Mysore masal dosa

 A peek at what was for breakfast this morning! Yum!

 A mental image of a  hearty breakfast  to be put out to relish (and savour) drives me out of bed on this special day. I'm just about ready for the brunch I'm hosting this weekend with a new zest as the arrival of a close friend brings out enthusiasam in my otherwise lazy holiday morning. This meal is also a favourite when done right. So pressure's on!

It's about time to get started with the prep to have it ready for the hungry bunch (who are so lucky to get hours to lounge on bed) so I'll be done  before they get to the kitchen. It would be wonderful to have a few things prepped but I'm not a a fan of cooking half  the food previous eve & the rest of it early in the morning to save time later...seriously, there's restaurants for that. Good things come to those who wait( especially this case)! This dry garlic chutney  also called losuni puddi (dry)chutney though is an exception.  

The regular masala dosa  is getting a zing today, transforming  from the usual to the infamous Mysore masala dosa with the chutney.  

 Recipe remains the same to make masala dosa, potato bhaji & the corriander chutney. The dry garlic chutney ( warmed in a microwave for a minute to moisten & releast oil from the coconut)smeared on the dosa ( while still on tava) as it is getting crisper by the minute is the only addition . All these sides takes  atleast a couple hours of prep into making them from the kitchen to table.  All well worth! 

 .

Chow chow bath

A classic breakfast eats that is a perfect combination of savoury & sweet satisfies the palette for eyes & taste buds. Chow chow bath is  a must have for all uppitu & sheera  lovers  all over Karnataka.

 

Sheera/ kesri bath
Ingredients:
1 cup Rava/ Sooji
1 cup Sugar  
4 Tbsp Ghee
Water 2 cups
Saffron strands 1 pinch
cardamom powder  1 pinch
cashews 10
raisins, 10

Method:

In a hot thick bottomed pan pour ghee and roast rava, raisins & cashew nuts on a medium heat till aromatic. Add sugar, cardomom powder and  saffron strands mix .
Pour in hot water, stir, cover & cook for few minutes (about 7-10) and turn off the heat.
A well done sheera leaves the sides of the pan without sticking to the bottom & has ghee holding together as a whole.

 Upittu/ khara bath
Ingredients:
1 cup Rava
1Onion, chopped
4 green Chilies, chopped
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
1/8 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Urad Dal
1/4 tsp chana dal
1tsp peanuts
1 pinch turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves
Cilantro

Method:

Roast the rava a teaspoon of oil till a slight change in color & aromatic. keep it a side.

Heat the pan with oil add mustard , cumin seeds, curry leaves, urad dal, chana dal and allow them to splutter. Add peanuts & onion and fry till translucent. Add a pinch of turmeric powder, 2 cups of water & salt and bring to boil. Once water is boiling add roasted rava and stir continously till most of the moisture has evaporated.  Garnish with cilantro, cover & turn off the heat.


Serve a cupful of both with sev mixture on the side.

Chane upkari ani phov

This is one of the breakfast eats which is done at most Konkani get-together's yet is not liked very much if done at home. It is considered very thoughtless of the host if at all it is served to any guest...no idea why! With last minute guest visiting all the time, sometimes it is inevitable to fix this breakfast up. I love this all the more now that I'm away from my home and it is a rare breakfast eats for us over here. A very simple non complicated breakfast.


















CHANE UPKARI
Ingredients:
brown skinned chana – 1cup
Mustard seeds – 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Red chillies 3, cut in half
Grated coconut – 2 tbsp
Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:
Soak chana for 4-6hrs.
Pressure cook the chana till soft and tender.
Heat oil in a kadai, for seasoning and splutter mustard seeds,red chillies and curry leaves. Now add the cooked chana and salt. Bring it to a good boil. Garnish with coconut. Serve with Phov.

PHOV
Ingredients:
Thin poha 2 cups
coconut 1 cup
jaggrey 1/4 cup, grated
Jeera 1/4 tsp
coriander seeds 1/4 tsp
red chillies 4-8
mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
oil 1tsp

heat oil and roast red chillies, jeera and coriander seeds.
Crush the roasted spice with jaggrey, salt and coconut with a mortar and pestle. Add this coconut-spice mixture till the masala incorporates with poha. Make a seasoning with oil, mustard seeds,red chillies and curry leaves and add this to mixed poha.
This poha in a konkaniites home is served with one or more of the following:-banana, upma, chana upkari, chivda.

