Multi-grain dosa

Golden crispy yum

A must have breakfast item. Starts the day beautifully.

Makes enough dosas for a medium family

Parboiled rice 2 cups

Urad dal 2/3 cup (Kolai dal, uddin bele, Vigna Mungo skinned and split)

Cholar dal 1/3 cup (Split bengal gram)

Green Mung 1/3 cup (Mung bean, Vigna radiata)

Masur dal 1/3 cup (lentil, Lens Culinaris)

Fenugreek 1/2 tbsp

Salt 1/2 tbsp

Cooking Soda 1/2 tsp

Ghee or butter

Oil for frying

Ingredients

This dish requires parboiled rice. Widely consumed in the Indian states of Kerala and West Bengal. The urad dal (Vigna Mungo) should be white and should not have the black skin. I use the red variety of Masur dal.

Prep

Soak all the ingredients except salt and cooking soda for 6-8 hours. Grind to a very fine and thick consistency. When you run your fingers through the batter you should not be able to feel any grain. Also when dropped from a height it should fall in a thick ribbon.

Stir in the cooking soda. Let it stand overnight to ferment. This totally depends on the weather in your place. In Kolkata summers where night temperatures are close to 30 C it takes around 5-6 hours to ferment. When around 25 C it takes nearly 8 hours. We do not make dosa in winter (10 C temperature) as the batter does not ferment. When fermented the batter will rise significantly.

Ready

First add the salt.

Now the cooking part. This will require a bit of practice and you may not be able to get it right  the first time. The main part is the pressure when you spread out the batter. It should be enough to spread it out but not as much as to drag the batter along with the ladle.

Heat a flat pan and spread a few drops of oil.

There are mainly six steps.

1. Use half an onion pricked at the end of a fork to clean the pan. Dip in water and rub the pan clean. 
   
2. Spread the batter evenly on the pan. Some people like their dosa thick some like it thin. Also remember while spreading your batter the pan should not be super hot. So you may want to use a bit more water while cleaning the pan in step 1.
   
3. Spread a spoonful of oil
   
4. Flatten the grooves with a spatula
   
5. When nicely roasted and the edges are brown, turn. To turn you may have to dip the spatula in water and scrape the edges out.
   
6. Apply ghee or butter
   

The whole process is demonstrated in the following video.

Serve hot with coconut chutney, peanut chutney, plain sambar and chutney powder.

Enjoy a few, this is not a restaurant you can serve yourself more than one dosa.

Plain Sambar

A delightful accompaniment

A light must have accompaniment to South Indian dishes.

Toor dal 3/4 cup (Arhar dal, Pigeon peas, Cajanus Cajan)

Tomato 1 medium

Onion 1 medium

Sambar Powder 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Mustard 1/4 tsp

Fenugreek 5/6 grains (Methi)

Cumin 1 dash (1/8 tsp)

Asafoetida 1 pinch

Curry leaves 10 

Coriander 1 tbsp

Dry red chili 1

Vegetable oil 2 tbsp

Prep

Chop the tomato, onion and coriander leaves to fine pieces.

Wash the dal and cook it in a pressure cooker with the chopped tomato till cooked. I usually use 2 cups water.

Cool it. Mix the sambar powder.

Sambar

In a wok heat the oil. Add mustard, cumin, fenugreek, asafoetida, red chili and curry leaves. When it starts spluttering add the chopped onions. Saute till soft. Add the boiled dal to the spices. Check the consistency and add water to your liking. Add salt and coriander leaves. Let it boil for five minutes.

Serve hot with dosa, idli or plain rice.

Coconut chutney

Can accompany dosa, idli, uttapam and many other dishes

Grated coconut 3/4 cup
Roasted Bengal Gram 1 tbsp
Garlic 2 small pods
Tamarind 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Green chilli 2
Coriander leaves 1/2 cup

Mix all the ingredients and grind in a grinder to achieve a smooth consistency. Add water as necessary. It should not be a liquid but a thick honey like consistency (it will not be sticky).

Peanut Chutney

Can accompany dosa, idli, uttapam and many other dishes

Roasted Peanuts 3/4 cup

Garlic 2 pods

Onion 1/4 Small

Tamarind pulp 1/2 tsp (If unavailable use lime as substitute at the cost of taste)

Salt to taste

Sugar or jaggery 1/4 tsp

Mix all the ingredients and grind in a grinder to achieve a smooth consistency. Add water as necessary. It should not be a liquid but a thick honey like consistency (it will not be sticky).

