Pesarattu | Upma Pesarattu

Pesarattu Dosa is a popular recipe from the Andhra cuisine. It is generally served alike plain dosa with added onion, green chillies and coriander leaves on top or with upma filling called as 'Upma Pesarattu' or 'MLA pesarattu'.

In Telugu 'Pesalu' means whole green gram and 'Attu' means Dosa. This dosa made with greem gram is called pesarattu. It is a healthy dosa which has lots of protein in it. It is an easy to make dosa with lots of nutrients and the dosa is flavourful.

After grinding no fermentation is involved in this dosa, and so it saves time too. It makes crispy dosas if it is prepared as thin dosas. You could prepare this dosa thick like an adai dosa too. I have prepared it thin as it requires less oil to cook. Adding upma in this dosa is optional.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Soaking Time: 6-7 hrs
Cooking time:2 minutes/dosa
Cuisine: Andra Pradesh
Makes: 10 dosas

INGREDIENTS:
Whole green gram/ Pasipayaru- 1 cup
Raw rice- 2 tablespoons
Ginger- 1 inch
Coriander leaves- 2 tablespoons
Jeera/cumin- 1 teaspoon
Salt- to taste
Oil- 1/2 teaspoon/dosa

To sprinkle on top:
Onion, chopped- 1
Green chillies, chopped- 2

Rava Upma: Click here for the recipe.

PROCEDURE:

• Wash and soak green gram and rice together for 6-7 hours or overnight.
• Drain the water and add inside the blender jar. 
• Roughly chop green chillies, ginger and coriander leaves and add with some cumin seeds.
• Grind to make a smooth paste.

• Add this in a deep bowl and add some salt and add a dash of water if you feel the batter is too thick.
• The consistency of the batter should be like idli batter. As it has froth in it it will be the right consistency to make dosas. No need for fermentation and you could make dosas right after grinding.

• Heat the dosa pan and grease the pan with oil take a ladle full of batter and spread to make concentric circles with the backside of the ladle.
• Drizzle half a teaspoon of oil on top of dosa and cook till crisp if you are making plain dosa.

• After spreading the batter sprinkle chopped onion and green chillies on top. Then drizzle with oil and keep the upma on top; once the dosa becomes crisp. Fold it and serve with Allam pachadi/ Ginger Chutney.
• Note: You could ferment the batter like normal idli dosa batter and use it. Refrigerate the leftover batter and use it. 

Read More »

Ginger Chutney | Allam Pachadi

Ginger Chutney is a popular dish in Andhra Pradesh and is called as Allam Pachadi. This pachadi is a spicy and mildly sweet / tangy pachadi. So tasty and it goes well with this Andra Pesarattu a instant dosa preparation. This chutney could be consumed with rice, idli, dosa..etc. Ginger Chutney is healthy and tasty it aids proper digestion.

It tastes almost similar to the Kerala puli inji preparation which is also prepared using ginger. Try this for your Idli Dosas and relish your taste buds. Good chutney variation from the regular chutneys.

Preparation Time:5 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes
Cuisine: Andra Pradesh
Makes: 3/4 cup

INGREDIENTS:
Oil-1/2 teaspoon
Channa dal- 1 tablespoon
Urad dhal- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons
Jeera- 1/2 teaspoon
Dry red chillies- 3
Ginger, finely chopped- 2 inch
Tamarind- small gooseberry size
Salt- to taste
Jaggery - 1 teaspoon

To temper:
Oil- 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Dry red chillies- 2
Garlic, chopped- 1 big clove
Curry leaves- 1 strand
Asafetida- pinch

PROCEDURE:

• Heat oil in a pan; add the channa dal, urad dhal, jeera, dry red chillies and roast in that oil. 
• Once the dhal starts to get golden brown add the finely chopped ginger and roast in that oil till the cut ends of the ginger gets a golden colour thereby eliminating the raw flavour but raising  the roasted aroma of ginger.

• Now add tamarind and roast for a minute; switch off the gas and allow to cool.
• Add all the roasted ingredients in blender jar and powder well. Add some water and make into a fine paste.
• For the seasoning heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds with dry red chillies. Once the mustard seeds crackle add the finely chopped garlic and curry leaves.
  

• Once the garlic becomes golden add the asafetida and switch off the gas. Add the seasoning on top of the ginger chutney and mix well.
• Note: Use sesame oil for more taste and flavour for this chutney.

