Bajra Dosa~Kambu Dosai~Savory Pearl Millet Indian crepes

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Pearl millet/ Bajra is a highly nutritious, gluten free grain. It is said to be an excellent source of protein, fiber and is rich in minerals like phosphorous and iron. It is also beneficial to lowering cholesterol and reducing the risk of cancer. One of my resolutions this year is to try and include millets much more often in our diet. I do use finger millet/ragi/nachni much more often, but pearl millet has not been something I have used very often.

The first thing I tried with millets was this dosai and it was an instant winner in my book. It does not taste vastly different from the traditional dosai and yet has the added nutritional benefits of bajra. Since the first time I made this, I have made this dosai many, many times. Sometimes with brown rice, sometimes with white and sometimes a little of both. It works well in all of these variations. Since the batter can be made ahead, I love this for weekend breakfast, its quick and easy and yet provides a great start to the day :)

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Ingredients and Method to make Kambu dosai
1 cup hulled pearl millet (bajra/kambu)
1 cup raw rice (chawal/arisi) (see notes)
1/2 cup split black gram lentil (udad dhal/ ulatham parappu)
salt to taste
a little sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai

In a large bowl, add millet, rice and lentils and mix well. Add water to this, swirl with hand and drain. Do this a couple of times. Fill with sufficient water to submerge the grains and soak for about 4 to 5 hours.

Drain and grind the grains in batches with water as required to a smooth batter.The batter should be of pouring consistency but not too thin. If in doubt err on the side of a thicker batter, you can always add more water later to achieve required consistency. Pour this batter in a large bowl that is large enough to allow the batter to ferment, when it ferments the batter doubles in size. Add a pinch of salt, mix well and keep in a warm place for about 8 to 10 hours.

I usually keep it in my oven with the oven light on, since we have such cold temperatures here. Sometimes I set the oven @ 175 deg F, switch it off, then switch on the oven light and keep the batter in, depending on how cold it is here. If you live in a warm place, you can avoid all this fuss and just cover the batter and wait for it to ferment :)

After it has fermented, add salt to taste, mix well. 

When you are ready to make the dosai, heat a tawa/ flat pan/ griddle. Add water if required to achieve required consistency.  The batter should not be runny or watery but slightly thick pouring consistency.














When the tawa is hot, pour a little batter in the center and quickly spread into a thin circle. Add a few drops of oil around the circumference of the dosa. When the lower side is golden brown, flip over and cook until the other side has light golden brown spots.

Here is a video clip of the process, it is not of this dosai, but something similar, just to give you an idea of the process of making the dosai......



Remove and serve hot with chutney of choice, sambar or with some kind of masala curry. This time I served this dosai with tomato chutney (will post the recipe here soon) and a carrot potato masala curry (will post the recipe for that too)

Balance of batter can be refrigerated and used within the next 2 to 3 days for maximum freshness.

Notes:
This dosai turns out fine with white raw rice/ brown rice or half white and half brown too. The batter with brown rice is slightly more creamier, this time when I took the pics I used half white, half brown, hence the creamier color of the batter.

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Instant Buckwheat Dosai ~ Savory Indian crepes ~ Kuttu atta dosa

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Ever since I tried this buckwheat upma ,  I have been devising ways to use buckwheat in traditional cooking in my mind. Buckwheat is so healthy that I have been wanting to include it more often in our diet. To learn more about the health benefits of buckwheat, check out this post. Initially I thought I would try to powder buckwheat and see how it works out in dosais. Conveniently before I made the effort, I came across some buckwheat flour in my local grocery and happily purchased it.

The very next day after I purchased the flour, I tried an instant dosai with it and I have to admit I was blown away at how awesome it turned out. The dosai was crisp on the outside and soft on the inside, just the way I love it :)  It was obviously quick, cannot get quicker than instant in dosais, and between the buckwheat and the flax it packed in a good bit of nutrition too :)  I've made this a few times since the first time I tried it and have enjoyed it every single time. This last time I made it with some of this potato curry (potato masala curry) and loved the combination. So far buckwheat has been a huge winner in our home, cannot wait to try it in some more traditional Indian recipes :)




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Ingredients and Method to make Buckwheat dosai (savory crepes)

1 cup buckwheat flour (kuttu ka atta)
1/2 cup rice flour (chawal ka atta/ arisi maavu)
1/4 cup flax seed meal (optional, see notes) (powdered alsi/ ali virai)
salt to taste

Seasoning
1 to 2 tsp coconut oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 Thai or Indian variety green chili cut fine (or to taste)

a little sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai

In a large bowl mix together buckwheat flour and rice flour well.  Add flax seed meal if using and mix well. Add water a little at a time to make a thick batter of pouring consistency. Buckwheat flour seems to get a slightly gelatinous quality when water is added to it, not too much just a tad bit, but this quality makes it easy when making the dosai / crepe. When in doubt err on the side of a thicker batter, you can always add a little more water later to achieve desired consistency.

Add salt to taste to the batter and mix well. In a small pan, heat oil add cumin seeds, when the seeds sizzle add green chilies. When the green chilies splutter a little pour the entire seasoning on the batter and mix well.

This batter can be used immediately or can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days.
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To make the dosai / crepes
Heat a flat pan/ griddle/ tawa on medium heat. When hot pour a ladle of batter in the center and quickly spread into a circle. Spread very thin for a crispier dosai and a little thicker if you want a soft dosai. Add a few drops of oil around the circumference of the dosai.  When the lower side is golden brown flip over and cook the other side until it has small brown spots.

