Easy - Breezy Breakfasts ~ Onion Dosa

Onion dosas are one more variety of lacy, delicious dosas that I usually resort to, on a lazy weekend. Though these are no - ferment dosas, a little prior preparation is needed. Rice has to be soaked ahead for grinding the batter. I usually soak the rice overnight so that I can prepare the batter in the morning in no time. These dosas redolent with onion flavor can be prepared with the basic ingredients found in any Indian kitchen and are quite easy and suitable ones for a quick and substantial breakfast.

                         Onion Dosas served with Mango - Ginger pickle

For a dozen dosas, one would need -
1 cup rice
4 medium sized onions
1/2 to 1 cup grated, fresh coconut (if using frozen, thaw before using)
Salt to taste
Oil to make dosas (canola or peanut)
A griddle

Preparation:
Soak rice in water for at least 3 - 4 hours or overnight. Peel and chop onions into big chunks. Grind together rice, onions, coconut and salt into a batter of dosa consistency, adding water as needed.

Making dosas:
Heat a griddle or a shallow pan. Sprinkle a few drops of water on the hot pan. If the water sizzles, the pan is ready. Take a ladle full of batter, pour it onto the griddle and lightly spread with the backside of the ladle. Pour about half a tsp of oil around the edges of dosa, cover the griddle with a lid and let it cook on medium flame. When the dosa turns browner (the side closer to the griddle), flip it and again pour another 1/4 - 1/2 tsp oil around the edges and let it cook for a minute and remove it. Repeat the same with the remaining batter.

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Authentic Andhra Meals ~ Dosakaya Pappu

Like a true Andhrite, I would drool over the mere mention of the word 'pappu' though I happen to eat it once or twice a week. Some pappus happen to be favored universally where as some happen to be personal favorites. Mamidi, gongura and dosakaya pappu happen to fall in the former category and so mentioning that how much I like this particular one is nothing but a reiteration.
Dosakya - the tangy cucumber available locally is the soul of this dish. The regular, green cucumbers / keera can be substituted in absence of dosakaya but the flavor / taste offered by the latter would be missing.

Ingredients for dosakaya pappu to serve 6:
1 cup - Toordal
1 dosakaya / cucumber - peeled and cubed (about 2 cups). Remove the seeds only if they are not tender.
1/8 tsp Turmeric powder
2.5 tsp - Salt
1.5 tsp - Chili powder
A small ball of tamarind - soaked in water and pulp squeezed
For tadka: 2 tsp oil, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, few curry leaves and a little asafoetida powder
Minced cilantro/kothimira for garnish (optional)



The cooking part:
1. Wash the toordal in two exchanges of water. Add toordal, cucumber cubes, turmeric and 2 cups of water to a container, place it in a pressure cooker and cook till you hear about 3 -4 whistles. If dal takes longer to cook, then cook dal and the cucumber cubes separately since the latter turns mushy easily.
In the absence of a pressure cooker, the dal can be cooked on stovetop in a sauce pan or a thick bottomed vessel on low to medium flame adding water as needed, till the dal reaches a fall - apart stage.
2. Remove the dal container when valve pressure is gone. Add salt, chili powder and tamarind puree to the dal mixture and mix well. Switch on the stove and bring it to a boil. Then on low setting, allow it to simmer for a couple of minutes more.
3. Meanwhile, in a small sauté pan, heat the oil and add all the tadka ingredients. When they start to sizzle, remove them and add it to the cooked dal / pappu and mix well.
4. Garnish with cilantro, if using.

Serve with hot rice and a tsp of ghee for a true Andhra meal experience.

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Quick Subzis ~ Cucumber Subzi / Dosakaya Koora

Using dosakaya to prepare koora (subzi) is a mundane thing in traditional Andhra cooking. In the absence of those, my mother happens to substitute regular cucumbers that taste unique in their own way. Pairing with besan is one of the easiest and tastier ways to cook these cucumbers and this is how she does it.