Read More »

Rava Upma

Rava upma is an easy to make breakfast which is a staple food in almost all South Indian house. In South India there are many variation in rava upma such as Vegetable Rava upma, Kichadi, Masala upma..etc. Upma also has many varieties like Rice rava upma, Wheat rava upma, Millets upma, Vermicelli Upma..etc.

This is  the basic upma recipe which is easy to make in few minutes. With simple banana or sugar it tastes so yum. In restaurants they add more ghee to make it as a melt in mouth texture. But we can make it healthy by adding less amount or totally avoid to make it in a healthy way. Many people hate upma, if you prepare upma at right taste and consistency i guess there will not be any upma haters.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Cuisine: South Indian
Serves:4

INGREDIENTS:
Rava/ Sooji/ Semolina- 1 cup
Ghee- 1 teaspoon
Oil- 3 teaspoon
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal/ Ulunthau-  teaspoon
Chana dhal- 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves- 2 stands
Onion, chopped- 1 medium
Green chillies, chopped- 2-3
Ginger, finely chopped- 1/2 inch
Water- 2 cups
Salt- to taste

PROCEDURE:

• Heat a pan and add the ghee and add cashew nuts if you like to make it little rich. Roast the nuts till golden and remove from pan and add the semolina and roast it on the remaining ghee till it roasted as like a sand texture. The colour should not darken but the raw smell has to go from semolina.(I have not added cashews so i have added ghee straight away with semolina and roasted)
• Heat a deep pan and add oil, once it heated up add the mustard seeds, urad dhal and channa dal. Fry them till the mustard seeds splutter and the colour of the dhal turns golden.

• Now add onion, green chillies, ginger and curry leaves together and fry in that oil. Once the colour of the onion turns translucent and once you start to get the flavour of the ginger add  2 cups of water and some salt.
• In crease the flame to high and allow make the water to rolling hot. Now reduce the flame to medium before adding semolina.

• Now add the roasted semolina in 4-5 small batches and stir well in between each addition to mix well without any lumps.
• Now the water get absorbed by semolina and the mixture starts to thicken. Stir constantly by scraping the bottom too.
  

• Once the moisture totally absorbed the rava starts to become fluffy  and transparent while stirring. Stop the flame at this stage. Do not make it totally dry at the stove because it does not tastes nice.
• Serve hot with pazham, coconut chutney or sugar of your choice.

• Note: Roasting semolina is important to get nice flavour and texture for the upma.
• While adding semolina water should be rolling hot otherwise the upma gets a sticky texture.
• You could add half small tomato after the onions get cooked if you wish this type goes well with chutney.
• My mom adds a tablespoon of grated coconut with the roasted rava before preparing upma.
• Adding cashewnuts is optional but adding gives richness and texture and taste to the upma. You could add extra ghee to make it like melt in mouth texture like hotels.

Read More »

Cucumber Buttermilk | Vellari Neer Mor

Buttermilk and lassies are the main beverages consumed through out India to reduce heat during the summer days. The reason being, that it reduces the body heat and is really an easy to prepare drink in a seconds. There are many variations available with the buttermilk drink such as plain ones, spiced ones, also those with added flavours such as fruits and veggies.

One such variation is cucumber buttermilk which i prepared last summer and became our family's favourite drink. It is absolutely easy to make and really tasty; super cooling with the goodness of cucumber. I used to make a mild variant each week in this drink by changing one or two ingredients. One of the days I would add one or two small/peal of onion, while on the other I would add coriander leaves, roasted jeera powder or chat masala. You could alter your cucumber drink by adding your spice or herb of choice.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cuisine: Indian
Makes: 3 glasses.

INGREDIENTS:
Cucumber,chopped- 1
Green chilli, cut- 1 small
Ginger, chopped-1/2 inch
Coriander leaves- 1 tablespoon(optional)
Yogurt/ Curd- 1/2 cup
Water- 2 cups
Salt- to taste
Roasted jeera powder- big pinch/ glass(optional)

PROCEDURE:

• In a blender jar add the roughly chopped cucumber, green chilli, ginger, coriander leaves and yogurt; blend well to make a coarsely ground paste. Add water to dilute the mixture around 2 cups with required salt; blend well for fifteen to thirty seconds to make a frothy buttermilk. 

