Micro dosai/uthappam appetizer

Has this ever happened to you? You make dosai/idli batter and once you’ve used it a few times for breakfast/lunch/dinner, you’re left with one last bit. An amount that won’t make another filling portion for everybody, is a waste to throw away and cannot be mixed with a new batch of batter. Typically I used to make the 1-2 last dosais and put them in the fridge only to certainly throw them away a couple of days later.

This time I decided I wasn’t going to do that. I decided to try something different – micro dosais or uthappams if you will. And here’s a first look.

Micro dosais/uthappams with toppings

Interested? What’re you waiting for? Use up that last bit of batter creatively!

I will leave the toppings bit to each of your creative ideas. Here I’ve gone very plain-jane and I literally used my thaalikara paathram (tadka pan) to make the toppings. I’ve used 1 clove of garlic, 1 green chilli, 1 small onion and 1 small tomato, all chopped and shallow-fried in oil with the usual tempering agents and seasoned with nothing more than salt and turmeric and garnished with chopped coriander. Small is beautiful (excuses!) Once that’s done, it’s just spooning up and serving.

        (Left): Spoonfuls of batter sitting on a hot skillet. (Right) One side browned, the other to go.

And once you make enough of your micro dosais, plate them up and add the toppings!

       (Left)- All of the micro dosais and (Right) with toppings too!

Surely people haven’t haven’t given simpler explanations for simpler things? Anyhoo, the reason I shared is just an exciting idea for left-overs. These bite-sized dosais make for great appetizers and even better conversational pieces (try them and you’ll know what I mean). And if your batter is anything like mine, when the end of it is near, it attains this slight tanginess, pulippu, which only adds to its flavour and taste.

On the other hand, you could also try something innovative like making these little things and making bits of them and try a dish akin to idli upma but only call it dosai upma instead; Because the sizes are little and both sides cook so well, there is no reason that this shouldn’t work! In which case, all you have to do is instead of add the “topping” you made, mix in the bits of dosais to the topping material in the skillet it cooks in. Another breakfast idea!

I leave you with one last look from the Nanoscientist in me – Micro dosais! Bon Appetit! Enjoy!

Spicy bite: Micro dosai topped off with cooked veggies and fresh coriander.

Vegetable puff pastry

Anyone hailing from India surely loves veg./egg puffs! It was something available at every bakery in any street corner and perfect to quench the hunger pangs that struck with renewed fervor especially when one crossed by the bakery. That fresh-baked aroma and the convincing crunch of the puff made it an instant favourite with one and all. Fast-forward to France. Sure we have a Hot Breads at Paris and they make excellent Indian baked goods. But lets be practical. Who’s going to go 10km to eat a puff? Well, we might.. if it wasn’t so easy to make them at home! Here’s a first look. I apologize for the poor quality of the photographs. It gets dark very soon these days and I had very less enthusiasm to setup the soft box and such. So I used one of our corner lamps as lighting and hence the unfortunate yellowish hue. The picture below though is from one of our exploits at Cincinnati with making puffs (thanks PT, VV and VR).

  Vegetable puff pastries hot off the oven.

Considering I don’t make the pastry sheets and they’re store-bought the entire process of making a filling batch of puffs takes a little over 30 minutes. Which is next to nothing in the grand scheme of things.

If you’re interested, here’s what you need

Ingredients

For the exterior
Store-bought pastry sheets – you can find this in the refrigerated section of your store	1-2 packets, depending on how many puffs you plan to make
For the filling
1. Onions	1 large, finely chopped
2. Potatoes	3-4 medium sized, peeled, boiled and mashed
3. Peas	1/2 cup
4. Carrots	1 medium-sized, finely chopped and preferably boiled. Hint: Put  in the potatoes and carrots together in a pressure cooker to boil.
5. Green chillies	2, slit length-wise
6. Garlic	2 cloves minced
7. Salt	To taste
8. Oil	1 tsp
9. Turmeric and asfoetida	a pinch each

How?

