Curry In Kadai ~ An Indian Cooking Blog

I know its not appetizing to eat the same old plain Idli with chutney/sambar everytime.., here i am with an easy and quick crunchy Idli snack and the best part just one pan to use... Serving these crunchy wedges with some chutney or your favorite ketchup would beat any of those fatty fancy appetizers out there.. It works well even with the leftover Idli batter..



You need:

• 6" saute pan
• 2/3 - 1 cup Idly batter ( Click here for the Idly Batter Recipe )
  
• 1 tsp jeera / cumin seeds
• 6 curry leaves
• 2 green chillies
• 1 onion finely chopped
  
• 1 small carrot finely grated
  
• chutney or ketchup for serving
• oil

I know how boring it is to have same old Idly and Dosa for breakfast almost everyday. My moms Pappu Upma and Allam Pachadi aka Rice Ravva( rice couscous ) cooked with moong dal(lentils ) served with Ginger and chilli chutney comes to the rescue .This pappu upma is flavored with ginger, cashew nuts, and green chillies and is packed with lots of protein from the lentils. Mom usually serves this Ravva pappu upma along with sweet and spicy ginger chutney. Ginger has been used for ages for its medicinal benefits. Its aids in digestion and suppresses cold and cough a lot. Mom tries to use ginger in her cooking a lot. In curries, chutneys, and breakfasts like upma, pongal etc. Since this tiffin ( recipe ) is loaded with protein from Moong dal and flavored with fresh ginger, pregnant women can have as much as they want. I remember, mom made this for me whenever i ask for Upma( when i was pregnant ). And the best part its very easily digested.

Ingredients for Pappu Upma:

• 1 cup Rice Ravva / Biyyam Ravva / Rice Couscous
• 1/4 cup Moong Dal / Pesara pappu / Split green gram
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 1 inch grated ginger root
• 4-6 green chillies
• 4 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp chana dal
• 10-15 cashew nuts
• 10 curry leaves

Preparation Of Dal and Sooji Upma:

• In a heavy sauce pan, add oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, chana dal and cashew nuts.
• As the mustard seeds start to crackle, add curry leaves, ginger green chillies, water and moong dal
  
• Once the dal is cooked, add salt and stir in the rice ravva / rice sooji making sure no lumps are formed.
• Reduce the heat and close the lid.
  
• Once the water has been absorbed completely and the ravva cooked, remove from heat and finish with cilantro( optional )

Ingredients for Sweet Ginger Chutney:

• 4-6 green chillies
• a big lemon sized soaked tamarind
• grated gur / jaggery / bellam or sugar to taste
  
• 1 inch peeled ginger
• salt
  

Note: Play with the ingredients for the chutney to suit your palette.

Seasoning for Ginger chutney:

• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 6 curry leaves

Preparation Of Sweet and Sour Ginger Chutmey:

• In a blender add all the chutney ingredients and grind to a smooth paste
• For tempuring or tadka, in a kadai/pan heat oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal and once they start to crackle add curry leaves and add the popu/tempuring to the chutney
• You can store this chutney in the refrigerator for upto 3 days.

Usually regular sooji upma tastes good when its right off the stove, but this pappu upma taste delish even when cold and stays good for upto 2 days in the fridge. If you are planning to have it within 24 hrs, you dont need to keep it in the refrigerator.

Moms Rice ravva sooji upma with lentils and ginger chutney is on its way to:

• My Legume Love Affair started by Susan
  
• Food for 7 stages of life by Radhika
• State Specials by Shanthi
  

Looking for something sweet, crispy, quick, easy and healthy recipe? Here are my whole wheat eggless sweet pancakes aka Sweet Dosa. We call this dosa thiyyappachi. This was our favorite evening snack as a kid and mom used to serve these dosas when we were home hungry from school. These pancakes can be served as breakfast too and im sure kids would leave to school asking for more. These are super easy with a very few ingredients and tastes great too. My brother after coming home from school used to add sugar in water and once melted give it to mom and ask her to make these dosas for him. yep he loves that much!

• In a bowl, add water and sugar. Let the sugar completely dissolve in water and then keep aside.
  
