I got a bag of plums from the store and it was so sour I thought I had to just throw it away. I was wondering what to do with it and suddenly remembered Cilantro’s tomatilo thokku recipe. Tomatiloes are also very sour than the regular tomatoes. So I decided to make plum thokku substituting plums for the tomatilo. I used 4 plums. Wash it, cut them in half feeling the pit inside (like you would cut an avocado) and twist it so you would get two halves. Remove the pit and cut each half into cubes like you would cut a tomato and prepare it in the same way you would make tomato thokku. If you don’t have a recipe follow Cilantro’s directions. Nice tangy pickle is ready in no time. It cooks just like tomatoes and no need to remove the skin.

1 Soak urad daal in water for 3-4 hours. You can either soak the idli rava or not. My grandmother used to soak it in lukewarm water. I have tried both methods and have not found any difference in the idlis. After at least 3 hours drain the urad daal, reserving some of the water.

2 If using a wet grinder, switch it on, add 1/2 cup of the water and let the grinder run. Then slowly add the urad daal. Grind it atleast for 25-30 minutes until it’s nice and fluffy.

3 Add the idli rava to the urad daal batter while it’s still in the grinder and let the grinder run a couple of minutes more so that everything is combined well.

4 Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and the oil and mix it well. Use a big size bowl so that there is enough room for the batter to rise while it ferments. Ferment it for at least 12-15 hours and use it the next day.

1If using rice instead of idli rava, the measurement I follow is 2 cups of par boiled rice, 1 cup of raw rice and 3/4th-1 cup of urad daal. Soak the rice together. Soak the urad daal separately. First grind the urad daal as mentioned above and transfer it to the bowl. Then grind the rice to a coarse consistency. It should take only 5-8 minutes if grinding it in a wet grinder. Then mix both the batters, salt and oil and combine it well.

2 I also soak for adai whenever I’m going to grind for idlis. First I grind daal and rice for idlis, transfer the batter and in the same grinder grind for adai. So we have adai for dinner and idli/dosa for the next 2 days. So with extra 10 minutes of work 3-4 days’ dinner/breakfast is taken care off. Also less clean up, because you have to wash the grinder only once as against twice if you soak for adai and idlis on two separate days.

I had a dried red chili at home which is not at all spicy but gives only the color. I used that in addition to the spicy chillies to get the red color. So I did not use tomato. Grind everything together to a smooth paste. Usually I fry this chutney in little oil to get rid of the raw smell from onions. I didn’t do it this time because anyway I was going to steam it with the idlis.

Grind everything together adding little water as needed.

Grind everything together adding little water as needed.

2 Put a tablespoon of the potato curry on it.

3 Add some more batter so that the curry is covered.

4 Steam the idlis. Remove the idlies from the plate and cut each idli into 4 pieces.

5 Once the idlis are ready, heat a little oil in a frying pan.

6 Place the idlis in the frying pan and close it with a lid leaving half an inch space.

7 Stir on slow heat or fire for 3 to 5 minutes till both the sides of the idlis are roasted. I also sprinkled some idli milagai podi and tossed it well to coat evenly.

2 Drain the dal in a colander and reserve the water. Blend together the daals and chilies with some of the reserved water until smooth.

3 Then add the soaked cracked wheat, coconut, ginger, tomato puree. Add water as needed to get a smooth batter.

4 Tranfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and mix well. The batter is ready to make the dosas. No need to ferment it.

5 Heat a tava. Sprinkle some water to check if the tava is hot enough. Take the batter in a ladle and pour it on the pan and spread it into a thin circle with the back of the ladle.

6 It takes about 2 minutes for the batter to cook. If you want it crisp you can wait for another minute or until you see a reddish thin crust in the middle. You could either use little oil to top the dosa or use a non stick spray like Pam and spray it lightly in a circular motion on top of the dosa. Using the non stick spray effectively requires some practice. You have to press the nozzle with very light pressure, otherwise there’s going to be an “oil rain” on the dosa. Since the batter is thin, unlike the regular adai batter this one cooks well even without oil. Flip it and cook the other side for another minute.

