Horsegram Adai/Horsegram Dosa

Picture courtesy : wiki

Horsegram or "Kollu" in tamil is a bean variety that helps in reducing weight. When I said J that I have out horsegram in the Adai, he winked and told,"Do you think I am a horse?" No guesses for that. Its implied in the name,yes it is an Horse's food. May be thats why the Horses are so fit and tall huh ?!

Ingredients

• one cup of boiled rice 
• 1/4 cup of horsegram
• 1/4 cup of toor dal
• 1/4 cup of yellow moong dal
• a handful of raw rice 
• a handful of channa dal
• 6-7 red chillies
• pinch of hing
• few curry leaves 
• 1 cup of onions(optional)
• 1/4 cup of grated coconut (optional)

Pre-cooking

• Soak all the dals along with the rice for 8 hours

Method

• Grind the dal-rice mix along with hing and chillies to a smooth batter.
• With a spoon of oil,saute the onions and curry leaves .
• Add this to the batter.
• Add the grated coconut and mix well.
• Pour into tawa and make like Dosa.

Serving suggestions

• Server hot with Aviyal or Jaggery .

Tips

• You can make either this either crispy and thin or thick like uttapams.

Sending this to Jihva-Breakfast hosted at Veggie Platter .

Friends, I have made some changes in my comment system to make it more interactive, if you face any problems(I dont hope that you get one ) please comment in my previous post or mail me at db.blooms@gmail.com. 

Aapam-Coconut Milk

This is a repost from my first blog post which was long long ago.Rethinking, it is actually not so long ago.Its just that I took a short break soon after my blog start ..crazy me !!!!

The reason for the repost being the combo event by Pari

Coming to the combo-Aapam and Coconut milk,isnt that a lovely one?. Infact I'm going to make that tonight :D

Ingredients

• 1 cup of boiled rice
• 1 cup of raw rice
• 1 cup of grated coconut(Can be replaced by shredded coconut)
• 1tsp of urad dal
• 1tsp of fenugreek seeds(vendhayam)
• Crystal Salt
• Baking soda(Soda uppu)

Pre-cooking

• Soak all the ingredients with the grated coconut for nearly 4-5 hours.

Method

• Grind the mixture to a nearly smooth batter,little bit coarse is fine.
• The consistency should be between idli and dosa batter.
• Add the salt and keep it for fermentation.
• After the batter is fermented , this could take overnight, add the baking soda and mix thoroughly.
• Take the appam pan , grease it with oil using a paper towel or cloth and pour the batter.
• Spread it such that it is thin in the edges and thicker in the middle.
• Keep in medium flame and cover the lid.
• After a few minutes open it once and check if the sides are roasted.
• Once the sides are roasted and the center portion is cooked your aapam is ready !

Coconut Milk


Ingredients

• 1/2 coconut
• jaggery or sugar to taste(I used jaggery)
• Cardamon

Method

• 
  
  Grate the coconut and add it to the blender/mixie with little water.
• Mash it well,take out and extract the juice.
• Put in the smashed coconut again into the blender with water and extract the juice again.
• Repeat this process 2  times to get the coconut milk.
• Take the required amount of jaggery and smash it into fine powder. 
• Add this to the coconut milk and mix well until all lumps are gone. 
• If you are using sugar you can add just like adding sugar to any milk. 
• Finally peel cardamon and add it to the mixture.

Tips

• If your batter is thin you will not be able to get proper aapams.

Pesaratu/Moongdal Dosa

"Pesaratu" is an Andhra delicacy. Somehow in my mind I had always had this idea that this recipe requires quite a lot of time. Me and my cooking ideas huh? But recently tasted this dosa at my friend A's place and came to know that it is the easiest Dosa ever !! 

She wanted royalty for the recipe and so this is dedicated to her specially :) 

Ingredients

• 1 cup of green moong dal
• 1/2 cup of raw rice or boiled rice or a mix of both(I used raw rice)
• 2 or 3 green chillies
• 1/2 inch ginger
• a small piece of onion
• chopped curry leaves

Pre-cooking

• Soak the dal & rice in water for 8 hours or in hot water for 4 hours

Method

• Grind the dal along with chillies and ginger to a fine paste adding required salt.
• Add the curry leaves.
• Pour into dosa pan and make the way you make dosa.

Serving suggestions

• When I googled for the recipe came to know how to know that in Andhra people have upma inside it and call them "MLA pesartu". I didnt quite like the idea of having upma inside a dosa.May be you can give a shot.
• Serve hot with coconut chutney.

