresh batch of water. 

(I soaked the ingredients together overnight. I usually soak all the ingredients together while preparing idli / dosa batters. It doesn't make a difference whether you soak/grind them separately or individually as long as the final battter is ground fine.)

* Grind dal and rice finely, adding water only as much as needed. The batter should be like a thick dosa batter and not runny. You can grind the dal and rices individually but I ground them together. Collect the batter into a container big enough to hold it when it ferments and more than doubles.

* Combine sugar and yeast to a bowl and add tepid water to it.  Allow it to stand for about 10 minutes. By the time, the yeast ferments and the solution turns frothy. Stir once to make sure that the yeast is dissolved.
* Stir and add the yeast mixture to the batter. Then add salt and sugar and mix well.

* Cover the batter and allow it to ferment undisturbed for a couple of hours in a warm place. ( I hardly had around 15 deg C temperature outside when I prepared the batter. I left the batter in my convection oven only leaving the light on. Please note that I did not turn on my oven. It took about 4 hours for the batter to ferment but what I gathered is that it takes only a couple of hours to ferment in warm climates.)
Just notice how the batter more than doubled after fermentation and so remember to use a big container.

Now the important tip. Don't try to stir the batter once it is fermented. If you try to do it, the sannas may turn out flat. This is how the fermented batter looks - light and fluffy.

* Pour enough water into a steamer or pressure cooker. Grease the ramekins  / small cups and spoon the batter, just filling them up to half. (I found just placing the cups on my idli plates easier for steaming.)

* Place them in a steamer and steam them on low for 15 - 20 minutes. Turn off the stove and remove them after about ten minutes.  
* Gently run a sharp spoon around the edges and unmold the sannas.

Shireen mentioned that the sannas are usually a part of festivities and they can be served along with sambhar / chutney just like idlis or with any vegetarian / non vegetarian curries or even with sweetened coconut milk. They can be dunked in evening coffee / tea or left overs can be used as a snack by deep frying them. Or sweeter or savory versions of sanna can be made too.

 

Phew, I didn't foresee this turning out to be such a long post. :)

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