Takka Idli - Sweet and Tangy Buttermilk Idlis

Takka Idli translates to Buttermilk Idli. Its a sweet and sour Idli paired up with a spicy side - sweet tooth's delight and a perfect breakfast for all.

Brown Rice & Barley Dosa

Brown Rice & Barley Dosa served with Sambar
I always try to alter my recipes to make them more healthy. I do strongly believe that white rice, all purpose flour or maida and other refined products do have very few or no nutritional benefits. Hence I often try to modify my recipes to use whole wheat flour in place of all purpose flour/maida and brown rice and rosematta rice instead of white rice. I have also started experimenting with barley since I found out that barley has more fiber than brown rice.

Ever since I made Brown Rice and Barley Dosa, the definition of dosa has changed forever for me. The dosa looks a little brownish unlike the pretty well known snow white dosas.

Chana-Poha or Kadle-Bajil (Chick Peas with Spicy Poha)

Chana with Poha, popularly known as Kadle-Bajil is a popular breakfast in Mangalore. Kadle is Chick Peas, Bajil is Poha in Tulu. Tulu is a local language in Mangalore/Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts of Karnataka. Read as ChaNPhov in Konkani.

As I mentioned in the recipe for Chane Gashi, most of the Hindus have a tradition of eating Chana on every Fridays. My mom makes Chana Gashi and ChaNPov every alternate Fridays.

PhaNNa Polo (Dosa with a seasoning)

PhaNNa in konkani is seasoning or tadka and Polo simply means Dosa. PhaNNa polo is a quick and easy dosa, that perfectly fits the fast food category.
PhaNNa Polo is my hubbys favorite dosa. But I never used to make it for a long time until recently. The reason..PhaNNa Polo is usually made with maida. And I do not prefer to use maida as it lacks nutritional benefits. Recently I got this idea of making it with whole wheat flour. I really liked the outcome. This dosa is a little bitter or nuttier in taste due to the whole wheat, While the one made with maida is a little sweet.

Pan Pole (Neeru Dose) with Rice or Raagi

Pan Pole or Neer Dose is a very special dosa thats easy to make but needs special talent. Pan Pole simpley means Leafy thin Dosa. The whole trick in making perfect dosa is the consistency of the batter and the action of spreading the dosa on the griddle. And off course the choice of your griddle. You may use a non stick griddle, but the best choice is a well seasoned iron griddle.

Rice Pan Pole

Recipe for Rice Pan Pole

Surnali (Sweet Dosa or Konkani Pancakes)

Suranali is a Konkani version of Pancakes. It has sweet & tangy taste from the jaggery and the yogurt in it.

Surnali is my hubby's favorite breakfast item. I had never tried making Surnali all by myself before moving to US. My mom in law used to whip up perfect batter and she would make Surnali with delicious ghee and serve with a dollop of soft homemade butter, loNi in konkani. I tried to make Surnali a couple of times but mine came out flat and tasteless. Later I got some tips form my MIL to make a perfect Surnali. Here is the recipe for the perfect pancakes from the scratch.

Mangalore Buns

In Mangalorean cuisine, Buns is different from Bun. Its not plural form of Bun! Simply called as "Buns". It is a deep fried form of Sweet Banana Bread. Usually served for Breakfast with sambar or chutney on the side.

Mooga Usli (Sprouted Green Gram Stir Fry)

Sprouted Green Grams are my all time favorites. It can be raw, added into salads, chats etc. Sprouted green gram gashi called kirlail moogan gashi is the festive side dish made during Mahalaya avamasya. Will post that recipe sometime in the future. My favorite recipe is the Stir fried and lightly cooked green grams.

2 cups sprouted green grams
3 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp urad dal
pinch of hing
a tbsp shredded coconut, optional

Heat oil in a kadai, Splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, slit green chillies, curry leaves. Add sprouted green grams, add little water and salt. Cook on medium flame. I cook it for just 5-10 minutes, I like mine crunchy. You can cook your desired consistency. Dissolve hing in a tsp of water and add. Optionally you can garnish with fresh coconut.

Serve it as a side dish or snack. I like it for breakfast too.