Upma

The upma served here with tea, bhusa mixture and parle-G, just the way my babies love it.

Ingredients:
Rava 2 cups
mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
urad dal 1/4 tsp
green chillies 4, slit
curry leaves 1 sprig
water 4 cups
ghee 3tbsp
cocnut 4tbsp
sugar 3 tbsp
salt

Method:
Boil the water and keep aside.
Heat ghee in a kadai and season with mustard, urad dal, green chillies, curry leaves.
Add rava and roast on low flame till the rava has a toasted aroma. Add salt and sugar mix well and take off flame. Pour the 4 cups of boiling water, coconut and mix well. cover and and cook on low flame for 15 mins which will completely cook the rava and doubles up in volume. Stir to mix up all the seasoning that settled on top of the upma. Serve it with poha, bhusa mixture, chivda or as is.

Shevai

My 100th recipe had to be another amchi fav, breakfast eats...SHEVAI.
A big thanks to a dear friend who let me borrow the dhanthe for the authentic ' shevai pilche' experience. Thank's R, anytime u want to eat shevai (come along with the dhanthe), let me know.

Grease the cup of the shevai dhante.
Have the pressure cooker ready with boiling water.

Grease steel (drinking) glasses.


Fill the gllasses with the batter and steam for 15 mins.
Unmold the cooked batter.
Press the dough and make shevai similar to the pic below.

If you are an Amchi, you already know what I'm talking about....rest of you, make a konkani friend to eat this delicacy.

Ingredients:
Rice – 3 cups
ukudo thandul/boiled rice /kuthari/matta– 1 cup
coconut – 1 1/2 cups
Salt to taste

Method:
Soak the white rice for 4 hours.
For the ukudo thandul, I washed, dried and then powdered it coarsely in the coffee grinder.Soak the ukudo thandul powder, seperately for 4 hrs.
Now grind the regular rice with the coconut to a smooth paste. Mix it with the soaked boiled rice, salt and grind to get an even smooth batter mix.

In a konkani house, this is cooked in a special way : In a heavy bottomed pan, cook the batter on medium heat to evaporate excess moisture and bring the batter to upma consistency. While the cooked batter is still warm, not hot...form cylindrical shape ( typically the hands are dipped in cold water in the process, to prevent burning hands).
OR
like I did, apply oil to steel drinking glasses, pour batter into the glasses and steam like idlis in a pressure cooker for about 15 mins. Steaming this way was perfect size for my shevai press and I like the part where I don't have to handle my food too much.

Now grease the shevai dhanthe cup and press the warm idli molds to make shevai. If the batter gets cold, it becomes very hard to press.

This shevai is usually eaten with godda rossu which is sweet (freshly squeezed and strained) coconut juice mixed with jaggrey and ealichi powder.


The pic below is from my visit to India, Aug 07....Vikek was trying his hand at squeezing out the shevai for our breakfast and Miheer is curiously waiting for his breakfast. Gaurav, the boy looking the other way, didn't think SHEVAI for breakfast was that big a deal! It was very special to me and I am thankful to Mom and Vanni for a breakfast made just for me.

Medhu Vada

Urad dal – 1 cup
Green chillies – 3, finely chopped
Ginger – half an inch, finely chopped
Pepper – 4 to 5 corns
coconut –thinly sliced
Salt

Oil for frying

Method
Soak urad daal for 3-4 hours and grind to smooth and thick batter using minimum water for grinding.
Add the chopped chillies,ginger, coconut pieces, crushed pepper and salt to taste. Form into the vada shape and deep fry in medium hot oil till crisp and reddish brown.
Serve it with idli and sambar.

Appey / Appo

Appe/ appo...Call it anyway u want it, it is a sure hit among the kids.
It can be made with plain dosa batter, add chopped green chillie,onion and ginger for a spicy appo, offering for neivedyam made out of wheat,coconut, jaggery and elaichi and also with the surnoli batter......anyway u make it...it is happily savoured by all.
Here, I made mine with musti polo batter.

