Masala Dosa and Wishes Of Kerala Piravi Dinam

Kerala Piravi marks the birth of my dear state 'Kerala'. Kerala state was officially created on 1 Nov 1956 and therefore November 1 is known as 'Kerala Piravi Dinam' - The Day Kerala was Born. So today I wish all the Keralites around the world a great 'Kerala Piravi Day'. Even though there are some dark shades and wrinkles on the cheeks of this 55 year old beautiful lady, She still looks so pretty with the wonderfull greenery you will ever see. The exotic wildilife, pure waterfalls, beautiful plantations and paddy fields, hill stations, backwaters, wonderful Ayurveda, enchanting art forms, colorful festivals and above all the Kerala Cuisine makes it so special and unique. I just love each and every moment I spent in my homeland and is still eagerly waiting for my next trip to Kerala.

So dearies on Kerala Piravi Day I'm posting the all time favorite dish of Keralites-'Masala Dosa' which is the one of most popular dish in India as well. The origin of Masala dosa/Dosa is still on debate but you can find refridgerated set of dosa batter in all the South Indian homes. Masala dosa is a fermented crepe made from rice and urad dal batter stuffed with cooked spiced potatoes and is a very common breakfast dish and street food as well.

When I came to USA I didn't have much south Indian friends around but yea still was really lucky to have a whole bunch of North Indian friends. For any parties and gathering they just wanted to have dosa-sambhar/masala dosa and Uzhunnu Vada(Urad dal vada) which made my parties much easier. Of course I happened to learn a lot of North Indian cooking from them as well. Thats when I understood how popular our simple and humble dosa/masala dosas are. Everytime they meet me they ask me the rice-dal ratio for making it and try hard to get them perfect. So friends let me post the recipe for the all famous Masala dosa, Enjoy!!!!

Ingredients and dosa batter preparation Method:-

Raw Rice/Basmathi Rice - 2 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Cooked Parboiled Rice - 1 cup
salt to taste
water as needed

Wash and clean the rice and urad dal and soak it for 7-8 hours. Grind everything in a mixer to a smooth batter. Batter should not be too thick or runny, it should be of smooth pouring consistency. Add salt and stir well, set aside for the batter to ferment for atleast 8-10 hrs or overnight.

Ingredients and Preparation of Potato Masala:-

For Potato Masala Stuffing:-

Medium Size Potatos - 4 skin peeled and cut into small squares
Big Onion  - 1 finely chopped
Green chilly - 3 finely chopped
Ginger a small piece chopped finely
Curry leaves - a sprig
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds -1 tsp
whole red chilly - 2 broken into halves
Corainder leaves finely chopped - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 3/4 tsp
salt to taste
water - 3 cups(use more/less as needed)
Oil - 2tbsp

Makig potato masala:-

Heat up a frying pan, pour oil, add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds crackles add urad dal, curry leaves, red chillies, salt and stir for few secs. Add onion, green chilly, ginger and saute till onion turns  translucent. Add turmeric powder and potatos. Pour water and stir well to mix everything. Cover and cook it till potatos are soft and water is almost absorbed. Mash some potatos, stir well and chck for the salt and taste. Finally add the chopped coriander leaves and mix everything. Potato masala for the Masala dosa is ready.

Making Masala dosa:-

Heat a non-stick dosa pan or griddle, pour a big laddle of batter and spread in a circular motion to get a big round dosa. Drizzle half a spoon of ghee or oil on the egdes and middle of the dosa if desired(optional). Cook till the dosa become crisp and golden brown, do not get to dark brown. Take out a big spoon of potato masala and top it in the middle of the dosa. Fold te dosa into half and take out of the pan. Repeat the process with the rest of the batter and masala. Serve immediately with Sambhar and coconut chutney/tomato chutney.

Note:- I tried using long grain rice that we get here in US as well and found perfect for dosas/Idli.

Rava/Sooji Dosa

Ingredients:-

1. Rava - 2 cups
2. grated coconut - 1/2 cup(optional)
3. salt to taste
4. jeera - 1 tsp(optional)
5. water - 1 cup or as needed

Preparation Method:-

• Soak rava in water for 10 - 15 mins.
• Grind together rava, coconut and salt to a smooth batter. Add the cumin seeds to the batter and mix well.
• Heat a non-stick pan, pour a ladle of batter and rotate clock-wise to make round dosas.
• Turn over when the dosa is light brown color. Remove from the pan when done.
• Repeat the process to make required amount of dosas.
• Serve with coconut chutney or Sambhar

Green,green Go green with Moong/Cherupayar Dosa and green chutney

I recently discovered this dosa, actually I'm not sure of the name as I heard this is called 'Pesarattu' an Andra breakfast usually served with Peanut Chutney. I got this recipe from my little sister who recently got married and moved to Edison, NJ. She was lucky enough to get some great friends and she got this recipe from one of a wonderful friend from AP. When ever we go to NJ, I definitely visit this friend and I'm sure she won't let us leave without having something. My kids too really love to go there as they know their quota of chips here is unlimited. Thank you dear Swaroopa for bearing with my kids who mess your home every time we visit and being such a nice person. And thanks my sis for sharing me this so easy and quick recipe. This is a great rescuer at times when I just do not have anything pre-planned for my breakfast of lunch and even my kids love dosa-chutney anytime, everytime...