Remove and serve with chutney of choice or with this potato curry for a little more filling meal or with this spice powder or this sambar or any combination of the above four choices :)

Notes:

The flax seed meal is completely optional, I have made this dosai both with and without the flax seed and it does not impact taste substantially and it is not added for binding in this crepe as well, just for added nutrition. So you can leave it out completely if you wish.  Additionally for this quantity of buckwheat flour you can add anywhere from 2 tbsp to 1/4 cup of flax meal as per choice. 

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Instant Oat vermicelli dosai and Instant fabric art :-)

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Sometimes when I am working on my site and am wondering what to write, I end up staring at the walls in my pc room hoping inspiration strikes. Well staring at my bare walls definitely provided inspiration...........but of a completely different kind, I got inspired to do something to dress up my bare walls. A while back, I had come across an idea on television to use fabric to make quick art and ever since I saw it I have been wanting to try it. I ordered some fabric, bought a canvas in the right size and stapled the fabric to the canvas and voila, instant, quick and simple fabric art:-) Now my dressed up wall looks like this........:-)



If any of you are interested in seeing the step by step pics of this art,  let me know and I will update this post or separately post the steps in the future.

Moving on, a couple of months back, I had dosai (Indian savory crepes) planned for dinner, but the only things I could decide on about the dosai was that it would be the instant kind and be something with oats in it. At the last minute I decided to glance through my reader to see if any of my friends had something unique that I could try. I came across this recipe on my friend EC's site that caught my interest and sounded perfect for a light dinner. I tweaked the recipe a little, changed a few ingredients and quantities and added flax for some added nutritional punch. The verdict...... vermicelli added a very unique dimension and some crunch to this dosai, and the dosai was both interesting and delicious. If the idea of giving vermicelli a completely different avatar appeals to you, give this dosai a try :-)



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Ingredients and Method to make oat vermicelli dosai
2 cups one minute oats dry roasted (or quick oats)
1 cup vermicelli (semiya) dry roasted
1/2 cup rice flour
salt to taste ( I used approximately 2 tsp)
1 cup plain yogurt (curds/ dahi/thayir)
1 1/4 cup plain water (or as required)
1 inch ginger
3 thai or Indian variety green chilies (or to taste)
7 -8 Curry leaves cut into small pieces
2 tbsp finely cut cilantro (coriander leaves/ kothamalli)
3 heaped tbsp flax seed meal (powdered flax/ alsi/ ali virai) (optional)
a little sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai

Dry roast oats, cool to room temperature, powder in a spice grinder/blender/mixer until fine and add to a large bowl. Dry roast vermicelli and add to the powdered oats.

Add salt to taste, curry leaves, cilantro and flax seed meal and mix well. Mince together ginger and green chilies and keep aside.

Whisk yogurt until it is smooth and keep aside. Add yogurt to flour mixture slowly making sure it mixes well with the flour mixture.

Then add water to the flour mixture and mix slowly to make a thick-ish batter. Add ginger- chili to it and mix well.

Allow this mixture to sit for a little while. Heat a flat pan/ griddle/ tawa on medium heat.
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Pour a little batter in the center and quickly make a circle as thin as possible. If you find that you are not able to spread easily, pour the batter around the tawa in a wider circle (as you would for rava dosai) and spread to form a thin circle.   Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the circumference of the dosai. Flip over when the lower side cooks to a golden brown and cook the other side. When the other side as light golden brown spots, remove from heat.


Serve hot with chutney of choice/ molaga podi /sambar of choice

Notes:

The thicker the batter, the easier the dosai is to handle while flipping over, it also results in a more crisper dosai. If the batter is slightly more runny the dosai turns out soft but a little more difficult to handle. So do keep that in mind when you are adding water to the batter. When in doubt err on the side of a thicker batter it is much easier to correct than a runny batter.

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Instant Oat Flax dosai ~ Oat Alsi Dosa ~ Savory Indian Oat and Flax Crepes

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Every time I read about the health benefits of flax, I feel a little guilty that I do not include as much flax in our diet as I would like to..... don't get me wrong, it's not like I never include flax, I manage to sneak it into our diet as often as a couple of times a week. But since flax is so healthy, I wouldn't mind if I managed to sneak it into our diet everyday :-)

I think my uncle N has the right idea on this, he just eats a couple of spoons of roasted flax each day. Neat ! this way he does not have to worry about sneaking it into the diet every time :-)  Only problem for me, I like my flax disguised in my food and am not quite keen to eat it just by itself. So my solution is to come up with everyday recipes where I can sneak in flax.

In addition to using flax regularly in my bakes and rotis (Indian flatbread), I have also begun to use flax in instant dosais (savory Indian crepes). First I used it in this rava dosai and loved how the flax enhanced the taste and nutrition of it. This time I decided to make a dosai with a combination of flax and oats...... yes I have to admit oats is my other favorite healthy ingredient, so the idea of combining the two was irresistible :-)

I seasoned the dosai with some cumin, mustard, curry leaves and green chilies for some added flavor. The dosai turned out to be very tender and light. Since the rice flour added a touch of crispiness too, I felt this dosai had the perfect balance of softness and crispiness.  I have made this a few times since the first and it makes a perfect breakfast/ or tiffin or even a light dinner.

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Ingredients and Method to make Oat flax dosai
2 cups oat flour ( I powdered rolled oats in my spice grinder to give me oat flour)
3/4 cup rice flour (chawal ka atta/ arisi maavu)
1/4 cup flax seed meal (flax powder/ alsi/ ali virai)
salt to taste
approx 3 1/2 cups water
4 to 5 tbsp grated fresh or frozen coconut (if using frozen, thaw to room temperature)

Seasoning
5 Thai or Indian variety green chilies cut very fine(or to taste)
1 to 2 tbsp coconut oil
3/4 tsp mustard seeds
7 to 8 curry leaves cut fine
1/2 tsp cumin seeds

a little sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai

If you have no ready made oat flour, just powder rolled oats in a blender/ mixer/ spice grinder.

