Delhi Dosa

                     Wish you all a very happy and Prosperous New year! I hope you all made new resolutions and are sticking on to it!

My search for breakfast ideas is never ending. I am on constant lookout for  different types of dosa as the boys in the house are crazy about it! I have no idea why this dosa is called Delhi dosa. This was shared by a good friend Chitra on a cookery group. The soft pillowy dosa got my attention and I tried it immediately. The dosas were light, soft and super tasty. This is now a frequent item on our breakfast table . These can be served with Vegetable kurma, saagu, batate song,Chutneys , sambar or simple Chutney powder with coconut oil.

Here is what's needed:
2 cups rice
2 fistful of Urad ( I used whole urad)
1 cup of Poha (I used the thin variety)
salt and sugar to taste

Procedure:
Wash rice and urad dal thrice and soak it with poha for 4-6 hours. Grind it to smooth batter with water as needed. Keep the batter in a warm place overnight to ferment. Next morning add salt and sugar to taste. Keep it for five mins.While making dosa make sure that the tawa is hot. Pour a ladle full of batter, let it on high for few seconds then cover and cook on medium to low flame.These dosas need not be flipped but should be covered to ensure that they cook well. Serve hot!

Davangere Benne dose ~ Butter Dosa

I am back to blogging after a long break of almost a year. In between a lot of changes happened and now we are well settled in a new place and loving it.This is an old draft that I am posting.

Our breakfast usually has some dosa most of the time and sometimes the variety of upma or poha. My little boy loves most of the dosas and will happily eat breakfast if dosa is on the menu. He cannot eat very early in the morning during school days with an exception if it is dosa. To make sure he gets his breakfast quota with a glass of milk I make dosas most of the time. Hence I am in constant search for new dosa recipes. One day my hubby causally suggested that I should look for Davangere Benne dose which was his favourite during his college days. The internet world opened up a lot of recipes and I picked one among them. I wish I had saved the link to credit the source. I tried looking up for this recipe again but did not get it. This is an old draft that I am posting hence I have lost the source.Sorry!! This Dosa tasted really good so I had saved it on my phone. Glad that I could get this and share it here. I am not sure if this is authentic recipe for benne dose but we loved it.

Here is What's needed:

2 cups Idli rice/Dosa rice
1/2 cup Urad dal
1/4 tsp methi seeds
1 cup thick Poha
Salt and Sugar to taste
2 tbsp Maida/All purpose flour
Baking Soda a pinch

Procedure:

1) Soak rice, urad dal and methi seeds for 4 hours.
2) Soak thick poha seperately for 15 mins.
3) Grind the batter with soaked dal and poha together to smooth batter.
4) Let the batter ferment in a warm place overnight.
5) Next day morning mix 2 tbsp Maida/All Purpose flour and baking soda with little water to smooth paste and mix it into the fermented batter. Add salt and sugar to taste. Leave for 10 mins and then make thick dosa on hot griddle. Roast one both the sides until golden brown. Add a dollop of butter and Serve hot with Potato curry and spicy chutney.

Paneer Masala dosa

 After a long time I have been able to click pics for the food blog. I have been experimenting a lot with food. Days are busier as I have just enrolled in a teaching course which I am loving a lot. At times I feel that days are flying ahead with wings! Little A is growing up fast too and getting naughtier. Keeps us all busy with his antics. I am loving every moment spent with him.
Coming back to food, whenever we are eating out I prefer to have outside food for lunch or dinner but breakfast I love homemade. I am not big fan of hotel idli's. But if I have to have then I prefer plain paper dosa. I find the other dosa's too oily. For masala dosa's I like the onions in bhaji to be cooked slightly. But I love the colour of hotel dosa's. Thanks to Niya, I can now make such good looking and healthy dosa at home too with much less oil.

Here  is what's needed:
1 cup urad dal
2 cups rice
a fistful of cooked rice
1 tsp methi seeds
Salt & sugar to taste

Procedure:
1) Soak rice, urad dal and methi seeds for 6-8 hours. Grind the soaked rice and dal along with cooked rice to a smooth batter adding sufficient water.
2) Add salt to taste. Let it ferment overnight. Next morning add a tsp or two of sugar. Mix well.
3) Heat a tawa and pour a ladle full of batter. Spread uniformly. Roast on one side by adding a little oil.Serve hot with chutney of your choice.

With the left over batter I made some Paneer dosa for us.It is very simple to make and tastes great. A change from the regular potato masala dosa.

Here is what's needed for the masala:
200 gms paneer chopped into small cubes
1 capsicum chopped
2 onions chopped
1 tomato chopped
1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp garam masala and kitchen king masala
a pinch of turmeric powder
11/2 tsp red chilli powder
a generous pinch of kasuri methi
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
coriander leaves to garnish

Procedure:
1) Heat oil. Add cumin seeds when they splutter add the chopped onions and ginger garlic paste. Fry well until transparent.
2) Add chopped capsicum and cook. Add chopped tomatoes and cook further.
3) Add in the spice powders one by one. Add salt, chopped paneer pieces and cook further until all the paneer pieces are uniformly coated with the masala. Add kasuri methi. Mix well. Switch off the flame and garnish with corainder leaves.

