Mixed Dal Dosa & Coconut Chutney

Mixed Dal Dosa ( Mixed Dal Polo ) - Tasty & nutritious dosa

Makes: 10 - 14

Ingredients

50 g tur dal
50 g masoor dal ( pink color dal )
50 g urad dal
50 g green gram ( moong )
Water for making batter
1/2 teaspoon salt ( or to taste )
1/4 teaspoon hing ( asafoetida )
1 tablespoon oil / ghee

Method

Wash and clean dals and soak in water for 6 hours or overnight. Make a smooth paste in a mixer. Add 1/4 cup water when making batter. Batter should be of dropping consistency. Just like Dosa batter. Add extra water if required. Add salt to taste and hing ( asafoetida ). Mix all the batter ingredients well. Do not keep this batter for fermentation. You can prepare it immediately.

Heat a dosa tawa / flat tawa. Grease the tawa with little oil.

Make the dosa by placing a ladleful ( approximately 120 ml ) of batter on the centre. Spread evenly by circular rotations using the base of the ladle, starting from the centre and progressing outwards. Let the dosa color, and sprinkle a few drops of ghee. Cover with a lid and cook for 2 - 3 minutes. The underside should be golden brown in color.

Take the lid off and remove the dosa from the pan / tawa carefully with a flat spatula.

Flip over dosa and cook the other side also for 2 - 3 minutes on a medium heat. Once it turn golden color, remove carefully. Serve with coconut chutney / tomato chutney ...

Coconut chutney

Ingredients

1 cup ( 200 g ) coconut grated
2 red chilli / 2 green chilli
1/ 2 teaspoon tamarind paste ( optional )
2 small onion / shallots ( optional )
3/4 teaspoon salt ( or to taste )
Ginger - 1/2- inch piece, finely chopped

For seasoning:

2 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon urad dal
1 red chilli, broken
1 spring curry leaves

Method

Grind all the ingredients to a smooth paste with a little water. Adjust the thickness of the chutney with extra 2 - 4 tablespoon water.

For seasoning:

In a pan, heat 2 teaspoon oil. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add remaining ingredients. Saute well. Pour this over to coconut chutney.

Pongal & Sambar ( Delicious breakfast of Chennai )

Pongal (Delicious breakfast of Chennai )

Serves: 3

You will need

3/4 cup Silky raw rice ( pacharisi )
1/4 cup moong dal
1/2 teaspoon cooking oil
1 pinch turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cup water

For seasoning:

1 tablespoon ghee
2 teaspoon jeera ( cumin seeds )
1 spring curry leaves
1 green chilli, slit lengthwise
1/2 - inch ginger, finely chopped
1 teaspoon peppercorns
2 teaspoon cashew nut, splits
2 pinches hing ( asafoetida ), optional

Method

Wash and clean dal and rice. Do not soak rice and dal in water.

Mix rice, moong dal, turmeric powder, oil and salt and cook in a pressure cooker. Reduce heat after 3 rd whistle to low and cook again for 5 minutes.

Allow the cooker to cool naturally. Open the lid. Rice and dal mixture will be thick and there won’t be any trace of water ( see the photo below ).

For seasoning:

In a pan, heat ghee. Add cumin seeds ( jeera ) and saute for few seconds or till fragrant and light golden color.

Add slit green chillies, chopped ginger, curry leaves, peppercorns, split cashew nuts and hing ( optional ). Fry on a low heat for 5 - 8 minutes or till cashew nut turns golden color and fragrant. Pour this seasoning over pongal and mix well. Serve hot with sambar, vada and filter coffee.

Sambar

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For dal :

1 cup ( 100 g ) tur dal
2 1/2 cups water
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped

Method

For Dal:

Wash and clean tur dal.

In a steel bowl, mix tur dal, water, oil and turmeric powder. Pressure cook tur dal along with water, turmeric powder, oil, onion and tomatoes for 20 minutes ( reduce heat after 2nd whistle and cook cook on a low heat for 15 minutes. Allow the pressure cooker to cool naturally.

Open the lid. Blend / mix cooked dal- tomato - onion mixture well.

Other ingredients for sambar:

Tip: You can add any vegetables of your choice

15 sambar onions (small onion / shallots / chuvannulli in Malayalam / Piyyavu in Konkani / sambar venkayam in Tamil )
2 drumsticks, cut into 4 cm pieces
3/4 teaspoon salt ( or to taste
2 1/4 teaspoon 777 brand Madras Sambar Powder/ Eastern / Melam / MTR Sambar powder

For seasoning :

2 teaspoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 spring curry leaves
1 red chilli, broken
2 pinches hing ( asafoetida ), optional
1 teaspoon chopped coriander leaves

Method

For sambar :

Boil small onions and drumstick with cooked dal mixture. Adjust with 1/4 cup water if required ( also you can add 1 - 2 teaspoon tamarind paste if you required ). Add salt to taste. Cover with lid and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add sambar powder and boil again for 15 minutes on a low heat till done ( drumsticks are soft ). You can find slight reduction in the quantity of the sambar and nice aroma of sambar powder / sambar thickens.

