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 Cook it in low-medium heat and leave it for 6 whistles. Switch of the stove and remove the cooker from the stove.

3 Meanwhile in a small frying pan heat the ghee, add the curry leaves and fry the cashew pieces (if using) until golden brown.

4 Once you are able to open the cooker add required amount of salt and pour the heated ghee and mix well.

5 Eat it hot with chutney, sambar or the traditional accompaniment Eggplant Gojju or Gothsu.

2 Traditionally rice and daal are cooked first. Then ghee is heated, to fry cumin, pepper, ginger and cashews, which is added to the cooked rice. You could do it either way.

3 Also whole peppercorns are used for pongal. In our house we don’t like biting full peppers, so I use black pepper powder.

1 Wash the zucchini and grate it with the skin and place it in a bowl. Add the required amount of salt.

2 In a small frying pan heat the oil, add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters add the sliced green chillies, hing and fry it.

3 Add this to the zucchini and mix it well.

4 Mix the yogurt to the zucchini when ready to serve.

2 You could also buy the frozen Avial vegetables available in Indian grocery stores and save time chopping vegetables.

3 I have pressure cookers in all size so I used one for cooking the vegetables and one for cooking rice/daal. You can also cook both in any vessel on stove top, but as far as I’ve read brown rice takes more time to cook like that.

4 We don’t eat spicy food, so I used only 2 red chillies for the masala powder. The heat was very mild. If you prefer it more spicy use about 4-5 chillies.

2 Place the pan over high heat and bring to a boil. Keep an eye on the stove or else it will start boiling all over the place.

3 Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until the rice is tender, about 40 minutes.

4 Stir frequently to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

5 When the rice is cooked, remove from the heat and add thee sugar, vanilla and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon (if using).

6 Return to the stove, and cook until the rice pudding thickens, 5 to 10 minutes.

7 Remove from the heat and add the raisins, if using.

8 Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours before serving.

Updated:
After a comment from a visitor Lise regarding the ratio of milk and rice, I tried it once again without powdering the rice and also reduced the quantity of milk from the original 3 cups to 2 and 1/2 cups. I noticed that if using whole rice it takes at least 40 minutes for the rice to cook tender. Also add 2 tablespoons of sugar first and increase according to your taste.

After adding the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon it took around 10 minutes for the pudding to thicken. At this point I felt the consistency was right, if I was going to consume it immediately. Since I was going to have it after dinner, I had to refrigerate and the pudding will thicken even more, so I added little less than 1/4 cup of milk and heated it for another 2 minutes and then stored in the fridge. So add additional milk to your preferred consistency.

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.