This can be served with chapathi or with dosa's too.

To make Paneer masala dosa:
1) Spread the dosa batter on the tawa. When it is cooked slightly place a spoon full of masala in the center, lengthwise and cook further until dosa is done. Fold and serve immediately. 

Dosa ~ Mushti PoLo

Dosa's are the most common breakfast item in our kitchen. I love making dosa's as most of the preparations can be made the previous day. This is one of our fav dosa. We normally serve this dosa with chutney but on makar sankranthi day we make it with sweet khichidi.

These dosa's are generally made thicker than other dosa's and it is actually roasted on one side. But at my place we like it a little thin and roasted on both the sides. These are soft and fluffy dosas.

Mushti PoLo uses measurement according to our fist size hence the name Mushti ( which means fist in Konkani) PoLo (Dosa in konkani).

Here is what's needed:

1 measure Dosa rice

1 fistful Urad Dal

2 fistful Poha (Beaten rice)/Puffed Rice ( You can use either of them)

1 tsp Methi(Fenugreek seeds)

2 tsp Sugar

a pinch of Baking soda

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Soak rice + dal + methi seeds for 4-6 hours.

2) Wash poha/puffed rice. Grind soaked rice + dal + poha/puffed rice. Let it ferment overnight.

3) Next day add sugar, salt and baking soda. Mix well.

4) Heat a griddle. Add 1/2 tsp oil. Spread the batter in circular motion. Let the dosa be a little thick. Cover and cook on medium flame until the dosa is cooked. You can flip the dosa and cook the other side if desired.

Serve hot with chutney or khichidi.

Plain Dosa/ Paper Dosa

Thank you dear friends for your wonderful wishes and blessings to the little boy. Time surely flies by and very soon li'l munchkin will be two months old. I am enjoying my time with the little one.

I have been trying to get back to cooking ( and blogging), but being at my mother's place there is hardly any need to do so. I have been enjoying her cooking and when time permits I experiment.

Here is one of my favourite breakfast item "Plain dosa or Paper dosa". I love crispy thin dosa's than the thick ones. This dosa must be relished hot and crispy as it loses its texture when cooled. I use my Futura Tawa for this dosa as I can spread them big and thin with little oil. I have been a big fan of this Tawa and have been using it for almost 2 years now. This is similar to the Urad-Rice dosa but the Urad propertion is less than normally used.

Here is what's needed:
4 cups rice
1 cup Urad dal
1/4 tsp Methi seeds
Salt and Sugar to taste

Procedure:
1) Soak rice, Urad Dal and methi seeds for 6-8 hours and grind to a smooth paste with suffecient water. Add salt and let it ferment overnight.
2) Next day mix it well and add sugar to taste. You may add little water if the batter is too thick.
3) Heat a tawa.
4) Spread a ladle full of batter in circular motion until it forms a uniform circle. Roast it with little oil/ghee in medium flame.
5) (Optional)When it turns to slightly golden colour flip it over and roast the other side for few seconds.
6) Repeat 4 and 5 until all batter is used up.

Note: Always sprinkle water over the tawa before spreading batter again to bring down the temperature of tawa. If the tawa is too hot you will not be able to spread it well as the batter gets cooked fast and will stick to ladle.

Serve hot with Chutney and sambar.

You may also fold it like you would do for masala dosa to make it paper dosa and serve it with a dollop of butter on top.

Neer Dosa ~ PanPolo

PanPolo is one of our regular breakfast item. In my initial days of cooking in China, this was one dosa that I used to hate to make as it would never come out good. The rice that I used was the main reason for the failures. Now I use the Idli rice or Basmati rice, both give me excellent results. Back home, We use the normal Sona masuri rice. There are various dishes that go along well with dosa. Chutney, Jaggery syrup (Ravvo), honey, any veg or non veg gravy that is spicy.. I even love to have this with Mango pickle drizzled with coconut Oil.

The name Neer dosa is because this batter is very thin unlike regular dosa batter and even the dosa comes out very thin and lacy. Unlike regular dosa batter this does not need it to be fermented.

What's needed:

1 cup Idli rice

3-4 tbsp grated Coconut

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Soak rice overnight or for 6 hrs. Grind it to fine paste along with grated coconut.

2) Add suffecient water to bring it to a consistency thinner than the normal dosa batter. Add salt to taste.

3) Heat a Tava. Pour little oil. (Skip if you are using a non stick pan). Pour a ladle of batter and move the tava in circular motion so that the dosa spreads uniformly. It forms a nice lace like structure. Cook one medium flame.

4) The pattern to fold the dosa is to first fold it in to half and then again fold it so that it forms a triangle like structure.

Serve hot with Chutney or any side dish of your choice.

P.S: If using Sona masuri rice you can use 1 cup of rice and 1/2 cup of grated coconut. But since I use Idli rice which makes the dosa very soft I use just 2-3 tbsp of grated coconut and yet the dosa's are soft and fluffy.

