Rice-Urad Dal Dosai & Uthappam

Recommended Season :All seasons, in moderation during summer (because fermentation takes place very rapidly).
Ingrediants : Raw Rice or Idli Rice 3 to 4 cups Black Gram 1 cup Salt 1 teaspoon

Soak rice and dal separately overnight. In the morning, drain the water, wash rice and dal thoroughly and grind to a fine paste, adding water. Add salt and enough water to make a watery batter. With a watery batter, one can get thin, crisp yet soft “paper dosas”. If you are not going to make the dosas immediately, then grind the rice and dal separately and mix just before making dosas.

Heat an iron tawa or flat pan. Grease it with oil or ghee. Pour one or two ladlefuls of the batter on the tawa and spread it into a thin dosa using the ladle. Drip oil or ghee around the dosa, cover with a lid (that has a knob or handle to lift it) and let it cook for a minute or two. When you remove the lid, you will see the outer edges of the dosa coming away from the tawa. Flip it onto the other side and cook for another minute or two. Remove from tawa and serve hot with coconut chutney.

Because the batter is not fermented, the dosas will be light in colour. Applying oil on the tawa with a small, thick, short stub of wood after every dosa keeps the tawa greased and clean.

(-) You can grind the rice and dal adding enough water to make a thick batter and not a watery batter. Then you can add grated carrot, finely chopped cabbage, cooked green peas and chilly powder (½ teaspoon) to make uthappam.

Adai

Recommended Season :All seasons, in moderation during summer.
Ingrediants : Raw Rice or Idli Rice 3 to 4 cups Turdal ¼ cup Black Gram 1 tablespoon Split green gram ¾ tablespoon Bengal gram 1 ½ tablespoons Red chillies 2 or 3 Salt 1 teaspoon Curry leaves 8 to 10

Soak rice separately, and all the dals together, overnight. In the morning, drain the water, wash rice and the dals thoroughly and grind to a fine paste, adding red chillies and enough water. Add salt, curry leaves and enough water to make a watery batter. With a watery batter, one can get thin, crisp yet soft “paper dosas”. If you are not going to make the adais immediately, then grind the rice and the dals separately and mix just before making adais. You can also add grated carrot and / or finely chopped cabbage to the batter.

Heat an iron tawa or flat pan. Grease it with oil or ghee. Pour one or two ladlefuls of the batter on the tawa and spread it into a thin adai using the ladle. With the tip of the spatula, gently make four holes in the adai and drip oil or ghee in those holes and around the adai. Cover with a lid (that has a knob or handle to lift it) and let it cook for a minute or two. When you remove the lid, you will see the outer edges of the adai coming away from the tawa. Flip it onto the other side and cook for another minute or two. Remove from tawa and serve hot with aviyal or powdered sugar. If you are serving with aviyal, which already has lot of vegetables, you need not add carrot or cabbage to the batter.

Applying oil on the tawa with a small, thick, short stub of wood after every adai keeps the tawa greased and clean.

Godumai (Wheat) Dosai

Recommended Season :All seasons, in moderation during summer.
Ingrediants : Wheat flour 200 gms (2 cups) Salt ½ teaspoon Chilly powder ¼ teaspoon Curry leaves 7 or 8 Cumin seeds 1 to 2 teaspoons Grated carrot ½ cup (1 big carrot)

Mix all the above ingredients and make a watery batter. Heat an iron tawa or flat pan. Grease it with oil or ghee. Take a ladle full of batter and pour around the edge of the tawa. The batter being watery, part of it gravitates towards the centre, thus spreading into a dosa with some holes in it. Drip oil or ghee in those holes and around the dosa. Cover with a lid (that has a knob or handle to lift it) and let it cook for a minute or two. When you remove the lid, you will see the outer edges of the dosa coming away from the tawa. Flip it onto the other side and cook for another minute or two. Remove from tawa and serve hot with green chutney.

Rawa Uthappam

Recommended Season : All seasons.
Ingrediants : Semolina (Rawa) 1 ½ cups Tomato 1 big Carrot 1 big Cabbage 25 gms Green peas 25 gms Curry leaves 7 to 8 Salt 1 teaspoon Chilly powder ½ teaspoon

Finely chop the tomato and cabbage, and grate the carrot. Mix green peas, other vegetable pieces, curry leaves, salt, chilly powder and semolina with enough water to get a thick, chunky batter, mix well and keep covered for half an hour.

After half an hour, mix well and pour a ladle of the batter on a tawa or flat pan, spread it slightly with the ladle to form a thick cake, pour oil around the cake, cover with a lid, and cook for 2 or 3 minutes. Take care not to burn it. Then, remove the cover and turn it onto the other side with a spatula. Once both sides are done to a golden brown colour, serve with coconut chutney.

Payatham Paruppu Dosai

Recommended Season : All seasons.
Ingrediants : Dehusked split Green Gram 1 ½ cups Salt 1 teaspoon Turmeric pinch Red Chilly 1

Ingrediants for Filling : Carrots 2 Cabbage 50 gms Panneer 50 gms or ½ cup Coriander leaves handful Salt ¾ teaspoon Chilly powder ½ teaspoon Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon

Soak green gram for 1 ½ hours, remove water, wash well and grind into a fine paste adding salt, turmeric and chilly. Add only very little water while grinding, otherwise batter will become very watery. Make dosas with this batter. After the dosa is done on both sides, place a tablespoon of the filling on the dosa, fold it into half and serve hot with green chutney or tamarind chutney.

Filling : Grate the carrots, finely chop the cabbage and coriander leaves, and crumble the panneer into powder. (While kneading the panneer, before pressure-cooking, add a pinch of salt to it.) Heat 1 teaspoonful of oil in a pan, add cumin seeds, toss in the grated carrots, chopped cabbage, panneer crumbs, salt and chilly powder and saute till the cabbage is cooked. If the vegetables are too dry, add ¼ cup of water to soften and cook easily. Add the coriander leaves, mix well and turn off the flame.

Pesarattu

Recommended Season : All seasons (with added vegetables).
Ingrediants : Split green gram with husk 2 cups Red chillies 2 Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon Salt ¾ teaspoon

Soak the dal over night. In the morning, remove husk from the dal by rinsing repeatedly. Fill water in the vessel and rotate the water by moving the vessel in circular movements. Some of the husk floats to the top of the water surface. Pour out the water along with the husk. Fill water again in the vessel and repeat the circular movements. Again pour out the water along with the husk that floats to the top. Doing this a few times, removes most of the husk.

(To save water, pour the water into another vessel and strain it to remove husk and use the same water again to rinse the dal. And finally rinse the dal with clean water.)

Grind the dehusked dal with red chillies, cumin seeds and salt, adding water if required, into a fine paste. Add enough water to make a watery batter. You can also add grated carrot and / or finely chopped cabbage to the batter.

Heat an iron tawa or flat pan. Grease it with oil or ghee. Pour one or two ladlefuls of the batter on the tawa and spread it into a thin dosa using the ladle. Drip oil or ghee around the dosa, cover with a lid (that has a knob or handle to lift it) and let it cook for a minute or two. When you remove the lid, you will see the outer edges of the dosa coming away from the tawa. Flip it onto the other side and cook for another minute or two. Remove from tawa and serve hot with coconut chutney.

(The husk that has been removed can be added to any vegetable curry.)