• Serve chilled in glasses by sprinkling roasted jeera powder on top if you wish.
• Note: Use cucumber and yogurt straight from fridge so that the drink would be chill when u consume.
• You could replace yogurt with buttermilk and add less water while blending.
• For variation add herbs and spices of your choice like coriander leaves, pepper powder.
• Peel the cucumber if you does not like the taste of it.
• You could add a teaspoon of powdered oats too for making the drink more healthy.

Read More »

Varutharacha Chicken Curry

'Varutharacha Kozhi Curry' or 'Varutharacha Chicken Curry' or 'Chicken Varutha Curry' all refers the Nadan Kerala style chicken curry prepared using roasted and ground spices and coconut based gravy. This is a flavourful and also a tasty preparation with the roasted flavour. This tasty chicken curry has more gravy when compare to other chicken preparations and the gravy is really tasty with prefect consistency. So you could serve more people and this curry goes well with almost all types of Indian main courses like rice, roti, appam, puttu..etc.

When you prepare this curry your whole apartment could realise the taste and flavour of the curry. You could adjust the spice level by adjusting the red chillies and peppercorns added. Try this chicken curry for this weekend and let me know the results!

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Cuisine: Kerala
Serves: 8-10

INGREDIENTS:
Chicken- 1.2 kg
Pearl onion, cut- 15-20 nos (or)  Onion, chopped- 1 and 1/2
Ginger, chopped/ paste- 1 inch
Garlic, chopped/paste- 4 big cloves
Salt- to taste

To dry roast and grind:
Dry Red chillies, big- 8-10 nos (or) I used Kashmiri chillies-13 nos (adjust according to your spice level)
Coriander seeds-3 tablespoons
Peppercorns- 1/2 teaspoon
Small/ Pearl onions, cut- 15 nos
Coconut, grated- 1/4 cup, tightly packed
Fennel seeds/ Sombu- 1/2 teaspoon
Cinnamon bark- 1 inch, cloves- 3 cardamom-4

To temper:
Oil- 1 tablespoon(use coconut oil for more flavour)

Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon

Curry leaves- 2 strands

PROCEDURE:

• Clean the chicken and cut them in to medium sized pieces and rinse them using water for 3 times.
• For the masala dry roast together the red chillies, coriander seeds, peppercorns, cut pearl onions, coconut, fennel seeds, cinnamon, clove and cardamom. Roast on medium flame till you get the coconut golden colour and get the nice roasted aroma of the other spices.

• Allow to cool and everything on a blender jar and powder well. Now add some water and grind to make a fine paste; set aside.
• Heat oil in a deep pan and splutter the mustard seeds now add the curry leaves. Add the chopped onion with some salt and cook till it becomes translucent. Add ginger and garlic paste/crushed in pestle and mortar and cook for few minutes till the raw flavour leaves.

• Add the chicken pieces with salt and mix well. Now add the ground masala paste whole lot and 3-4 cups of water to dilute the curry till you get a thin gravy.
• Add salt to balance the taste. Allow the gravy to boil well for about 5 minutes.

• Now reduce the flame and cook for further 5 minutes or more till you get the chicken cooked nice and soft and the curry gets nice taste and flavour and consistency.
• The curry should not be thick. The good things about this curry is, this preparation has more gravy when compare to other chicken curries and from the gravy the water content will not separate on top when you keep it as such.

• Note: Health conscious people could use refined oil to prepare this curry. Use coconut oil to get more flavour in nadan Kerala style.
• In this chicken curry there is no souring agents used as it is a traditional recipe. If you like little sourness in curry add a small tomato after the ginger garlic.
• I used Kashmiri red chillies for more colour and less spicy curry if you use normal red chillies the colour of the curry will slightly vary.

Read More »

Pav Bhaji Dosa

Mumbai famous street food is Pav bhaji they also serve dosas too with the same filling. I have shared Pav Bhaji recipe with step-wise pictures earlier in my blog. So here i am linking the making of bhaji and just posting the making of the dosa with the vegetable Bhaji. Click Here to get the Bhaji preparation.

I have to say this combination is so delicious. This is one of the tastiest vegetarian delicacies. A real treat for vegetarians. A filling meal you could make this as a breakfast, lunch or even a best choice for brunch. You could make this dosa with the leftover bhaji next day morning as a breakfast too. I have used very less butter to make it healthy. You could add more butter to increase the taste of the dish.

