AkkiRotti with Dill Leaves

This is the first recipe I am posting in my blog. I started with AkkiRotti because I love them. It is my favorite breakfast item. Akki means Rice in English and AkkiRotti is Rice flour rotti. It is a popular breakfast item in Karnataka. It can either be made on a wax paper or using banale (thin shallow aluminium pan). Rotti cooked on banale yields crispy rotti and those made on wax paper yields softer ones. Here is how to make it. Ingredients: Rice Flour 2 cups Green Chilli Paste 1-2 tbsp (or as per your taste level) Fresh grated coconut 2-3 tbsp Cumin Seeds 1tsp Dill Leaves washed and chopped finely 1 cup Onions, peeled and finely chopped-1 cup Salt as required Water for mixing the flour

Mix all the ingredients with water. Batter Consistencey: Medium. One should be able to make balls out of the dough. Divide the dough into equal number of balls. Smear oil on the pan and place a dough ball on the pan and spread the dough with your hands. Spread one spoon of oil equally over the rotti to keep it soft while cooking. Keep the pan on medium flame and cover cook the pan, till rotti is done. You can see the surface underneath rotti starts turning brown/brick red when rotti is done. It should not take more than 23 minutes to get cooked. Remove from the pan and serve.

AkkiRottis are served with badnekayiennegai (stuffed bringal curry). I have made fried onion chutney which goes well with this rotti.

KharaAloogadde, BasaleHashi and KharaMandakki

KharaAloogadde This is good to eat on its own or you can serve this a side dish with chapathi or rice. Here is what you need to make kharaaloogadde.. Ingredients: Baby Potatoes-10 (pressure cook potatoes with enough salt for 3 whistles. Drain excess water and refrigerate for 3-4 hrs. Deskin them and keep ready) Green chillies -4 Grated fresh coconut -2tbsp Cumin - 1 tsp salt Oil -1/2 tbsp Mustard, Curry leaves

Prep: Grind to coarse paste :chillies, coconut, cumin and salt. Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Add mustard. When mustard stops crackling add the chilli coconut paste and deskinned potatoes. Stir and fry till all the paste gets coated to potatoes and the whole mixture is hot. Garnish with coriander if you have any and serve. Tip : More chilli, tastier is the dish there is a thril is saying aah, aah and eating :P ;-)

BasaleHashi Basalehashi recipe is from Sushma of SaviRuchi blog. She was very happy to share her sis-inlaw's recipe with me when I approached her. Thanks sushma, we all enjoyed hashi to the fullest! "Basellaalba is the botanical name and it is called BasaleSoppu in Kannada, ValchiBhaji in Konkani, PuiShak in Bengali, Bachhali in Telugu. It is most commonly used in Indian, Srilankan, Chinese and Vietnamese cuisi says WIKI . The soppu gets slimy as you chop them just like ladies finger/Bendekayi/Bhendi and hence it needs bit frying to get rid of that sliminess while making hashi. Here is the recipe: You need the following to make hashi : BasaleSoppu - 1 bunch (chopped leaves and stem made 1 cup, 1cup holds 100ml of water) green chillies - 2 grated fresh coconut -1tbsp salt beaten curd - 1/2 cup oil -1tsp Tampering Ingredients : 1/2 tsp oil, few seeds of mustard, 1/2 red chilli broken, hing/asafoetida

1. Chop basalesoppu and stems separately. 2. Grind to a coarse paste :chillies,coconut,salt Note: I just used the same mixture I made for aloogadde, so cumin is a extra ingredient here. 3. Heat a tsp of oil in a non-stick pan and add chopped stems first stir and fry till they are soft, next goes chopped leaves, continue to fry till the sliminess in the leaves is not seen. 4.Trasfer these leaves to a bowl, add ground chilli coconut paste, beaten curd and mix. 5.Do the tampering by heating oil and adding the ingredients in the order mentioned above. 6.Pour the tampered oil over hashi mix and voila it is ready to be served with rice/chapathi. KharaMandakki I made a bowl of KharaMandakki for Challenge event of Veda. I am not sure whether this qualifies. I am waiting for Veda's reply, to e-mail this recipe and pic to her. You need : Oil : 2tbsp Mustard : 1tsp Garlic Pods : 4 chopped into fine pieces Peanuts : handful Green Chillies : 8 (chopped into rounds) Roasted gram/hurgadle/kadalepoppu : handful Curry Leaves : leaves from 3 lines Turmeric : 1/2 tsp Hing/Asafoetida : 1/2 tsp Puffed Rice/Mandakki/Mandalu/Puri - 100g (Microwave for 2-3 seconds if they are soft)