In a large bowl add oat flour, rice flour, flax seed meal and salt to taste and mix well.  Add water slowly a little at a time and mix well to form a not too thick, not too thin batter.

Heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to splutter add cumin seeds, when cumin begins to sizzle add green chilies and curry leaves and mix once or twice. Pour entire seasoning on the batter and mix well. Finally add grated coconut directly to the batter and mix again.  Allow this mixture to "sit" for 20 mins to 30 mins.

 

Heat a flat pan/ griddle/ tawa. When hot pour a little batter on the center and quickly make a thin circle. Add a few drops of sesame oil on the circumference of the dosai. When the lower side is cooked to an even golden color, flip over and cook the other side until it gets golden brown spots.

Remove and serve hot with sambar/ chutney of choice/ molaga podi like this one or this one. Proceed with the rest of the batter in the same manner and store unused batter in the refrigerator and use within a few days.
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Notes
If you use the batter a day or two after you first made it, it may thicken a little more, you might need to add a little more water to get the right consistency before using again.

Suggested variation:
Sprinkle a little finely chopped onion pieces on the side facing upwards. Flip over and press down a little and cook until onion begins to get a few brown spots.

Other dosa varieties with oats in this space......


Keerai Oat Dosai ~ Palak oat dosa ~ Savory Indian crepe with spinach and oats


Mixed Vegetable Oat Dosai ~  Savory Indian crepe with vegetables and oats


Instant Ragi Oats Dosai ~ Nachani dosa ~  Savory Finger millet and oats crepe

 
Javarsi Oats Dosai ~ Sabudana oat dosa ~  Savory Oat and sago crepe

 
Keerai Oat Adai ~ Palak dhal dosa ~  Savory Spinach oat barley crepes

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Keerai Oat Dosai ~ Palak Oats Dosa ~ Savory Indian crepes with spinach and oats

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If you are very health conscious you may have already come across scores of articles and debates about the need to buy organic vegetables and fruits. But the price tag of organic veggies and fruits can be a little steep:-(    My rule of thumb so far has been, for greens like spinach and chard, I always buy organic and for the other vegetables, I am not very insistent on it being organic. But recently I came across this article that lists vegetables and fruits that contain the most pesticides and also contains a list of the cleanest veggies and fruits, meaning ones that contain the least amount of pesticides.

It is a very informative and illuminating article. I was surprised to find items like apple, celery, strawberries and peaches at the top of the list of items that have the most pesticides.  Spinach actually comes fifth on the list of items that contain the most pesticides. I guess I am going to have to revise my "definitely needs to be organic" list and soon ! If you too do not buy all organic veggies and fruits you may want to glance at the above article so you get an idea of which ones are safe to buy inorganic and which ones are better organic.

Moving on, it has been a while since I posted any type of dosai recipe in this space. Not because I am not making dosai these days, but because my hectic schedule these days does not allow me very much time for experimenting and I end up making tried and tested recipes that I have already posted here. Finally a few weeks back I tried something new....................... this time I combined oats, wheat, brown rice and spinach for a super nutritious dosai that we both loved. It was fast and quick to make. A little soaking + a little grinding + no fermentation= fast and yum dosai :-)  So if you are looking for new ideas to sneak in a little oats or spinach or both into your diet, give this dosai a try..... you may end up liking it as much as we did :-)

 



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Ingredients and Method to make Spinach oat dosai
1 cup cracked wheat (broken wheat/ dalia / fada)
1 cup brown rice (can be substituted with white raw rice ) (chawal/ arisi)
1 cup rolled oats
2 cups of  baby spinach or regular spinach leaves (washed, rinsed and dried) (about 5 oz/140 gms) (palak/keerai)
salt to taste (namak/uppu)
a little sesame oil to shallow fry the dosai (til ka tel/  nalla ennai)

Soak the first three ingredients in sufficient water for at least 3 to 4 hours.

Grind together in batches  in a blender/ mixer, adding water as required to get a smooth and slightly thick batter. The batter should be not too thin and not too thick, definitely not runny. When in doubt err on the side of a thicker batter, its much simpler to add a little more water later on to achieve correct consistency.

If  the grains have been divided into 3 parts to process , then divide the spinach in 3 parts too and add one part of the spinach leaves to the processed batter and give it another turn or two in the blender until the spinach is pureed completely . Remove and continue for the rest of the grains until they are all processed.
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Add salt to taste and mix well.This batter can be stored in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.

When making dosai, heat a flat pan/ tawa/ griddle. When hot pour a  little of the batter in the center and immediately spread into a thin even circle. Add a few drops of sesame oil around the circumference of the circle and a couple of drops in the center. Allow to cook until the lower side begins to get a little brownish. Flip over and cook the other side until the other side begins to get a few brown spots.

Remove and serve hot with sambar of choice/ chutney of choice or molaga podi or any combination of the three. I served this with oat coconut chutney for a double dose of oats in one go :-)

This dosa is off to the Show me your dosa event being hosted by Divya

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Sprouted Mung Bean Adai~Moong Dhal Dosa~Savory Indian crepe with rice and lentils

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Recently when I was chatting with my mother in law, the conversation veered to...........where else.........food, of course. In the course of the conversation she mentioned that she made thavala adai, a kind of adai that I am yet to make or even taste. While sharing the recipe, she mentioned sprouted mung bean as one of the ingredients. Since the list of ingredients for thavala adai seemed a little too long, I decided to put it off for a different time, when I have everything at hand and a little more patience to try it too.

