Potato Masala

 

Potato masala is a good companion for dosa. You can either stuff it inside the dosa or have it separately.

I got the basic recipe from my mother-in-law but I modified the recipe a bit. So here is the modified version.

 

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 2 medium size

Green peas - ½ cup

Grated ginger - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves – a few

Onion – 1 medium size

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Chana dal – 1 tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Salt – as per taste

Vegetable oil – 2 tsp

Preparation:

Wash the potatoes thoroughly and wipe it with a tissue and then scrub gently with a knife to remove the skin. (I don’t use potato peeler to remove the skin as the nutrients lies next to the skin layer)

 

Cut the potatoes into small cubes (if the size is small, it cooks fast).

Chop the onion and green chillies and keep it ready.

 

In a pan, heat the oil. When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter.

Now add curry leaves and ginger.

After a couple seconds, add chana dal and urad dal.

When dal changes color, add onion and green chilies. Saute.

 

When onion becomes translucent, add the turmeric powder.

Now add potatoes and green peas.

Add salt and mix well and sauté for 1 min.

Now add hot water. Mix, cover and cook in low flame.

When the potatoes are well cooked, mash the potatoes to thicken the gravy.

 

Potato masala is ready and enjoy with your dosa.

 

Dosa - South Indian Pancake

Dosa is a South Indian breakfast dish made with fermented batter, comprising of lentils and rice.

Basic ingredients for dosa batter are raw rice and Urad dal (lentils),  which is easily available in any Indian Store. Dosa batter is also available in stores. Or else, another option is to go for rice flour and Urad flour so you can skip the grinding part.

As always, I do it the old fashioned way, the way grandma used to make. Here is how.



Ingredients:

Rice – 3 cups

Urad Dal – 1 cup

Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp

Salt – as required

Preparation:

Wash rice and urad dal.

Put  the fenugreek seeds with the rice.

Soak rice and urad dal separately, in different bowls for 8 hours.

Now drain the water and grind rice along with fenugreek seeds into a fine paste. Keep adding water as and when required. Transfer to a bowl.

In the same mixer, grind urad dal into a fine paste and transfer to the same bowl containing rice batter.

Mix thoroughly. Cover and keep it in a warm place to ferment. (when the batter is fermented, it rises. So make sure that the bowl is big enough to hold the batter to avoid over flow).  

Check the consistency.  It should be similar to that of pancake batter. Not too thick but not runny either. 

When the batter is fermented and  ready, add required salt and mix with a ladle.

Warm the dosa pan. Pour 1-2 drops of ghee/vegetable oil and spread with a tissue all over the pan.

Pour a ladleful of batter onto the pan and spread in a circular motion.

 

Little holes appear on the top and  when the edges starts to brown and top is set, flip over and cook the other side.

Dosa is ready. Pair it with either Sambar, Potato Masala  Green Peas curry or coconut chutney.

Different types of dosas can be made with the same batter. There is a restaurant in south India that serves 185 varieties of dosas. Wow!!! 

Let me give you some ideas. 

After the steps 8 & 9 above,

Pour little ghee (clarified butter) over the dosa to make Nai Roast

Top dosa with grated vegies like, carrot, beetroot, onion and peas. When the vegies are cooked mash it with a spatula and spread it all over the dosa.

Pour ghee all over dosa and then  sprinkle chutney powder.

Top it with potato masala on one half and fold it and you get masala dosa.

Beat an egg and pour it right on top of the dosa and spread it with a spatula and sprinkle black pepper powder and also you can top it with finely chopped onion and tomatoes.

If you have a sweet tooth, top it with grated jaggery/sugar/brown sugar and grated coconut and roll it. This is my favorite.

Enjoy yourself and have pleasant weekend! :)

 

Aval Nanachathu - Beaten Rice with Jaggery and Coconut

Aval means beaten rice. It is mixed with jaggery, cocunut, cardamom and chuku and at the end you get a delicious snack which is tasty as well as healthy. You can also add dry fruits like raisins and cashew nuts to take it to another level.

