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Hominy Grits Instant Idli

Madhuram — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:51:38 +0000

Inspired by Priya’s Rava Idli and Cham’s Cracked Wheat Idli, I came up with this idea of using grits to make instant idlis. Yet another time grits has proved to be versatile. The idlis came out very well and especially it tasted so good with sambar for side dish.

IngredientsFor the batter:

Grits – 1 and 1/2 cups

Yogurt – 1 and 1/2 cups

Baking soda – 1/2 teaspoon

Carrots, grated – 2 medium size

Frozen peas – handful

Ginger, grated – 1 teaspoon

salt – as per taste

For tempering:

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Urad Daal – 1 teaspoon

Channa Daal – 1 teaspoon

Cashews, broken into small pieces – 10

Black pepper powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Hing – a pinch

Yield: 16 Idlis

Procedure1. Dry grind the grits in a blender to the consistency of regular rava/sooji.

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.

My NotesI prepared the idlis 1 hour after preparing the batter. But I guess that it’s not necessary, because rava idlis can be prepared as soon as the batter is ready.

Cornmeal Dumplings/Kozhukattai – Your Recipe Rocks!

Madhuram — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:19:46 +0000

When Jayasree posted Cornmeal Kozhukattais, I had to try it out because I always like the idea of using American ingredients in our Indian cooking. (Example: Zucchini Daal, Grits Pongal, Grits Adai). I had bought cornmeal to prepare bread, but somehow did not even get close to finding an eggless cornmeal bread recipe.

I tried the recipe with 1 cup of yellow cornmeal, which is available in the baking aisle in the US. I got 12 dumplings for this measurement. Next time I’ll be sure to use another cup of cornmeal, because it was so tasty. Thank you very much for the recipe Jayasree, your recipe rocks!

My Notes1. It’s exactly the arisi upma kozhukattai recipe which is very famous in all South Indian households, but we are just substituting cornmeal instead of coarse raw rice and toor daal powder. So you can either follow her method of making these or use any other method which you are already aware of.

For instance, I don’t add whole red chillies and green chillies while seasoning. Instead I grind coconut, cumin seeds, green chillies and red chillies (as per taste) into a coarse powder and add it while the water is boiling. This gives a nice aroma and flavor to the steamed balls. For this kozhukattai you can also omit the toor daal and use cornmeal only.

2. Another point to be noted, cornmeal tends to lump quickly while adding it to the boiling water. So I had to mash it with a potato masher after removing the pan from the stove and then shaped them into oval shaped dumplings to steam it. I think we can avoid this by adding some water to the cornmeal, whisking it and then pouring this mixture in the boiling water (like preparing ragi kanji).

Dear JZ of Tasty Treats had passed me the Friendship Award a couple of days back. Somehow I lost track of it. I’m very sorry JZ. Thank you for passing me the award. I extend my frienship to all my food blogging buddies.

Hominy Grits And Daal Adai

Madhuram — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:15:37 +0000

Thanks to each and everyone of you for the words of support and wishes. My mom made the journey without any problem. The only negative thing was her flight was delayed by 2 hrs due to bad weather.

We made the mistake of not checking the flight’s status before leaving to the airport. My mother was taking the British Airways flight from Chennai via London and it was supposed to reach here at 7.30pm. We started around 6.15pm, but that day the traffic was unbelievable and we reached the airport only at 8.30 pm. I was worried that my mother would get panicked that we had not come. Only a handful people were there in the arrival hall and my mother was not there. Is this not enough to panick me? Then we saw the message board where they have the list of flights coming into the airport with their arrival time and status. We were so tensed that we could not locate my mom’s flight. Then after a couple of minutes we located it and confirmed that the flight had not yet arrived and was delayed by 2 hours. Then only I was able to breathe. By the time we reached home it was 1.00 am.

My son is already having a blast with her. When she was in India she used to come online daily and we used to have conversation via web camera. So he easily recognised her and yesterday night he slept with her only. It’s like he has totally forgotten me. He wants his grandma to do everything for him, from brushing his teeth, giving him a bath and what not!

I wanted to bake something for my mother, but she has brought us a lot of sweets and snacks from India. I think I’m gonna put on a couple of pounds easily.

For dinner yesterday I made adai using corn grits. I usually prepare adai using Idli rava, instead of rice. So I thought why not try it with grits, which has a similar texture. I used Quaker brand, quick grits, which cooks in five minutes and enriched with hominy.

Ingredients:
Quick Grits – 1 cup
Channa Daal – 1/2 cup
Toor Daal – 1/2 cup
Moong Daal – 1/2 cup
Urad Daal – 1 tablespoon
Green and Red chillies – as per taste
Ginger, grated – 1 tablespoon
Coconut, grated – 1/2 to 3/4 cup (preferably fresh)
Salt – as per taste
Coriander/curry leaves, finely chopped, for garnishing – optional

Procedure:
1. Lightly rinse the grits and soak it with 1.5 to 2 cups of water.
2. In a separate bowl add all the daals, rinse it and soak it in 3-4 cups of water. Also add the red chillies with the daal.
3. After 4 hours either using a blender or wet grinder first grind the daals (adding water little by little) along with the chillies, also add the green chillies, ginger and coconut.
4. Once it is grinded coarsely add the grits also and grind it for another couple of minutes. The batter should not be very smooth and also not very corase.
5. Transfer the batter to a bowl, add salt and coriander leaves.
6. Now prepare the adais as usual.

I got around 14 medium size adais for the above measurement. It was so delicious, especially with avial.

My Notes:
1. I usually use a combination of red chillies and green chillies in my cooking. The taste is definitely different and very good when compared to using either one.
2. Using fresh coconut and a lot of it really enhances the taste of adais.
3. Check this recipe for preparing adais using sweet corn.

This is my entry for Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy – Protein Rich, event.