Brown Basmathi Rice Masala Dosa

  I was missing, blogging, so today I thought I should just blog and say hello to all of you!  The journey of duty,responsibility,fun,joy,stress,tension,happiness, content,proud begins the moment you become a parent! And it grows as and when the kids grow up, and at certain point you will even feel that, days, months and years passes by so fast that you would not have gotten a chance to sit and take a deep breath!

  But it's a wonderful journey and I am sure every parent would enjoy and feel content and proud of this beautiful journey.  Today I like to share the fun part of this beautiful journey with you, and hoping to put a smile on your face.

  My elder daughter started to go to full time school and my younger one now has more time to spend with me, though she goes for two days of preschool in a week.  So couple of days ago, I was vacuuming the floors and my younger one came running to me and said,  "Amma,(mom) I see a cat on our deck", which sounded very unusual and I immediately went and saw, two little kittens, sitting near the plant stand and looking towards our deck door!

  They were really cute and very little.  So I told my daughter "Oh, they are kittens, guess they need some milk, that is why they are looking at us"!  But she said immediately "No, they are not kittens, they are baby cats"!  Ok, I stand corrected myself as "baby cats"!

 I asked her, "Do you think, we should give them some milk?"  And the moment I finished my question, I was shocked and surprised about myself, asking that question!  I am never ever a pet person, nor liked any cats or kittens or dogs.  And it sounded so weird coming out of me, to give some milk to the kittens! I have never done that in my life nor that kind of thought came to me.

  Actually in India, cats are not considered as auspicious and there are lot of beliefs(superstitious) about cats!  If you see a cat as soon as you wake up in the morning, something bad is going to happen on that day or if a cat passes in front of you while you are walking or driving, something bad is happening to you! So if you are one unlucky person to see a cat one morning, then on that day, you will feel miserable and scared thinking that something bad is going to happen on that day, like, if you are working, you may fear that you might be yelled for some reason by your boss, or if you are a student, you might fear, your teacher might yell at you or might fail in the test..........!  But nothing might happen on that day, but you yourself would have made it miserable, thinking that something will happen!

  And in India it's so easy to see a cat, anytime and any where.  So even I believed in that and I used to bend my head as much as I can, when I used to go out early in the morning, so that I may not have an encounter of eye to eye with a cat! Sounds so funny now.

 So with this kind of opinion about cats, and now you can imagine, why I felt so weird about myself that, I wanted to give them milk, when I saw them on my deck, that too in the morning!

 I never bothered to look at them nor appreciated if they were cute.  But that day I took some time to study them and see how they are!  Well, that is because my younger one was so excited to see the kittens, well "baby cats" and there was a minute to minute report on what they were doing and how they were sitting.

 I was cleaning up the house, my daughter keep running from the deck door to me, back and forth to describe, that, they were black and white baby cats and they were licking themselves and they yawned, they stretched, they are sleeping, they are waiting for us to feed them milk and after sometime, her imagination started working!

 She started to tell "Amma(mom), they like me, they want me to come and play with them, one baby cat, asked me can I come inside and do coloring with you..."!!!!

 By that time I was tired of telling "Wow, really, good, that's so cute"!!!!  So I just went and closed the blinds, so that there will be no further report of those "baby cats"!

  I always wondered what would my younger daughter become when she grow up and now I know, she will become a very good CNN, news reporter!  She can describe, and also put her own imagination to the news and report so well, that, even for all these years, when I believed that cats are not even good to take a look at them, thought of feeding them, today!  Like the CNN reporters, who do a great job, in reporting and covering whether it is hurricane news or about economy or how are things after 9/11.......!  So in the same way, guess my daughter will be a reporter one fine day!

 It's not that I believe in reading horoscope but now and then I do take a look on my MSN daily horoscope and I only feel content if there is something positive or good forecast for that day!  And I so happened to look some 10 days ago and had read that "I should start thinking of bringing a pet to the house, since I need some change and new people in my life, now that I am capable of showing love and affection, not just to family and friends, I need a pet"!!!!!!

 Well, the feeling of feeding those kittens was because of my stars influence or my little reporter's influence.....don't know yet!