• In a mixing bowl stir in whole wheat flour, rice flour, orange zest and salt .
• Whisk in dry ingredients into sugar water making sure there are no lumps inside
• Heat a tawa or griddle, and just pour the batter like you do for rava dosa / ragi dosa, you should not spread it out.
  
• Dot the edges with ghee( clarified butter ) or oil
  
• Flip the dosa once its crisp and browned on one side, repeat the same for the other side
  
• Once completely cooked remove from heat and serve.

This recipe is directly from moms kitchen, but to add some refreshing flavor to these sweet dosas i have added orange zest and this complemented the dosas very well. Adding fresh nutmeg gives unique flavor to the pancakes. Usually nutmeg can complement well with any sweet dishes. I usually like to relish these pancakes hot from the griddle, but these taste good even cold. Please make a note that you need to adjust the amount of ingredients as they are approximate. The best part of these eggless pancakes is that they are fiber rich and super easy!

My whole wheateggless pancakes aka sweet dosa is on its way to:

Lovely Winter Recipes

Dosa Corner

Food In Colors - Express your mood started by Sunshinemom

Show me your Breakfast

Think Spice - Nutmeg

DMBGLIT

A healthy low fat nutritious breakfast commonly found in every south Indian house is the mighty Idly i.e, Steamed cakes made with fermented batter of Lentils and Rice. At our house at least 2-3 days a week Idli would be the breakfast. They were like white, very light and fluffy pillows of nutritional goodness. Oh my grandma makes the best fluffiest and lightest Idlies and they would melt in your mouth right away. I remember she used to steam in copper vessel which was so heavy and thick. She took so much effort by preparing the batter in a bigger mortar and pestle ( Rubbu Rolu ) unlike us using the electric blender or grinder. Love you Grandma.



Coming to this Kanchipuram Idly ( Kanchi Idly ) aka Steamed Vegetable Rice and Lentil Cakes, they are my all time favorite. Onions add crunch, chillies add spice, and cashew nuts add nuttiness and curry leaves add so much flavor to the idlies. Sometimes we used to ask mom to pack these for lunch to school as they taste good even cold unlike the plain Idlies. Vellulli karam( thellagadda karam ) is a garlic, curry laves and cumin flavored red chilli powder which takes minutes to make and goes great with dosa, idly, fried veggies and curries. For us nothing complements these Kanchi idlies better than this vellulli miram.



Ingredients for Kancheepuram Idly:

• 1/2 cup urad dal
• 1 cup idly ravva / uppudu ravva / cream of rice
• 1 carrot grated
• 2 onions chopped
• 4 green chillies
• 10 curry leaves
• 1 inch finely chopped ginger
• chopped cilantro
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tbsp chana dal / bengal gram
• 1 tsp urad dal / Black dal
  

Preparation of Kancheepuram/ vegetable Idly:

• Soak urad dal and cream of rice separately overnight
• Next morning grind urad dal to a very fine paste adding water, the natter should be ground to very smooth batter
  
• Drain off all the liquid from the ravva / cream of rice
• Mix the ground paste and ravva together along with salt( try to use your hands, it helps in fermentation )
• You can make regular plain idlis with this batter otherwise let it ferment for 5 more hours so that it turns out little sour because masala or vegetable idlis taste better when the batter is sour
  
• In a kadai or saute pan do the tempering aka tadka i.e., heat oil and add chana dal, cumin mustard seeds, cashew nuts, urad dal and chana dal. Once they start to pop add curry leaves and mix with the batter
• In the batter add chopped onions, chopped ginger, green chillies and carrot. Mix everything together and pour some batter in the idli moulds and steam cook for 15 - 20 mins. To check for doneness, wet your finger and touch the steamed idlies, if they don't stick to your hands they are done and ready to be served.
  
