Quinoa Uppuma

Quinoa is a fantastic grain—high in protein, gluten-free, and a great source of fiber. Quinoa has become very popular these days due to its health benefits. Originating in South America, its popularity has steadily grown and competes for super grain supremacy with its Mediterranean neighbor, couscous. I am a huge fan of quinoa.

Rich in proteins, iron, calcium and potassium, copper, and potassium, it helps prevent type2 diabetes, childhood asthma, heart diseases, gallstones and migraines.

Many foodies have already posted different varieties of quinoa uppuma. Here is my version of quinoa uppuma that I usually prepare at home.

Ingredients:

Quinoa –                                  1 cup

Carrot diced -                            ¼ cup
Potato diced                             2 no

Green Peas                              ½ cup

Bell pepper diced                     1/2no

Ginger chopped                       2 tsp

Lime Juice –                           1 tsp

Chopped Coriander leaves –     1 tbsp

Ghee                                     1 tbsp

Green chili (halved)                 4 no

Salt                                      to taste

Water                                  1 ½ cup

For Seasoning:

Oil                                      2 – 3 tsp 
Curry leaves                         2 stems

Black mustard seeds             1 tsp

Urad dal                               2 tsp

Cashews -                               4 to 5

Method:

• Roast the quinoa for few minutes. Soak for 10 minutes. Soaking quinoa for some time before cooking will help it cook evenly. You can even soak it for 5 minutes in hot water, if you lack time. After 10 minutes, drain the water and keep it aside.
• In a pan heat oil and add all seasonings. Let it splutter and then add ginger and all other vegetables. Saute well. Sprinkle a little bit of water on the vegetables. Cover it with a lid and let it cook until the vegetables are half cooked.
• Add 2 glasses on water add salt according to taste. Let water come to full boil then add quinoa and stir well.
• Bring it to a boil, lower the flame cover it with lid and let it cook for few more minutes.
•  Let is cool for 5-10 minutes this will make quinoa fluff up
•  Sprinkle lemon juice and serve hot.
•  Finally add ghee and mix it well. Serve hot with Chutney, Pickle, Sāmbhar,Tomato Pachadi, sugar or yogurt.

Cooking Tips

•The seed of quinoa has a coating of saponin that imparts it a bitter taste and is quite toxic. It needs to be soaked for minimum 15 minutes and rinsed under cold running water, to guarantee pleasant and delicate flavor.

•The grain can also be prepared in the same way as boiled rice. Boil 2 cups of water to prepare 1 cup of quinoa and cook it for 15 minutes. Keep it aside to let it absorb water. The size of the seed will increase significantly, with a tender and springy texture

Oats & Rava Idli

 


Make delicious Oats Rava Idli using this simple recipe from Madappalli.   This oats & Rava Idli is a healthy food that you can have it for your breakfast/dinner. This is very good for diabetic and cholesterol patients.

Ingredients

 Instant Oats                          1 cup

ENO Salt

Rava                                     ¾ cup

Thick curd                              ½ cup                

Grated carrot                           3 tbsp.

Chopped green chilies               4 no

Grated ginger                          1 tbsp.

Chopped curry leaves               1 tbsp

Chopped coriander leaves          2 tbsp.

Chopped cashew nuts                1 tbsp.

Melted ghee                             1 tbsp.

Eno Fruit salt                           1/4 tsp.

Salt                                        To taste

Method:

• Dry roast the instant oats in a pan for 3 minutes.  Keep aside.
• In the same pan, dry roast the rava until you gets a nice aroma from it. Keep it for cool.
• Grind coarsely the oats & rava together in the mixture.
• Take a mixing bowl add oats and rava powder and all above ingredients together.
• Mix everything together with the help of spatula to prepare the oats idli batter.
• If batter becomes too thick, add water and prepare like normal idli or dosa batter.
• Grease the idli plate with oil/ghee and pour the batter in the mould and place the stand only when the water comes to a boil.
• Steam for 10 to 12 mins on a medium high flame.
• Serve hot with Chutney / Podi or Sambhar.