In the meanwhile the idea of using mung sprouts in adai got stuck in my head and I decided to give it a try as a variation to the traditional adai. I am so glad I tried this, the adai turned out beautifully, mung sprouts added a subtly different taste and texture from the traditional adai and I loved how it tasted. I am also so glad to find one more way to include sprouts in our diet. If you like adai, give this one a try....you will definitely enjoy it:-)

While on the topic of adai, one quick update before moving on to the recipe. I finally managed to update the pictures on this oat barley adai and this traditional adai. Have a quick peek if you have a minute....



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Ingredients and Method to make Sprouted Mung bean adai
2 cups brown rice  ( I used brown basmati) ( can be substituted with white rice too)
1/2 cup split pigeon peas (tur dhal/ tuvaram parappu)
1/2 cup split yellow chick pea lentil (chana dhal/ kadalai parappu)
3/4 cup sprouted mung bean (Whole moong/green gram/pachai payaru) ( to learn how to sprout mung bean read this post)
5 dry red chilies (or to taste)
5 Thai or Indian variety green chilies (or to taste)
1 inch piece of ginger
1 stalk of curry leaves (optional)
salt to taste
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder (hing/ perungayam)
a little sesame oil to shallow fry adai

To learn how to soak and make mung bean sprouts read this post 

Soak brown rice, split pigeon peas and chick pea lentil for 3 hours in sufficient water in a large bowl.

Add sprouted mung bean to the above grains and allow to soak for additional 30 minutes.

Grind the grains along with ginger, green chilies, red chilies and curry leaves if using, in batches adding water as required. The grains need only to be of a coarse texture so you do not need to grind it smooth.The batter needs to be on the thicker side, not runny so do not use water too liberally when grinding the batter.
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Add salt to taste, asafoetida powder to the batter and mix well. This batter can be used immediately or can be refrigerated and used within a few days (not too long say 3 to 4 days) to make adai (crepe).

When making adai, heat a flat pan/ griddle/ tawa on medium heat. When hot, pour a little batter on the center of the pan/ tawa and quickly spread it into a thin circle. Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the circumference of the adai. When the lower side is golden brown, flip over and cook the other side until it has a few brownish/golden spots on it.

Remove and serve hot with either chutney,  molaga podi, aviyal or even a piece of jaggery (vellam)
Yield will depend on the size and thickness of each adai.

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Javarsi Oats Dosai ~ Sabudana Oat Dosa ~ Savory Oat and Sago crepes

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As I mentioned in this post, R and his family frequently talk about the sago dosais they tasted when they visited Bandipur park in south India. That dosai has become a legend in my home and the story of that dosai was my main inspiration to adding sago seeds to dosai for the first time. Sago seeds lend a great deal of softness to dosai, my only reservation with it is that, as far as I have been able to research it, sago seeds do not seem to have any great amount of nutrition in them. It seems to contain mainly starch and because of this I do not frequently use it, even in dosais.

 

On the other hand I really do enjoy the extra soft quality to dosais that comes from adding sago and from time to time feel tempted to try my hand at another variation of sago dosai.  This time around when I thought of adding sago seeds to dosai I decided to add some oatmeal to it too. The idea behind adding oatmeal was to add a bit of additional nutrition and I thought it would assauge my guilt over using both sago and white rice in this recipe. This dosai turned out to be "oh so soft" and was very delicate and lacy. I loved this version of dosai so much I could have happily had this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I didn't............but I definitely could have....I loved it that much:-)

 


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Ingredients and Method to make Oat Sago Dosai
1/2 cup brown rice ( I use brown basmati ) (can be substituted with white rice)
1 cup white raw rice
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi/ mendiyam)
1/2 cup black gram lentil (without skin)(whole udad dhal/ muzhu ulundhu) (can be substituted with split black gram lentil/ udad dhal/ ulatham parappu)
3/4 cup sago seeds (sabudana/ javarsi)

In a large bowl add all the ingredients except sago seeds. Mix well, fill with water and swirl with your hand and drain water. Fill with water about double the quantity of the grains and allow to soak for at least 3 to 4 hours.

In another bowl add sago seeds and fill with just enough water to submerge the seeds. Allow the seeds to soak for about 3 to 4 hours as well.
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Using your blender/grinder, grind the grains and oatmeal in batches adding a little water until it forms a smooth batter. The batter should be a little thick and not too runny.

Grind sago seeds adding a little water until it turns to a smooth paste, this does not take very long, just a few turns in the blender. Add the ground sago seeds paste to the batter made from grains and mix gently. Add salt to taste, mix well.

Alternatively you can add sago seeds to the last batch of grains after it is a little smooth and add some more water and grind until sago seeds are smooth. This second method makes it easier for the sago seeds to blend in with the batter. Proceed as mentioned with salt etc

Keep the batter covered in a large container (at least twice the size of the batter) and keep in a warm place to ferment for about 7 to 8 hours.

After the batter is fermented, mix it well and you can store this batter in the refrigerator if you do not plan to use it immediately. It can be stored for 4 to 5 days.

When making dosais (crepes)heat griddle/tawa/ heavy flat pan,when hot, pour a little batter in the center and immediately spread into a thin circle. Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the circumference of the dosai. Allow the lower side to cook for a few seconds until it is evenly golden brown, then flip and cook the other side until it has brown spots.

Here is a video clip of the process...........................



Remove and serve hot with your choice of chutney/ sambar/ molaga podi/ potato masal curry or any combination of the above four.
Proceed with the rest of the batter in the same manner.

Notes
When adjusting the consistency of the batter, err on the side of making a little thicker batter, that can be corrected easily then when it is too runny. When adjusting the batter, remove a little batter in a bowl and add a little water and mix it in, this way if it is too thin you can add some more thicker batter to it and get the right consistency.