1. Set out the pastry sheets by unwrapping them from the package and let them thaw at room temperature while you get the filling ready.

2. For the filling.. use a heavy bottomed pan and heat the oil.

3. Throw in the asfoetida, followed by the green chillies, garlic, onions and the salt. Allow the onions to cook very well on a low flame.

4. Add the potatoes, carrots, peas and turmeric. Stir well and allow it to cook. If it becomes too “hard”, add a little water to make it’s consistency pasty. Think thick and not watery.

5. Once everything’s cooked, give it a taste test to see if you’d like to add anything to this mixture. I like to add a hint of amchur powder (dry mango powder) and jeera powder to it to enhance the taste. Also, 1/4 tsp of sugar gives it an enormous boost.

There.. you’re done with the filling! Set it aside to cool a bit while you work with everything else.

6. Turn on the oven and set it at approximately 180°C.

7. Get a baking tray ready with aluminium foil to protect the bottom. Spray gently with baking spray or coat with a thin layer of oil.

8. Cut squares from your pastry sheets, large enough to fold into triangles reasonably big enough to stuff with the filling you’ve just made. Think 8cm x 8cm types.

9. Fold it into a triangle and seal 1 side by pressing it together. Stuff some filling on inside the pocket you’ve created and then seal the other side. Note: If you let the sheets thaw too much, you might have a hard time holding shape while filling. It’s better to do it when it still hasn’t defrosted entirely.

10. Repeat 9 for as many puffs as you want to make and lay them on the tray. Shove them in the oven for about 10 minutes. This brown ands hardens the “bottom”.

11. Now you’d want to transfer them to a grilling tray so that you get the nice browning lines evenly everywhere. Alternately, you could do the entire thing on the grilling tray. Note: Place the “top” side of the puff face-down on the grilling tray to get those lines. Bake for another 10-12 minutes.

12. And that’s it! Take them out, allow to cool a bit and serve with ketchup, chai or both!

Bon Appetit! Enjoy!

 Up close: Croissant style vegetable puffs!

PS: Any of the fillings can be altered to suit your taste. Experiment and enjoy!

Mini rava idlis

I confess… for time immemorial, I’ve cribbed about how I don’t like idlis. Indeed, I followed on my brother’s and his friends’ adage of expanding IDLI as I-Don’t-Like-It. And as is usual in such cases, I am a big dosai fan. Which then evokes the surprise that now I not only like idlis, but I make them regularly too. But that is in keeping with the fact that I hated brinjals back in India but now have many a mean recipe to contend them with. So.. its a pattern of having the convenience not to eat something versus wanting to. Even then, rava idlis tempted my palate more than the traditional ones. Okay.. now that that’s all cleared up, let’s take a first look at today’s goodies – the mini rava idlis.

Just off the idli stand – mini rava idlis.

The best part about rava idlis is their lack of need of preparation time or fermentation time and such. Overall to make a batch of these goodies, takes 45 minutes, tops. And for how delicious and refreshingly different from ordinary idlis they are, it is indeed worth investing this time and effort into it. Like ‘em? Let’s get started then!

Ingredients

Coarse rava (semolina)	2 cups
Yogurt (not too thick)	2 cups
Water	1-1.5 cups
Oil	1 tbsp
Curry leaves	10-15, well washed
Kadugu (mustard seeds)	1 tsp
Channa dal (kadalai paruppu or yellow gram dal)	1 tsp
Green chillies	2, finely chopped
Salt	to taste
Additional veggies – carrot (if you want – I skipped this)	Grated
Coriander leaves (kothamali) or cilantro	1 sprig, well washed
Kaju (cashew nuts)	about 10 halves
Baking soda	1/2 tsp

How?

It’s as simple as it gets really.

1. On a heavy-bottomed pan, dry roast your 2 cups of rava till they brown a little without burning them. Once it seems like it has browned a bit, set aside and shift to your batter container and let it sit (if you leave it on the pan, it will likely burn in some places and give an unpleasant taste in the end).