How to sprout?
Soak 1 cup of green gram/moong in 3-4 cups of water. Soak it overnight or for 8-12 hrs. Drain and rinse water 2 times with water. You can tie green grams in a wet thin cloth. I just spread it and cover in a wide pan. Let it rest for another day till the sprouts have grown.

Kuleeth Saaru & Usli (Horsegram soup & Stir fry)

Saaru in Konkani or Kannada is a general name for any thin flavored liquid that has to be eaten with rice. Saaru can also be savoured like a soup. Konkanis do often use the liquid from boiling any grains/legumes for making saaru.

Kuleeth Saaru Served with rice

Kuleeth/Kulthi or Horsegram is a brown flat legume. I had written more about Kuleeth in the past along with Kuleeth Dosa.

Kuleeth is cooked with lots of water, the liquid is separated and used to make saaru. The cooked kuleeth grains is used to make Kuleeth Usli, a side dish that can be eatedn along with chapathi or rice or just like a snack.

1 cup kuleeth
6-7 cloves garlic
2 green chillies
2 dry red chillies

Cook kuleeth in a pressure cooker for about 5 whistles. Drain the liquid from the kuleeth to a sauce pan. Add slit green chillies and salt and bring it to a boil. Keep boiling till the green chillies impart hotness into the saaru.

For the seasoning, roast garlic in a tsp of oil, fry broken red chillies and add to the saaru.
Kuleeth Saaru
Serve with rice or drink like a soup.

Kuleeth Usli
Make kuleeth usli or a stir fry snack with the cooked grains.
1 cup cooked kuleeth
2 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
1/2 tsp mustard
hing
1 tbsp shredded coconut, optional

Heat 1 tsp oil in a kadai/wok. Splutter mustard seeds, add slit green chillies, curry leaves. Add cooked kuleeth, salt and a little water. Cook till all the water evaporates. Garnish with coconut.

Kuleeth Usli

Serve as a side dish or breakfast or snack.

Breakfast Poha with caramelized onions( piyav bajjil pova usli)

Poha in hindi/ avalakki in kannada/ povu in konkani is a well known homemade fast food item. Its very easy and quick to prepare and very tasty too. There are many authentic konkani style pohas. The one I am posting today is not an authentic konkani style. Will post the authentic konkani style poha some other day.

Poha comes in different varieties depending on their thicknesses. Extra thin/paper avalakki, thin, thick or extra thick. I used to buy the thin poha and my pova usli never used to come out good, it would form lumps when I dipped the poha in water. Later I learnt from my friend Seema that thick poha works out better for poha usli.

1 cup thick poha
4 green chillies
1 sprig curry leaves
4-5 sprig cilantro
1/8 tsp turmeric
1 medium onion
1/2 tsp sugar, optional
1/4 lemon/lime, optional

1/2 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp urad dal, optional
1 tbsp peanuts, optional

Soak poha in water, drain the water in a colander and let the poha rest for about 15minutes. The poha puffs up and absorbs in all the water.

Heat 1/2 tbsp oil in a kadai/wok, splutter mustard seeds, jeera, add urad dal, peanuts and fry till the peanuts are fried. Add finely chopped green chillies and chopped onions. Fry till the onions are partially caramelized. Add turmeric and salt. Add the poha and mix gently. Optionally, you can squeeze half a lime/lemon and add sugar. Garnish with cilantro.

Shevei (Fresh Rice Noodles)

Konkani Style homemade rice noodles
Shevei is rice noodles made from the scratch at home. Authentic konkani way of making sevei is a time taking task. But once you have tasted the shevei you will know its worth all the efforts.

To make shevei or fresh rice noodles you will need the following equipments
A grinder or mixer grinder or a heavy duty blender to grind the batter
shevei dante or A shevei maker- This is a special equipment designed to press noodles, available in the Mangalore area. The main part is the ricer to press the rice balls into noodles, that looks almost like the chakkuli/chakli maker. The shevei maker has a sturdy stand with 3 legs that keeps the ricer elevated at a height to ease the process of collecting the noodles. It also has handle sturdy handle on the top that helps in the uniformly squeeze action.
Traditional Shevei maker
Do not worry if you do not have a shevei maker. Use you chakkuli/ricer maker to press the noodles.