Note

•  Eno is a fruit salt which is composed of basically 60% baking soda and 40% citric acid.
• You can use cracked wheat be used instead of regular rava
  

Kanchipuram Idli

 The humble South Indian breakfast staple - the idli- has an interesting avatar, the Kanchipuram idli. Kanchipuram Idli is a special traditional type of Idli made at Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu. This is slightly different from the usual plain Idli. This has a distinct taste of cumin seeds, ginger and pepper. I love the Kanchipuram Idli that my Amma makes.  It is very delicious and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

Parboiled rice                                 ½ cup 

Raw rice                                           ½ cup

Black gram dhal (Urdh)                   ½ cup

Crushed pepper                               1 tsp.

Grated ginger                                   1tbsp

Cumin seed                                       ½ tsp.

Dry ginger powder                           2 pinches

Asafetida                                         1 pinch

Chopped curry leaves                       1 tbsp.

 Melted Ghee                                      2tbsp.

Gingili oil                                         2 tbsp. 

Method:

• Soak both rice and dhal together for 3 hours. Wash and drain.
• Grind coarsely without adding much water.
• Add salt and mix it well and keep it overnight.
• Next day add crushed pepper, grated ginger, cumin seeds, dry ginger powder, asafetida, curry leaves, melted ghee and oil to the batter and mix well. Add a little water, if batter is too thick.
• Grease the idle holder or pan well and fill each of them with 3/4th full of batter.
• Steam cook idlis on medium flame for about 10 minutes or until done.
• Use a butter knife to remove the idlis.
• It combines with authentic sambar replete with the distinct flavor of asafetida, and a set of mind blowing Coconut Chutney & Coriander Chutney.

Wheat Dosa( Gothumai Dosai)

A very simple and nutritious dosa in whole wheat flour. “Wheat Dosa" is one of the popular dosa varieties and it is quick to make as like the usual dosa. This dosa does not require fermentation or prior prep – an instant dosa. This dosa is very good for diabetic patients.

Ingredients;

Wheat flour                           - 2 cup

Rice flour                              – ½ cup

Rava                                     – 1 tsp.

Finely chopped green chilies      – 1 tsp.

Chopped curry leaves               – 1 tsp.

Grated Ginger                          – 1tbsp

Hing                                      – 1 /4 tsp.

Jeera                                       1 tsp.

Salt                                         to taste

Water                                      – for mixing

 Method:

• Mix all above ingredients together.
• The batter should be watery. Make sure there are no lumps.
• Heat the griddle, spread the batter gently in a circular form, drizzle 1 tsp. of oil.
• This dosa take a little longer to cook than the normal dosa.
• And gently flop to the other side and drizzle oil and cook until it turns brown.
• Tasty and healthy wheat dosa is ready.
• Serve hot with chutney and Sāmbhar.

Keerai Adai (Spinach adai)

Have you tried Keerai adai (spinach adai)? Its a crispy thick dosa with a lot of lentils. I love spinach adai , so flavorful, colorful and yummy adai.  The best part is that there is no fermenting required.

My  husband Paddy loved this adai with homemade ghee and jaggery... So yummy. Here I used spinach , but you can use Fenugreek leaves ( Methi leaves) also.

Ingredients:

Boiled rice                            ¾ cup

Raw rice                              3/4 cup

Urdh dhal                             ¼ cup

Bengal gram                         ½ cup

Tovar dhal                            ¼ cup

Moong dhal                           ¼ cup

Cumin seed                           ¼ tsp.

Red chillies                            10 no

Ginger grated                         2 tbsp

Curry leaves                          2 stem

Hing                                    ½ tsp

Salt                                    as required

Finely chopped spinach           1 ½ cup

Finely shredded carrot            3 tbsp  ( Optional)

Finely chopped cilantro          1 tbsp.

