Oatmeal Dosa/ Savory oatmeal pancakes

Looks like I am posting mostly breakfast recipes this month. :o) But this has been in my post for so long that I thought I should revive it and publish. Oats dosa that I do is very quick to put together in the morning. I had started doing this so long time ago that I don't remember the original recipe. My tweaks and turns are this recipe. I am sure you face a morning when your little one really (as mine says, lelly lelly want poley) wants dosa or poley in the morning, you can whip this out in a jiffy. Nutritious and tasty winner for breakfast.

Prep Time: 5 to 10 min | Cooking Time: 2 min per dosa | Makes: About 8

Ingredients:

Instant Oatmeal - 1 Cup
Rice Flour - 1/2 Cup
Wheat Semolina Flour/ Rava - 1/2 Cup
Yogurt - 1 Cup
Water - 2+ Cups
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp.
Salt - 1/2 tsp.
Optional Ingredients:
Chili Powder - 1 tsp. (Or Green Chilies - 1 Cut fine)
Onion - 1 Small
Coriander (Optional)

Method of Preparation:

~ Ground the oatmeal into powder. Mix it with rice flour and semolina.
~ Add Yogurt and all other ingredients.
~ Adjust the water to make it pancake/ dosa batter consistency.
~ Leave it for 10 minutes.
~ Heat a griddle or a non stick pan. Using a big ladle spread the batter on the pan.
~ Drizzle some oil on top and cover with a lid.
~ Cook for about 2 minutes on one side, open the lid, flip the dosa over and continue to cook for another minute (without the lid on)
~ Serve it hot with chutney. My kids love the garlic chutney and molasses combination with it.

Notes:
~ Oats fluff up when you leave it for few minutes. So make sure you have the right consistency of the batter when you start up.
~ I use chili powder rather than green chilies just for my kids. I like it better with green chilies, but am afraid the kiddos will bite into it.

Carrot Cake Breakfast Smoothie

Carrots are famously known for beta-carotene and vitamin A, which promote good eye sight. My mom would randomly drop in while I was studying and shake a carrot in front of me (literally) and say snack on this, your eye sight will be good. You see I was the only one with glasses in the family. :o)

And then there was a time when I was in high school I was very skinny and was getting tired all the time. My blood count showed that I had low level hemoglobin. My dad had taken me to an old Ayurvedic doctor during this period. One look at me and he said, she needs to eat more carrots. He asked me to just blend one carrot every day and drink it up in the morning. "If you follow this for a month, your cheeks will be of carrot's color!", is what he said. :o) I did that for few days, but I totally hated it. Since all I was putting in was carrots!

Last few years I have been juicing, carrot has been integral part of it. I just pop in a few in many of my smoothies. But recently I added few additional things when I saw a carrot cake smoothie on one of the raw veggies sites. It was really yummy. Almost like having a carrot cake but hey with hardly any calories compared to the real one. 

Prep Time : 5 min | Makes : 8 oz glass

Ingredients:

Carrot - 1 large
Banana - 1
Quick Oats - 1/2 Cup
Protein Powder - 1 tbsp. (optional)
Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp.
Vanilla Essence 1/2 tsp.
Almond/ Coconut Milk - 3/4 Cup
Water - 1/2 Cup
Coconut Shavings and/ or Almond slices - Few to top (optional)

Method of Preparation:

~ Peel and cut chunks of carrot.
~ Place all the ingredients (except the toppings) in a blender and blend it until smooth.
~ Top it with coconut shavings and almond slices and enjoy the heavenly goodness at your fingertips.

Celery Cilantro Chutney/ Spread

Chutney made of Celery. Yeah right! I would have never imagined even trying with it. So when Krithi linked this Celery Cilantro Chutney to one of my Bon-Vivant events, I was intrigued to try it. And boy we all loved the outcome. This can be used as a side dish for Idli, Roti or Dosa. Can be used as a spread on a toast or for a sandwich.

Prep Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Makes : About 2 Cups

Ingredients:

Celery - 2 cups
Coriander/ Cilantro leaves - 2 Cups 
Onion - 1 cup
Tomato - 1/2 cup
Walnuts - 1/2 cup
Green chilli -  3
Ginger - small piece
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Tempering:
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad Daal - 1 tsp.
Hing/ Asefoetedia - 2 pinch

Method of Preparation:

~ Dry roast walnuts for few minutes and keep it aside to cool
~ In a pan, heat little oil and add onion, celery, ginger and green chilies.
~ Once onion and celery are almost cooked, add tomato and salt to taste. Cook until tomatoes are done. 
~ Powder the walnuts coarsely in a dry grinder. 
~ Add the celery onion mixture along with coriander leaves. Grind until fine paste.
~ For tempering, heat oil in a small kadai. Add mustard seeds, once it crackles add urad daal and hing. Take it out of heat and temper on top of chutney.