Ingredients:-

For Dosa:-

1) Whole Moong/Green gram/Cherupayar - 1 cup soaked for an hr or two

2) Green chilly - 3

3) Ginger - 2 tbsp chopped

4) Coriander leaves- A small bunch chopped

5) Salt

Grind the first four ingredients and make dosa batter out of it. Add some salt and jeera(optional) before you make dosas. Heat a non-stick pan, pour a scoop of batter and spread in circular motion to make nice round dosas. Flip it and wait for a min and take off the flame. Make required amount of dosas and served hot with Peanut or coconut chutney.

Its so simple yet healthy, rich in protein and delicious.

You can spread some finely  chopped onion, curry leaves and coriander leaves on top of the dosa and flip it off when done or add it to the batter and make dosas as well. I did not do it becaue since my kids do not like it.

For green chutney:-

To grind:-

grated coconut - 1 cup

green chilly - 3 sliced

Ginger - 1 tbsp chopped

corainder leaves - 3tbsp

curry leaves few

Seasoning:-

Coconut oil(any oil can be used)

mustard seeds - 1 tsp

urad dal- 1tbsp

curry leaves

whole red chilly - 2 broken

Grind the 'to grind' ingredients pour in a bowl. Add oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, curry leaves and whole red chilly. Stir them for a min and pour over the chutney.

Raagi Dosa with Egg Roast

Raagi dosa as I call it, is made with Raagi and wheat flour. My concept of Raagi flour was to be used to prepare baby food which we call 'kurukku' and even I loved the leftovers of that 'kurukku' because it was so sweet like any kheer. I had seen my grandma and aunt making it for my cousin brother when he was a baby. And when I had my son and I went to India for vacation my grandma made the same for my son too. Anything other than Raagi was really out of question for me and this Raagi dosa evolved out from my mother-in-law who was bit diabetic and a person who avoid eating rice at night. So on a normal India call to my mother-in-law I  asked her what did she made for dinner and she told me she had made Raagi dosa. So she gave me the recipe of this Raagi dosa and from then I started making this dosa regularly whether it is for breakfast or dinner with a bit of variation. Even me and my hubby is not fond of eating rice at night, so this is a better and healthy substitute for rice or for those who go lazy to roll the chappathi for dinner(of course we all have some of those lazy days to make dough, roll out the roti and make rotis out of it).

                                        

Ingredients for Dosa:-

Raagi flr- 3/4 cup
wheat flr- 3/4 cup
salt - 2 tsp
Jeera/Cumin - 1 tsp
water 3 cups (u can add/reduce water as needed, batter should be of normal dosa batter consistency)

In a bowl add ragi flour and wheat flour and mix well with a spoon. Add water and keep mixing so that no lumps are formed. Add in salt and Jeera and mix well. Heat a non-stick pan, pour a laddle of batter and spread in a circular motion to make a nice round dosa, drizzle oil if necessary(I did not use any oil). Let it cook for few seconds or a minute till they turn light brown color. Fold it into half and take out from the pan. Make required amount of dosas like this and serve hot with egg roast..

Ingredients for Quick n Ezee Egg Roast:-

Boiled eggs - 5(make slits on each egg using a knife)
Onion - 2 big( finely sliced)
Tomato - 1(finely sliced)
Green chillies -3(sliced into half)
Ginger - 1 tbsp finely chopped
Turmeric pdr- 3/4 tsp
Chilly pdr - 2 tsp(u can add/reduce it according to your spice level)
salt to taste
curry leaves - a sprig
oil- 2 tbsp

In a frying pan add oil and saute onion, ginger, green chilly and salt. When onion turn light brown add tomato and saute for a while. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder and some more curry leaves and stir for 2 mins. Add eggs and mix it well with masala(check for the salt in btw). Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for 5 mins in low flame. Switch off the flame and serve hot with Raagi dosa/chappathi. Garnish with few more curry leaves and coriander leaves if desired...

Note:-Without adding wheat flour Ragi dosa will be very sticky and might not come out clean from the tava. Adding cumin seed is optional, I add while making most of the dosas.