Spicy prawn

Indo-Chinese ambrosia

Succulent prawns in yummy oyster sauce

Serves 4

Prawns 500 gms

Onion 1 large

Red Bell pepper 1/2 

Green Bell pepper 1/2

Yellow Bell pepper 1/2

Oyster sauce 6 tbsp

Egg 1

Refined Oil 8 tbsp

Refined Oil 1 tsp

Refined oil for deep frying

Corn Flour  4 tbsp

Chilli powder 1 tsp

Chopped Ginger 1/2 tbsp

Soya Sauce 3 tbsp

Dry Red chilli 1

Salt to  taste

Pepper powder 1 pinch

Oil

Take the chilli powder in a small bowl. Heat 8 tbsp oil till it starts smoking. Pour over the chilli powder. You may need to leave the kitchen for some time after this. When it cools down, the chilli powder would have settled to the bottom. Carefully pour out the oil without stirring the chilli powder.

Prep

Wash the prawn. Remove the head, tail and mud vein and wash again. Cut the peppers and onion into squares no smaller than 1 cm. Larger squares look good. Chop the ginger to fine pieces.

Prawn

Take an egg, 1 tsp oil, salt and a pinch of pepper and beat well. Dip the prawns in the batter and pat with corn flour. Each prawn needs to be well covered. Deep fry till light golden. Do not overdo this. It only takes a minute for prawns to be fried. Overcooked prawns become leathery.

Cook

Take the oil we prepared earlier and heat it in a wok. Heat it over the highest flame you have got. When it starts smoking add the ginger and the dry red chilli. After a few seconds add the onions and peppers and stir well. Cook covered for a few minutes. Do not reduce the flame. This needs to be cooked in very high heat. We will try not to cook the veggies to a mush but keep the shape and colour intact. When the pieces are slightly seared add the oyster sauce and stir for a few seconds. Add the prawns and stir for a few seconds till well coated. Add the soya sauce and stir for a few seconds till well coated. Remove from heat. Serve with rice.

Bengali Fish Roe Curry

Palette bomb

Fish roe fritters in a tangy mustard sauce

Serves 4

Fish Roe 150 grams

Gram Flour (Besan) 1/2 cup

Oil for deep frying

Mustard 3 tbsp

Tomato 1 medium

Garlic 5 pods

3 small onions

Mustard oil 4 tbsp + 1 tsp

Green chillies 3

Nigella 1/4 tsp

Turmeric 1/4 tsp

Water 1.5 cup

Salt to taste

Fritters

Mix the fish roe with the gram flour. Add a little bit of chopped onion and salt. Mix well (you may need to add a little water) and deep fry till golden brown.

Spices

Soak the mustard for 10 minutes and make a fine paste with a pinch of salt and one green chilli. I use a stone grinder for the paste. You may want to balance the fineness with the bitterness - if pasted too much it may turn out to be bitter - if pasted too less the seeds stand out.

Curry

Heat 4 tbsp mustard oil. Check the quality of mustard oil. Good mustard oil has a fresh wasabi type aroma. It hits you hard in the nose. If you do not get good mustard oil then you can skip the step where I add a spoon of oil in the end.

Add nigella. When they splutter add a slit green chilli and chopped garlic. When the garlic starts turning brown add the onions.

Cover and simmer. When the onions start turning brown, add the mustard paste, turmeric, salt and tomato. Fry well for a few minutes till the tomatoes turn soft. Add water and bring to boil.

Add the fritters and simmer, covered for 5-7 minutes. Turn off the heat, add a slit green chilli and a teaspoon of mustard oil.

Serve with hot rice.

Mini Savoury Strudel

Strudel with a Twist

Crispy strudel filled with lovely luscious goat mince. An absolute delight.

Makes 2

Maida (Refined flour) 1 cup

Oil 1 tbsp

Margarine as required

Salt a pinch

Egg 1

Keema

The filling

Use the recipe I have in this blog. If  you are a vegetarian use any rich filling.

Remember to dry it out well otherwise it will make the dough soggy.

Steps

Preheat the oven to 160-180 C. If you have a fan 160 C is good.

Start kneading the dough. I use a planetary mixer. If you do not have one, then knead it very very well for at least 15 minutes. Maida does not have a lot of gluten so kneading actually helps building the dough a lot. The general motion is stretch-fold-stretch.

Knead till, when you stretch the dough you should be able to see the light shine through it without it breaking.

Divide the dough into two and roll it out using a pin. Once rolled out - place the rolled out dough on a clean piece of cloth and use your hands to carefully stretch out the dough till paper thin. Watch this video for reference.

It should be so thin that you should be able to read a news paper through it. Cut out the edges.

Now give it a coating of margarine and spread a thin layer of the keema. Place some more keema at one side and lift the cloth to roll. With every roll coat with a layer of margarine.

Press the side tight with a fork. Spread egg evenly on top and bake for 40 - 50 minutes till golden. Vegetarians can use milk instead of egg.

Take out from an oven and let it cool for at least 15 minutes. Cut and server.