Vella Dosai

During my school days, most of my summer holidays are spent in my mom's native. Me and sister will be packed off to be with our grandparents for 2 months. Amma might join during the last week of the stay or so. So it was only two of us with thaatha and paati. How I miss those two months stay. Those were the days without TV. So it was always play and play alone. The whole day we used to spent in the backyard which is full of mango trees. We used to eat mangoes - raw, beginning to ripe, ripe ones etc. We had two kids of our neighbor to join us. So it was all fun. We cut the mangoes, mix chilly powder, salt and coconut oil. Paati used to scold if we eat more of this and she will make us eat curd rice again in the noon. Those days we used to have brunch.

Evening, when we come for tea, she will have some delicious tiffins made ready for us. This was one of them. This is a very traditional recipe. Its almost an instant kind. Whenever my paati makes this, she prepares adai also to complement the sweetness of the dosai. Even I prepared adai the same day. Shall post that later.

Ingredients
Wheat flour - 2 cups
jaggary - almost 1 cup. (Adjust this according to your taste)
water - 2 cups

Melt the jaggery in 1 cup of water. Remove scum if any.
Add the melted jaggery slowly to the flour and mix without forming lumps.
Adjust the consistency by adding water. Make dosa the usual way. Cook both sides.
This time I used karipatti vellam (palm jaggery) .

You can use ghee instead of oil or smear little ghee while serving if u make using oil. It will taste yummy with the flavor of ghee.

Eating Vella dosai with a dollop of homemade butter is truly out of this world.

I think it is only dosa posts for the last few days in my blog as it is the case in the blogosphere. Another entry to Srivalli's dosa mela

Koozhu Kaachina Dosai

This is a very traditional recipe which is almost forgotten in the present days. I remember my dad's mom making these. Thatha love this. In those days of stone grinding, this was an easy evening tiffin. Since raw rice is the main ingredient which doesn't need much of soaking time. Without much prior planning, this dosa can be made. Grinding raw rice is easier too. Whenever we talk about those days, invariably, topic of food also comes in. We used to recollect the traditional recipes prepared then. And I used to ask my amma to make this dosa. I love the tangy taste imparted by the tamarind extract.

Here is the recipe

For the batter

Raw rice - 2 cups

salt

For koozhu

Tamarind - marble sized

Ground batter - 1 tblspn

Preparation

Wash and soak raw rice for 3 hrs.

Grind to a fine paste using little water. If you add more water, it will be difficult to grind to a smooth paste.

Preparing the koozhu

Take a tablespoon of the ground paste and mix with the tamarind extract. Add water to make it to 1 cup. It is fine If it is little more also.
Boil the mix on stove top with constant stirring. It has a tendency to form lumps and stick to the bottom.

As it starts boiling, It will begin to thicken. Stop when it reaches a semi solid stage.

This is called koozhu (it will resemble the baby food - koozhu).

The color of the koozhu depends on the tamarind color. I used the fresh tamarind of the season. So it has not turned dark.

Prepare the batter

When cool, mix the koozhu to the ground batter.

Batter consistency should be thinner than the usual dosa batter.

When you pour the batter on to tawa, pour in a circular pattern and later spread lightly with the laddle.

Add oil on sides.

When cooked flip over and cook the other side too.

It is slightly sticky because of the tamarind added. You will be able to flip over without much difficulty.

I feel the koozhu is added to soften the dosa since only raw rice is used.

Needless to say, this is going to the dosa mela hosted by Srivalli.

Kollu Dosa & Sprouted Green Gram Amti

A healthy dosa using kollu. Kollu helps in weight reduction, reduces blood pressure and it is an excellent source of iron.

Ingredients
Kollu/Muthira/Horsegram - 1 cup
Parboiled rice (puzhungalarisi) - 4 cups
Methi seeds(vendhayam/uluva) - 2 tspn
Salt as required

Method

Wash and soak kollu,rice and methi seeds together for 6 hours.
Grind all the ingredients together to a fine paste. Ferment overnight or 8 hours. Batter consistency is of normal dosa batter.
Make little thick dosas. Add little oil on sides.

Cover and cook. Turn over and cook for a minute.


The best thing about this dosa is you can make this using less oil. Very tasty too.
Serve with molagapodi or any chutney of your choice. I served with sprouted green grams amti.


Kollu dosa is joining the dosa mela hosted by Srivalli.



Sprouted Green Grams Amti

Source: Mrs. Mallika Bhadrinath

Ingredients

Sprouted green gram - 1 1/2 cups
Oil - 2 tblspn
Tamarind extract - 1 tblspn
salt
chopped coriander leaves - 1 tblspn
mustard seed - 1/2 tspn
curry leaves few
Since I didn't have enough sprouts, I added one chow chow also to the recipe to increase the quantity.


For grinding
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup (Dry roast coconut till brown on stove top or MW for 2 mts)
Onions - 2 (Chop and fry in onion till brown)
Red chilly powder - 1 tspn
Roast the following spices in little oil
cinnamon - 1 inch pice
cumin seeds - 2 tspn
cloves -3


Grind all the above ingredients to a smooth paste.


Steam cook the sprouts in a cooker for 8 minutes. (No need to keep the weight)
Heat little oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and ground paste.
Stir for few minutes, add tamarind extract, salt and cooked gram.
Pour just enough water and cook till it becomes thick.
Garnish with coriander leaves.