Ingredients to serve 4:
1 cucumber - peeled & finely diced, about 2 cups
Besan - about 2 Tbsp
Salt & chili powder - 1 tsp each
For tadka: 2 -3 tsp oil, 1 tsp chanadal, 1 tsp mustard seeds, few curry leaves and 1/8 tsp turmeric powder

Cooking part:
Heat oil in a non-stick pan/ kadai and add the tadka ingredients in the order mentioned. When chanadal starts to turn reddish, add the cucumber pieces and salt. Stir the ingredients once and then cook covered on low - medium flame till done. Keep stirring in between.
After the cucumber turns tender, add the chili powder and besan. Mix them well and cook till the raw smell of besan disappears. This would take a couple of minutes. Turn off the stove.
Serve with hot rice and a tsp of ghee as part of a Andhra meal.

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Ammamma Vantalu - Vadiyala Pulusu

Ammamma Vantalu - Grandmother's Cooking

When we were recently exchanging recipes, my mother casually mentioned about some dishes she had while growing up that I was not aware of. Such one simple dal recipe of my ammamma (maternal grand mother) caught my attention and here it is.
To sum up, vadiyala pulusu is a simple one spiced up with fried minapappu vadiyalu. Though my grandmother prepared this vadiyala pulusu only when she ran out of vegetables, we liked it very much and from now on, this is going to appear at our table frequently.

Ingredients to serve 4:
1/2 cup toordal
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
A handful of minapappu vadiyalu / uraddal vadi
Salt to taste
Chili powder to taste (about 1 to 1.5 tsp)
Lime sized tamarind (Soak the tamarind in a cup of water for about 30 minutesor nuke it in a microwave along with little water for about a couple of minutes. Squeeze the tamarind well with your fingers or put through a sieve and collect the thick pulp. Throw away the husks & residue.)
For tadka: 2 tsp oil, 1 tsp each mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin seeds, a pinch of asafoetida powder and a few curry leaves
Oil to fry vadiyalu



The cooking part:
* Wash the dal in two changes of water. Cook the dal with turmeric powder and about a cup of water in a pressure cooker till done.
* After the valve pressure is gone, remove the dal and add salt, chili powder, 3 Tbsp (or as needed) tamarind puree and mix well. Add water to bring it to sambhar consistency. Taste and adjust the salt/tamarind if needed. Bring it to a rolling boil, turn down the heat and let the sambhar simmer for about a couple of minutes more.
* Meanwhile, heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds & cumin seeds to it. When mustard seeds start to pop, add the asafoetida & curry leaves and turn off the stove. Add this to the sambhar and mix well.
* Heat about 1/4 cup of oil in a small wok / pan. Add the vadiyalu and toast them till they brown. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain.
* Add the fried vadiyalu to the cooked pulusu and mix well.

Serve immediately with hot, steamed rice and a tsp of ghee.

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Spicy, Curry Leaves Powder / Karivepaku Podi

Most of the South Indian backyards are adorned with a curry leaf tree since the curry leaves happen to be vital to the local cooking. There is absolutely no substitute to these highly aromatic leaves and no other ingredient in any kitchen can impart that much flavor to a dish and make it extra special.
The leaves are appetizing and said to have digestive properties. These flavorful, fragrant leaves are combined with spices and dals to prepare this delicious karivepaku podi. Elders in our household believe that a meal started with karivepaku podi - rice combo is good for minor stomach ailments, especially in the case of little kids.

Spicy, curry leaves powder / Karivepaku podi:



In Telugu, curry leaves are called karivepaku which literally means black neem leaves.

Ingredients required:
2 cups curry leaves
1/4 cup chanadal
1/4 cup uraddal (can reduce by 1 Tbsp)
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
A few peppercorns (optional)
10 red chilies (quantity depends upon the spiciness preferred)
A small ball of tamarind or to taste
Salt to taste
2 - 3 tsp oil

The 'How' part:
Heat oil in a sauté pan and add chanadal and uraddal to it. Sauté them on low flame. When they start to turn reddish, add coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds, pepper and chilies in that order and toast them as well. Finally add curry leaves and toast them till they turn crisp. Turn off the stove and add tamarind to it. Cool the mixture. Coarsely grind it adding salt in a blender and store it in an airtight container.
Serve this podi with hot steamed rice and a spoon of ghee for a heavenly experience.