7 Turn it over once again and roll it just like shown in the picture or serve it as it is.

2The tomato puree in the batter is optional. I got this idea from another blogger Ashwini. I usually prepare this adai without tomato and that’s good too. But the tomato makes it little tangy and also gives a nice color to the dosa. You could use one small tomato chopped instead of the puree. If adding chopped tomatoes grind it together with the daals itself, otherwise it may not blend properly.

3 This dosa is good either soft or crispy. If you want it soft take it a minute early.

2 In the evening next day drain both the rice and the beans separately in a colander and reserve the water.

3 In a blender/Indian mixie first take a small portion of the rice, chillies and grated ginger and grind it until the chilies are finely ground. Then add the soaked beans, remaining rice, little water and grind it until you get a coarse batter.

4 Add water little by little as necessary while grinding the rice and beans because if too much water is added the ingredients will not be ground properly and evenly. If using coconut, it can either be blended together with the rice and beans or you can simply mix it after transferring the batter to a bowl.

5 Unlike dosa batter which is very smooth the batter for adai should have the texture of semolina/sooji.

6 Transfer the batter from the blender to a large bowl and add salt; mix thoroughly. Now you may also add the finely chopped onions, if using.

7 Heat a non stick tava or an iron griddle (preferred for adai).

8 Once the pan is hot enough take about 1/3rd cup of batter in a ladle and add it to the center of the tava and spread it thin using the back of the ladle. Add ghee/oil/ around the crepes and flip it to the other side. I spray the crepes with non stick cooking spray instead of using ghee/oil. Once it is cooked on the other side too it is ready to eat.

2 My mother found this brilliant idea of replacing coconuts with carrots in most of the dishes, especially if you are grinding some masala. Simply replace grated coconuts with grated carrots and increase the quantity of chilies and the dish tastes great. So I decided to use finely shredded carrots instead of coconut in this adai. The adai tasted great. But just make sure that you use 1 or 2 extra chillies otherwise it would be sweet.

2. If using a blender/mixie: Drain the rice and daal. Reserve the water. Add 1/4th of the rice, daal, coriander, chopped green chillies, ginger and grind it well. Once the cilantro and chillies are ground into a paste, add the remaining rice/daal and the reserved water as required. The batter should neither be very coarse nor very smooth. It should have the consistency of semolina/rava.

3. If using a wet grinder: Switch on the machine. Let it run with the stone. Now pour the 1/4-1/2 cup of the soaked water in the empty grinder, let it run for a minute. Now add 1/4th of the rice/daal and other ingredients and let the machine run for 5 minutes. Later add the remaining rice/daal and water as required. Transfer the batter to a bowl and mix the salt thoroughly.

4. Heat a non stick griddle. Once it’s hot add a ladleful of batter to the griddle and spread it using the back of the ladle. Let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Spray it with a non stick cooking spray and turn the crepes and let the other side cook for another 2-3 minutes. Enjoy it with plain yogurt, idli podi or
your favorite pickle.

2. We never eat spicy food, so I added only 3 chillies and it didn’t have the trace of the chillies at all. That’s why I have listed 4-5 chillies in the ingredients. We ate them with idli podi, which was a superb combination.

3. Soak the rice and daals in the morning before leaving for office, come home in the evening, grind the batter and have these delicious dosas for dinner. Or else you can soak it overnight, grind it in the morning and start your day with this healthy and filling breakfast.

2. Combine together all the ingredients listed for the batter. Add water if necessary to get the consistency of idli batter.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan and add the items to be tempered one by one and pour this in the batter and mix it well.

4. Grease the idli moulds (on both sides) using a non stick oil spray and fill with batter. I also grease the back because the batter from the lower plate does not stick to the top plate and you will be able to get full idlis.

5. Steam the idlis for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.