Preparation Time:1 hour
Cooking Time:30+15 minutes
Cuisine:Mumbai

INGREDIENTS:
Dosa Batter- 1 big ladle/dosa
Oil- 1/2 teaspoon/ Dosa
Bhaji - big scoop

To serve:
Onion, chopped- 1
Coriander leaves- 1 teaspoon/dosa
Butter- 1 teaspoon/dosa
Lemon wedge- 1 no/Dosa

PROCEDURE:

• Heat oil in a pan and grease the pan and add the ladle full of batter and spread as concentric circles.
• Drizzle half a teaspoon of oil and roast the dosa. Once the top of the dosa get cooked add a big scoop of Bhaji at the cente of the dosa.
• Once the dosa becomes crisp add the chopped onion, coriander leaves and a piece of butter and close the dosa as you like and serve hot with a lemon wedge.
• You could make this as a dosa roll too and cut diagonally and serve.

Read More »

Nutella Banana Dosa

For every south Indian their comfort food with out any doubt, are Dosas and idlis. This has many variations and i have shared some of them in my blog. Today I have come up with a new variety of Dosa which could be served as a breakfast for kids or send them school for tiffin box. You could serve this as an easy to make dessert too. The gooey bananas coated with the oozing chocolaty nutella wrapped with crispy dosa is just amazing.

I am sure kids and adults would love it alike with out any doubt. I used to make Nutella Banana Bread Sandwich for my kids tiffin box. Through that i got a new idea for my dosa series and was a real success. An easy to make dosa variety in minutes. You could serve it as an easy to make dessert too. Do try and let me know the outcome.

Preparation Time: 1 minute
Cooking Time: 2 minutes/Dosa
Cuisine: Tamil
Makes: 3-4 rolls/Dosa

INGREDIENTS:
Dosa Batter- 1 big ladle/dosa
Nutella/ Chocolate spread- 2 teaspoons/Dosa
Banana-1 medium/Dosa
Oil- 1/2 teaspoon/ Dosa

PROCEDURE:

• Cut a banana/dosa into small roundels; set aside.
• Heat a dosa tawa and grease it with oil; add a ladle full of dosa batter and spread with the backside of the ladle to make concentric circles.
• Drizzle half a teaspoon of oil and cook till the top of the dosa get cooked.
• Now keep the nutella on top of dosa and spread with backside of a flat spoon/ladle. 

• Now lift the whole row of banana set to the edge of the dosa. once the dosa becomes crisp and rollable stage start rolling inide the pan or remove the dosa from pan and tightly roll it.
• Cut the roll diagonally like spring roll and serve hot.

• Crispy dosa with the oozing chocolaty nutella with the soft gooey bananas. Just Yumm!!!

Read More »

Thakkali Thayir Pachadi | Tomato Pachadi

Whenever we do think about thayir pachadis we generally make with cucurbits like cucmber, ash gourd etc. in summer. The other pachadis we generally prepare is beetroot, vendaikka , bitter gourd etc.. and the list is endless. Pachadis are similar to raitas in which, we cook the vegetables and mixed with a coconut and yogurt based gravy.

This pachadis are perfect for summer as they cool the body. These pachadis does not take much time to prepare and are a real yummy ones. This pachdi you could serve with a part of Onam Sadya menu too.

INGREDIENTS: 
Tomato-3 big
Salt- to taste
Yogurt/ Curd, beaten- 1 cup

To grind:
Coconut- 1/2 cup
Green chillies- 2
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
*Those who does not like adding mustard seeds replace it with jeera.

To temper: Oil- 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds- 1/2 teaspoon
Dry red chillies- 2
Curry leaves- 2 strands

PROCEDURE:

• Cut tomato into medium sized pieces. In a pan add the tomatoes with some salt and a cup of water; cover it with lid and cook till soft.
• Meanwhile add the coconut, green chillies and mustard seeds together in a blender jar;  grind as a fine paste.

• Add this paste and mix well and just heat the mixture;  switch off the gas. Do not allow to boil as the mustard seeds then make the pachadi bitter.
• Beat the curd well using a spoon or blender jar and add the beaten curd immediately after switch off the pachadi. Mix well.

• Heat oil in a pan and splutter the mustard seeds and then fry the dry red chillies and add the curry leaves and switch off the gas. 

• Add this tempering on top of the pachadi and mix well; add salt if required.

Read More »