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Colorful Cocktail Idlis

Madhuram — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:28:16 +0000

I have had this idea of mixing chutney with the idli batter for long time now, especially when we pack idlis while going on a tour/picnic. I used to think that doing so, it’s easy clean up and no need to carry extra utensils, but never got to do that until recently. When SunshineMom announced that she is hosting this month’s Recipes for the rest of us – Starters event, I decided to try the idli idea. I also got the idea of trying it with different color chutneys.

The idea behind the event is getting newbies interested in cooking, so no exact measurements, complicated steps or special equipments should be used. What can be more easy than preparing chutney and steaming idlis? To make it even simple one can even buy idli batter from the store, prepare chutney spicier than usual, mix it and prepare the idlis. As simple as it is. Any chutney should be fine. For different colors you could use tomatoes, coriander/mint, beets, carrots etc. The only thing is you have to make it spicier so that when mixed with the batter and steamed the spice is right. Anyways I’m giving the measurements and recipe for preparing idly and chutneys.

Colorful Idlis

Ingredients

Idli batter (homemade or store bought) as needed

Any spicy chutney as needed

Procedure

1 If you are using more than one chutney divide the batter in two or three bowls according to the number of chutneys you are using.

2 Mix each chutney with the batter and combine it well. Taste the batter and check for salt and spice. If it’s not spicy enough add some chilli powder or ground green chilies. I added a spicy paruppu podi (dal powder which is mixed with rice) to increase the spiciness.

3 Grease idli moulds with oil/ghee. I spray it with a non stick spray. You could choose to use either mini idli moulds or the regular ones. If you have only the regular size idli moulds, pour the batter, steam it as usual (for 10-15 minutes). After sometime remove the idlis from the moulds and cut each idli into 4 pieces. Mini idlis can be served as it is.

4 Use a toothpick to skewer idlis, one of each color or arrange it in a platter.

My Notes

1 I had little leftover batter and chutneys the next day. So to the batter I added some rice flour, all purpose flour, semolina and all the chutneys and mixed it with enough water to get a pancake/dosa batter consistency. Then prepared dosas and it tasted so good with all the chutneys and spices together.

Idli Recipe

Ingredients

Idli Rava 2 cups

Urad Daal 1 cup

Salt as needed

Sesame oil 1 tablespoon

Procedure

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.

My Notes

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.

Chutney Recipes

Onion Chutney (for red color)

Onion, big 1

Red chillies (add 1 or 2 more than the usual) as needed

Tomato (optional, to get the red color) 1

Tamarind paste (if not using tomato) 1/2 teaspoon

Salt as needed

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.

Coriander Chutney (for green color)

Coriander 1 bunch

Green chillies (add 1 or 2 more than the usual) as needed

Tamarind paste (or lemon juice) 1/4 teaspoon

Salt as needed

Grind everything together adding little water as needed.

Coconut Chutney (for yellow color)

Coconut 1/2 cup

Green chillies (add 1 or 2 more than the usual) as needed

Turmeric powder as needed to get the color

Salt as needed

Grind everything together adding little water as needed.

These colorful idlis go to:

SunshineMom’s Recipes for the rest of us – Starters event. The event originally started by Ramki of One Page Cookbooks.

Trupthi’s Cooking for Kids – Rice. The event originally started by Sharmi.

Brown Rice and 16 Beans Crepes (Adai)

Madhuram — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:04:58 +0000

Adai is my favorite tiffin for 2 reasons. Unlike dosa batter this does not need fermentation and one can come up with different varieties of healthy adai recipes. In general adai is also a savory crepe like dosa, but the ingredients are different. Dosas are made with a combination of white par boiled rice, white raw rice and urad daal, whereas adais are made with rice, channa daal and toor daal and also spiced with green and red chillies. Adai can be prepared as soon as the batter is ready.

For the past couple of months I have been substituting brown rice for white rice to prepare Brown Rice Pongal and Brown Rice Bisi Bela Bath. Another dish is adai and I feel that adais with brown rice tastes better than ones with white rice. I have also been using a mixture of beans (like pinto, soy, black beans, kidney beans) instead of the regular daals for preparing adais. So this time I thought why not combine brown rice and these beans to prepare adais. In the US you can find this ready made mix of legumes in the canned beans section. It’s called the 16 beans mix, which is used to make beans soup . You can simply use any combination of beans you have at home. I also had some barley, so added that too. The adais tasted very good.

Something very funny happened at home the day I prepared these. While watching TV if some ad shows up for some meat/seafood stuff, my son asks me whether we can eat it and I tell him we cannot eat it because it is “non-vegetarian”. This has been happening for about a month now and he knows that we can’t eat anything “non-vegetarian”. The day when I prepared these adais, I gave him. As usual he did not like it and I was coaxing him to eat few bites. He gave me an answer which I didn’t least expect. He told me that “it’s non-vegetarian and we should not eat it”. That was unbelievable! I was wondering whether we were as smart as these children when we were younger. At least I was not!

Ingredients

Brown Rice 1 cup

Barley (I used Pearled Barley) 1/4 cup

16 beans mix 1 cup

Red and green chillies 2 and 1 or as per taste

Ginger, grated 1-2 tablespoons

Salt as per taste

Grated coconut or finely diced onions optional

Procedure 1 Wash and soak the brown rice, barley and chillies together and the beans separately in water overnight. I was going to prepare adais for the next day’s dinner.

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.

My Notes 1 In my cooking I use a combination of red and green chillies because it gives a very good flavor to the dish.

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.

This is my entry for:
My Legume Affair hosted by Srivalli. The even originally created by Susan.

