Millet Dose

Finger millet or Ragi has been the only millet I had used until a few years ago when I discovered this whole new world of millets and its benefits. Now I try and use all kinds in my everyday cooking. Here is one such recipe . This recipe is can be used with most millets. It's really delicious and way more flavorful than the regular rice dosa.

Ingredients:

• Millets (foxtail) : 3 cups
• Urad gola: 1 cup
• Channa dal :1 tblspn
• Poha: 1/2 cup
• Methi seeds: 1 tblspn
• Oil/Ghee for making the dosa
• salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Wash and soak together the millets, urad gola, channa dal and the methi seeds for about 4-5 hours.
2. Soak the poha for about 15 minutes before you grind the ingredients.
3. Grind the soaked ingredients long with the poha in  a blender until smooth .
4. To this batter , add the salt and mix well. Keep covered for about 5-6 hours or until the batter rises from fermentation .
5. Stir well and use this batter to make thin dosas. Spread half  spoon of ghee or oil on the dosa 
6. Serve with chutney or any gravy of your choice

Haal Saaru

One of the curries prepared in our villages. It has a lovely earthy taste and brings back memories of childhood. :).

Ingredients:

• Beans of any kind like halsande kaalu
• Veggies like padvalkayi, potato, brinjal, either one or combo 
• Garlic - 7to 8 cloves
• Black pepper whole - 1 tsp
• Green or red chillies - 3 to 4
• Coconut - about half a medium sized
• Oil- 3 to 4 tspns
• Curry leaves- a sprig
• Salt to taste
• Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
• Milk- half a glass
• Hing - a pinch

Procedure:

• Soak the beans for 2 hours and cook in a pressure cooker for 2-3 whistles
• Cook the veggies separately with a bit of salt.
• Grind the coconut, pepper,garlic and chillies to a paste
• Heat the oil in a pan. Season with mustards seeds, hing and curry leaves.
• Add the ground paste and stir and cook well to get rid of the raw smell.
• Add the cooked veggies and beans and adjust the water. Bring to a good boil and continue cooking for 3- 4minutes. Finally, add the milk and switch off after a boil.
• Serve hot with rice.

Dose

My childhood friend is a dose expert and they follow a tradition of making dosa every single Sunday for breakfast. Love this proportion shared by her for dose which has never failed.

Ingredients:

• Parboiled rice - 2 cups
• Regular rice - 2 cups
• Urad dal/blackgram whole - 1 cup(slightly more than 1 cup)
• Methi/ fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
• Chana dal - 2 tsp

Procedure:

Pu all the ingredients in a bowl, Give it a quick wash and soak in water for 4-5 hours.

Drain the water, and grind in a blender until smooth. Add water while grinding as per requirement and to get a dosa batter consistency.

Ferment overnight, add salt and mix well. Make Dosa on a seasoned tawa. Use oil/ ghee .

Serve hot with chutney and aalu palya .

Palak Sabzi

Result of one of the lazy evenings when I wanted home food but wasn't ready for hardwork. Was expecting some whining from the kiddos ... That didn't happen and The husband relished it. So, thought of saving the recipe for another lazy evening as this.

Ingredients:

• Palak : a bunch , leaves picked and washed.
• Onion : 1 chopped
• Garlic : about 4-5 small or 3 big- chopped 
• Red chilli powder : about 1 tspn
• Turmeric powder : 1/2 tspn
• Garam masala powder : 1/2 tspn
• Salt per taste
• Oil- 2 tblspn
• Mustard seed : 1/2 tspn
• Jeera : 1/2 tspn

Procedure:

• Blanch the palak leaves , cool and coarsely puree them.
• Heat oil in a pan and season with mustard and jeera.
• Add the chopped garlic , fry for a minute and add the onion. Cook until onions turn soft.
• Add the red chilli and Turmeric powder. Stir.
• Add the pureed palak and salt. Bring to a good boil.
• Finally add the garam masala powder, stir and take Off heat.
• Serve with chapati .

Mushroom and Peas Curry

Somehow I seem to get tempted to try simple recipes which can be cooked on a regular basis rather than those meant for parties . "Mushroom and Pea Curry" is one such recipe from the book "Entice with Spice" by Shubra Ramineni. Although the dish didn't end up with as much sauce as I expected, it was still very tasty and extremely easy to prepare. I  think it would be great with rotis or rice, but I served them with Uthapam and they were awesome.So, yet another simple recipe to my collection before I forget. With very few changes to the original, here goes...

