Ingredients:

• Wheat flour – 3 cups
• Onions – 1 (finely chopped)
• Green chillies – 2 (finely chopped)
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Split urad dal – 1/2 tsp
• Rice flour – 1/2 cup
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Curry leaves – a few
• Oil -2 tbsp
• Salt to taste

Method:

Mix the wheat flour with some water and stir well so as to remove all lumps and make a smooth batter. The batter should be slightly watery and not very thick. Add salt to this and mix well.

Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, cumin seeds, curry leaves, and then the chopped onions and green chillies and saute for a while. Add this to the flour batter. Mix well. Can also add in coriander leaves for extra flavour.

Heat a tawa (flat pan), smear some oil on top, and then pour about 8 tbsp of the batter into a round shape on the tawa. Spread the batter into a wider area so as to make a thin crispy dosa. Because the batter for wheat and maida dosas are slightly watery, it works well if you pour the batter from the outside and work to cover the interior of the dosa. Pour a little oil on the sides to make it crispy. Once cooked and crispy brown on one side, turn over and allow to cook on the other side.

This is a quick and easy breakfast and supplement for idlis/dosas. Can be served with all chutneys or sambhar. Note: can add in some dosa batter along with this for consistency if needed.

Ingredients:

• Cracked wheat – 2 cups
• Onions – 1 (chopped lengthwise)
• Green Chillies – 2 slit lengthwise (or red chillies – 2)
• Garlic cloves – 3 roughly chopped
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Split Urad Dal – 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

Slightly roast the cracked wheat in a dry pan and set aside. In another pan, heat the oil, splutter mustard seeds, then add the urad dal and let it turn slightly brown, then add in the onions, garlic and green/red chillies and fry for a while. Pour about 2-3 cups of water to this. Add some salt and mix well and allow the water to boil. When the water is boiling, add in the cracked wheat and cook till done. (till the water all evaporates). If you add too much water, the upma might become sticky.

This is a very healthy light tiffin. Can have pickles or coconut or other hot chutneys as side dishes.

Ingredients:

• Maida flour – 3 cups
• Salt – to taste
• Oil – 3 tbsp

Method:

Mix in the maida with salt, oil and water and knead well and make the dough. This dough would be much softer than the chapathi dough.

Make slightly bigger than lemon sized balls. Roll them using a rolling pin, using some flour to make sure the chapathis don’t stick to the rolling plate. Take each rolled out chapathi and make 1/2 inch folds layering them one on top. Press and turn sideways and roll them into a circle. Flatten them into a disc and roll out again into a parota (the rolled out version will have layers because of the way the the disc was made with folds).

Heat a tawa, smear in a little oil, and cook the parotas, a minute or so on each side.

Serve with any spicy khurmas or curries.

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour – 3 cups
• Salt – to taste
• Milk – 3 tbsp (optional)

Method:
Mix in the wheat flour with salt, milk and water and knead well and make the dough.

Make slightly bigger than lemon sized balls. Roll them using a rolling pin, using some flour to make sure the chappathis don’t stick to the rolling plate. Make sure the edges are not very thick.

Heat a tawa, smear in a little oil, and cook the chappathis, a minute or so on each side.

Serve with channa masala, potato masala, tomato curry, sweet mango sauce, bombay chutney (recipes can be seen here in this site)? or any other curries.

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour – 3 cups
• Salt – to taste
• Milk – 3 tbsp (optional)
• Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:
Mix in the wheat flour with salt, oil, milk and water and knead well and make the dough.

Make slightly smaller than lemon sized balls. Roll them using a rolling pin (approx rolled out size 4″ dia) , using some flour to make sure the chappathis dont stick to the rolling plate. Make sure the edges are not rolled out very thin, otherwise the pooris wont puff up.

In a kadai/round bottomed vessel, heat oil (enough oil for deep frying) and fry the pooris one at a time. They should puff up and rise. Make sure to drain the oil out before removing from kadai.

Serve with channa masala, potato masala, tomato curry, sweet mango sauce, bombay chutney (recipes can be seen on this site)? or any other curries.

Ingredients:

• Bread – 4 slices
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Split urad dal – 1/2 tsp
• Chilli powder – 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
• Onions – 1 small (chopped)
• Tomatoes – 1 small (chopped) – optional
• Salt to taste
• Oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

Cut the bread slices into 1 inch square pieces. In a pan, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add the urad dal and fry for a while. Then add the onions and saute for a minute. Then add the chilli powder, salt and tomatoes and the bread pieces. Sprinkle some water on this and fry for a few minutes till the raw chilli powder smell disappears.