  As I told you in my previous blogs, that I want to make it possible, just because you are on diet, you do not need to sacrifice on the favorite food you eat and a few changes to the recipe can make it more healthy and yet you can eat your favorite food.  So here I am, tried once again, with Brown Basmathi rice to make Masala dosa and it turned out to be awesome and it tastes very yummy and you will not know that the dosa is made from Brown rice, until you are told.

 So here goes the recipe, hope you will try and enjoy, as much as my husband did.  It is masala dosa recipe, but in the picture you see as "plain dosa", since, I just wanted to make sure that, it comes out well and then make onion-potato curry for masala dosa.  As you see in the picture, you will not find any difference in the dosa, it looks same, as the regular dosa, made with white rice but the batter will not look white, it looks little cream color.  One important tip is, please try this with Brown Basmathi rice, since the regular brown rice dosa, did not come up well.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Brown Basmathi Rice
1/3 Cup Urad Dal
1 fist full Pooha and channa dal
1 table spoon of Fenu greek seeds (Methi seeds)

Method:

  Soak brown basmathi rice and methi seeds together and the rest of the ingredients separatley in water for 6-8 hours and grind to a fine paste, brown basmathi rice and methi seeds and then add the rest of the ingredients and grind to fine paste.

  Keep the batter to ferment for 8-10 hours and the dosa batter is ready!  You can make onion-potato curry and chutney for the dosa.

 Heat the pan and pour the batter and spread and if I make in non stick pan, I use 1/4 Tea spoon of oil or no oil to make dosa.  It comes out very well and tasty. And you can see that dosa will be brown on the other side, then you can add a spoon full of onion-potato curry and fold the dosa and serve hot, with chutney.  If you do not want to make the curry, you can just make plain dosa and eat with chutney or chutney podi and enjoy!

 Please see the recipe of onion-potato recipe in my regular masala dosa recipe.






  

Moong Sprouts Dosa

   I never seriously thought about the roots, where we belong or about entity or identity or about the customs, religion and practices we follow until very recently........!  Few months back, one evening when my husband came back from work, he had a brown cover in his hand, which I am familiar about it!  I thought it must be a cake from "Starbucks" coffee shop!  But the cover was big and when he gave it to me, I curiously opened it to see, that it was a book!  I looked at him and he said,  "Since you like to read books, today I was at Barnes and Noble book store and I found this book and thought you might like to read and got it for you!  I was very happy as well surprised because, I have stopped reading books all these years, since I cannot concentrate on reading because of kids!  So suddenly when he got me a book, I was really happy.

   After few days, when my both kids were having noon nap, at that time my elder daughter was not going to school, I thought I will check out what the book is about and opened the book!  The book name  is "Unaccustomed Earth" written by Jhumpa Lahiri!  The author name Jhumpa Lahiri, is very unique name and I do remember the name......I tried to recollect.....and remembered that I had watched a movie called "Namesake" which was based on the book written by her "The Namesake"!

  So I started to read the book!  And my kids woke up so I had to stop after reading few pages!  I am a fast reader, I used to finish off reading a novel with in 3-4 hours!  But this one  sounded complicated because it seem to revolve around the relationships, following the customs and traditions, living away from the motherland and try to find the roots and having a conflict and strenuous relationships with our own kids!  Sounded very interesting and started to look forward for the quiet moment in the noon times, when kids went to nap, started to read the book and finally before my elder daughter started her school I finished off reading the book!

 The book has eight stories, and mainly its about Bengali families, where parents have come from India to USA at their young age to find a living here and start a family here and struggles with the kids, teaching them to respect, and follow Indian culture and traditions and finally their kids move out and find their own lives and marrying a American, and not following or respecting any of the Indian culture or traditions!! So according to the author, in all the eight stories, the second generation Indian kids, who are born and brought up in USA, has some kind of revolt nature that they do not respect or follow Indian culture nor marry a Indian!!!!!!

  Well, now I remember seeing the movie "Namesake", written by Jhumpa Lahiri, that , it also deals with the same story line, that the second generation kid wants to fit in with his fellow New Yorkers, despite his family unwillingness to let go their traditional ways!

 Now, why do the second generation kids want to do so?  Is it about kids or is it about parents? The basic thing is, if you force your kid to do something, or try to keep in control or preach and teach something, which you yourself, are not doing, then, yes, kids will revolt when they become independent!

