Quinoa Dosa

Yessss, I did it, finally! I managed to successfully make quinoa dosas! They turned out real good!!

Ingredients: 

1. Quinoa- 3 measures

2. Split urad dal (white gram)- 1 measure

3. Fenugreek seeds- 1-2 tsp (good for tummy)

4. Chana Dal- 1-2 tbs (I assume for color...?)

5. Water to soak, and then water to grind

6. Oil

7. Salt per taste (to be added in batter) (Optional)

Method: 

The procedure is exactly the same as you would follow for regular dosa batter. See Dosa 1 and Dosa 2.

1. Soaking: Add ingredients 1-4 in a container, and rinse with cold water 2-3 times. Then add water so as to cover it all, and set aside for minimum 2 hours.

2. Grinding: After 2 hours, the above mixture is ready to be ground/blended into a nice batter. Blend/grind everything into a pancake sort of consistency. I noticed that grinding quinoa+dal is way faster than the traditional rice+dal. So that's good! ;) I add salt per taste while grinding. You can skip salt, if you are watching your salt intake......

3. Fermenting: After the batter is ready, I like to stir it all up well with a ladle. The idea is to well-aerate it, in order to aid fermentation, and the dosa will turn out better. So if you live in a nice hot sunny place, you will have lovely fermented batter, all ready to go in under 6 hours. But if you live in Seattle or Alaska (yay!), better to resort to the good old oven. I just keep the container with the batter in my oven, with the light on for warmth, overnight. Next morning my batter is good to go!

P.S.: I noticed that quinoa dosa batter actually fermented a bit faster as compared to the traditional dosa batter. Either that, or well, guess it is summer here after all! ;)

4. Make the dosas! Get your pan going on the stove, spread out the dosa batter with the help of a ladle. Add a few drops of oil to the circumference of the dosas, and in about 2-3 minutes, you'll have yummy quinoa dosa ready.

Quinoa Dosa cooking

Quinoa Dosas ready! 

Serve with chutney, or just a good pat of good old butter, or both! YUM!

Observation:

1. Quinoa dosas seem to brown up quite quickly, so gotta be careful not to burn 'em.

2. Couldn't get them to become crispy as I'd have liked- perhaps because of the lack of rice....?

3. To the novice tongue, this might taste slightly bitter..... but don't worry, you'll get used to it. ;)

Healthy Ideas:

1. Use oats to make dosas! Or combine oats and quinoa.

2. Make pancakes with quinoa flour instead of all purpose flour! Bet that'll be good.

French Toast- Indian twist

Who doesn't know how to make french toast, right? You take some bread, dunk it in eggs whisked with vanilla essence, fry till golden brown, and then drizzle maple syrup or honey, and eat away. That's the sweet version. I like the savory version too- where I add salt and pepper to the eggs, and the rest of the process is the same. Except, instead of syrup or honey, I use ketchup. And to kick it up a notch, usually on the weekend, I add a couple extra ingredients and I call it my Desi French Toast- i.e. french toast with an Indian twist.

Ingredients: 

1. Bread- stale white bread would be perfect, but you can use any kind, I'd say

2. Eggs

3. Finely chopped onion- I like to use 1/4 of an onion for 2 eggs

4. Finely chopped green chilies (per your heat tolerance!) 

5. Salt per taste

6. Freshly ground pepper 

7. Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp

8. Fresh coriander leaves, or parsley 

9. Cooking oil- a few teaspoons

Method: 

1. I like to cut the bread (2-3 slices per person) into triangles.

2. Whisk up some eggs (2 eggs per person), add ingredients 3-8 into this, and give it all another whisk to get everything rolling.

3. Get your pan going, with a few teaspoons of cooking oil. Dunk each slice of bread into the egg mixture, and fry both sides until golden brown.

It is almost like bread and omelette in one shot! Pretty neat, I think, and it is super delicious all by itself. I like tomato ketchup on the side.

Father's Day Gift Ideas Guest Post

I guest blogged for Full Circle a couple days ago. I was asked to write on the topic, "5 Great Gifts for Foodie Fathers." As ever, limiting the list to only 5 was so tough! I mean, there are so many great gifts out there. Well, who do you think I approached to give me ideas? Aditya, of course! He is a foodie, as in all caps FOODIE! And for those of you that don't know, he recently became a dad to this cute little baby boy, who I can't wait to meet!

Like I always say, celebrate every day. Enjoy!

Fried Egg on Rice

My daughter introduced me to this very simple yet delightful dish- where you take some hot steamed rice, and top it with a beautiful fried egg. That's it, there is nothing else to this dish. However, you are sure to fall in love with it- for its simplicity, and taste.

You need: 

1. Plain steamed rice- white or brown, your choice

2. 1 or 2 eggs- fried (poached will work too)

3. Optional- Soy sauce

Method: 

All you gotta do is take some nice, hot steamed rice in a bowl and place your fried egg(s) on top. Add a drizzle of soy sauce, if you'd like and maybe some freshly ground pepper. 

Then comes the best part- use your spoon to poke the part with the yolk inside, and the yolk starts oozing out, and seeps into the rice..... mmm! That is delicious!! And you are overcome with this unexpected feeling of comfort with every spoonful of that rice, egg, and soy sauce. Yes, really! 