Ingredients:

• Semiya (Vermicelli) – 200 gms
• Maida/Rava – 1 cup
• Rice flour – 1/4 cup
• Butter milk – 1/2 cup
• Onions – 1 small (finely chopped)
• Ginger – 1/4 inch (finely chopped)
• Green chillies – 2 (finely chopped)
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Split urad dal – 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves – a few
• Oil -2 tbsp
• Salt to taste

Method:

Cook the semiya in water and set aside. Mix the rice flour, maida/rava (if using rava, soak the rava for an hour in water and mix) with some butter milk, salt and water to make a medium thick batter. To this, add the cooked semiya and mix well.

Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, curry leaves, and then the chopped onions, ginger and green chillies and saute for a while. Add this to the batter. Mix well. Can also add in coriander leaves for extra flavour.

Pour the batter into the idli moulds and steam them in a pressure cooker (without putting the weight in the cooker) for about 10 min. Remove from cooker and keep aside for a few minutes and then remove the idlis from the moulds and serve.

Can be served with all chutneys. Note: can add in any leftover dosa batter along with this for improving batter consistency if needed.

Ingredients:

Set 1:

• Parboiled Rice – 4 cups
• Whole Urad Dal – 1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 tsp
• Salt – 1 1/2 tbsp

Set 2:

• Green chillies – 3 (finely chopped)
• Ginger – 1/4 inch (finely chopped)
• Gram Dal – 1/2 tbsp
• Split Cashews – 8 (chopped)
• Split Urad Dal – 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Curry Leaves – a few (chopped)
• Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Soak all the ingredients from set 1 (except salt), rice and dal+fenugreek separately for about 4 hours. Then wet grind them separately pouring enough water to make a thick batter. Then, mix both batters (from rice & dal) and add the salt and mix well and set aside to ferment (the batter will rise about 1/2 inch to an inch). Under normal tropical weather conditions, this should take around 10-12 hrs. In colder conditions, it might take longer. Dont allow to ferment longer. The batter will turn sour.

Once the batter is fermented, mix well again, adding a pinch of baking soda dissolved in few tsp of water.

Soak the gram dal in water for 1/2 hr (till soft). In a small pan, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, curry leaves, green chillies, ginger and cashews and saute for a few minutes. Add this mixture and soaked gram dal to the batter and mix well.

Pour the batter into the idli moulds and steam them in a pressure cooker (without putting the weight in the cooker) for about 10 min. Remove from cooker and keep aside for a few minutes and then remove the idlis from the moulds and serve. Alternatively instead of pouring into the round idli moulds, can pour into other fancy containers like tumblers, round bowls, etc to get the appropriate shape. Then, can cut the idlis into pieces and serve.

Can be served with all chutneys or sambhar.

Ingredients:

• Raw Rice – 3 cups
• Parboiled rice – 1 cup
• Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 tsp
• Grated coconut – 1/4 cup
• Salt – 1 1/2 tbsp

Method:

Soak the rice and fenugreek in water for about 4 hours. Then wet grind them with the grated coconut pouring enough water to make a medium thin batter. Add the salt and mix well and set aside to ferment. This usually takes around 10-12 hours.

Once the batter is fermented, mix well again, adding a pinch of baking soda dissolved in few tsp of water.

Heat a kadai (aapa kadai/ round bottomed pan), brush with a little oil, then pour about 8-10tbsp of batter in the center. Hold the kadai using its handles and roll the batter over such that the edges are thin and some little batter is thick in the center of the pan. Close with a lid and allow to cook until done. Make sure the heat is not in very high setting since the center portion might not be cooked well. Remove carefully using a spatula/flat dosai karandi.

This can be served with all coconut milk with sugar, or any other hot chutneys or khurmas.

Note: To make muttai/egg aapam, after pouring the batter and rolling over, can break one egg into the center and allow to cook.

Ingredients:

• Rice – 2 cups
• Grated coconut – 1 cup
• Coconut pieces – diced into thin strips 2 tbsp
• Gram Dal – 1 tbsp
• Split urad dal – 1/2 tbsp
• Red Chillies – 3
• Curry Leaves – a few
• Salt to taste
• Mustard Seeds – 1/2 tsp
• Oil – 3 tbsp

Method:
Soak the rice in water for 3 hours. Grind it with salt and grated coconut to make a fine batter.

In a thick bottomed pan, heat some oil and splutter mustard seeds. Then add the urad dal, gram dal, red chillies (break them into pieces) and curry leaves. Then pour the rice batter in, keeping the flame/heat to a low to medium setting, and stirring the batter constantly till it becomes almost thick like a dough.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for sometime (till you can handle the dough in your hands). While almost hot/warm, make lemon-sized balls out of the dough and steam them in idli moulds in a pressure cooker for 10 minutes. Serve hot with chutneys or as is.