• Carefully remove the steamed rice and lentil cakes from the moulds with a flat spoon

Ingredients for Garlic chilli powder / Vellulli kaaram podi

• 1 cup red chilli powder
• 1/2 cup salt
• 10 curry leaves
• 3-4 garlic cloves with the peel on
• 1 tbsp jeera / cumin seeds

Preparation of Garlic chilli powder / Vellulli kaaram podi:

• In a blender add red chilli powder, jeera / cumin seeds, salt and grind to fine powder
• Add the remaining ingredients i.e, garlic cloves with the peel and curry leaves and grind well
• Do adjust salt and spice to taste. You can store this garlicky chilli spice powder for up to 2 weeks outside and couple of months in refrigerator

For us, these Vegetable idlis ( Kanchi Idly ) and Garlic chilli powder( velluli miram ) is definitely a sumptuous match made in heaven, you gotta try it to believe it. I'm sure this spice powder beats fresh coconut chutney or sambar along with the steamed rice and lentil cakes( kanchi idly ). To get the maximum flavor, use chilli powder with either clarified butter( ghee ) or fresh lime juice.

This delicious combo is on its way to:

• My Legume Love Affair - Ninth Helping (MLLA9) hosted by Laurie started by Susan
• Made For Each Other event hosted by Asvadha
• Eating with the Seasons: February
• Lentils Mela event hosted by Ashwini
• Original Recipe Culinarty Roundup

A bunch of thanks for Mythreyee of "Paajaka" who is hosting a "Sweet Series-Sweet Rotis" event., otherwise i could have never made these healthy, moist and soft rotis, I wouldn't have thought out of the box for coming up with these Simple n Nutritious Sweet Potato and Coconut Parathas.. As soon as i saw the announcement, i started thinking of various sweet rotis grandmas, mom and my MIL makes, but i wanted to something even simpler than those.. Usually the sweet rotis they make are Sojjappam/Halva Poori , Oliga/Puran poli and Paala Poori.. But these are time consuming and you need to have both time and patience( Hehehe, I am very bad at this though!!! )..

I thought of making peanut butter rotis, kova Rotis, etc.., before these Sweet Potato and Coconut Rotis.. I wasn't really sure if could at least bind the flour and sweet potato together, anyways i decided to try a few rotis.. Cooked the potato in microwave , added some dry coconut, a little bit of sugar, ghee and Wheat flour, Tada!! To may surprise I was actually able to bind everything together to a very soft pliable dough... Adding coconut gave these rotis that extra nuttyness and flavor.. And here goes the simple recipe..


Ingredients:

• 1 medium sized sweet potato
• 1/4 cup dried coconut or fresh coconut grated very fine
• 3/4 - 1 cup whole wheat flour( Atta )
• 1 cardamom grounded / 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
• Sugar/jaggery according to taste
• Ghee or butter stick for cooking
  

Method Of Preparation:

• Cook the sweet potato in a microwave under potato setting in a microwave safe bowl covered with very little water.
• Once the sweet potato is completely cooked, peel and mash the sweet potato. While its hot add jaggery / sugar, elaichi( cardamom powder ), nutmeg, salt.
• If you want to add dried coconut add it now, otherwise if you wanna use fresh scraped coconut add it once the sweet potato mixture is cooled to room temperature
• Once the potato is cooled, add some milk( optional) add flour and try to bind together.. You might need to adjust the amount of flour, milk according to the size of the sweet potato..
• The dough should be very soft and moist.. Apply ghee( clarified butter ) allover the dough keep it covered for half an hour. Resting is a must for moist rotis.
• Divide and roll out the dough using very less flour.., and heat them on the griddle just like chapathis., for instructions on hot to heat and store them click here.
  
• Serve them hot or cover them for later..
  

Serve these sweet potato coconut flat breads with some fresh ripened straw berries.. These rotis came out thin and very moist. I just bought some more sweet potatoes from farmers market to make these rotis again.. Hail to sweet potato...!!! These sweet potato rotis are going to be in my regular everyday Menu from now on...


Thanks Shubha of Chutki Bhaar Pyar for giving this Rocking Girl Blogger Award.. I feel elated, thanks dear.. I would like to pass this award to each and every blogger in this Food Blogosphere who put so time and effort in cooking, taking pictures and posting the recipes... Hail to all fellow Bloggers!!!...!