Recipe for Mushroom and Pea Curry(Adapted from "Entice with Spice" by Shubra Ramineni)

Ingredients:
8 oz(250 g) whole mushroom - washed and sliced lengthwise
3 tblspns cooking oil
1 medium onion- grated
1 ripe tomato, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 tspn ground turmeric
1 tspn red chili powder
1/4 tspn ground black pepper
1/2 cup frozen or fresh parboiled green peas
2 tblspns yogurt stirred well
1/2 cup water
salt to taste

Procedure:
1.Heat the oil in a saucepan . Add the onion and saute until golden brown.
2.Reduce the heat to medium and add the tomato.Cover the saucepan and cook until the tomato gets soft .Lightly mash the tomato.
3. Add the turmeric, red chili and black pepper powders along with the salt and mix well. Continue to cook on low heat for few minutes till you get a nice aroma (or until the little one in the living room gets curious and enters the kitchen to enquire about the dinner :) )
4. Add the mushroom and peas and stir well.Cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
5. Add the yogurt and water and bring to a boil over high heat.
6. Reduce the heat to low and simmer uncovered for a few minutes. Serve with rice or rotis or like me with Uthapam :)

Ragi Dose / Dosa

Ragi Dose batter is something which I prepare atleast once every week because of the nutritional richness and the ease of preparation. Eating a few keeps your tummy full for more than a few hours. I guess these are some of the reasons why ragi is the main grain used among farmers in the villages.
Back to the dosa, you can make plain ragi dosa and have it with chutney or you can even make it like a Masala Dosa with the potato filling . I know you will love this coz it is the perfect combination of ease, nutrition and Yumminess :)
My Little sister is a new mother after 2 years into her marriage. She is keen on improving in the cooking front for all the right reasons. I want to help her out with this. This is my first attempt in that direction.
Note: The cups I have used are small ones, not the measurement cups used in baking. If you are using the measurement cups, please use a bit more Methi seeds. The proportion of the ingredients except methi remains the same irrespective of what cups one uses. i.e., rice : dal : ragi flour : poha is 2 : 1 : 3 : 1/2
Ingredients:

• Rice- 2 cups
• Urad Dal - 1 cup
• Ragi(Finger millet) flour- 3 cups
• Methi seeds- 1 tsp
• Poha/Avalakki- 1/2 cup(soaked in water 15 minutes before the grinding process)

Procedure:

1. Soak the rice, dal and methi seeds together along with the soaked Poha in water for 4-6 hrs. 
2. Grind it to a smooth batter (of dosa/pancake consistency) in a blender. 
3. Remove the contents into a big bowl. 
4. Add just enough water to the Ragi flour and mix well to make a batter with similar consistency . 
5. Run it in the blender so as to remove any lumps. 
6. Add this to the rice and dal batter and mix well. 
7. Allow to ferment overnight. 
8. When ready to make the dosa, add salt and mix well. 
9. Heat a griddle/tawa and spread some oil with with a cut onion . 
10. Take a ladle full of batter and pour onto the griddle. 
11. Spread into a thing dosa using the ladle . 
12. Spread a few drops of oil around and in the middle of the dosa . 
13. Once done, fold the dosa and serve with any chutney of your choice, my favorite being peanut chutney.

Simple Everyday Tindora Sabzi / Thondekayi palya/ Ivy Gourd side dish

Simple things which kids say can take you by surprise and put you into the epitome of happiness. Waking up one fine spring morning, sunny boy comes at once and hugs me with a look of such great gratitude . Without me questioning he starts " You know mamma, you are the best. our are just THE BEST."

me :??

Sunny:Well... you not only are good to me in real world, even in my dreams when I am facing trouble , you come and comfort me. You are THE BEST!!
The above incidence has absolutely nothing to do with the recipe below ... I just shared that coz I wanted to :).
Well...kids are not fond of veggies. One trick I learnt was to scare them showing R's grey hair, telling them that the reason he has grey hair early in life is because he never had vegetables when he was their age. Can't believe, Kids are so conscious of their looks , they have improved a lot in the sabzi intake. But every time I serve the vegetables, invariably, the kids topic is always about how Pappa got grey hair early. This annoys R to the extreme. But this particular sabzi is liked by kids and R alike. Simple comfort food- Roti with Tindora sabzi/Thondekayi palya. Recipe follows.
Ingredients:

• Oil: 5-6 tblspn
• Mustard seeds:1 tspn
• Hing: a pinch
• Garlic chopped: 2 big cloves
• Onion chopped: 1 big
• Tindora chopped: 4 cups(ends cut off and discarded and sliced round thin)
• Red Chilli powder: 1 tspn or more as per spice tolerance
• Coriander/Dhania powder : 1 tblspn
• Turmeric powder:1/4 tspn

Procedure:

1. Heat the oil in a pan. When moderately hot, add the mustard seeds and allow to crackle.
2. Add the Hing, followed by the chopped garlic for half a minute or so.
3. Add the chopped onion and stir fry until the garlic and onion turn light brown.
4. Add the Tindora , stir and cook until the Tindoras are almost half cooked.
5. Follow this by the spice powders : Turmeric, Coriander and Chilli powder and the salt.
6. Stir to mix all the spices with the vegetables and cover and cook until done.
7. Serve with Roti or Chapathi.

Note: Tindora needs to be cut into thin round slices for better taste. I will try and put up some pics soon to give a better idea :).