Idli made healthier!

I read somewhere that idli is one of the top ten healthy breakfasts in the world. I decided to make it healthier by replacing a part of the rice with oats and after few experiments i found out that 1/3rd of rice replaced with oats produces almost the same result. You can taste the oats and if you dont like oats you may not like this. It is soft and fluffy, but regular idlis are fluffier and whiter. That's something i can live with :)

Ingredients :
Parboiled rice (Idli rice) - 2 cups
Urad daal - 1 cup
Methi seeds 1 spoon
Salt to taste
Water
Oats - 1 cup

Method :

Soak Rice and urad daal + methi separately for 6-8 hours. Just 15 minutes before grinding it, soak the oats in just enough water to cover it. Grind the urad daal + methi first till you get a fluffy batter. Remove it from the grinder / mixer. Add rice and the soaked oats and add enough water and grind it well. Mix this with urad daal batter and add salt and mix well. The batter should not be too thin. It should be little thick. Let it ferment overnight.

Apply few drops of oil in the idli moulds and steam it for 15-20 mins in the idli cooker.

To check whether it is done, insert a fork. It should come out clean.

Note : Depending on the brand of rice and urad daal use the quantity may differ. Use the rice and oats in 3:1 proportion. After couple of days, you can use the same batter to make dosas and with added oats you get golden brown, crisp dosas To make dosas, add little water to the batter to make it slightly . I forgot to take pictures of the dosa.

Crispy Cornmeal Dosa

First of all, i want to thank all the readers for your comments and i apologize for not stopping by your blogs. It is little hectic now and will continue to be hectic till april end and i'm hoping i'll get more time after that. I don't miss your recipes though, thanks to google reader :)

Here is something that i tried recently and was fairly easy and approved by my kids as well.
Since it was my first time i did not add any vegetables in it as i did not know what to expect.


Ingredients :

Corn Rava (Cornmeal) - 1 cup
Riceflour - 1/2 cup
Buttermilk - 1 cup
green chillies - 3 (finely chopped) - optional
Salt to taste
Cumin seeds - 1 spoon
Water - as required

Method :

Mix all the ingredients and set it aside for a minimum of 1 hour.
The batter should be of rava dosa consistency. Watery.
Heat (non stick) tawa. Keep the stove between med high and high. Stir the batter and start spreading the batter from outside. (Opposite to how you make regular dosa).Since it's a bit watery, the batter will start running towards the center forming polka dot holes. If this does not happen, your batter is thick and you need to add more water. Spread little oil on the dosa and wait till the wet batter look disappears and flip the dosa and cook it for another minute or so.
Unlike rava dosa, the dosa gets thicker in the center, but it is still crisp like rava dosa, but not as thin as it. Adjust the heat while cooking to get the golden yellow colour consistently and also stir the batter before you make each dosa.

See how crispy it is? :)

It is heavier than Rava dosa and takes little more time than it.

Tastes good with chilli powder or chutney.

I am back with Oats Rava Idli

Hello everyone!! Sorry for disappearing all of a sudden. I was not planning to take a break and was thinking of blogging atleast once a week, but i just could not squeeze in any time. Usually when i take a break from blogging, i used to blog hop atleast, but i could not spend a minute on blogging or blog hopping. I really missed a lot of yummy recipes, yummy events and so on.
I hope i can get back to blogging (and blog hopping) now..atleast once a week.

Some of you have given me some wonderful awards and i truly apologize for not acknowledging them here. I am sure it's gonna take me some time to recollect all of them. I feel little lost now.

Hope you all are doing good and thanks for those who were checking on me. I will start visiting your blogs regularly too.
I thought i will start with a healthy, tasty recipe...

Oats Rava Idly :
Toasted Oats - 1 cup
Rava (Sooji) - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1 cup
Water - as required
Salt - as required
Mustard seeds, urad daal, channa daal, hing for seasoning
Eno salt - 2 spoons


Method :
Dry grind toasted oats.
Mix it with rava, salt and yogurt.
Add water as required. The consistency of the batter should be similar to idly batter.
Let it sit for an hour.
In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds.
Add urad daal, channa daal (Approx 1 spoon each) and hing and fry till they are golden brown.
Add to the batter.
Add 2 spoons of eno salt and sprinkle some water and mix well.
The batter will raise and look like fermented idli batter.
Pour them in idli plates and steam them for 15 minutes.
When you insert a skewer, it should come clean.

Tastes yum with chutney and/or moongdaal sambar.

I have included a closeup photo of the idlies to show how soft and fluffy they are.

They tasted very good too. I liked them better than the regular rava idlis and my kids loved them too.