Shevei can be made of white rice or the parboiled rice, i.e. the kerala rosematta rice.
2 cups white rice and 1 cup shredded coconut or
2 cups parboiled/rosematta rice only

Soak rice in plenty of water for 9 hrs. Grind the rice and coconut into a paste. The rice should be of the consistency of the rava. Add salt.
Heat a kadai, pour 1/2 tsp oil in it and rub the whole surface of the kadai with oil. Pour the rice paste and cook on a medium flame. Keep mixing the paste till it turns in to a thick lump. see the picture. This process is called aLache in Konkani.
Rice paste made into a lump
Let it cool for 5 minutes. While the paste is still hot, take a tablespoon of the batter and make small balls. Steam the balls for about 10 mins.
Steamed rice balls before pressing into noodles
Put 2 rice balls at a time in the shevei maker and press the noodles. The noodles needs to be completely cool down before they hold their shape. Spread the noodles on a damp clean cloth. You can cover the noodles with a damp cloth and spread another layer about it.
Shevei piled between layers of damp cloth

There are 3 well known ways to eat Shevei and I love all the 3 ways. I usually eat it in 3 courses, once with each of the following methods

Serve with Sambar.

Sweet Coconut milk often is paired up with Shevei for sweet tooth. Make a thick coconut milk from a fresh coconut. Add jaggery to it. You may also add some cardamom powder. If you are planning to use canned coconut milk, do not bother. Canned coconut milk has a coconut oil taste to it, which is nowhere close to the fresh coconut milk.

I also like to drizzle a spoonful of fresh coconut oil and mango pickle on the shevei.

Cucumber Dosa (Taushe doDDak)

Cucumber Dosa can be made sweet or spicy. Today I made the spicy version for the breakfast. This can be made with Rava or Rice. The Rava cucumber dosa is instant and does not need to be preplanned. However for the rice cucumber dosa you need to soak rice for 4-5 hrs, hence needs a little foresight.

1 cucumber
1 tbsp shredded coconut. fresh or frozen, optional
2 green chillies
small piece of ginger
1 cup rice or rava

Wash and peel the cucumber. Grate on a fine grater and set aside.

If using rice, soak rice for 4 hrs. Wash and rinse the rice a couple of times. Use the liquid from the cucumber grind the rice. When the rice is still coarse, add green chillies and ginger and grind little till they are crushed. The batter should be the consistency of the idli rava/rava. Add salt. Mix together the rice batter with the grated cucumber.

If using rava, mix the rava with the grated cucumber. Add just enough water so that the rava soaks and puffs up. Crush green chillies and ginger and add to the batter. Add salt.

Heat the griddle and make dosas. These dosas are eaten without any side dish. Optionally you can serve with sambar or pickle.

I use brown rice to make this dosa. You can use brown or white rice.

Onion Tomato Dosa

Onion Tomato Dosa is one of those wonderful things I learnt from my Mom-in-law, MIL for short. My MIL has lots of wonderful ideas to make rejuvenate leftovers. By leftovers I do not mean old and stale things that have been lying in the fridge for days, just the things that are left after the previous meal.



To make Onion Tomato Dosa, the dosa batter is same as the Idli batter. So every time I grind for the Idli, I make a little more batter and use it for the Onion Tomato dosa the next day.
1/2 cup urad dal
1 cup Idli rava
3 onion
3 tomato
1 bunch coriander leaves/cilantro
5 green chilies
pinch of hing

Soak urad dal for 3-4 hrs. Wash and drain the soaked dal, grind to a smooth paste. Transfer the paste to a big vessel. Clean the grinder with 1 cup water and soak idli rava in that water. You may use clean water too. I just like to catch any tiny bit of urad paste left in nooks and crannies of the grinder. Soak Idli rava for an hour. Mix thoroughly Idli rava and salt with the urad paste. Keep overnight or for 8-12 hrs in a warm place.

The batter will raise to double due to fermentation. Now finely chop onion, tomato, green chilies, cilantro and add to the batter. Dissolve hing in a tsp of water and add. The batter should be a little thinner than the Idli batter.

To make Dosas, heat a griddle or iron skillet. Drop a tsp of oil and spread a big spoonful of the dosa batter. Let it cook on low flame. Cover the dosa. When the upper surface looks cooked, i.e. there should not be any raw batter on the surface, now turn the dosa upside down and roast the other side.