Tips

• You can vary the combinations according to your taste bud.
• Add raw rice for crispness and onion for softness.

Rava Dosa/Sooji dosa

Rava dosa is one of my favorite dishes whenever I go to any restaurant. The Yumm crispy Dosa is a treat with all its richness. But beware weight watchers , its the exact opposite of a Diet Dish. But once in a while pampering for the stomach is a must isnt it?

Lets see how to make this tasty rava dosa.

Ingredients

• Rava/Sooji - 1 cup
• Rice flour   - 1/2-1 cup
• Maida/wheat flour - 1/4 cup
• Curd/Yogurt - 1 cup
  
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Pepper corns - 1tsp
• Grated ginger - 1 tsp
• Ghee/oil         - atleast 1/4 cup
• salt 

Optional

• Onions - 1 cup, finely chopped
• Coconut - cut into very small pieces
  
• Cashews-1/4 cup

Method

• Soak the rava,rice & wheat flour in the curd. Add water as required so that the mixture is completely soaked.
• The soaking helps the rava to absorb mositure and become soft.Keep  this for atleast an hour. The more it soaks, more the crispiness.
• After is becomes soft and mixture is fully absorbed, add the cumin seeds, pepper , ginger and salt.
• If needed also add the additional ingredients mentioned like onions, cashews and coconut. Adding onions adds a nice flavor to the already crispy dosa.
• Now the most important part is to prepare the batter. Add water to batter & mix well. You will need twice the water as that for a dosa batter. The consistency should be that of a butter milk as shown below :

• Add a few drops of ghee to it.Now your rava dosa batter is ready to be used.
• Take a dosa pan/non stick tava and keep it in high flame. 
• Since the batter is very watery it is not possible to make this dosa like the traditional one, little bit tweaking is needed. 
• Take a small cup( I used a rice cooker measuring cup) and dip in the batter and fill it to 3/4th 

• Now using this cup pour on top of the pan to take a shape. Do not pour the batter on top of already poured batter & make it thick.
• As soon as you pour you will see small holes all over indicating that your batter is right.
• Pour ghee or oil all over and spread it evenly. Keep in high flame & relax, the dosa needs to be crisp and so needs time.
• Once you see that the dosa is crisp flip it and turn is around and reduce to medium heat.
• Take out once the dosa is nicely cooked.

Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambar. It makes a good combo.

Aapam with coconut milk

I am really surprised that I'm writing my first post on my food blog. I had once been a girl who didnt know how to pour dosa batter in a tawa :) . Gone are those days.

Now I have all the time on earth to try different recipes and thus spicy lounge was born !

Aapam gets the credit to be my first recipe.

Aapam

Ingredients

• 1 cup of boiled rice
• 1 cup of raw rice
• 1 cup of grated coconut(Can be replaced by shredded coconut)
  
• 1tsp of urad dal
• 1tsp of fenugreek seeds(vendhayam)
• Crystal Salt
• Baking soda(Soda uppu)
  

Method

• Soak all the ingredients with the grated coconut for nearly 4-5 hours. The more you soak the easier it is to grind.
• Grind the mixture to a nearly smooth batter,little bit coarse is fine.The batter should be thick. The consistency should be between idli & dosa batter.
  
• Add the salt and keep it for fermentation.If you are in the US you could keep the batter in the conventional oven set in the OFF mode.Do not forget to close the vessel else it will get dried up in the heat. Also use a light weighted vessel, preferably plastic.
• After the batter is fermented , this could take overnight, add the baking soda and mix thoroughly.
• Take the appam pan , grease it with oil using a paper towel or cloth and pour the batter.
• Spread it such that it is thin in the edges and thicker in the middle.
• Keep in medium flame & cover the lid.
• After a few minutes open it once and check if the sides are roasted.
• Once the sides are roasted and in the center portion is cooked your aapam is ready !

Coconut milk

Ingredients

• 1/2 coconut
• jaggery or sugar to taste
• Cardamon
  

Method

• Grate the coconut and add it to the blender/mixie with little water.
  
• Mash it well,take out and extract the juice.
• Put in the smashed coconut again into the blender with water and extract the juice again.
• Repeat this process 2-3  times to get the coconut milk.
• Do not add too much water that will spoil the taste.
• Take the required amount of jaggery and smash it into fine powder. Add this to the coconut milk and mix well until all lumps are gone. 
• If you are using sugar you can add just like adding sugar to any milk.
  
• Finally peel cardamon and add it to the mixture.
• Your coconut milk is ready to serve.