2. Meanwhile, prepare the ganishings! On a small pan/kadai, heat the 1 tbsp of oil. Add the mustard seeds, channa dal, green chillies, curry leaves, cashew nuts and let them “fry” till the mustard seeds pop, the cashews brown and the channa dal darkens. Set aside.

3. Mix in the curd and the water along with the roasted rava to form a smooth batter with no lumps. The batter consistency should be similar to regular idli batter. (Hint: Try “pouring” it from a height of about 15cm. It should pour down in a steady but thick stream. If it’s too watery, you may need to add more rava. If it clumps and doesn’t fall steadily, you’ll need to add more water.)

4. Stir in the garnishings.. the fried ingredients and the carrot and cilantro. Blend in the baking soda

There! Your batter is ready!

5. Let it sit for 30 minutes while you prepare something to go with the idlis.

After 30 minutes, load up the idli stand!

 Ready to be steamed: Rava idli batter loaded up on the idli stand.

Now just steam it regularly in the pressure cooker! This typically takes 13 minutes with a closed lid (NO WEIGHT/WHISTLE please!!) on medium-high with the water inside the cooker already boiling.

And voilà

 You are served. Steaming hot, ready-to-eat mini rava idlis.

And this was off to RK’s birthday. And they were soft, supple and very tasty if I say so myself! So, bon appetit!

Packaged and out. Mini idlis go to party!

Signature dish – Baked idlis

How I love surprising myself! Who knew one could “bake” idlis in a traditional oven? I for one didn’t. Haunted by the excess batter sitting in the fridge (in spite of making idlis 2 times and dosais – masal dosai included,  three times), I decided I was going to exhaust it or waste it trying. Fair enough? Now, since it turned out to be a pretty unexpectedly great-tasting treat, I am going to raise my own collar for my innovation. Here’s the first sneak peek..

 Baked idli cake. Garnished with fresh carrot, coriander, curry leaves and tempered with mustard seeds, sesame and urad dal.

So? Whad’ya think? Different? Interested? Intrigued? Go on…

Recipe

  Left over idli/dosai batter                                   +                         Seasoning (carrots, green chillies, salt)

That’s it!

1. Preheat your oven for 5 minutes at 175°C.

2. Grease your baking dish with oil and pour the mixed batter contents into it.

3. dump the dish into the oven for ~17 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, prepare the tempering and the seasoning. In a teaspoon of oil, allow 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds, 1/2 each of sesame and urad dal to sputter. Mix in some fresh curry leaves.

5. Garnish with freshly grated carrot and fresh coriander along with the tempering.

And you have yourself a sumptuous yet refreshingly different rice cake -

 Baked idli rice cake – ready to be served.

And serve with any chutney or pickle of your choice! Frankly, it’s delicious all by itself as well!

 You are served.

Bon Appetit! Enjoy :)

Sunday brunch: Mini Idlis

I know what y’all are thinking. She’s got nothing to write… and so she just shares recipes (more like pictures) and keeps the blog ticking. Guilty as charged. However, these idlis were so delicious and yet so simple that it’s sinful if I don’t show-off. And so -

Piping hot idlis, just off the cooker.

As for the “recipe”, it’s the usual, soak-grind-ferment drill. I soaked a 1:3 ratio (1 urad dal : 3 puzhungal arusi – the idli rice) overnight and together with generous amounts of vendhiyam  and ground it into a fine paste on my mixi the next morning and let it ferment the rest of the day. And it was super perfect. And if you’re wondering what has happened to the quality of my pictures, well, the SLR ran out of charge. And the lazy bum that I am, I haven’t gotten around to charging it. I will get there soon.

Coming back to the mini-idlis, the idli platter I bought this time was so good. Tiny yet deep producing perfectly fluffy-white malligai poo idlis. Bon Appetit!

Hot idlis to be served. Serve hot with sambar/chutney/molagai podi or all!