Serve with Sambarand chutney.

Idli with Sambar

Idli is one of my favorite breakfast. Idli served with a zesty Chutney and Sambar makes a perfect breakfast. When I had just started cooking I thought Idli was very tedious job. But once I had made it, I realized its not tough as I thought. Its not so tough to get a agreeable result, but making a perfect soft Idli is really a talent that can only be achieved through experience.

To make Idli you need
1 cup Urad dal
2-2.5 cups Idli rava/rice rava

Soak urad dal for 4 hours. After 4 hrs wash the urad dal 2-3 times and drain water. Grind it into a smooth paste. Do not add more water. You want it to be as thick as you can. It is important that you do not over heat the paste when grinding. Use cold ice water if your grinder/mixer/blender becomes overheated.

Soak Idli rava with just enough water for the rava to soak. You can soak rava upto 2 hrs. You can mix the rava without soaking too. But soaking the rava makes idli softer. I use the water from cleaning the grinder after grinding the urad dal to soak Idli rava, so that any tiny bit of urad paste is not lost.

Mix the soaked Idli rava and urad paste in a big vessel, preferably more than double the size of the total volume of the batter. Add 1 tsp salt and mix well.

Keep the batter in a warm place. During the winter I keep the batter in the oven. I have a gas range, the oven beneath is always warm. If your oven isn't warm just preheat the oven to 100 deg F and switch off before you place the batter.

Let the batter stand for 8 hrs. By this time the batter will be fermented and raised to double. Mix the batter gently. Do not over beat it.

To make Idli's - You can grease the Idli moulds with a tiny drop of oil. Keep water in a big vessel with a fitted lid and a tiny opening for the steam to escape. Pour a spoonfuls of batter into the Idli moulds. Place the lid and steam the idli's for 15- 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Serve with Sambar or Chutney or both.

Kuleeth dosa (kuleetha ramnaN)

Kuleeth or kulthi, also called Horse gram in english is a legume. It looks like whole masoor or brown lentil. Kuleeth was the staple food fed for horses in India, and hence its English name. The cooked kuleeth was fed to horses and the liquid after cooking kuleeth was drained, used to make saar. I will post this recipe some other day.


Kuleeth or Horse gram

This recipe for Kuleeth Dosa, called kuleetha ramnaN in konkani, is from the authentic Konkani Cookbook, "Oota Upahara" published in Kannada and "amgele kaaNa jevaN" in konkani by Jaya V Shenoy. The book has been around nearly past 20 years and is a popular cookbook in the Mangalorean Konkani households.

1 cup kuleeth/horse gram
1 cup urad dal
1.5 cup rice/idli rava

To make the batter
Soak kuleeth and urad together. If using rice, soak it separately. Soak time approx 2 hrs. Rinse and clean the above. Grind kuleeth and urad to a smooth paste. Grind rice coarsely to the consistency of idli rava. Batter should be of idli batter consistency. Mix all the batter and add salt. (If using idli rava mix it with kuleeth and urad batter now). The batter can be used immediately, does not need to be fermented.

Now to make ramnaN. ramnaN can be made in 2 different ways

You can steam cook the batter like idli. Traditionally its cooked in a round metal plate with 1 inch depth like the cake tins/dokla stand called vaTTe in konkani


Kuleeth dosa or kuleetha ramnaN

The other way to make is in a round bottomed wok or kadai. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a kadai and splutter a few mustard seeds. Add 2 serving spoonfuls of batter. Place the lid and cook on low flame till the bottom side gets crispy and brown and upper side is cooked. You can turn the ramnaN and roast other side. This turns out like Idli hidden inside a crispy Dosa!

Serve with Sambar or Rasam or Chutney.

Updates
Check out the recipe for Kuleeth Saaru and Stir Fry

Moong or Green gram dosa

Ingredients
1 cup green gram
1/4 cup rice
1/4 inch ginger
4 green chillies
salt to taste

Soak green gram and rice overnight or for 6-8 hrs. Grind to paste in a blender. Add ginger and green chillies and grind till they get crushed. Add salt to taste. Make dosas instantly.