Note: If preparing in small quantity, lemon juice can be substituted for tamarind. However, it doesn't have a longer shelf life.

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Announcing 'Baking from the Book' event

I am glad to announce that Champa’s ‘Baking from the Book’ event has come to Veggieplatter, this month. I am guest hosting the event and inviting fellow foodies to join in.
As the name suggests, this event is all about baking and the recipe has to come from a book. I have chosen not to go with any theme for this event and so any recipe you want to try from a baking book is welcome.

Guidelines to participate in the event are as follows.
* Bake anything you like from a book and post it in your blog in the month of June, 2010. All vegetarian / vegan recipes are welcome. Eggs are allowed.
*  If possible, send me a picture including the final dish and the front cover of the book you used. This is entirely optional.
*  Please provide a link to this page and Champa’s main announcement page.
* Please send me an email notifying about your entry at toveggieplatter@hotmail.com with the subject name 'Baking' and the following details - your name, blog name, recipe name & URL and a picture of 400 pixel size.
* Non bloggers are welcome to send in entries.
* Multiple entries and entries submitted to other events are welcome.
* Deadline to send in entries is June 30, 2010.

Don on those caps, take out the book / your recipe journal, bake and send it to me. I am looking forward for your enthusiasm and participation. :)

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Cardamom Cookies & Pomegranate - Cucumber Raita

I was kind of busy and am posting for a couple of events at the last moment.
Here are cardamom -  flavored cookies, which tasted like butter cookies we used to eat in India and our family favorite, pomegranate - cucumber raita.

Cardamom Cookies:



These cookies are based on vanilla hearts from Emma Patmore's 'Cookshelf baking'.

Variation:
I made some jumbo cookies instead of shaping them into small sized hearts, used cardamom powder for flavoring and added milk to form the dough.
The cookies were a shade darker since I was distracted in between.

Ingredients for about 5 jumbo cookies:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1 tsp cardamom powder
4 Tbsp milk or as required

* Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and rub in the butter with fingers until the mixture is well combined.
* Stir in the sugar, milk and cardamom powder and bring the mixture together to make firm dough.
* Roll out the dough to about 1 inch thickness and cut out into desired shapes using a cookie cutter.
* Arrange them on a greased cookie sheet and bake them in a preheated oven at 350 deg F.
* Bake them for about 20 - 25 minutes or until they attain a light golden color. Flip the cookies halfway through the baking process.

This goes to 'Baking from a Book' - Cookies event hosted by
Champa.

Pomegranate - Cucumber Raita:
I am reposting this for Siri's 'Healing foods' event, which is being hosted at Apu's this month, with the theme Pomegranate.



Recipe can be found here.

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Rubbina Pulusu / Rubbina Sambhar

After a long time, I got to taste rubbina pulusu - a child hood favorite dal preparation of mine yesterday. My parents are here visiting us and I got to taste my mother's food after a long time and needless to say that I cherished each morsel of it. Right now I am busy catching up with my mother that I am not blog hopping much. :)
This rubbina pulusu can be loosely described as another variation of the famous South Indian sambhar. Though spices are used both in sambhar and this dal preparation, how they are used makes all the difference. While the spices are toasted and ground dry in the sambhar case, rubbina pulusu uses the wet paste of spices and this variation makes these two dals entirely different taste / flavor and texture wise.
Unlike sambhar, this dal should be on the thicker side. The ground paste of spices - coconut forms a delicious, thicker sauce / base to the preparation and so a small quantity of toor dal is enough to prepare this dish. The fresh ingredients used in this pulusu makes it a delectable dal. I personally prefer this rubbina pulusu any day to sambhar.