My daughter told me that this is a Korean dish. Korean or not- she and I love it! 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all women out there! Hey, there is a mother in every girl/woman, don't you think? Hopefully we are all celebrated every single day!

Early morning flowers, followed by a delicious omelette, toast, and coffee- how can this foodie mama not be happy?! 😋 

Celebrate!! 

Finger Millet Flatbread or Ragi Rotti

Finger Millet or Ragi has been a favorite with diabetics, because of the fact that it is rich in fiber, and upon consumption, blood sugar levels don't just instantly shoot up, but instead, it is all nice and slow. Ragi is also rich in iron, calcium, certain amino acids (that apparently are absent in most starchy grains), and of course protein. I also read somewhere that it helps relax you- so if you suffer from anxiety, or sleeplessness, or are just feeling the blues, try eating some Ragi. You will feel happy!

My paternal grandfather used to swear by Ragi mudde, and as far as I remember, often times dinner would be Ragi balls with a tamarind based soup. Tata would tell me to tear off a little ball, dunk it in the soup, place it in the mouth, and immediately swallow it. That was fun, really. I mean, the whole concept of not having to chew or bite food, but simply swallow, was so cool back then! And funnily enough, I quite liked that bland Ragi ball.

Another variation of Ragi that we were introduced to was Ragi rotti. This is basically Ragi flatbread, with added spices. It is super delicious! It is similar to akki rotti, the flatbread made with rice flour (Akki Rotti Recipe). In fact, I'd say that the recipe is the same, except that instead of rice flour, you use ragi flour.

Ingredients: 

1. Ragi Flour

Ragi Flour- sprouted ragi- even better! 

2. Onion- finely chopped

3. Green chillies- slit, or chopped

4. Cumin seeds- 1-2 tsp

5. Salt per taste

6. Water to make dough

7. A kadhai or wok, or a pan

8. Oil to cook

Method: 

1. Add onions, chillies, cumin, and salt to ragi flour and mix it up dry once, before adding water.

Ragi flour+onion+chillies+salt

2. Pour in water bit by bit, and begin kneading the dough, until you get a nice pliable dough. Similar to pizza dough.

Ragi rotti dough ready

3. Take a kadhai/wok or a pan, or both (like I do), pour a couple teaspoons of oil (you know your pan better- so if you think you need more oil, sure, go ahead. OR if you use a completely non-stick pan, well, skip the oil!). Then make a ball, as shown below:

Ragi ball 

4. Place this ball onto the oil in the pan, and start rolling it out with your fingers and palm of your hand:

Ragi rotti in the making

5. Now cover the pan with a lid, and get the heat going. The first 5 minutes on medium high, and the next 5-7 minutes between low and medium flame, to avoid burning.

Ragi rotti cooking in the pan

In the kadhai/wok

6. Switch off the stove, and that's it, Ragi rotti is ready to be enjoyed! You can eat it with coconut chutney, or chutney powder, or just plain as it is with some ghee or butter. YUM! You could even eat this with some rustic chicken or mutton curry- are you salivating yet? ;)

Eating off of the kadhai/wok- irresistible! 

Don't forget that butter! ;) 

I personally LOVE both varieties- akki (rice flour) and ragi (finger millet) rotti. Both kinds make me happy! You know your rotti is perfect when it is crispy on the first bite, and has this beautiful soft, chewy thing going on as you continue to eat........ SLURRRRRRP!

Uttapam

If you love dosas, you probably like uttapams too. Many blog posts ago, I had put up the recipe for this South Indian delicacy (Dosa Part 1 and Dosa Part 2). On Saturday, we had a Dosa party at home for a few friends, and it was quite a hit! I had made enough batter to last us a few days. Today the batter level went down by quite a bit, and when that happens, I know what to do- convert it into uttapam!

Ingredients: 

1. Dosa Batter

2. Onion, finely chopped

3. Green Chilies, either sliced or chopped

4. Coriander leaves/Cilantro, a bunch, finely chopped

5. Little bit of grated ginger

6. Tomato- chopped up- some people don't like it, but I love adding tomato to my uttapam

7. Salt per taste

8. Black ground pepper &/ Red chili powder

Method: 

1. Add ingredients 2 to 8 into the dosa batter, and stir it all up nicely with a ladle. You now have uttapam batter.

Uttapam batter

2. Take a ladleful of the batter, and pour it onto a hot pan (similar to how you would pour pancake batter), and then spread it out evenly. Add a few drops of oil around the entire circumference of the uttapam. Also a few drops in the center.

Uttapam getting ready

3. As you start seeing some browning at the bottom, flip the uttapam, so as to cook (and brown) the other side.

Browning on the bottom

Now browning the other side

4. That's it! Within 3-4 minutes, you'll have made the perfect uttapam, ready to be eaten with chutney, or just plain as it is. Oh, and a little bit of butter on top won't hurt! ;)

Uttapam! YUM! 

I like my uttapam to be nice and crispy. And so I let it stay on the hot pan longer. If you like it soft, don't brown it as much. Uttapam is a great way to utilize leftover dosa batter. Not to forget, it is yum!