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Instant Quinoa Rava Dosai

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For quite a while now, I have been using quinoa in making dosai (Indian savory crepes) and I have enjoyed it every single time. In the past I paired quinoa with ragi in this dosai, quinoa with brown rice in this uthappam (a savory pancake), quinoa with lentils in this adai and finally quinoa with cracked wheat in this crispy style dosai
Since quinoa has a slight nutty taste it works very well in dosais.

But all of these dosai's require grinding to make the batter and I thought it would be nice to try a quinoa dosai that is quicker to make. I wanted to make something on the lines of rava dosai because both of us like rava dosai a lot. I dry roasted and powdered the quinoa since I did not have quinoa flour on hand, but even with that getting the batter ready took me under fifteen minutes.And the best thing is, between the flax and quinoa this in one nutrition packed tasty dosai, making it ideal  for all times of day, whether breakfast, or tiffin or even light dinners. 




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Ingredients and Method to make Quinoa Rava Dosai

1 cup quinoa dry roasted until reddish, cooled and ground to semolina flour consistency/fine rava consistency (see notes)
1/2 cup semolina (medium rava)
1 cup rice flour
4 tbsp flax seed meal (powdered flax seeds/ alsi/ ali virai)
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
Approximately 4 1/4 cup of water

Seasoning (see notes)
2 tsp oil
3/4 tsp mustard seeds
3/4 tsp cumin seeds
4 green chilies cut fine (or to taste)
1 tsp dried curry leaves (optional)
1/8 tsp asafoetida powder (hing/ perungayam)

a few drops of sesame seed oil to shallow fry/cook the dosai

In a large dry container, mix the first five ingredients well.

Then add water 1 cup at a time slowly mixing it in to form a batter. The batter should be kind of runny, not very thick. It should be a bit thicker than milk (just like rava dosai batter if you have made the instant kind) .If in doubt err on the side of making a thicker batter and you can always add more water to make it thinner when making the crepes/dosais.   Keep this batter aside.
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Heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds to it, when the seeds start to splutter add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds begin to sizzle a bit, quickly add green chilies, asafoetida powder, curry leaves. Stir once or twice and pour the entire seasoning on the batter and mix well.


Heat a heavy griddle/ tawa/ flat pan, pour a ladle of batter in a large wide circle, the batter will immediately spread to the center and form a lacy crepe with wholes in it. Pour a few drops of oil on the side facing up.
Lower heat and allow to cook for a bit, until the lower side is brown. Flip over and cook the other side until it has brown spots.

Remove and serve hot with molaga podi, or sambar or any chutney of choice.
Refrigerate the balance of the batter and use within a few days. In case you refrigerate and find that the batter is a little thicker when you make it next, add a little water to thin it out a little.

Yield will depend on the size of each crepe

Notes
In case you want to use store bought quinoa flour, you can do that too. Just lightly dry roast the flour until it gives out an aroma and use it in the recipe
The seasoning imparts a great bit of flavor to this recipe, so it is recommended not to skip it.

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Instant Oat Dosai ~ Savory Indian Oat and Lentil crepes

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I have always been a bigger fan of dosai's(savory crepes)  than idlis (steamed rice cakes). Even when I was younger and my mother gave me a choice between the two, I would happily choose dosai over idli. So it should not come as any surprise that there are far more dosai varieties on this site than there are idli varieties.

Even though I am such an avid fan of dosais, these days, I rarely make the traditional rice and lentil ground batter, because it is so much more time consuming. Instead I find myself coming up with more and more types of instant dosais that are quick and just as satisfying.

Last week I tried a variation of dosai with oats, only unlike the previous time, I used traditional ingredients of rice and black gram lentil, but in flour form. This dosai turned out very soft and could be made very crisp too, if you like it that way. Because it contained rice flour and black gram lentil flour it also had resemblance in taste to the traditional dosai. If you like traditional dosai, then this quick version might interest you:-)





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Ingredients and Method to make Instant Oat Dosai
2 cups rolled oats (ground into fine powder)
1/2 cup split black gram lentil flour (udad flour/ ulatham maavu)
1 cup rice flour (chawal ka atta/ arisi maavu)
salt to taste (namak/ uppu)

water as needed

Seasoning
2 tsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds (jeera/ jeeragam)
3 Thai or Indian variety green chilies cut very fine (or according to taste) (hari mirch)
1 stalk of curry leaves broken into small pieces (karipatha/ karvapillai)  (optional but recommended)
a little sesame oil (til ka tel/ nella ennai)  to shallow fry the dosa

Mix together the first four ingredients in a large bowl/ container and mix well. Add water slowly, mixing it in to form a batter that is free flowing but not too runny. If in doubt, err on the side of getting a thicker batter when adding water, that can be corrected easily. Keep the mixed batter aside.

In a small pan, heat oil, add cumin seeds, when the seeds splutter add green chilies.Stir for a few seconds, then add curry leaves,let it splutter for a few seconds. then pour the entire seasonings on the batter and mix well.

Heat a non stick flat pan/ griddle/ iron tawa, pour a little batter in the center and quickly spread it into a thin circle.Add a few drops of sesame oil  around the dosai, and let it cook on medium heat until the lower side begins to brown evenly. Flip over and cook until the side that was facing the top cooks and gets a few brown spots on it.

Remove from heat and serve hot with chutney or sambar of choice or with molaga podi/ spiced powder

Refrigerate the unused portion of batter and use within a week.

Yield will depend on size and thickness of each dosai.

