Gothumai Dosai - Whole Wheat Crepes

My mom is a diabetic and she always made this at home for herself, but I never attempted to taste this when I was at home. The first time I got to eat this was in my in-laws house. My mother-in-law made this for all of us and believe me, this is the simplest and healthiest food that we can prepare.

As I have said before I try to make chapathi's whenever possible. Last weekend I was unable to prepare the chapathi dough in advance and remembered my mother-in-laws godumai dosa. The best part is this does not need fermentation and batter can be prepared just before making the dosa.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 cups Whole Wheat Flour
1/2 cup Rice Flour (this is optional, will make the dosai crispier)
Salt to taste
Water to make the batter

Method:
Mix all the ingredients with water to make a batter in the consistency of dosa batter (Add water in increments so that you do not make the batter too watery).

Make the dosa's in a non-stick pan and serve hot with chutney of your choice.

Vazhai Pazha Dosai/Banana Dosa

 Banana is a staple food in my house and most of the times it becomes so ripe that both of us do not want to eat it. Hating to throw away food in trash, I am always thinking of ways to include them in everyday food.

The other day when we were watching Pandiyaraj's son's debut movie Kai Vandha Kalai. In the movie Pandian makes Vazhai Pazha dosai for his future son-in-law.  What a great way to use those left over ripe banana's. So here it is. The recipe for Banana Dosa.

Ingredients:
2-3 Ripe Banana's
2 cups Rice- 2 cups
1/2 cup Aval/Poha/beaten rice
1 tsp methi seeds
Salt to taste

Soak the rice, Aval and methi seeds in water for 5 hrs. Peel the Banana's and mash them. Put the banana, soaked rice, aval and methi seeds in a grinder or blender. Add some water and grind to the consistency of a Dosa Batter.

Tip: It is always good to add water in little increments while grinding as this will give us a good idea on the consistency of the batter we are preparing.

Remove and keep it over night for fermentation.

When you are ready to eat the dosa, add salt to taste, mix the batter and make dosas on a non stick pan.

Serve with Cutney of your choice.

Friday Food: Semiya/Vermicelli Upma

Its Friday again and a day for me to try something new to resist eating outside. This is mom's favorite and she always made this with wheat vermicelli. On my recent trip to India, I got some vermicelli and was eager to try this out as soon as possible.

Heres a quick recipe before I head out for the day.

Ingredients:

2 Cup Vermicelli
1/4 Cup Beans
1/4 Cup Carrot
Handful of Peas
1/4 Cup Tomato
2 cloves garlic (Chopped finely)
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Red Chili powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 medium Onion
1/2 tsp Ghee
Oil
Salt to taste

Seasoning:

1/2 tsp Musturd seeds
1/2 tsp Urad Dhal
1/2 tsp Channa Dhal
1 Sprig Curry Leaves
3 Green Chili (split lengthwise)

Heat the half tsp ghee and roast vermicelli until it turns light brown. Now add 4 cups of water, 1/4 tsp salt and a little oil and boil. Remove from heat when the vermicelli is 3/4 cooked. Drain the water and keep aside.

Cook the carrot, peas and beans with a little salt and 1 cup water. Remove from heat and drain water when the vegetables are cooked. Alternatively you can microwave the vegetables with salt and water for 4 minutes on high.

Now in a pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutters add urad dhal, channa dhal, green chili and curry leaves. Add the finely chopped garlic and the chopped onion and saute until the Onion turns translucent and light brown.

Add the tomatoes, cooked vegetables and saute for a minute. Now add cumin, turmeric and red chilli powder. Add salt to if you need more. Remember that the vegetables and the vermicelli already have salt.

Now add the vermicelli and mix everything up. Saute for a few minutes and remove from heat. Serve hot with a chutney of your choice.

Friday Food: Paruppu Adai

We normally go out to get our weekly grocery on Friday evenings. I usually get very tempted to eat out or I snack in various places and will not feel up to dinner when we return home. Hence for the past couple of weeks I cook before we go out for the evening and avoid eating outside.

Since we miss eating out on Fridays, I decided to make something interesting today. Adai is something my mom never made when we were growing up. We always stuck to the usual Idli/Dosa and never attempted Adai. I have eaten this at local food joints and have always wanted to make this at home.

When I finally made it today, it was a super hit. Looks like we'll be making this yummy treat many times in the days to come.

Ingredients:

1/2 medium onion
1/2 cup Idli rice
1/4 cup urad dal
1/4 cup toor dal
1/4 cup channa dal
1/4 cup moog dal
1 inch piece of ginger
2 dry red chillies
1/4tsp hing/Asafoetida
salt to taste
1 sprig curry leaves
a few coriander leaves

Soak all the dhals together for atleast 2 hours. Also soak Rice for atleast 2 hours. Drain the water from the soaked dhal and rice. In a grinder/mixer add the dhal, rice, ginger, chopped onion, red chillies, curry leaves, coriander, salt and hing/asafoetita.

Grind everything together with a little water in the consistency of dosa/idli batter. The adai batter will be coarse than that of dosa batter.

Heat the pan which is used for making dosa. Spread the Adai batter in a outward circular motion just like making a dosa. Add a little oil or ghee sparingly on one side and allow to cook for a minute. Flip over and cook the other side. Remove from heat and serve hot.

We polished off our plates of Adai with Mutton Keema Curry.

Aval Vegetable Upma

This is an easy recipe for a delicious breakfast or even a lip smacking evening snack. Aval or Poha is a easily digestible option for all the vegetarian lovers out there.

Poha or Aval, made from flattened rice, is an easy-to-cook, nutritious snack.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Aval / Rice flakes / Poha (I've used the thick variety)
2 Green chilly
2 Cloves Garlic (Finely Chopped)
1/2 tsp Chilli powder
1 small Onion(Finely Chopped)
1/4 tsp Turmeric powder
Few Curry leaves
Salt to taste
Tampering:
1/2 tsp Mustard
1/2 tsp Urad Dhal
1 Cup - Mixed vegetables of choice boiled (potato, peas, carrots, beans.)Method:

1. Sprinkle the ricefalkes with water to make it soft and keep aside.

2. Heat oil in a Pan and allow the mustard seeds to splutter. Now add urad dal, chillies, garlic, onions and curry leaves. Saute till onions turn light brown.

3. Mix in the boiled veg, chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt.

(I've used already made vegetable Poriyal which was left over from afternoon food, So I skipped step 3 and just added the already made vegetable poriyal).

4. Saute for 2 mins and add water. Now add the rice flakes and mix well(water will get absorbed). Check salt and add more if needed.5. Sprikle a little garam masala/ Lime Juice for taste.