Rava Idli - Steamed Semolina pancakes

This is one of the basic recipes of Indian cooking. Well, I have to admit that my normal idli does not come as fluffy as the rava idli's. So most of the time I prefer to do Rava Idli's. This is my mom's version of idli's that's my kids favorite. Any time of the day Idli or Dosa, they are ready to have them. 

Ingredients:

Urad Daal / Black Lentil - 1 Cup
Fenugreek or Methi Seeds - 1 tsp.
Idli Rava/ Thick Semolina - 2 Cup
Salt - 1 tsp.

Batter in the mold, ready to get steamed

Method of Preparation:

~ Wash and Soak Urad dal and Fenugreek seeds overnight or for 4 to 6 hours.
~ Discard the water and rinse them again. Grind them smooth using a grinder or a blender with minimal water. The batter should be thicker than for dosa or pancake batter.
~ Leave it to ferment in a warm place for 4 to 6 hours.
~ When ready to do the idli, soak idli rava in water (just to get it wet and soft) for 15 to 20 minutes.
~ Mix this with urad batter, add salt.
~ Lightly oil the idli molds, bring water to boil in a pressure cooker (with lid open)
~ Pour little batter in all the molds, and place it in the cooker. Cover with lid. DO NOT put the whistle on.
~ Once the steam starts coming out, continue to cook on high for 7 minutes.
~ Switch the gas off, once you are able to handle, remove the lid and take out the molds.
~ Once molds are cooled, using a spoon take out the idli's.
~ Serve it hot with chutney and sambhar.

You might like the Celery Chutney recipe that I served up with the idli's.

Note:
- Split urad dal is white in color. But when they are whole bean it's black. Hence the name black Lentil.
- Urad daal increases in volume once soaked, so choose a bigger vessel to soak it in and also add more water.
- It's important to throw the soaked in water. This will make sure the idli's won't trouble the gastric person.

Dill Pancake / Sheppu Bhaaji Poley/ Sabasige Soppu Dosa

One of my childhood memories is of eating these aromatic green dosa's/ pancakes for breakfast. The aroma of Dill leaves would fill the whole house. I used to call it "Godda Poley", meaning Jaggery Dosa. I didn't know the name of Shepu bhaaji, as we call it in Konkani, until I moved to US. And knowing it's called "Dill" added more fun to it. For those who don't know Hindi language, Dill means "Heart". Isn't it pretty cool. :o)

Dill is supposed to be zero in cholesterol and low in calories. My mom used to say it promotes good digestion. Find more health benefits of Dill here. You can make the batter ahead and keep it in the refrigerator for a day or two.  
Prep Time: 10 min + 3 hrs to soak | Cooking Time : 2 min/ dosa |
Makes : About 20

Ingredients:

Dill Leaves / Shepu Bhaaji - 1 Bunch (About 2 cups packed)
Rice - 2 Cups 
Cooked Rice - 1/2 Cup
Coconut - 1/2 Cup
Jaggery - 1/2 Cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp.
Chili Powder (optional) - 1/4 tsp.

Method of Preparation:

~ Wash and soak rice for 2 to 3 hours.
~ Clean and wash dill leaves. Grind all the ingredients using a cup of water to a fine paste.
~ Transfer the contents to a bowl and use the water to make a pancake/ dosa consistency. 
~ Heat a non-stick pan or a griddle. 
~ Pour a ladle of batter onto the hot pan and quickly spread it into a circle.
~ Cover and cook for a minute. Open the cover and continue to cook on the same side to get crisp dosa or flip it over to make it soft. 
~ Serve it hot with ghee spread on top.

Note:
- You can make this using Dosa batter too. Just skip rice and cooked rice. Grind everything else and add the 4 cups of dosa batter.
- There is no need to ferment the batter. Since there is cooked rice and jaggery, the dosa turns out pretty soft and fluffy.

Sending this to,
Nayna's let's Cook Rice Dishes

Bon Vivant Roundup #14 - Spring Surprises

Spring has really surprised us over here. With weather changing each day drastically and pollen count getting higher than ever. But it also was so beautiful. Little buds, blossoms and flowers covering every inch of the trees.. Sprouting tulips give me immense happiness. They are one of the most beautiful flowers I think. 

Here are the Bon Vivant participants who brought even more happiness @Sumee's Culinary. Below is the beautiful roundup of the same. Enjoy your approaching summer holidays!