    The thing which does not create an impact, a rule,a method, a discipline, a principle or ideal which does not create  respect, but is only a burden or scared or forced upon the kids, those kids are definitely going to revolt and of course will not have any respect for their culture!

  So it cannot be only theory that all the second generation kids who are born and brought up in USA, are not going to follow or revolt against their parents and culture!

  "Swadharma",is a sanskrit word, means our duty or our religion, meaning depends on what context you are using it.  Lord Krishna has said in Bhagavad Gita that "Its better to do your own duty, however imperfectly, than to assume the duties of another person, however successfully"

  So why follow others culture?  By not following others culture does not mean that you are disrespecting the other cultures.  Just because you are in USA, does not mean that you should not follow our culture or feel low or inferior about ours! Why is that? I feel that one has to be level headed and grounded and proud, for what you are, who you are, and where you have come from!

  I am not commenting the author, but I am surprised and very curious to know why that is the only subject for her, in all her novels!  She has won Pulitzer prize for fiction for her first novel, she was born in London and brought up in New York.  Well, in most of her stories, the parents who come to London then move to USA......!  She herself has quoted in some place that she had felt embarrassed about her name, it feels like someone causing you pain, for just being what you are!

  But her flow, her way of describing about the relationships is par excellent! She is a very good writer, you never feel bored or never feel that there is repetition or never feel that she has unnecessarily described feelings or events or issues.

  Yeah, I know I have written some heavy stuff, you all need a break from reading this topic! I can help you in getting a break from reading this complicated subject, and divert that into eating something healthy and tasty!

 Last time when I was in India, in Mysore, I used to watch food shows and few of them really sounded that I should write down the recipe and try it, so I wrote few of them and one of them was "Moong sprouts dosa", which sounded very tasty and yummy and healthy too.

  So last week I tried to make this dosa and it came out very well and my husband and kids liked it so thought of sharing it with you today! So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Moong Sprouts(Whole green gram dhal sprouts or Hesaru kallina mollake)  1 cup
Semolina (Rava) 1 cup
Rice flour (akki hittu)  1/2 cup
Green chillies  5-6 or adjust according to taste
Small piece of ginger
1-2 onions
Salt to taste
Oil to make dosa

Method:

  Soak whole green gram dhal in water for 8-10 hours.  Then drain the water and tie the dhal in a cloth tightly for 8 -10, the sprouts will be ready to use, in winter it may take long time for sprouts to come up.  Else if you have a sprout maker, then also you have to soak the dhal for 8 to 10 hours but after that if you put that in the sprout maker, you will get really long, nice sprouts.

  So grind sprouts, green chillies and ginger, together in the mixer, adding little water to a smooth paste.  In a bowl, mix the sprout paste, semolina(rava) and the rice flour together adding water, the batter should be on the thinner side, if its too thick add more water and add salt and  mix well.

 Cut onions into small pieces and mix well with the batter.  Now heat the tava or the non stick pan and pour the batter with a ladle and put 1-2 spoons of oil on all the sides of the dosa, you can see that bottom of the dosa turns golden brown and then you can turn the dosa and cook for another minute and the dosa is ready to eat!

 This dosa, does not require any chutneys since it has green chillies and onions in it, but still if you want, you can eat this dosa with chutney pudi and ghee, and  enjoy!

Rava Dosa

My brother and my husband always have discussions about opening a restaurant!! They both cook well and they want to resign to their high profile jobs and want to start a restaurant! I am always against to it! My personal opinion is one needs to have a art of running a business! I consider almost everything as a "art"! Idealism, principles don't work when you run a business or let me put it this way, you have to pay a "price" if you need to run a business and yet retain your ideals and principles! You may not succeed if you have lot of ideals and principles.

Well, when my brother or my husband reed my views may argue about "art of running business"!! I am not under estimating them! But they both have lot of ideals and principles, which they have to forgo if they have to run business and for which I know for sure, they cannot forgo their principles and ideals!

So we cannot do business! The first time I did the Rava Dosa, my husband got the idea of starting a restaurant, so that's how the whole thing came up!!!!!!!!

