the brown eyed bookie ,

Bisi Bele Bath

Sagari's Bisi bele bath pictures were so tempting that I made this dish today. I quickly glanced at the ingredients she had used and prepared it in a different way.

Ingredients:
1. To pressure cook:
Rice-1/2 cup
Thur dhal-1/4 cup
Water-2.5 cups(or adjust according to how mushy you want the rice to get)

2. To roast in a drop of oil and grind(roast everything except coconut till golden brown and finally add coconut and fry for another minute):
Coriander seeds-1 tbsp
Channa dal-1 tbsp
Red chillis-4
Cloves-2
Cinnamon-1 inch stick
Coconut grated-2 tbsp

3. Seasonings:
Mustard seeds-1 tsp
Jeera-1 tsp
Hing-a pinch
Curry leaves-a few
Cashews-10
Raisins-1 tsp(optional)

4. Other ingredients:
2 cups of Veggies(like onions, potatoes, carrots, peas, corn)
Garlic finely chopped-2 pods
Salt
Turmeric powder-a pinch
Oil-1 tbsp
Ghee-2 tbsp
Tamarind-small lime size
Coriander leaves- to garnish

Method:
Pressure cook rice and dhal together with water till they turn soft and mushy.
Roast the ingredients listed in 2 and grind it to a fine powder.
Soak tamarind in warm water and extract 2 cups of tamarind water and set aside. Heat oil in a pan, fry chopped veggies and garlic for 5 minutes. Add salt, turmeric powder and tamarind extract. Let the mixture boil for 10 minutes till the veggies are cooked and raw smell of tamarind goes off. Add the ground masala powder, cooked rice and dhal, salt if necessary. Mix well and turn off the heat. Do the seasoning with ghee and pour on top of the mixture. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Some of you know that I won the diet food event hosted by Divya. I thank her for sending me a sweet gift card! It was so nice to receive it!! My special thanks to all those who voted for me :)

I managed to prepare Bisi bele bath without a drop of ghee :-) I used only oil in this recipe. Of course, it will taste best with ghee.

Sevai- A South Indian Delicacy

Sevai is a healthy dish made from rice. It is distinctly different from idiyappam/noolputtu. Both sevai and idiyappam fits into the description of rice noodles. And the similarity ends there. As kids we were happy to learn if sevai is made for evening tiffin. Probably the ladies who has to make may not have enjoyed much. The tedious work involved can easily put off the idea of making sevai. In most of the houses, the help from male members is warranted while pressing the steamed dumplings. In olden days it was the wooden/brass type. It calls for great strength to press them. Imagine the work involved when it has to be made for a family of 10 (I had stayed in a joint family then).

Ingredients
Parboiled rice (Puzhingalarissi) - 3 cups

Tempering
Gingely oil - 3 tblspn
mustard seeds - 1 tspn
chana dal - 1 tblspn
red chilly - 1
green chilly - 5 nos
curry leaves

Garnish

Grated coconut - 1 cup (optional). In my home, it is a must.

Method
Wash and soak the rice in water for 4 hours. Grind the soaked rice with salt to a fine paste. The batter consistency should be thicker than idli batter.

I am giving three ways to prepare the steamed dumplings. Every house has their own way of making it

1)Sauteing the rice batter into dough and make dumplings and cook the dumplings in boiled water (My amma follows this method).

2) Sauteing the rice batter into dough and make dumplings and steam cook the dumplings in an idly steamer

3) Spoon the batter into oiled idly moulds and steam cook for 10 minutes ( I follow this which I learnt from my MIL) . This is the easiest of the three,according to me.

Press the dumplings into sevai using a sevai press. As soon as it is pressed, sevai is left to cool on a plate. While it is warm, gently separate them.

Heat oil, Season with mustard. When mustard seeds crackle, add chana dal. When dal turns light brown, add red chilly broken into two, chopped green chillies and curry leaves. Add to the pressed sevai. Garnish with coconut. Serve with any chuntey of your choice.

The base sevai can made into Lemon/Coconut/Tamarind sevai. You can convert the base sevai into any exotic dish as you would do with rice. Its all up to your imagination.

Click here to see the Automatic Sevai Cooker.