In Telugu, rubbina means ground and pulusu is dal.

 


Ingredients to serve 6-8:
1/2 cup toordal
1 cup chopped vegetables (I used carrot, beans, potato, chayote, peas) + 2 tomatoes
1/8 tsp turmeric powder
2 Tbsp chanadal
1 Tbsp uraddal & coriander seeds each
15 byadagi chillies
3 Marathi moggu
3 cinnamon pieces
3 Tbsp shredded coconut
A big marble sized tamarind
Salt to taste
For tadka: 2 Tsp oil, 1 tsp each mustard seeds & cumin seeds, curry leaves, a pinch of asafoetida

The cooking process:
* Wash the toordal and throw away the cloudy water. Then add toordal, vegetables, turmeric powder and about a cup of water to a container. Place the container in a pressure cooker and cook.
* Soak the tamarind in little water.
* Meanwhile, Add chanadal and uraddal to a small sauté pan and toast on medium flame. When they start to turn reddish, add coriander seeds, cinnamon pieces, moggu, chilies to the pan and toast them as well. Allow them to cool.
* Grind the toasted spices, coconut, tamarind into a paste adding water as needed.
* Add the ground paste, salt to the cooked dal - vegetable mixture. The consistency of this dal should be thicker. Add some water if needed. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
*  Heat oil in a small sauté pan and add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. When mustard starts to pop and cumin starts to sizzle, add asafoetida & curry leaves and turn off the stove.
* Add the tadka mixture to the cooked dal and mix well.

This goes to my 'Delicious dals from India'.

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Simple Chole

I would go with this simple chole, when I am not in a mood for a concoction of spices . I find the flavor offered by coriander powder suffices the need.  

Ingredients for 4:
1 cup Garbanzo beans / chana - soaked overnight or at least 8 -10 hours and cooked
2 Onions - peeled and chopped
2 Tomatoes - chopped
1 tsp Coriander powder
1/2 to 1 tsp Chili powder (depending upon the spiciness preferred)
Salt to taste
Minced cilantro for garnish
For tadka: 1 Tbsp oil, 1 tsp cumin seeds

The cooking part:
Heat oil in a sauté pan and add cumin seeds. When they start to turn a shade darker, add the chopped onion and fry on low - medium flame till they turn translucent. Then add diced tomato and fry till it turns into a mush.
Grind a handful of cooked chana with water in a blender till smooth.
Then add this ground chana along with the remaining cooked chana, coriander powder, chili powder and salt to the onion - tomato mixture. Add water to the desired consistency. Bring to a rolling boil and then turn down the stove. Gently simmer for a couple of minutes more and turn off the stove.
Garnish with minced cilantro and serve with rotis.

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Eggless, Orange Flavored Berry Pancakes and Banana Sandwich

Here are 'not so sweet' whole wheat, orange flavored, berry pancakes that both kids and adults can enjoy.



Ingredients for 6 pancakes:
1 cup wheat flour
About 1.5 cup orange juice (at room temperature)
1/2 cup dried berries, roughly chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar (optional)
Oil / ghee / melted butter to drizzle

The cooking part:
Mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder. Gradually add the juice and whisk to form a lump free batter. Then gently combine the berries.
Heat a griddle or a shallow pan. Pour 1/4 cup batter and spread gently into a 4 - 5 inches circle. Drizzle a few drops of oil around the edges. Let it cook on low flame, covered. Cooking on low flame is important. When it appears cooked, flip the pancake and cook for about 30 seconds or a little more when the other side too browns a little bit.
Repeat the same with the remaining batter.

Simple, Whole Wheat Bread - Banana Sandwich:
This is a family favorite and I prefer banana slices with toasted bread as a breakfast when I am feeling lazy. Any nut butter would be a healthy addition if serving kids.



I am sending these over to Priya who is hosting Sharmi's 'Cooking with Kids' event this month, with the theme Whole wheat with fruits.

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