So when ever I do the Rava Dosa, I always do remember the conversation of opening the restaurant! Yesterday night I made Rava Dosa, after a long time and I want to share the recipe with you. Its my mother one of the most fantastic recipes, hope you all like and enjoy it.

Before writing about the method, I want to tell couple of things. In the picture, the batter looks white, actually it should look colourful!! I used white onions and I was running out of coriander leaves, which is a must for rava dosa! I feel red onions taste better than white onions, but I was crying a lot while cutting red onions so my dear husband was concerned and wanted to try white onions, where I don't cry 95% of the time I cut them!! Well here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup Rava/Semolina

1/3 cup Rice flour
1 small cup of Yogurt
2 small red onions
Salt to taste
4-5 Green chillies(or adjust according to taste)
Few curry leaves
Few coriander leaves
1 Tsp oil
1/4 Tsp Mustard seeds
Few cashew nuts(optional)

Method:

Measure the Rava/Semolina(my mom uses the very thin semolina,which we get in Bangalore,chiroti rava,but you can use the regular rava which you get in the Indian stores) and the rice flour and put them together in a bowl.

Now whisk yogurt adding some water with the ladle or potato masher and add that to the rava and rice flour and mix well. The whisk yogurt will not be enough to mix and the batter will be still thick, but it is OK at this point!

Now chop onions finely, the more you chop finely, the more your dosa tastes better! Finely chop green chillies, coriander leaves and curry leaves.

Now add enough water to the batter, to make it very thin consistency. The rava dosa batter is really thin. To that add salt, onions and coriander leaves and mix well.

In a small pan heat oil and add mustard seeds and once it starts to splutter add curry leaves and add this to batter and mix well. If you desire you can put some cashew nuts now, frying while you add mustard seeds, you can add cashew nuts and fry them.

Now take the non stick pan and heat it well. We have a big pan, where you can make really a big dosa, using two gas burners!

Once the pan is heated well, pour the dosa batter and for this you can just pour it in how ever shape you want, since the batter is very thin consistency, you cannot really get a round shape and put some oil around the dosa.

Do the dosa on a medium heat, you can see that the bottom of the dosa has turned brown, you gently fold the dosa in the middle and take out from the pan and serve with ghee and chatni powder or coconut chutney and enjoy the crisp rava dosa! There is no need to turn the dosa and cook on the other side, since this dosa is really thin. Enjoy!

Adai

The funny part of blogging, I observed myself this time was..........! Sunday night kids went to bed early arround 8.45 and after putting them to bed we decided to have our dinner. But my husband was very very tired of doing built-ins in our newly finished basement and he said that he was very hungry also. I had prepared for Adai, and started to make Adai. And suddenly it occurred to me that I should take pictures so that I can post that on my blog. So I made Adai and then started to take pictures and once I felt that I have taken enough pictures from which I can select one of them, I turned to my husband to give the plate, and saw that he had a big smile on his face!! He was tired and very hungry and he was waiting for me to serve him, but instead I was taking pictures for my blog!! WOW! If something gets into you, no matter what, it will keep you going.........!

Anyways, here goes the most authentic recipe of Adai, which of course is my mom's, which I am going to share with you now. Adai is the most delicious and rich in protein dish. It has all the lentils(dals) and rice,coconut. And also the most comforting, for the people who love rice and lentils(dal)! So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 measure Rice

1 measure of all the four Dals(lentils)

Thoor dal

Urad dal

channa dal

Moong dal

4 Green chillies(adjust acc to taste)

4 Red chillies(adjust acc to taste)

1/4 Tsp Turmeric

Salt to taste

1/4 cup coconut

2 onions

1/4 cup Yogurt

Oil for cooking

Method:

All the dals combined together should come to 1 measure. Soak rice and the rest of the dals(lentils), for 6-8 hours and drain water and grind coarsely with red and green chillies,salt,turmeric, add little water. And put that in a container. To that add finely chopped onions and coconut and mix well. If you are making it later put the batter in the refrigerator.

Before making adai, add yogurt and mix well. The batter consistency would be little thick and its not like dosa batter.

Heat the Pan(tava) well and spread the adai batter nicely and make3-4 small holes from back of a spoon and put oil arround the adai and cook on a high heat. Adai takes more time to cook that dosas, and if you don't have patience adai will not be cooked thoroughly.