Dosas Galore

I wanted to try something new and send it to Dosa event, but i could not do it due to some unexpected personal work. I dont want to miss this event though since i love dosas. Who can resist dosas? :)

Plain Dosa :
Urad daal - 1 cup
Idli Rice - 4 cups (I use grinder, if you don't have grinder reduce it to 3 cups)
Fenugreek seeds - 1 spoon

Method :

Wash and rinse rice and daal with methi seeds separately and soak them for a minimum of 6 hours. Grind the urad daal and methi first with little water till it gets fluffy. Remove and grind the rice with some water. The batter should be thick but need not be as thick as idli batter. Let it ferment overnight. If the daal and rice are soaked long enough there is no need to keep the batter in a preheated oven.

Heat the dosa griddle/tava and spread 1 ladle of batter into a circle. Spread it very thin to get crispy yummy dosa. Spread some oil around it and when it is almost cooked on one side, flip the dosa and cook for another minute or more to get crispier texture. Repeat procedure. Enjoy! :)

To make cone dosas for kids, once you spread the batter and it is almost cooked on one side, make a slit from the center and flip the dosa and cook for one more minute. When it ready, just roll it from the slit and make a cone. My kids love the cone dosa :) I also make alphabets, shapes or draw lightning mcqueen or elephants out of dosa batter. Sometimes they look horrible and my first son gets a big kick out of it when he sees my horrible artwork. He thinks it's too funny and forgets about making a fuss :) Here's my elephant dosa..this pic was taken in my old mobile so the picture quality is quite bad.

Here are the other dosas from archive :

Protein added Rava Dosa

Plain Rava Dosa :

Moong Daal Dosa :

Masala Dosa :

Oatmeal Rava Dosa

Sending these to Padma's Dosa Corner

Protein added Oatmeal Rava dosa

Though my kids are picky eaters, they seem to like some good stuff too :) Oatmeal is one of them. I used to make Oatmeal Rava Dosa once or twice a week to avoid dinner time battle. I wanted to increase the protein in it. I modified my earlier recipe and added 1 cup of Besan to it. I love besan because just one cup of besan has 21g of protein (almost 3 times the protein in 1cup of milk). Dosas came out well and tasted good. Best part -the kids love it.




Here's the recipe for it :
Toasted Instant Oatmeal - 1 cup (dry grind it)
Rava (Cream of wheat) - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
Besan /Chickpea flour - 1 cup
Buttermilk - 1 cup
Water - as per the consistency
Salt to taste
Cumin seeds- 1/2 spoon (approx)
grated carrot - 1 cup (optional)
green chillies - finely chopped and as per taste (optional)
cilantro - finely chopped
fenugreek leaves or baby spinach - finely chopped (optional)
Mix all the ingredients and let it soak for atleast an hour. Add more water if necessary. The consistency should be as thin as rava dosa batter. Heat the dosa girdle and make dosas.

I am sending this for Ramki's Recipes for the rest of us

I am also sending this for JFI Chickpea hosted by MS and Srivalli's MLLA, an event started by Susan and JFI Chickpea hosted by MS.

Rava Dosa - A foolproof recipe

I had never entered the kitchen before i got married. My mom tried her best to get me to learn some cooking before i got married and my grandma and my dad used to promptly nip it in the bud by saying 'anyway she has to cook after she gets married, let her be carefree and enjoy till then' to which i used to think 'Ha! that's what u think...i will make my husband cook or buy me all 3 meals from some fancy restaurents' :-)



After my engagement, my mom tried (read as threatened!) to get me to learn some cooking which usually ended up in a Mahabarath war between me and my mom. I was really frustrated because i couldn't even close the pressure cooker properly :-O One day, i asked my husband if he knew that i can't cook. He said he knew and he didn't care as he had a cook there. He asked me not to bother about learning how to cook and said he will ask the cook to come even after our wedding. I went to my mom all excited and said 'Good bye to your cooking lessons..i have a cook'..I enjoyed the first 3 months of my married life to the fullest extent... then we moved to U.S and the reality hit me hard...GRR :-S Actually it hit my husband harder, as he had to go thro' the torture of tasting whatever i cooked and still say it was good. Poor dude! I knew he secretly wished they had given dependant visa for the cook too ;-)

One fine day, i came across this recipe in Bawarchi and even i could not mess this one up ;-) When few people took this recipe from me, my excitement had no bounds. I told my dad, ‘See, I have become an expert now and people are taking recipes from me’ and he replied ‘Oh if they are taking recipes from you, imagine how bad their cooking must be’. It was always fun to chat with my dad. We both always pulled each other’s leg. I miss him soooo much now :-(

I made this once when he was here and he really liked it.



I think it’s time for me to stop rambling…







Here’s the recipe -





Ingredients :



Rava / Coarse Sooji - 2 cups

Rice flour - 1 cup

Buttermilk - 2 cups

Salt to taste

Cumin seeds - 1 spoon

Green chillies - 4 - finely chopped

Cilantro - a handful - finely chopped.

