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Special Black Gram Crepes (Ulundhu Dosa) August 18, 2008

Posted by live2cook in Breakfast, out of the griddle, Uncategorized.
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7 comments

I can see that you can’t control your laughter. “While most of the dosa recipes has black gram as one of the main ingredients, how special could this dosa be?”, thats what you think right? Read on my friends. I will show you how special it is.

When a famous cook among us got tired of cookery books and even thought about poking her eyes with iron rod than to buy husked urad dhal, I felt sorry for her. I dug my recipe collection as I knew I had a recipe to save her. This recipe will surely influence her to buy a pack of husked urad dhal. Not that I won’t ask her to dehusk the skin of the dhal, but I won’t ask her to soak it either. Yes! my friends this recipe calls for dry and whole black gram. That makes it special from other dosa recipes. Apart from this when you find the amount of nutrients in this tiny black seed, you will surely agree how special it is. While the dehusked urad dhal is convenient, it comes with a price that we are losing huge amount of fiber and Iron. Recipes like this will help us to get most of the nutrients that this legume offers to mankind.

We need Indian stone grinder (Wet grinder) or a food processor that can powder the dry legume. If you don’t have one, soak the dhal along with rice. But there is no need to dehusk.

Ingredients:

3 Cups Par Boiled Rice ( Raw rice can be used too)

1 Cup husked urad

1 tsp salt

Oil for shallow frying

Method:

1. Soak the rice for 2 hours. Wash the black gram. No need to soak the black gram

2. If using Indian Wet Grinder, add the rice and grind for few minutes. When the rice reaches a coarse consistency, start adding the dried black gram in an even stream. The grinding process will be quite noisy for a while. Grind to a smooth batter using enough water.

3. If using a food processor, powder the black gram as much as possible. Add the rice along with the powdered black gram and grind to a smooth batter using water.

4. Allow to ferment overnight.

5. Heat a cast iron griddle. Pour 1/2 cup of batter and spread to 4-5 inch disc. Pour 1/2 tsp oil around the batter. When the sides turn golden brown, flip and cook the other side and serve with your favorite accompaniments. I served it with simple Huli Gojju.

Ulundu special dosa

Ulundu special dosa

This is my entry for Nandita’s Weekend Breakfast Blogging event hosted by Latha with the theme Combination Breakfast.





Wow! There is a moon in my plate!!! August 9, 2008

Posted by live2cook in Breakfast, Uncategorized.
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4 comments

Grand mothers and stories are enduring duo. Whenever I come across something that catch my attention or an incident, my mind will relate it to things of my past. Mostly it will be a story or incident my grandma told. That is how I recalled a story when I took the photo of Thatte Idly for this post. My grandma used to tell this story whenever we got cranky.

One nice breezy evening, King Dhasharadha and his three wives were sitting in their porch and enjoying their time. Their sons Rama, Bharatha, Lakshmana and Chathrugna were playing near them. It started getting dark and the moon appeared in the sky. It looked like a perfect round silver plate. The maids brought the dinner for the kids to the porch. How can they eat dinner without a fuss? Oh! they were kids!

Rama started to cry that the dinner plate was not new and his brothers joined him. King Dhasharadha couldn’t bear seeing his kids’ sad faces. To make them happy and to make them eat their dinner, King Dhasharadha cooked up a plan. He promised his sons that he will catch the Moon in their plate that their old dinner plate will shine like that moon. To make it happen, he took a magnifying glass and positioned it in a way that the reflection of the moon appeared in the kids’ plates. The trick worked. Rama and his brothers were happy and ate their dinner. They made a happy plate too!

After telling this story, my grandma will tell us that if we behaved as good kids, she will catch the moon for us too. Believing that we are going to get a moon in our plates, we would get settled.

When I saw the photo of Thatte Idly in my camera, I thought, “Wow! there is a moon in the plate!!!” and added, “I got a wonderful story to tell my son!!!”. Hope you too…

Thatte Idly

Thatte Idly

Ingredients:

2 cups par boiled rice
1 cup raw rice
1 cup urad dhal
1 Tbsp salt

Method:

1. Soak the rice and the dhal separately for 3 hours.
2. Grind the dhal to smooth and frothy paste.
3. Grind the rice into coarse paste that has the texture of corn meal.
4. Mix both the paste and salt.
5. Cover and allow to ferment for 8 hours or until doubled in volume.
6. Grease the Dhokla or Thatte idly mould with oil. (If you don’t have one, grease a metal plate or cake tin).
5. Pour the batter 2/3 full and steam until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Thatte idly Mold

Thatte idly Mold