You can lift little bit and see that adai, has gotten brown and then turn arround to cook on the other side, leave it for few minutes and then turn arround to see that the other side is also cooked.

Serve hot! Adai does not require any chutneys, since its very tasty and spicy! You can eat with jaggery if you like it, first time when I saw my uncle eating that way, I was like "oh my god"! But now I love to eat adai with jaggery, even my brother and my husband loves to eat adai with jaggery! Enjoy!

Menthya Dosa

Last couple of weeks are Dosas and Idlis weeks! My husband is working from home, so thought of making dosas, which he likes very much and which is not easily available here, unlike in Bangalore, every street they have darshinis or restaurants where they make dosas. And the dosa has taken different forms and different versions and one cannot imagine that, in how many ways dosa can be done!

But today I am going to write the most simple and the most original version of Menthya dosa, which my mom's makes fantastic. So here goes the recipe of Menthya dosa and mint chutney!

Ingredients:

2 cups Rice

1/2 cup Urad dal

1 fist full Thoor dal

5 Tbsp Fenugreek seeds(Methi seeds\Menthya)

Method:

Soak over night rice separately and urad dal,thoor dal and fenugreek seeds together in two different bowls in water. In the morning, drain all the water and if you are grinding in grinder first grind rice into a very smooth paste and then add urad dal, thoor dal and fenugreek seeds and grind smoothly.

Put into a bowl and set aside for fermentation, depending on weather, it might take 8-10 hours to ferment. Faster in summer and takes little long time in winter to ferment.

Once it fermented, you can see the batter would have raised, if you are not making dosas immediately put the batter in the refrigerator.

Now for this dosa, you always serve with chutney. Today I had made mint chutney, upon my husband's request.

So here goes the recipe for mint chutney.

Ingredients:

1/2 bunch of mint

1/2 bunch of coriander leaves

1/2 cup of coconut

3-4 green chillies(Or adjust acc to taste)

small lemon size tamarind soaked in water

1/4 tsp jaggery

salt to taste

1/4 tsp oil

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1 red chilli(Optional)

few curry leaves

Method:

Wash and pluck the mint leaves and roughly chop the coriander leaves and grind it smoothly with coconut,extracted tamarind juice,green chillies,jaggery,salt. Put the chutney in a bowl. In a small pan heat oil and add mustard seeds and once it pop up, if you want you can add one red chilli and few curry leaves and add this to chutney.

Now take the Dosa batter from the refrigerator and add water if its too thick and make it into little thin consistency. Add salt and mix well. Heat the pan and put the dosa and spread it. You can see the edges are brown and turn to the other side and cook for few minutes and once its done serve hot with mint chutney and ghee and enjoy!

Masala Dosa

Well who does not like Masala Dosa!? I made that this weekend, which is of course my husband's favourite. This is my aunt's recipe, this is the best est recipe of Masala Dosa, which she got when she attended a wedding, she asked the main chef about it and he gave her the secret of Masala Dosa making! I don't mind sharing that with you. So here goes the Masala Dosa!

Ingredients:

2 cups rice
1/3 cup Urad dal
fist full Pooha (avalakki in our language!)
1/4 Tsp Fenugreek seeds

Method:

Soak Rice and Urad dal separately over night. When you grind, first grind the rice to a smooth paste, since it takes time to become smooth paste. Add little water. Then add soaked Urad dal to it and grind it to smooth paste.

While grinding add dry pooha and dry fenugreek seeds! If you are grinding in the grinder it will make some sounds, which you might feel that it might explode or something. But nothing is going to happen!

So by adding the dry pooha and fenugreek seeds, the masala dosa's taste is totally different and very yummy!

Grind everything to a smooth paste and set it aside for fermentation in a deep bowl. It might take approximately 8-10 hours depending upon the weather, if its too hot it will take 6-8 hours and if its cold it might take more time.

Once its fermented, you can see the batter has raised. Keep it in the refrigerator until you are ready for making dosas!

Since its masala dosa, you need to do the curry(palya) to stuff or for inside the dosa and make two kinds of chutneys one for spreading on dosa and other chutney is to eat it with dosa.