My sweet potato and coconut whole wheat rotis are rich in protein from Whole wheat flour, coconut and sweet potato... And these sweet potato and coconut rotis are on their way to:

• Sweet Series-Sweet Rotis event hosted by Mythreyee
• AFAM - Coconut hosted by Suganya
• Pancakes on Parade event. hosted by Susan, at the Well Seasoned Cook
• Eat Healthy - Protein Rich hosted by Sangeeth at Let Us All Cook
  

Tags: Chapathis, Rotis, Sweet Rotis, Chilakada dumpa, Gansigadda, Sweet Potato, Coconut, Flour

Parathas hot and fresh from the griddle are always sumptuous and mouth watering. My husband is the first person to be so much content and satisfied when i serve parathas( particularly his favorite aloo parathas ) with some regular plain old home made yogurt, he wouldn't ask for any more, and that makes my job... even easier !

As it was my very first time adding mint and kasuri methi to the parathas , i wasn't sure of the end product... but lemme tell you the parathas were too good to be true.. The nuttyness from the sesame seeds, tanginess from the yogurt n lime, lots of flavor from kasuri methi, ginger, garlic and mint., made these parathas a quick seller... We could finish these parathas just as they are, you don't need any curry on the side.. yep that good...

Upma..., ( yes the regular plain upma ) i hated it so much growing up as a kid but now couldnt get enough of it.. There was a reason for my hatred then, Upma used to be on the breakfast menu atleast 2-3 times a week and my mom would never let us go to school with empty stomach.. If we didnt have time to eat she packs it for us to eat during the 15 min interval( break ).. Since i hated the plain upma, my mom used to make an array of versions in upma like Tomato baath, Veggie upma, Pappu upma( upma with moongdal ), semiya bath( vermicelli upma ), Goduma ravva upma( whole wheat germ upma ), Pindi( Cream of rice upma ) ... I wonder now how she managed to make breakfast and lunch just for us( separate lunch menu for adults at home ) by 7.30am in the morning.. Hats off mom... She used to make everything fresh every morning from scratch.. Hmm i miss all that luxury now... Love you mom!!! Now this Tomato Upma has become my husband Weekend's Favorite Brunch!!!

For 2-3 servings you need:

1 cup Sooji or Semolina
3 cups water
3-4 tbsp oil
2 small or 1 large ripe tomatoes
1 onion
4-5 green chillies
1 small red potato
1/4 cup green peas
1 small green bell pepper( optional )
10 green beans( optional )
1 small carrot ( optional )
15 - 20 cashew nuts / kaju
1 inch cinnamon stick
1 small bay leaf
3 cloves
a pinch of turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp chana dal
10 curry leaves
Chopped cilantro

Method Of Preparation:

TIP: For that nuttiness and extra flavor first dry roast semolina aka suji in the kadai or saucepan the semolina or sooji until it turns into golden hue.

In a kadai or thick sauce pan heat oil add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal, chana dal, cashew nuts and let them pop. Now add cinnamon, cloves, curry leaves, turmeric, chopped ginger, green chillies and onions. Add salt now as it helps the onions to sweat and cook them quickly.

Saute onions for 1 min and add all other veggies expect tomatoes. Dry saute the veggies for 2-3 min and them add the tomatoes, cover the lid and cook for 2-3 more min.

Once the tomatoes have been cooked soft, add water and cover the lid over high heat. Adjust salt to your taste at this point. Once the water starts boiling, reduce the heat and add the ravva ( semolina / suji ) slowly, stirring continuously so as to avoid any lumps.

Reduce the heat and cook the upma covered until all the water has been absorbed. Switch off the heat add let it sit for 5 more min covered.

TIP: To enhance the flavor and add that richness to the Upma drop in a dollop of Ghee( clarified butter ) on the top and mix in. To add more fiber use cracked whole wheat instead of semolina..

Toss in chopped coriander and serve immediately.

My husbands likes it so much he would be very pleased if i do it every weekend.. No complaints from my side though, since its easy, filling and nutritious too.. He likes it with coconut coriander chutney, but myself i like it with some good old traditional homemade mango pickle( mukkala pachadi ).. The evergreen mouth watering COMBO....

This recipe is on its way to WBB - Balanced Breakfast hosted by Mansi Desai.