My grandma used to make it whenever we  visited her (we means me and my sister). That was long time back.  My aval nanachathu is nothing compared to hers, to be honest.
 

How I wish I could go back in time, to be with my grand parents, listen to  their stories again,  sitting in the open verandah and eating the sweet delicious mango  from the backyard. Hmm..I can still hear the waves and the birds singing one of their favorite songs and the sound of wind rustling through the cocunut trees. How I wish I could just be there and never return..

Well, I have a job to do here, right?  Let me finish this first and I can time travel once I am done.

So here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

Aval (beater rice) - 3 cups

Jaggery  - 4 -5 cubes
Cardamom Powder - 1 tsp

Chuku - 1 tsp

Cocunut - 1 cup

cocunut slices - 1/3 cup

Raisins & cashew nuts - a few (optional)

This is how I make it:

Take aval in a colander and run some water through it in order to soften.

Melt the jaggery and strain to take away all the impurities.

Now pour the melted jaggery into a saucepan and simmer, once it starts simmering,      lower the flame.

Add the cocunut, chuku, cardamom and cocunut slices and mix well with the jaggery.

Add the softened aval and mix well.

Add the dry fruits.

Voila..Aval Nanachathu is ready to be served. Enjoy!!

Chemmeen (Shrimp) Thoran

Here is my  ultimate Shrimp Thoran recipe. It is a South Indian dish which goes well with rice and a good companion for beer.

I would say,  for me, the most difficult part is peeling and deveining the shrimp.  It is time consuming and a dirty affair. But I still do it, don’t ask me why. May be because I am not a  fan of frozen food and also I like creating  things from scratch.

Like I said, cleaning is a dirty affair. To make it easy, I put some polythene sheets or papers all over my dry sink when I devein. When done, just toss the paper/polythene sheets. Otherwise, it is very difficult to get rid of the veins from the sink. When done, clean the sink with some lemon juice to get rid of the smell and voila, your sink is as clean as new.

If you want to save time, go and get the frozen ones instead, already cleaned and deveined for you.

Ingredients:

Shrimp (prawns) – 1 lb.

Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
Vegetable oil – 2 tbsp.
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Ginger  - 2 “ piece
Garlic – 2 cloves
Onion – 2 medium
Green chillies – 4 nos.
Curry leaves - a few
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp.
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Chicken masala – 1 tsp
Black paper – ¼ tsp
Coconut slices – ½
Salt – as per  taste

Preparation:

Peel shrimp and devein. Now clean it with cold water. Transfer to a bowl. To this add  turmeric powder, lemon juice and salt. Rub it onto the shrimp and wash it off. Transfer to a colander and let the water drain completely.

In a non-stick pan add 1tbsp. oil. When the oil is hot, add the shrimp, sprinkle little salt and fry. Be careful not to  overcook. It takes only 5-7 min. When one side is done, flip over and cook the other side. Transfer to a bowl.

In the meantime, cut the onion lengthwise, grate the ginger, chop the garlic and keep it ready.

In the same pan, add 1 tbsp. oil.

When the oil is hot,  add mustards seeds and allow to splutter.  Then add ginger and garlic and curry leaves. Fry for 2 sec.

Now add onion and green chillies.  Saute till the onion changes color, deep brown.

Now add turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilli powder and chicken powder, black pepper and salt.  Saute for 2 sec.

Add coconut slices and sprinkle some water so the masala don’t burn.

Now add the fried shrimp. Mix well to coat the shrimp with the masala and cover and cook in low flame for 5- 7 min.

Shrimp (Chemmeen) Thoran is ready. Happy eating!

Rawa Idli - Semolina Cakes

Rawa Idli is a South Indian Breakfast item, made with semolina/sooji/rawa. A good combination is Sambar-Idli. Hmm…yum..yum..

Why keep it only for breakfast?  In fact,  I would like to  have it any time in the day. I remember my Sagar Ratna days in Delhi. They used to serve the best Rawa Idlis. Don’t know the status now, though. As the demand increases,  the quality goes down. That is the law the restaurant people follow.