Brown Rice Bisi Bele Bath

Madhuram — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:29:41 +0000

Last week I tried Pongal with brown rice and it came out very well, which made me think why not bisi bele bath with brown rice? Earlier I was very hesitant about using brown rice, wondering if we would like the taste or not. To my surprise both of us like it very much. I think this is one of the few things we both agree upon! Brown rice when cooked has a rubbery (is it even a word?) texture. Or simply it is not as soft as its white counterpart. You feel very full after eating a cup of rice, as against wanting more after eating white rice. I made zucchini raitha to go with the bisi bele bath. That’s easy to prepare too. You can find other facts about brown rice here.

Bisi Bele Bath

Ingredients for the Masala Powder

Channa Daal 1 tablespoon

Urad Daal 1/2 tablespoon

Coriander seeds (dhaniya) 1 tablespoon

Fenugreek seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Black Peppercorn 1/2 teaspoon

Cloves 2 to 3

Cinnamon stick 1 inch piece

Red Chillies as required (I used 2 small)

Grated coconut 1 tablespoon

Ghee/sesame oil 1 teaspoon

Ingredients for the Rice

Brown Rice 3/4 cup

Toor Daal 1/2 cup

Turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon

Vegetables
(I used carrots, beans, potatoes and green peas, 1 cup each) 3 to 4 cups

Onion, sliced 1 medium (or pearl onions preferably)

Tamarind paste 1 tablespoon

Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon

Hing a pinch

Salt as required

Sesamme oil 1/2 tablespoon

Ghee 1/2 to 1 tablespoon (optional)

Procedure

1 Wash the brown rice and toor daal and soak it together (also add turmeric powder) in warm water for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better). Soaking the brown rice in warm water activates more enzymes, which makes it possible to obtain a more complete amino acid profile. For 1 cup of rice and daal use 2 and 1/2 cups of water, so I used 3 and 1/4 cups of water. I did the soaking straightaway in a pressure cooker. After soaking, leave it for 5 whistles and transfer the cooker from the stove if cooking on an electric range, because the heat from the coil will continue the cooking process and you will end up scraping burnt rice from the bottom of the pressure cooker.

2 Meanwhile prepare the masala powder, while the rice is cooking. In a small frying pan add ghee, once it heats, fry (until golden brown) one by one the ingredients mentioned in the list. Once it cools, powder it in a blender/spice grinder.

3 In a medium size pan add the 1/2 tablespoon of oil, once it heats add the mustard seeds, curry leaves (if using) and hing. Then fry the sliced onions. Add a pinch of salt, so that the onion cooks faster. Then add the vegetables and required amount of salt and let it cook for 5 minutes. Once it is half cooked add the tamarind paste and 1 and 1/2 cups of water and close the pan with the lid. Let it cook until the raw smell of tamarind leaves. Then add the masala powder and let it simmer for another 2 minutes.

Alternatively you can do the entire step in a pressure cooker easily. That’s how I do it. I have a small pressure cooker. So as usual I do the tempering, fry the onions. Then I simply add the vegetables, salt, tamarind and water and close the cooker’s lid and leave it for only 1 whistle. If you are using an electric range be sure to transfer the cooker from the stove after turning off the stove, because the heat from the coil continues the cooking process and you would end up having mushy vegetables. After opening the lid, add the masala powder and let it simmer for 2 minutes.

4 Then add the cooked rice and daal mixture to the vegetables gravy and mix it well. If you like you can add the 1/2 tablespoon of ghee or sesame oil now. If the rice looks a bit watery, don’t worry, it will thicken up. You can keep it on low heat for sometime and it will thicken up. On the other hand if it’s very thick add some warm water to loosen it. It’s very forgiving, so don’t worry.

Zucchini Thayir Pachadi

Ingredients

Zucchini, small, grated with skin 1

Salt 1 teaspoon

Yogurt 1 to 2 cups

Canola oil 1 teaspoon

Mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Green chillies, sliced into half as required (I used 1)

Hing a pinch

Procedure

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.

My Notes 1 If you don’t have the time to prepare the bisi bele bath masala powder you can buy it. I’ve tried MTR brand and it’s good too.

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.

Simple Zucchini Koottu without Daal/Paruppu

Madhuram — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 12:26:28 +0000

I was on a short break and am back with an easy recipe for zucchini kootu. I learnt it from my mother-in- law. Using rice rinsed water, this simple and tasty side dish can be prepared in no time. I guess this is similar to the Eriseri which is prepared in Kerala, using plain water. Usually when I use an electric rice cooker I wash the rice and soak it for 30 minutes and then cook it, to get a soft texture. So whenever I use my electric rice cooker, I make this kootu with the rice soaked water, because I don’t want to use the regular pressure cooker also just to cook daal for sambar/kootu. My mother-in-law prepares this kootu with cucumber. I had only zucchini that day, so I tried it for the first time and it tasted so good.

IngredientsZucchini, medium, cut into small cubes – 1
Water/Rice soaked water – just enough to cover the zucchini
Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
Salt – as per taste

For Grinding:
Coconut, grated – 2 tablespoons
Cumin – 1 teaspoon
Red Chillies/green chillies – 1/2 each or as per taste
Milk/water – little

For Tempering:
Oil – 1 tablespoon
Urad Daal – 1 teaspoon
Channa Daal – 1 teaspoon
Hing – a pinch

Procedure1. Wash the rice like you always do, but instead of pouring it down the sink pour it in a sauce pan and add cubed zucchinis, tumeric powder and close the lid. When it is half cooked add the required amount of salt and let it cook for another couple of minutes. It should not become very mushy.

2. Meanwhile grind all the ingredients together mentioned in the list and also do the tempering.

3. Add the ground mixture and tempering to the zucchinis and let it boil for another 5 minutes. Garnish it with cilantro.

A very tasty kootu is ready to be served with steaming hot white rice!

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.