If you are looking for instant dosa versions, here are a few more

Instant Multigrain Dosa ~ Savory multigrain crepes

Instant Ragi Oats Dosai ~ Nachani dosa ~  Savory Finger millet and oats crepe

Instant Buckwheat dosai ~ Kuttu atta dosa ~ Buckwheat flour crepes

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Quinoa and Flax Uthappam

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A new show on television called Undercover Boss, has caught my interest, at least for now.Have any of you had a chance to see this show yet ?  In this show, CEO's of large companies disguise themselves and go undercover in their own company, posing as new recruits to understand how their companies operate and what they can do to improve the company. It is really cool to watch CEO's getting to know the employees and the real conditions that they are faced with and have to deal with, in the course of their work. 

It kind of reminds me of the Chandamama stories I grew up reading, where kings used to disguise themselves and go around their kingdom to find out how the people of their kingdom were really faring. Come to think of it,  I used to enjoy those stories too :-)

Speaking of disguises, here is a disguise for quinoa that you will find very hard to detect.  Uthappam is traditionally made of ground rice and lentils made into a fermented batter, it looks like somewhat like a large pancake, only a savory version and can be topped with different vegetables.I made this version of uthappam with quinoa, brown rice, flax seeds and cooked brown rice.The final result was an uthappam that was soft and delicious and the quinoa was completely disguised and could not be detected at all.



And here is a dosai made out of the same batter.....

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Quinoa Uthappam
For the batter
1 cup brown basmati rice (or any other brown rice)
1 cup quinoa
1/2 cup whole black gram lentil (udad dhal without the skin)
2 tbsp flax seeds
1 cup cooked brown rice
salt to taste
Few drops of sesame oil to shallow fry the uthappam

For the toppings Use any combination of vegetables,
I used various combination's of the vegetables below
Onions finely chopped
Grated carrots
Fresh or frozen green peas ( I used frozen thawed to room temperature) (see notes if using fresh peas)
Cilantro (coriander leaves) cut very fine
Indian or Thai variety of green chilies cut very fine (optional)

Soak the first four ingredients in sufficient water for 3 hours.

Grind these together with the cooked rice in batches, adding water as required to make a batter of pouring consistency (the batter should not be too runny or watery, yet not too thick, if in doubt err on the side of thicker batter, that can be corrected later on adding water as required, a thinner batter is more difficult to correct )
Add salt to taste (for this quantity I had to use almost 3 tsp of salt) and keep the batter in large container covered for 8 to 10 hours in a warm place to ferment. ( Usually I place my container in my conventional oven and switch on the oven light and leave overnight)

Remove, mix well  and if you plan to use immediately proceed or you can refrigerate the batter for a few days and use as and when required.

When making uthappam,heat a  heavy flat pan/ griddle/ tawa , in case you are using a non stick pan proceed to next step. If you are using a iron tawa, pour a few drops of oil on the tawa and smear it across the tawa either with a paper tissue or half an onion or wooden spatula.

Once the tawa is hot, lower heat and then pour batter in a circle. Quickly add toppings on top of the poured batter and gently press it in with the back of the spatula. Pour a few drops of sesame oil around the uthappam.

Cook on low to medium low heat until the lower side begins to brown and gently flip over and cook the other side. (the reason uthappams have to be cooked on lower heat is because they are thicker than dosai and on high heat, the lower side will brown faster and the batter will not be cooked all the way through )

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Cook the other side until the vegetables begin to get a few brown spots.

Remove and serve hot with chutney of choice/ or sambar of choice.

Refrigerate balance of batter and use within a few days.

Yields approximately 12 to 15 uthappams. Yield will depend on size and thickness of each uthappam.

Notes:
If using fresh green peas, cook it until almost soft separately, make sure there is no excess moisture after it is cooked, then use in this recipe

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Quinoa Oat Adai ~ Dhal dosa ~ Savory Indian crepes

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Adai, a savory crepe made with rice and lentils originates from southern Indian cuisine. Traditionally adai is made of rice and three to four different lentils, you can find the traditional recipe for adai here.Unlike the traditional dosai, adai batter has the benefit of not needing to be fermented, making it quicker to make. In addition the spices and lentils lend a wonderful flavor to this crepe making it delicious without any additional side dishes or chutneys if you want to have it that way :-)

In the past I have made adai with oats and barley, but for quite a while now I have not experimented further with this crepe. Recently when I planned to make adai, I thought it would be nice to see how quinoa works in adai. This adai turned out soft and delicious and the lentils, quinoa and oats give this adai a great flavor  and texture.If someone in your family does not care for the taste of quinoa then this is a great way to sneak it in as the quinoa does not have a very pronounced taste in this dish.

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Quinoa Oat Adai
1 cup brown rice (or white rice) (chawal/ pachai arisi)
1/3 cup split pigeon peas (tur dhal/ tuvaram parappu)
1/3 cup yellow mung lentils (yellow moong dhal/ mung dhal/ pasi parappu)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup quinoa (see notes)
soak together for two to three hours

5 dry red chilies  (or to taste) (lal mirch/ molaga vathal)
4 Thai or Indian variety green chilies (or to taste) (hari mirch/ pachai molagai)
ginger 1 inch piece (adrak/ inji)
salt to taste (namak/ uppu)
1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing) (optional but recomended)

a few tsp of sesame oil to shallow fry the adai

In a large bowl, mix all the grains well. Fill with water, swirl with your hand a couple of times and drain water.

Fill the bowl with enough water of about an inch above the grains and let the grains soak for about 2 to 3 hours.

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Drain the grains, and grind along with red chilies, green chilies and ginger in batches using a blender. Use water as required while grinding. The batter should be of pouring consistency but not too runny, a little on the thicker side.