Rulao Bhakri/ Dhodak

Ingredients
Rava 1 cup
coconut 4 tbsp
Green chilies 4
Water as required
Coriander leaves, few stems,finely chopped
Sugar – 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Method
Mix together all of the above and make thin roti's and roast till edges crisps.

Back home, this is first smeared on a plantain leaf and then patted on the pan, which tastes awesome due to the taste of plantain leaf....well. I was too busy relishing this bhakri that I forgot to take pics.

Idli

This is another variation...recipe courtesy of Shaila kalakonnavar, an awesome cook in my eyes.

Sona masuri rice 4 cups
Urad dal 1 cup
moong dal 1/2 cup
Fenugreek seeds/ Methi 2 tsp
Salt

Method:
Soak rice in the water for about 4-6 hrs.
Soak urad dal,moong dal and fenugreek seeds together in the water for the same time as rice.
Grind urad dal and methi to a smooth paste and grind rice until it becomes a thick batter. Let it sit undisturbed to ferment.

After fermentation,add salt and mix the batter well.
Grease the idli plated/ mould/cups with oil or use cooking oilspray and pour batter half full in the mould.
Steam in the cooker for 15 mins.
Serve with sambar and chutney.

Idli

Ingredients
3 cups parboiled rice
1 cup urad dal
1tsp methi, optional
salt to taste
oil for greasing

Method :
Wash and soak the rice and urad dal seperately for 4-5 hrs.
Drain, wash and grind urad dal and methi sees if using to smooth paste.Remove the urad dal paste and grind the rice to a medium fine(rava granule) consistency.
Let it ferment overnight. Add salt and mix well. Pour spoonfuls of the batter into greased idli moulds and steam for 10 to 15 mins in a idli steamer or pressure cooker.

Serve the fluffy smooth idli's along with sambhar and coriander chutney.

Masala Dosa bhaji + and chutney

DOSA
Rice- 2 cups
Urad Dal- 1/2 cup
chana dal 1/2 cup
Fenugreek seeds- 1tsp
poha 1 cup
Salt

Method
Soak all the ingredients separately overnight
Allow the batter to ferment in a warm place for 8 to 10 hours. Add the salt to the batter after it has fermented.



Potatoes 4 large, Boiled and peeled
Onion 2 Large, thinly sliced
Green Chilies 8-10, finely chopped
Curry leaves- 6 to 8
Ginger 1 inch piece, finely chopped
Coriander 15 stems, finely chopped
Mustard seeds 1/2 Tsp
Urad Dal 1/2 Tsp
Channa Dal 1 1/2 Tsp
Turmeric 1/2 Tsp
Oil 3 Tbsp
Salt

Method
Heat oil in a kadai, add the mustard seed, after they splutter, add the urad dal,channa dal and allow to turn slightly brown. Add the green chilies, ginger, curry leaves, onions, and saute till onions become transparent, then add turmeric powder, mashed potatoes and salt well and. Turn off the heat. Garnish with the fresh coriander leaves.

GARLIC CHUTNEY

Red chillies 15-20
onion 1small
garlic 10 cloves
tamarind
coconut 1 cup
coriander seeds 1/2 tsp

Grind dry without adding any liquid. Smear it on the inside of the dosa while the dosa is still roasting in the pan.


coriander chutney
1 bunch coriander leaves
8 green chillies
coconut 1/2 cup
salt
Grind the ingredients into a fine paste with as little water required for grinding.

BHAJI

Masala dosa

The pic on the top is what I desire to achieve........on the bottom is what I actually did. Of course, my pic doesn't look as good...........its missing the banana leaf,chutney sambhar,bhaji...the works.

Ingredients
1 cup urad dal
3 cups rice ( I use Ponni raw rice
1 tsp methi seeds
1 cup poha
1/2 cup maida
2 tbsp sugar, yes, u read it right!