They used to serve it with sambar and coconut chutney.  This is how I like to have my Idli. I take a whole Idli and immerse it in the sambar bowl. Allow the Idli to soak for few seconds and have it with a spoon. Hmm..

Lets not waste time and get straight to the recipe.  Shall we?

Makes:  10 Idlis
 

Ingredients:

Sooji – 1 cup

Vegetable oil – 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

Chanda dal – 1 tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Whole red chilli – 1 nos.

Asafoetida – a pinch

Curd – ¾ cup

Coriander leaves – a few

Ginger – 1“ piece

Green chillies – 2 nos.

Cashew nuts – a few

Preparation:
 

Heat oil in a non stick pan.

Add mustard seeds. When it starts to splutter, add chana dal, urad dal, broken whole red chilli, grated ginger and asoefitida and saute till  dal changes color.  Don’t burn.

Add the sooji and roast in low flame for a few seconds till you get the aroma.

Now transfer to a plate and allow to cool.

In the mean time, keep idli plates ready by greasing the plates so idli doesn't stick and comes out easily. Boil the water in the  idli maker.

In a bowl mix together yogurt, finely chopped green chillies, salt and chopped coriander leaves. Add the sooji and mix it well. Add a little bit of water, if needed.

Immediately spoon it to the idli plates. (If you don't do it immediately, batter will thicken). Top it with cashew nuts. Cover cook for 10-12 min.

You can place a round thin slice of a red tomato on the base of the idli plates before you pour the batter for beautiful colourful idlis :)

Yum yum Rawa Idli ready in minutes. Have it with sambar and a cup of tea. Have a pleasant morning!

Appam & Vegetable Stew

Appam is a south Indian breakfast item. It is eaten with either stew, egg curry or chicken curry or else coconut chutney.

It reminds me of my childhood days in Kerala.  Anyways (deep sigh), lets get back to business.

I had this misconception that appam is very difficult to make and so, I never even cared to find out about the process until one day I saw my sister-in-law making it. Realized it is doable.


Well, like everything else, I make it from scratch. No store brought rice flour for me.

Ingredients:

Pachari, (white raw rice) – 2 cups (I use idli rice)

Coconut – 1 cup

Yeast – 1 tsp

Sugar – 1 tbsp

Cooked rice – ½ cup

Salt - as required

Warm water

Preparation:

Clean rice and soak it for 5 hours.

Now drain and transfer to a mixer.

Add the coconut, cooked rice, sugar, yeast and little warm water and grind to a paste.

Transfer to a big vessel and allow to ferment for 8 hours.

When the batter is ready, add a little bit of salt.  Mix well.

Warm the appam chatti (appam maker)

Pour a ladleful of batter into the appam chatti and rotate it.

Cover and cook.

Fluffy, tasty appam is ready.

Appam goes very well with vegetable stew. Very easy to make and nutritious. Here goes.

Ingredients for Stew:

Potatoes (cut in small cubes) – 2 nos. 

Beans (cut in 1" long piece) – 10-12
Green peas – ½ cup
Carrot (cut into small pieces) – 2 nos.

Cinnamon – a small stick
Cloves – 2 nos
Cardamon - 4 (remove the skin)
Onion (chopped) - 1 medium size
Ginger (cut into thin long piece) - 1" piece
Garlic (chopped) - 1 clove
Green chillies (sliced) - 2 nos.
All Purpose Flour - 1 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Black Pepper powder- 1/4 tsp
Vegetable oil - 1 tbsp.
Curry Leaves - a few

Preparation:

In a non stick pan, add oil. When the oil is hot, add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom.

Now add ginger, garlic and curry leaves. Then add green chillies.

After a few seconds, add onion and saute till it becomes transcluscent.

Now add the potato cubes, carrot and green peas. Add salt and water. Mix, cover and cook till    vegetables are well cooked.

Mash some potatoes so to thicken the gravy.

In a bowl mix the flour and milk together until all the lumps disappear.

Pour this to the vegetables.

Add garam masala and black pepper powder. Mix and simmer in low flame for 5 min.

Vegetable Stew ready.  Happy eating!