1.Heat oil in a wide pan, I use Prestige cooker pan, easy way! 2.Add ingredients in the order mentioned above. When should you add the next ingredient ? 1. Mustard should stop spluttering before you add garlic 2. Garlic should turn brown before u bring in peanuts 3. Let peanuts brown and become crisp before you add green chillies 4. The moisture from green chillies should evaporate and chillies should turn crisp then add roasted gram 5.Next goes turmeric, immediately jumps curry leaves. Leave curry leaves for a while.It emanates nice aroma when it gets crisp 6.Now sprinkle asafoetida/hingupudi, wait for a sec you start feeling hungry with the aroma of hing now it is time to add salt and puffed rice and switch off the stove. 7. Remove the pan from the stove and keep it aside . This is a imp step 8. Mix puffed rice thoroughly with other ingredients and leave it aside for next 5-8 mins before you start munching it .... To make it extra rich : Add thin coconut pieces and cashew nuts. Add them just after peanuts turn brown n crisp. Cashew goes first let it brown next goes thin slices of coconut. Do not add shredded coconut/dessicated coconut. Do not forget to munch crispy peanut with spicy chillies and tasty curryleaves with puffed rice and in-btw if you get a roasted garlic piece it is just an aaaha... pleasure while you enjoy them :)

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June 11, 2007

Potato & Peas Sagu with Chapathi

Sagu to me means mixed vegetable in spicy gravy. It makes a good combo with Poori, Idli, Chapathi, Dose. I am sure people from Bangalore have heard of VidyarthiBhavan's famous Sagu-Masale Dose followed by hot filter Coffee. Anybody who lived/lives in Bangalore and haven't tried Sagu-Masale Dose, don't forget to visit VidyarthiniBhavan when you are in Bangalore. VidyarthiBhavan is one of the old charms of Bangalore. It translates to Student's eatery and was one of the best and most affordable hotels of Bangalore in earlier times (may be 1970's n before). I always remember my granpa saying that VidyarthiBhavan'sDosa was available at 15Paise in 70's. My memories of buying anything for 10 paise is very faint. Well, before I forget the main topic let me share my version of sagu with you all. This will be my entry for WBB-12 'Spice it Up' hosted by Trupti of The Spice who loved me.

Here is my version of Saguwhich I make for Chapathi's. You may want to add any veggie along with Potato and Peas.

Potato and PeasSagu

Ingrediants: Veggies I used: Potato's - 2 medium sized Peas - 1 small cup For Gravy: Coconut : 2 heaped tabsp (dry/wet) Hurikadale/dalia : 1 tbsp SambharPudi: 2 tsp (adjust according to your taste) Coriander Powder : 2 tsp (roasted coriander seeds powder) White Sesame seeds : 1.5 tsp (roasted) Tamarind Juice : 2 tbsp salt For Tadka: Oil - 2 tbsp Mustard Turmeric : one pinch Curry leaves

Wash Potatoes and cube them. I had kept the potato skin intact. Pressure cook potato cubes, peas and salt with enough water. 3 whistles were enough to cook potatoes and peas. Blend all the ingrediants for gravy, use the stock water from potato and peas and make a thick paste. Keep it aside. Do tadka, and add the blended paste and fry the paste for about 30 sec. You can see the paste changing its color. When it starts turning dark brown add boiled peas and potatoes and mix well. Cover cook the mixture for 4 -5 mins. Check for salt and spice levels. Remove from fire and garnish with coriander. Serve hot.

Tip: Add enough water while cooking potatoes and peas and use stock water for grinding, making up volume etc. Qty : Serves two hungry people.

Onion Idli and MeMe

Onion Idli and MeMe Thanks Roopa for tagging me. After reading her hilarious sambhar making experiance I thought of sharing my upmaexperinace with you all. 1. Once my FIL visited us in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. On one of the days I thought of making upma for breakfast. I prepared upma and left to the office. While cooking dinner in the evening, my FIL reminded me to check for salt several times. I thought it may be just those usual reminders he gives to MIL. While serving dinner to both hubby and FIL I asked them about morning upma. My FIL said 'upittutumbachenagithhuaadreuppuhakidreinnuchennagirthaitthu' translated to english it means 'upma was nice but if you had added salt to it, it would have tasted better'. It was uppittu without uppu(salt). Only later I realised why he kept reminding me of salt. That was the most embarassing moment of my cooking career! 2. I love to grow plants, and gaze at them early in the morning. The result of which I have planted hibiscus, jasmine, tulsi, mint, doddapatresoppu, and several others in Singapore too! 3. I am afraid of lizards and cockroaches. I think it is a sort of telepathy?? btw me n lizards because they jump on me and it always results in hooohaaaas while I clean up the house. 4. I love to collect dolls wearing ethnic dress of the country from all parts of the world. Philately was my hobby during my school days. 5. I would love to have Sarees from different parts of India in my closet, atleast one from each state. 6. I sing folk songs, bhavagethe(light music) in Kannada and I have participated in several competitons (though never won any prize!) That is all about Me n Me only. Enjoy Onion Idlis. I would like to tag Spice of Life and Anu for MeMe. Onion Idli Ingrediants :

Idli Batter - 4 cups (a day old batter which has taken sour taste is preferred) Onions - 1 big (cut into small pieces) Green Chilli paste - 1 tbsp Coriander leaves - 3tbsp (chopped finely) Channadal - 1 tsp oil - 1tsp curry leaves - 1 line (chop finely)

Preparation: Dice onions into small pieces and keep it aside. Blend green chilli with enough salt to make green chilli paste. Chop coriander and curry leaves finely and add them to batter. Heat oil in pan, add chana dal and fry till it is golden brown, add onion and sautee till onions are transclucent. Transfer the onions to idli batter. Mix the idli batter and keep it aside for 5 mins. Check the batter for salt before you start pouring the batter into idli plates. Steam idlis for 7 mins. Serve hot with ghee and chutney.