Oil                                      as required

Method:

• Soak rice and dals together for 5 hours. Soak red chilies separately.
• Drain it and grind it with ginger, red chilies, curry leaves, Hing, cumin seed and salt together.
• Grind it slightly coarsely. No need to ferment the batter.
•  To the batter, add finely chopped spinach leaves,  and shredded carrots (optional)
• Mix everything well and the batter is ready to use
• Heat the griddle and pour 2 ladle of batter and spread in a circular motion.
• Spread 2 tsp. of oil around the dosa and cook both sides.
• Serve with sambhar , Chutney  and Millaghai podi.

Spinach Adai

Paruppu Vadai (Lentils Vadai)/ Split chickpea fritters

Paruppu vadai is a south Indian specialty snack that is prepared on every single occasion. This is a snack which I always enjoy with tea. In olden days people prepare this using Ural. Nowadays it is prepared quickly using the mixie/blender/food processer. Making a good vadai is all about the consistency of the batter. When you make this vadai, remember this key point, batter should not be very loose dough. When you deep fry very loose dough, you won’t get the rough crunch that is key to this dish. There are a lot of variations in preparing these vadai. It depends on the proportion of dals used.   If you want make Masala vadai, you can add Sombu, Cinnamon powder in this Batter. My version of vadai, here you go…

Ingredients: 

Toor dal                               - 1 cups

Chenna dal                           - 1 cup

Urdh dhal                              – 1 cup

Dry Red chillis -                      10 – 12 (depending on how hot you want)

Asafetida powder                  – ½ tsp.

Grated ginger                       – 1 tsp

Crushed Black pepper            – ¼ tsp

Chopped curry leaves              – 2 tbsp.

Chopped Coriander leaves/Cilantro

Salt                                     to taste

Oil                                      for deep frying

Method: 

• Soak all dals together in water for 3 hours. Once soaked, the lentils should break easily if you pinch them. Wash them in water, and drain.
• In a food processor, add the red chillis, Asafetida powder, and salt, ginger and curry leaves. Grind for a second.
• Now add the dals and grind this in a blender adding very little water so it is roughly blended.
• The dal should be partially ground. (i.e., half the dal is should be just broken and the remaining dal remains whole.)
• Add chopped coriander leaves/cilantro and mix dal well.
• The thick batter should be formed into silver dollar sized patties, rounded on top and bottom, and should hold their shape in your palm. Deep fry both sides until it turns golden brown.
• Eat it with Sāmbhar and chutney, Tea and anyone will be happy.

Puttu

Puttu is a South Indian (Kerala) and Sri Lankan breakfast dish of steamed cylinders of ground rice layered with coconut.  This is one of the popular dishes from Kerala. Puttu is frequently served with poppadum, yellow Kerala Banana, Kadalai (BlackCickpeas) Curry. Here I showed you 2 types of Puttu. One is rice flour Puttu and other one is Multi flour Puttu.

Ingredients

For  Rice Puttu

Puttu Podi – 1 cup

Multi flour and Puttu kutti

Grated Coconut – ¼ cup

Water – 1/2 – 3/4 cup

Salt

For Multi flour Puttu

Multi flour Puttu Powder – 1 cup

Grated fresh coconut – ¼ cup

Water

Salt to taste

Method:

• Add salt to 1 cup of water. Sprinkle this water to the rice flour and mix till you reach breadcrumbs consistency. Do not use too much water.
• The right consistency is reached when you press little flour in your fist and it forms a shape and not crumbles off.
• For making Puttu, use PUTTUKUTTI. Put a handful of grated coconut in the Puttu kutty and then put rice powder till half followed by another handful of grated coconut. This is done till the top. Close the lid and steam it for 5 to 8 minutes until the steam passes from the top of the Puttu kutti.
•  Serve it hot with banana, pappad, kadai curry.

Masala Dosa

A masala dosa is made by stuffing a dosa with a lightly cooked filling of potatoes, and spices. It wraps the dosa around potato curry or sabji.