Dosa

When I started cooking, I was comfortable with preparing lunch/dinner, but what I feared the most was making breakfast. I was skeptical about soaking the dal's,rice and grinding it to smooth paste,fermenting them. 

As a kid I used to think that making Dosa, idli etc was a very complex thing! Though amma used to always say that she used to enjoy making dosa as it would save her time the next morning! Now I am following her.. I prefer making dosa,idli for breakfast as I do not have to worry in the morning after waking up and think!!

This is one such simple dosa that I have been making every now and then. It is simple and I get the same crispy dosa everytime.

Here is what's needed:

1 cup Urad Dal

2 cups Rice (I used Idli rice as this is the only one available. You can use Sona masuri/Ponni rice too)

1/2 tsp Methi seeds

2-3 tbsp Sugar

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Wash rice and dal well and soak them along with methi for 3-4 hours. Grind it to smooth paste with water (Add only required qty of water). Let it ferment Overnight.( I had baked some cookies that night so kept the batter in oven to ferment.)

2) Next day morning, Add Sugar and salt. (Sugar gives a very nice taste to Dosa along with colour). Mix well. Add water if the batter is too thick. Mix well.

3) Heat a tawa, Spread a ladle full of batter in circular motion until it forms a uniform circle. Roast it with little oil in medium flame. When it turns to slightly golden colour flip it over and roast the other side for few seconds. Serve hot with Chutney.

I made "Hinga Chutney" with this Dosa.

For Chutney:

3/4 cup grated Coconut

2-3 fried red chilli

small piece of Tamarind

a generous pinch of hing(Asafoetida)

Salt to taste

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds

4-5 curry leaves

Procedure:

1) I use the sticky variety of hing. So I heat little oil and put the hing in oil until it fluffs up. Remove it and let it cool.

2) Grind grated coconut + red chilli's+ Tamarind + Salt and little water until it becomes a smooth paste. In the last round of grinding I add the hing and grind it for few more secs.

3) Transfer the chutney to a serving bowl. Heat Oil, Add mustard seeds when they splutter add curry leaves and switch it off. If using hing powder then it is better to add hing directly to the seasoning. Pour the seasoning over the Chutney. Mix well before serving.

Rava Dosa ~ Resturant Style!!!

Rava Dosa is my hubby's all time fav. Actually it runs in our family (My dad and FIL both love this dosa) and it is the most ordered item whenever we went to restaurants. I always wanted to learn the art of making crispy thin rava dosa at home. But I failed. In search of perfect recipe, I reached Asha's Aroma, The one place where you can get tried and tested recipes which give perfect results everytime. I left a comment on her dosa and was set out to try it. I was surprised when she left a comment suggesting me to try the recipe from Vahchef Sunjay Thumma. The recipe was perfect and we got golden crispy dosa's, The melt in the mouth kind. Thank you Asha for giving us a tried and tested recipe. Thanks to Vahchef too for posting this video on Youtube. Please check the video for exact way to pour the batter.

I used:

1 cup Semolina

1 cup Rice flour

1/2 cup All  Purpose flour

2 green Chillies,small peice of Ginger & few Coriander leaves finely chopped

1/2 tsp Cumin seeds

Salt to taste

Procedure:

1) Mix all the ingredients with suffecient water to achieve Buttermilk like consistency. 

2) Heat a non-stick tava, and sprinkle the batter. It forms a nice lace like pattern. Do not bother to fill them completely.

3) Sprinkle oil and roast it on medium heat until lightly golden. 

Serve hot with chutney of your choice!

Taushe - Rulanva Bhakri

What to prepare for breakfast is the biggest question that bugs me everytime. Before I even complete having the breakfast of that day I start wondering what to make the next day. Considering that we both are not very fond of cereals fixing breakfast is like a challenge to me. I am always in constant search of easy to make and healthy breakast items. One such is this. This is made of Semolina and can be made within minutes. The traditional recipe as amma makes requires banana. But when i decided making this I did not have it so replaced banana with Cucumber and it did taste great. 

It does not need any side dish as it tastes good on its own (more reasons to indulge).

Here is what's needed:

1 medium cucumber grated ( make sure that cucumber is not bitter and does not have seeds formed)

2 cups semolina

Coarse Grind:

2 tbsp grated coconut

2 green chilli's

small piece of ginger

salt and sugar to taste

Oil/Ghee to shallow fry

Procedure:

1) Make coarse paste of ingredients mentioned under coarse grind using mixie or mortar and pestle.

2) Add this to semolina (no need to fry it before hand). Add suffecient water. Do not make the batter watery. It shud be thick batter with just enough water to mix the ingredients well.

3) Add salt and sugar to taste. Let it sit for 10-15 mins. Semolina absorbs water so add if you feel its too dry.

4)  Heat a tawa. Take little batter and pour on tawa. Wet your hands and spread the batter until it becomes slightly thinner and round. Pour little oil from sides and on top. When the colour at the top changes slightly and it does not have sticky batter at the top flip it. Let it sit for a min. Flip over and check if it is done. If not leave for some more time

5) Serve hot.

Variations: If using ripe banana mash it properly and then add rava to it. Continue further as per the recipe. Easy way to use up the over ripe banana's.