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August 1, 2007

Rice Flour Poori and ChilliGojju/

I don't know whether it would be right to claim this dish as a signature dish of my granny who is now 80+ yrs old. But I can certainly boast that she had doctrate degree in rotti making and vadappi (riceflourpoori's) making . Oh...my..our summer holidays would just fly away eating those delicious dishes made by granny. I really miss those days. Here you go with the recipe.....

Rice Flour Poori/Vadappi

Ingrediants :

Rice Flour : 2 cups Jeera : 1tsp Salt and luke warm water Oil to deep fry

How to make:

1. Mix rice flour, jeera, salt with luke warm water to make a soft dough. The dough shud look like the one shown below:

2. Take a small lemon size dough and pat them to make pooris using your hands on a plastic cover or a laminated paper as shown below.

3. Take the flattened dough away from the paper and dip it into hot oil and fry till golden brown on both sides. 4. Alternatively you can pat them on your palm and dip them into the oil which yields the same results. ChiiliGojju Ingrediants : Green Chilli - 10 Onion - 1 medium size, cubed Wet Coconut - 3 tbsp

Tamarind juice : 1tbsp Oil - 1/2tbsp Mustard and curry leaves for tampering For Gojju Powder: Coriander seeds : 1tbsp roasted Roasted gram dhal/Hurikadale/pottukadale-4bsp/one fistful Powder the above two ingrediants and keep it ready for gojju making How to make: 1. Wash chilli and take it in a blender along with salt and we coconut and blend it to a coarse paste. 2. Cube onions. 3. Do tampering with mustard and curry leaves. Add onion and sautee till they become transcluscent, chilli paste goes in, sautee it for 2 more mins and add water. Adjust the water level to make sufficiant amount of gojju. 4. Allow this to boil for 3 mins or till onions becomes soft. 5. Powder the gojjuingrediants and mix the powder with tamarind juice. 6. Add this paste to boiling water and stirr well. 7. Serve Hot and enjoy A tip: Do not add too much water as the final product may turn watery. If you happen to end up with watery gojju, dont panic. Add powdered gramdhal/pottukadalai powder. Always mix the powder with water before you add to hot gojju. Adding powder directly to hot water results in lumpy endproduct.

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June 25, 2008

AvalakkiOggarane
Want a express breakfast? avalakkioggarane is the answer. It can be made in 20-25 mins time depending on the type of avval you prefer to use. I use thick avval/pressed rice to make this dish. It is very filling and also tastes good. I make it in 3 different ways and this is one of them.

You need the following to make it :edited to add the type of avalakki Pressed Rice/Avvalakki (Thick variety)- 250g (serves 3-4 adults who have good appetite) If you are using thin variety just wash and use. Onions-2 large; cut into thin pieces Green Chillies - 10-15 (adjust according to your taste) slit lengthwise Mixed Vegetables like Peas, carrots, (optional) Coriander leaves-a handful; washed and chopped finely for garnishing grated coconut- 2 tbsp for garnishing Lemon Juice-1tbsp Tampering : Oil-3tbsp, Mustard (12 tsp), kadaleble/chanadal-1/2 tbsp, uddinabele/uraddal-1/2tbsp, harishina/turmeric1/2 tsp, Curry Leaves I don't measure oil for avalakki. Please use it as required. The final dish should not be oily. Wash and soak avalakki/pressed rice in enough water for 5-8 min. Check after 8 min. When you press it btw your fingers soaked rice should break into two pieces with ease. Transfer it to colander and remove water from pressed rice. If you are using frozen vegetables, microwave them with little water for 1.5mins.

Method : 1.Heat oil in a kadhai/pan. When oil is hot add mustard seeds. 2.When mustard seeds stops spluttering add chanadal and urad dal, turmeric and curry leaves go in next. 3.Add onions and stirr. Fry them till they are pink and soft. 4.Remove water from microwaved veggies and add them now. Give a nice stir. Add salt, pressed rice/avalakki and give a final stirr. 5.Reduce the flame and cover the pan. After 2-3mins switch off the stove. Add lemon juice and give a final stirr. Cover and leave it aside for 5 mins before you serve. Garnish with chopped coriander and grated coconut before you serve.

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