Before it was invented, plain dosa was served with potato curry  without onions in a separate cup. During a shortage of potatoes method was created in which potato was mashed and sautéed with onions together with other spices. This was then placed inside the dosa instead of in a separate cup in order to hide the onions, which are not eaten by orthodox Hindus and Jains. This came to be known as "Masala dosa", from the sautéing of spices (masala) during the preparation of the bhaji.[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dosa}

There are varieties of dosa available in the hotels. But if you ask me, nothing can beat the old classic, 'Masala Dosa'. Masala Dosai is the favorite for many not only in Tamil Nadu but throughout India and even indeed popular all over the world .Paddy loves it.

  Ingredients

Dosa Batter                       2 cups

Potato Masala

Ghee                                4 tbsp

Coconut chutney

 For Coconut chutney: Grind 6 tbsp of coconut with chutney dhal, ginger, and salt.  Keep aside.

For Dosa Batter:  Masala dosa is made with the same batter and technique as the plain dosa but has stuffing  of chutney and potato curry.  Please see my previous Dosai recipe.

For Potato Masala:

Potatoes                             10 no

Green chilies                        4 no

Jalapeno                             1 no (optional)

Curry leaves                        1 stem

Turmeric powder                 ¼ tsp.

Grated ginger                     1 tsp.

Chopped cilantro                   2tbsp

Salt                                   to taste

Seasonings:

Oil                                   1 tsp.

Cumin seeds                     ¼ tsp.

Method of Potato masala

• Pressure cooks the potatoes. Drain and remove skin and mash it. Set aside.
• Heat a sauce pan over medium heat, heat the oil. Add the cumin seed, when it sputtering, lower the heat add the turmeric, ginger, curry leaves and sauté for one minute.
• Add the potatoes, salt mix well and simmer on low for 2 minutes.
• Mix in the chopped cilantro.
• Now Potato masala is ready for stuffing g. Set aside.
  
  
  

  

  Potato Masala

  
  

To prepare the Masala dosa: 

• Follow my dosa recipe for cooking the dosa  until underside of the dosa has a golden red color.
• Reduce the heat and spread 1 tsp of chutney evently  over the top of the dosa
• Then  spread 2 tbsp of potato  curry over the half of the dosa.
• Roll it like cylinder shape.
• Dribble ½ tsp of ghee mixed oil on top of the dosa and serve immediately. 

Note:

• Some people prefer serving the chutney on the side, but I like it cooked inside the dosa.
• Instead of chutney ,  you can spread Milghai powder (Gun powder) over the top of the dosa.

Masala Dosa

 

Vegetable Uthaappam

 Uthaappams are delicious - plain or with your choice of vegetables. Follow my previous Uthaappam recipe and add your choice of vegetables to the batter just before cooking.
Here I am showing you carrot Uthaappam.
Ingredients:

Idli Batter (See the link)                    2 cups

Oil                                                 4 tsp.

Grated carrots                                 1 cup

Chopped green chilies                      2 tsp

 Chopped Tomatoes                        ¼ cup

Grated ginger                                1 tsp.

Chopped coriander leaves               1 tsp.

Chopped curry leaves                     2 tsp.

Method:

• Mix all chopped & grated vegetables, chilies together and keep aside.
• Heat the griddle, spread the batter gently in a circular form, drizzle 1 tsp. of oil and cook for few seconds and spread the vegetables over it.
• And gently flop to the other side and drizzle oil and cook until it turns brown.
• Serve hot with chutney and Sāmbhar.

Here  some ingredients suggestions:
Hot Chili Uthaappam :  2-4 Jalapenos, 1/4 cup freshly chopped Cilantro, Salt
Tomato and Pea Uthappam:  2 ripe tomotoes chopped, Fresh peas cooked 1/2 cup, Cilantro, Salt
Bellpepper Uthappam: finely chopped bellpepper, 1 ripe tomato chopped, Cilantro, salt.

Vegetable Uthaappam

Plain Uthaappam

Uthaappam is one more South Indian breakfast delicacy. An Uthaappam is much thicker than a dosa, more like an American pancake than a French crepe. You can make it soft or crispy, according to your personal preference.