Traditionally lentils for the adai batter are ground very coarsely and you can see some of the lentils visible in the batter, that is supposed to be part of the appeal of adai. But I prefer my adai a little softer and smoother so I grind adai batter a little like dosa batter only slightly thicker and very slightly coarser. When I take a little batter between my thumb and finger,  the grains feel a little like semolina / rava. Having the grains ground to a semolina/ rava like texture gives you a crisper adai/ dosai , smooth texture gives you softer adai.  

When the batter is ready, add salt and asafoetida and mix well.

Heat a flat pan/ griddle/ tawa and when hot, pour a small quantity of batter in the center and quickly spread in a thin circle. Add a few drops of sesame oil on top and around the batter.

Let the adai cook, until the lower portion begins to brown to a goldenish color, then flip the adai and cook the other side. Remove when the other side begins to get a few pinkish/ brownish spots on it.

Serve hot with chutney of choice or molaga podi or jaggery. Remaining batter can be stored in the refrigerator and used within the next 2 to 3 days.

Yields approximately 16 to 17 adai

If you want to see a pic of the consistency of the batter and a video clip of how it is made, please check out this post . It is not of this same adai/ dosai but the texture and consistency of the batter should be the same and the process of making it is the same too :)

Notes
If quinoa is not available,  you can increase either or both the lentils to make up the difference, that is use 1/2 cup more of 1 lentil (dhal/ parappu) or increase both by 1/4 cup each.

 If you are looking for Quinoa recipes, here are a few more

Quinoa Khichdi ~ Peanut flavored quinoa

Quinoa mung dosai ~ Savory crepes

Quinoa Cashew Kheer ~ Indian pudding

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Carrot Oat Dosai ~ Carrot Dosa~ Savory Indian Crepes

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Yes this is Veg Inspirations, you have not come to the wrong place. It just looks a lot different since your last visit. The reason for that? I have been wanting a new look for this site for a while now and the combination of the New year and a new domain motivated me to work on the site layout and bring out a new look for the site too :-) I would love to hear your opinions on this new look, so do let me know what you think....



Moving on to the recipe of oat carrot crepe/ dosai. Almost all the time these days I make instant dosai's instead of the ones that require grinding in the interest to complete my work more quickly. But the last time I made dosai I actually had a little more time and I decided since it has been a long time since I made dosai that required soaking and grinding, this might be a good time for it. I did not ferment the batter so this is still much quicker than the traditional type of rice and lentil dosai. These dosai's turned out to be ultra soft and tender thanks to the rolled oats and both the carrots and red chillies provided a nice flavor and color to this dosai. Try this if you want a fairly quick and healthy dosai one of these days, it does not take very long and it tastes fantastic :-)

 

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Ingredients and Method to make Carrot Oat Dosai

3/4 cup raw rice (chawal/ pachai arisi)
3/4 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup split black gram lentil (udad dhal/ ulatham parappu)
2 carrots cut into little pieces
2 dry red chilies (or to taste)
salt to taste

sesame oil (or any other oil) few drops to shallow fry the dosai (crepes)

Soak raw rice, rolled oats and split black gram lentil together in sufficient water for at least 2 hours.

Grind this in batches along with red chillies and carrots.

Add salt to taste and adjust water as required to achieve pouring consistency for the batter.It should not be too thin, should be slightly thicker than buttermilk consistency. This batter does not need fermentation, so you can make dosa with it immediately.

Heat a griddle/ tawa/ flat pan, smear a couple of drops of sesame oil on this pan and spread it.

Pour a ladleful of this batter in the center of the pan and spread quickly into a circle making it as thin or thick as you prefer.

Add a few drops of sesame oil around the crepe/ dosai or on top of it and let it cook until the lower side starts to brown. Remove with a spatula and flip over.

Let the other side cook until a few brown spots appear on it and then remove from heat and serve with chutney, sambar or spice powder.

Tastes best hot.

Yield depends on quantity of batter used per each crepe/ dosai.

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Vegan Instant Semolina crepes enhanced with flax.....

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Phew ! What a lengthy title.... I think this one has to have set the record for being the longest title on this site:-) Rava dosai or semolina crepes are light and lacy crepes made usually for breakfast or as a snack. Unlike other crepes/ dosais these are much more delicate and follow a slightly different technique while being made.

Though traditionally made as a breakfast item, these crepes manage to make their way into our dinner table occasionally, especially when we are in the mood for something light and quick for dinner. As is always the case with me, I could not resist trying to enhance these crepes / dosais and make them more healthier by adding flax when I recently made it.

I was a little nervous about this experiment as I had no other back up plans for dinner and was worried the flax would change the taste of the crepes/ dosai too much, but we all were pleasantly surprised, the flax did not interfere with the taste of the crepes/ dosai at all and in fact it enhanced the taste of the crepes, not to mention the nutrition. I have since made this many many times and have made it for guests as well, everybody loves it and nobody seems to be able to guess that it contains flax.


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Ingredients and Method to make Vegan Rava Dosa with flax

1 1/2 cup medium semolina (rava)
1 1/2 cup rice flour
5 tsps flax seed meal ( powdered flax seed / alsi )
salt to taste ( I used about 1 1 /2 tsp for this quantity)
approximately 4 1/2 cups of water + a little bit more to mix in with flax seed meal

seasoning
2 tsps oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
5 Thai or Indian variety green chillies (cut fine) (or according to taste)
1 sprig of curry leaves cut into little pieces (about 7-8 leaves) (optional)
asafoetida / hing a pinch ( optional)

sesame oil as required to cook the dosais

In a large bowl mix together the rice flour , semolina and salt to taste.

In a small cup mix together the flax seed meal in a few spoons of water and whisk together thoroughly until it blends a bit.