Red Chutney:
Ingredients:

1 onion chopped roughly
4-5 red chillies
1/4 coconut
Salt to taste
1/4 Tsp oil

Heat the oil and fry the roughly chopped onions until golden brown and fry the red chillies until the flavor arises and once onions and red chillies is cooled grind it with coconut and salt to a very smooth paste and keep it aside.

Coconut Chutney:
Ingredients:

1/2 cup coconut
small lemon size tamarind soaked in water
4-5 green chillies(adjust according to taste)
pinch of asafotedia
1/4 Tsp jaggery
Pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste

For tempering:
1/4 spoon mustard seeds
few curry leaves
1/4 Tsp oil

Method:

Extract the tamarind juice and grind into smooth paste with the rest of the ingredients. And heat oil and add mustard seeds and once it starts to pop add few curry leaves and add that to the chutney and keep it aside.

Potato-Onion Curry or Palya

Ingredients:
3-4 medium size potatoes
2-3 medium size onions
4-5 green chillies
1/4 inch ginger grated
Few curry leaves
Few finely chopped coriander leaves
2 Tbsp oil
1/4 Tsp mustard seeds
1/4 Tsp channa dal
1/4 Tsp urad dal
Salt to taste

Method:

Pressure cook the potatoes and once its cooled, peel the skin and mash it and keep it aside. Chop onions finely and chop green chillies. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds and once it pop up, add channa dal and urad dal and once it turns golden brown, do this on a low heat, add ginger and green chillies,curry leaves and onions. Once the onions are done, it becomes translucent add the mashed potatoes and mix it well and add the salt and mix it well again,garnish with corainder leaves and take it out from heat and keep aside.

Now when you are ready with chutneys and curry(Palya) start making dosas. Add water if the batter is too thick, add salt to taste and mix well.

Heat the pan and sprinkle some water and pour the dosa batter in spread it. Put oil round the dosa and do this on a medium flame. You can see the bottom of the dosa is getting little brown, now turn the dosa and cook for a sec and turn it back again.

Now spread the red chutney,on the dosa, with the back of a spoon evenly on the dosa. Put some potatoe onion curry in the middle of the dosa and fold the dosa into half.

Serve the hot crispy dosa with the coconut chutney and butter on top of the masala dosa and enjoy!

Set Dosa

My husband loves the dosa I make! Whether it is set dosa or rava dosa or masala dosa he loves it any day any time. I was thinking today that its been a while that I made dosa and today I should soak for set dosa, which is my husband's favourite, since he will be home most of the time this week and he might be happy if I make set dosa. I would love to share the recipe with you today. This recipe is my aunt's, my mother's sister. She is also a wonderful cook. So here goes the Set dosa recipe.

Ingredients:
4 cups of rice
1 cup of pooha
2 Table spoons of Fenugreek seeds(methi seeds)
one fist full of urad dal
Salt to taste
Oil to make dosas

Method:
Soak all the ingredients over night. I soak Rice separately, since it takes time to grind smooth. I soak the rest of the ingredients, pooha,fenugreek seeds and urad dal together.

Grind rice first, if you are grinding in the mixer grind rice first to a very smooth paste, if you are grinding in a grinder, then first add rice and once its done grind pooha,fenugreek seeds and urad dal together to a smooth paste.

While grinding add very very little water and grind thick. Now mix toghter the rice,pooha,fenugreek,urad dal batter and keep it for 8-10 hours for fermentation.

The set dosa will not ferment much since there is not much of urad dal in it. So dont worry if the dosa batter has not raised in the container. Add salt and put it in the refrigerator immediately if you are not making dosas immediately.

When you are making dosas, heat the tava(griddle) first, sprinkle some water to check if the griddle is hot enough. Always make dosas on a medium heat. Now pour the batter and dont spread. You can put 2-3 small dosas on the griddle at a time, this can be done only for set dosas since batter cannot be spread.

And now put oil around the poured batter and wait patiently. You can see that the bottom side would have changed colour and turn the dosas to the other side just for a second,dont cook set dosas on the other side too much.

And take out the dosas, and place all the 2-3 dosas on top of one another and serve it with ghee and saagu and coconut chatni. I will write the saagu recipe soon! Enjoy the set dosa.