If you have left over idli batter, this is a breeze to make.

Ingredients for Uthaappam

Idli Batter (look down for  Idli batter recipe) – 4 cup

Oil -                                                        5 tbsp.

For idli Batter:

 Idli rice                                              2 cups

  Urad dal                                           1 cup

 poha                                                 Handful

 For Batter:

• Soak the idli rice,poha and urad dal for about 6 hours, and grind them to a thick batter along with the poha and cooked rice.
•  Let it ferment overnight, or keep in a warm place for about 8-10 hours.

Method:

• Heat the nonstick griddle over medium heat, and add 1 ½ ladleful of batter in the center of the griddle; spread the batter gently, but quickly with the back of the ladle in to a 8” circle.
• Drizzle ½ tsp. of oil on top and around the Uthaappam. Cook for few minutes  until the bottom is reddish gold.
• Flip the Uthaappam and cook for 30 seconds on the other side. Your delicious Uthaappam is ready.
• Serve hot with Coconut chutney and Sāmbhar. 

Plain Uthaappam

Pesarattu (Green gram dal dosa)

Pesarattu, traditional Andhra Pradesh dish is prepared mainly with green gram. In my home, one of the quick and healthy dinner options is Pesarattu dosa. 

Ingredients:

 Par Boiled Rice (idly rice)                1 cup

Moong dhal (Green Gram)                 ¼ cup

Fenugreek                                      ½ tsp.

Grated ginger                                 1 tbsp.

Green Chilies                                 5 no

Asafetida                                    1/4 tsp.

Curry leaves                                 few

Oil                                               2 tbsp

Salt                                             to taste

Preparation;

• Wash and soak the rice and dhal together in hot water for 3 hours (you may have to skip this step, if you are in superfast mode)
• Grind it to a smooth paste along with green chilies, asafetida, ginger, curry leaves and salt.
• Heat the dosa pan, pour the batter and spread it from the center. Pour a tsp. of oil over the edges.
• When one side is cooked well, flip over to the other side. If necessary, add little oil over the edges, and remove when it is fully cooked.
• Serve with coconut chutney and Sāmbhar.

Tips:

• If you like spicier dosa, add   more Green chilies.
• For more flavor, cut some carrot, coriander, mint leaves and mix with batter. Then make dosa as said above. It will give a different taste.

MORU KALI

Mor kali is one of my childhood favorites. Rice flour mixed with sour yogurt, tempered and cooked to make a wonderful tiffen/snack. Ingredients:

Rice flour                             ¾ cup Thick Sour Yoghurt              ½ cup  Salt                                    to taste Seasonings: Red Chilies                         4 no Mor Milaghai                       2 no Curry leaves                       2 stems Urdu dhal                            1 tsp. Chenna dhal                        1 tsp. Hing                                    ½ tsp. Sesame oil                            2 tbsp. Method:  Mix yogurt and rice flour in a bowl. Add salt and mix well. Add a little water to get a dropping consistency. Heat oil in a deep pan. Add all seasoning items and sauté till the dal browns. Add two tablespoons of water so that the tempering does not burn. Add the rice flour mixture and mix. Cook stirring continuously on medium heat till all the liquid gets absorbed and the mixture starts leaving the sides of the pan. Serve hot with Mor Milaghai.

Lemon Sevai

Ingredients: 

 Homemade Plain Sevai –  2 to 3 cups

Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp

Lemon Juice 4 tbsp

Salt to taste

Seasonings:

Chenna dhal - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - ½ tsp

Oil - 2 tsp

Whole Red Chillies (Dried) – 2no

Curry Leaves - as required

METHOD 

• Mix Lemon juice, Turmeric powder and salt to plain Sevai and keep aside and mix it well.
• Heat Oil and add Mustard seeds, Chenna dhal, Chillies and Curry leaves. Fry well, add  to Sevai and mix well.