For seasoning :

Heat oil in a pan . Add mustard seeds. When they start crackle add curry leaves and broken red chilli. Saute for 2 - 3 minutes and pour this seasoning over sambar. Sprinkle asafoetida and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve with Idli / Dosa / Pongal / Rice ....

Vada / Meduvada / Uzhunnuvada

Vada / Meduvada / Uzhunnuvada

Soaking time: 4 hours
Grinding time: 45 minutes ( Elgi Ultra Table top grinder )
Makes: 12

You will need

300 g ( 1 1/2 cup ) urad dal
2 1/2 cup water ( for soaking )
2 green chillies. finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon hing ( asafoetida )
1 teaspoon peppercorns
1 - inch piece ginger, finely chopped
1 spring curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt ( or to taste )
1 cup ( 100 ml ) + 3 teaspoon water ( for grinding )
250 ml oil for frying

Method

Chop ginger, green chilli and curry leaves. In a bowl, mix hing ( asafoetida ), peppercorns and chopped ginger, green chillies and curry leaves.

Wash and soak urad dal for 4 hours. Drain out water completely. Add 1 cup water( 100 ml ) in grinder and also add drained urad dal. Do not add more water. Grind urad dal to a thick and smooth paste in a grinder. Add extra 1 teaspoon water during grinding ( total 3 teaspoon and approximate grinding time 45 minutes ).

Transfer this vada batter to another flat bowl and mix it with chopped ingredients, peppercorns, hing and salt to taste.

Heat oil in a kadai / frying pan.

Wet your palms and take batter into the palms. Shape it like a doughnut with a hole in the centre. The reason for putting hole is to allow for expansion during frying as well as to obtain uniform cooking through out the cross section.

Alternately one can shape it like a ball if one find it difficult to shape it like a doughnut.

Release the doughnut shaped batter directly into the hot oil.

Care should taken not to splash oil on to your palms.

Repeat this as far as the space permitting in your kadai. For eg I made 4 vadas at a time due to limitation of the size of the kadai ( see the photo below ).

Also too many vadas at a time may result in uneven cooking of vadas. Normally at first the underside of the vadas turn brown. So turn the vadas over so that the uniform color ( golden color ) is obtained through out the surface. Cook on a medium heat. Avoid high heat.

Drain and place on kitchen paper to absorb excess oil. Serve with coconut chutney / Sambar / Tea / Coffee.

Note: If by any chance you add more water the paste may become loose. But that is not the end of the world. Add a little rice flour to it to make it more firm and then continue as per recipe. Only fall out is that the vadas may be a little bit harder.

Jeera Dal

Serves: 3 - 4

You will need

For Dal:

1/2 cup ( 50 g ) tur dal
1/2 cup ( 50 g ) masoor dal ( pink color dal )
3 1/2 cups water
1/2 teaspoon cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

For Seasoning:

1 tablespoon oil
2 teaspoon jeera ( cumin seeds )
2 onions, finely sliced
10 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 small green chilies, slit lengthwise
3/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
Extra 1/2 - 3/4 cup water
Extra salt to taste
2 teaspoon chopped coriander leaves

Method

For Dal:

Wash and clean tur dal and masoor dal. In a bowl, mix both the dals with water, salt, turmeric powder and oil and pressure cook for 15 minutes ( reduce heat after 2 nd whistle and cook for 15 minutes on a low heat ). Allow the pressure cooker to cool naturally.

Open the lid.

For Seasoning:

In a wide frying pan, heat oil. Add jeera ( cumin seeds) and saute for 1 minute or till color changes and fragrant.

Add finely sliced onions, chopped garlic and fry for 8 - 10 minutes on a low heat or till golden in color. Add slit green chillies and saute well.

Add red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Mix all the ingredients well and saute for 5 minutes or till the raw smell goes and onions well coated with spices and thickens.

Add cooked dal ( with stock ) and adjust with extra 1/2 - 3/4 cup water and salt to taste. Mix it well. Cover with a lid and cook on a medium heat for 10 - 12 minutes.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with rice and rotis.

You can also add fried extra jeera ( cumin seeds ) when serving ( optional - heat 1 teaspoon oil and fry 1/2 teaspoon jeera till fragrant on a low heat and pour this over dal - See photo above ).