Soak rice and urad dal separately. Soak methi with poha. Grind about 6 hrs later. Grind Urad dal, methi and poha for about 30 mins making sure all the daal have now become into a fluffy smooth batter.
Remove the batter and then grind the rice to a paste. Rice should be ground fine. To make sure if your rice batter is the right consistency, the feel of the batter is something close to the finest rava you find in the grocery store.Add salt and let the batter ferment.
Just before u make the dosa, mix sugar and maida with a little water and add it to the batter.This helps make crispier dosa.

Surnoli

It's way early to be up on a Sunday but I have been thinking about posting this for a while and it's a good time for me to put my thoughts here when the house is creepily quiet. Maybe that's the reason I cant sleep in.This recipe should have been posted here for a while in fact this should have been my first post for my blog since I get great feedback's whenever I make this for my family and my extended family.
This is one recipe that I have done more than a 100 times in a hope to get it right. My V and M loved it so much that I was on a mission to master this and I feel confident in saying that I did.
Whenever we have our cousins and amchi families get-together this is one of the recipe that I frequently make since I am very sure of the outcome. I don't have to worry if the proportions are right or if the batter will ferment on time, I dont have to put a lot of thought into breakfast eats when it comes to idli, dosa's and surnoli's. My cousins can vouch for that.


Rice – 4 cups
coconut 1 cup
poha 1 cup
methi 2 tsp
Turmeric powder 2 tsp
Yogurt 3 tbsp
1 slice of white bread....yes u read it right !
Jaggery
Salt to taste

Method
Soak the rice and the methi seeds for 3 to 4 hours.

In a separate bowl, wash and soak the beaten rice , 15 minutes before u start grinding with warm water. Drain in a colander.Soak bread in warm water too.

Now grind together the beaten rice, bread slice and coconut to a fine paste with no water . Add rice and methi. The batter should be of thick consistency.

To this batter add yogurt, jaggery, turmeric, and salt to taste.

Leave the batter overnight in the summer and atleast 24 hrs in the winter. Make thick dosas The dosas will turn out very fluffy. Serve hot with ghee or butter.

Tips
I usually have buttermilk powder ( found in baking isle at most grocery stores) on hand for this purpose to use on the days I don't have yogurt. Use 2 tbsp while u add turmeric.

Mushti polo

There's something about this soft, spongy goodness that hits the spot. This is one among my 3 favourite kinds of dosa's that I can eat any given day............the other 2 are pannpolo and surnoli...Yum

2 cups rice
1/2 cup Urad dal
1 cup poha
1/2tsp methi seeds
1/2 cup coconut
1 fistful cooked rice
Oil
Salt

Method:
Soak rice and daals in water for around 3hrs. Grind it with coconut. Add soaked poha and cooked rice and grind to a very smooth paste. Mix salt and keep it overnight for fermentation.

I sometimes use one musti(fistful) leftover rice since that's what makes it musti polo. I remember Mauma using ukudo tandla sheath for the musti and you cant mimic the taste with surai tandulache sheath.
This dosa is supposed to be thick , not spread around too much and also not needed to turn over.

Serve hot with any chutney.
My favourite chutney is either kotombari chutney or hing chutney.

Batata Poha

2 cups poha
2 tbsps cooking oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
5-6 curry leaves
2 green chillies
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 large potato ,cubed
Handful of unsalted peanuts (skins removed)
Pinch of turmeric powder
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander to garnish


Put the poha in a sieve and wash under running water. Transfer to a bowl and fill with enough water to just cover the poha. Keep aside for 5 mins. Drai and set aside while u do all the chopping for tadka.
Heat the oil in a pan on a medium flame and add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds,curry leaves and green chillies. Fry till the spluttering stops and then add the onion. Fry till soft and translucent. Add the turmeric powder and salt. Add the peanuts and potatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the poha ans mix well.
Pour lime juice over the poha and mix well.
Garnish with chopped coriander.

Pancakes

2 eggs,
1/2 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c milk
2 tbsp buttermilk pwd



Instructions
Combine egg and sugar. Beat the egg/sugar mixture.Stir in flour, baking soda, baking powder, milk and buttermilk pwd. Fry on griddle until golden brown and center cooked.