Hing - a pinch



Method :

Mix all the ingredients and add some more water. The consistency of the batter should be thinner than regular dosa batter.Let it soak for a one hour minimum.Heat non stick tawa. Keep the stove between med high and high. Stir the batter and start spreading the batter from outside. (Opposite to how you make regular dosa).Since it's a bit watery, the batter will start running towards the center forming polka dot holes. If this does not happen, your batter is thick.Spread little oil on the dosa and wait till the wet batter look disappear.



Flip the dosa and cook it for one more minute.After 3 or 4 dosas you may start getting dark dosas. Reduce the heat at that point. Keep stirring the batter before spreading each dosa. Rava Dosa goes well with Chutney , Chilli powder (idli podi) and/or Sambar.

Idli upma

Just thought of another entry for Pallavi's Sunday Snacks - Fix It .

We all love this better than the actual idlis.

Ingredients :

Leftover idlis - 4
Onion - 1
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Salt to taste ( Go easy on salt, since idlis have some salt too)
Urad daal, hing, mustard seeds and curryleaves for seasoning
Cilantro for garnishing


Method :

Cut the idlis into small pieces and keep aside.
In a pan, heat 1 spoon of oil. Add mustard seeds and let it pop.
Add hing, curry leaves, green chillies and fry for a minute.
Add urad daal and fry till it is golden brown.
Add chopped onions and saute till it is golden brown.
Add the idli pieces and add little salt and saute till the idlis are little crispy on the outside.
Garnish with cilantro.

Tastes awesome with Maggi tomato and chilli sauce.

Since rice is the main ingredient for idli, i'm sending this for Srivalli's Rice Mela too.

Soft Rava Idli

Both my kids love rava idli, so this is a no-struggle breakfast or dinner at my place. It's also easy to sneak in some grated veggies. I have added just grated carrots in the idlis shown in the picture. You can also add finely chopped spinach or grated zucchini.

Ingredients :

Sooji / Cream of wheat - 1 cup
Beaten yogurt - 1 cup
Eno salt - 1.5 spoons
Salt to taste
Grated carrots - 1 cup
Channa daal - 1 spoon
Urad daal - 1 spoon
Roasted cashew pieces - handful
Mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing.

Method :

Mix sooji, yogurt, salt and carrots. Add some water if required. The batter should be of thick consistency. Let it sit for a minimum of one hour atleast. In little oil, pop mustard seeds, add channa daal, urad daal, curry leaves and hing and fry till the daals are golden brown. Add this to the batter. Add roasted cashews also. 5 minutes before cooking add 1.5 spoons eno salt and mix well. If you don't see the batter fluffing up, add some more eno salt. Pour the batter in idli mould and steam it for 15 - 20 minutes. If you soak for atleast an hour the idlis turn out to be very soft.

Goes well with idli powder or chutney.

Kuzhi paniyaram

Recipe and Picture contributed by my sil Radhika.


Ingredients :
Raw rice (Pacharisi) - 1 cup
Boiled rice (Puzhungarisi) - 1 cup
Urad daal - 1 cup
Salt to taste

Soak both rice together and the daal seperately for 5,6 hours.
Grind to the consistency of idli batter.
Add salt and ferment overnight.
In little oil, pop mustard seeds and add urad daal and channa daal and fry them till they turn golden brown. Add finely cut green chillies and hing to it and saute for a minute and add this to the batter and cook it in kuzhipaniyaram pan (or Aebleskiver Pan).

Cooking Method : Apply 1 or 2 drops of oil to each impression in the pan. Fill the impression with batter. Fill it only half way as it puffs up. Cook for about 2,3 minutes and turn each paniyaram with the wooden spoon and cook for some more time. Check by inserting the back of a spoon to see if it sticks. If it doesn't, then it is done and you can remove them from the pan.

Note : You can add grated carrots to the batter. It turned out well and both my kids loved it.
My sil said she tried adding finely chopped cooked onions to the batter but felt like it wasn't cooked properly near the onion pieces.
This goes well with onion chutney.

Oatmeal Rava Dosa / Oatmeal and Cream of Wheat Pancakes

Getting back to recipes... I have few more recipes waiting for a long time. I didnt have time to download the pictures to the pc and i didnt want to post any recipes without any pictures.

Ingredients :

Toasted Instant Oatmeal - 1 cup (dry grind it)

Rava (Cream of wheat) - 1 cup

Rice flour - 1 cup

Buttermilk - 1 cup

Water - as per the consistency

Salt to taste

Cumin seeds- 1/2 spoon (approx)

grated carrot - 1 cup (optional)

green chillies - finely chopped and as per taste (optional)

cilantro - finely chopped

fenugreek leaves - finely chopped (optional)

Mix all the ingredients and let it soak for atleast an hour. Add more water if necessary. The consistency should be as thin as rava dosa batter. Heat the dosa girdle and make dosas. I tried making it as thin as rava dosa but was not successful. It was little thicker than that.

The picture that i have posted is the kids version without green chillies and little thicker. I didnt have cilantro or fenugreek leaves either.

I am sending this to 'Pancakes on Parade' Event