Add approximately 4 cups of water to the mixed flours slowly, mixing thoroughly as you add water .

Add the flax seed meal + water mixture to it too and mix well.
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The batter should be only slightly thicker than milk so adjust the water as required to achieve that consistency.

Heat oil in a small pan, add cumin seeds to it, when the cumin starts to splutter add green chillies and curry leaves to it. ( If using asafoetida add at this time) , when the green chillies and curry leaves splutter add the entire mixture to the batter and mix well.

Heat a griddle/ tawa/ skillet. When hot, pour a ladle of this batter in a large circle, avoiding the center. The batter will kind of spread to the center with some gaps in between, which is fine as this is how this crepe looks like. Add half a spoon of sesame oil around the crepe and let it cook for a minute or so. When the lower side starts to brown, use a spatula to flip it over and cook the other side.

When brown spots appear on the other side, remove and serve hot with chutney or sambar of choice.

Leftover batter can be stored in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Yield will depend on the size of the crepes.

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Beaten Rice and Tomato crepes ( Tomato Aval Dosai)

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In the past I have written about the large quantities of sugar that just one can of soda contains, but if you thought this would not matter because you would easily replace regular soda with diet soda than you may want to read on....... One of the side effects of diet soda seems to be weight gain, why ?? because studies show that artificial sweeteners added to diet soda actually cause us to gain weight rather than lose weight. Ironic isn't it that something that is called "diet soda" actually causes weight gain instead of loss. Here is one such study featured on the abc news site on this topic if you want to read more about this.

Moving on to the other purpose of this post....the recipe ! I was in a bit of a funk because I had not experimented in a long while in my kitchen and wanted to do something "different". My need for something different but something that was quick to make and good enough for a light dinner resulted in this recipe. Just soak, grind and make, simple ! The tomatoes I added lend a certain tartness to the dish making the process of fermentation of batter as is normally done for traditional rice+ lentil crepe (dosai) unnecessary. The idea behind adding barley simply is that I haven't used barley in a long while and I thought this may be a good dish to sneak it in and it was :-) The beaten rice lends a softness and texture to the crepe (dosai) that made me feel I need to use it more often in my crepes :-)

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Ingredients and Method to make Aval dosai

1 cup beaten rice (aval / jada poha)

1 cup white rice

1 cup brown rice

1/4 cup fine barley

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)

2 medium tomatoes ( I used roma tomatoes)

3 green chillies (small Thai or Indian variety ) (or according to taste)

2 dry red chillies (or according to taste)

salt according to taste

a few drops of sesame oil to shallow fry the crepes

Mix together, white rice , brown rice, barley and fenugreek seeds in a large container. Wash all these grains and drain water. Fill container with plenty of water and allow grains to soak for at least 3 hours.

Grind together tomatoes, green chillies and red chillies to a smooth paste and keep aside.

Place beaten rice in a bowl, wash it in water, drain water and keep aside for at least 15 mins.

Grind the rice+ barley+ fenugreek seeds mixture in a blender/ mixer in batches until soft and smooth.Add a little of the beaten rice to this and grind again. Keep this ground mixture aside and continue to process until all grains and beaten rice are ground. The batter should be thickish a little like cake batter.

Add ground tomatoes+ chillies mixture to the batter, salt to taste and mix well.

Adjust water as required to achieve pouring consistency to the batter.

Heat a tawa/ griddle/ flat pan on medium to medium high heat. Pour a little batter in the center and quickly spread it out into a thin circle.

Pour a few drops of sesame oil on the top of the crepe. Turn crepe when the lower side is a little brownish.

Flip over and cook the other side.

Serve hot with chutney/ spice powder (molaga podi )/ spiced coconut powder

Yield will depend on size of crepes.

Notes

If you like a softer dosai make it thicker and more like a pancake.

If you like a crisper dosai spread the batter more to make a thinner and crisper dosai.

This crepe is off to Padma's Dosa Corner event

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Rye Crepes / Dosai

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I was looking up the Indian term for rye when I came across this hilarious Q & A on a forum. Apparently some other person was seeking the answer to this question too and had posed that question on the forum. The answers ranged from suggesting to the questioner to look up Aishwariya Rai (an Indian actress) to suggesting that it could be rai as in mustard seeds.So even though I did not find the answer to my question I enjoyed a  hearty laugh at some of the creative and innovative replies to this question.  Apparently rye does not seem to have an Indian equivalent term or if it does I have not been able to find it yet. 

Rye is a cereal grain that looks like wheat but is longer and more slender. It has immense health benefits including being fiber rich and also rich in magnesium. It is also said to decrease the risk for type 2 diabetes and is said to protect against certain types of cancer. I bought rye on my last trip to whole foods with the idea of baking bread with it. But when I was researching about rye I learned that baking bread with rye is a little more difficult since it has lower levels of gluten than wheat. 

So I decided to use the rye flour in some Indian preparation, the first thought was to add it to roti (Indian flat bread) . Later though, I decided against rye roti in favor of rye crepes (dosai) since dosai is almost always a sure fire success in my home. So I added rye flour along with other flours to make a batter and ground some spices to add the element of flavor for the crepe.These crepes were quick and easy to make and turned out tasty, tender and crisp.I served them with classic cilantro coconut chutney but you can serve it with any chutney of your choice. 

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Ingredients and Method to make Rye Crepes/ Dosai 

3/4 cup rye flour 

3/4 cup semolina (medium rava)  

 3/4 cup rice flour   

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (atta) 

salt to taste (I used approx about 2 tsp) 

Grind together

10 curry leaves

1 to 1 1/2 inch piece of ginger

3 serrano peppers (or according to taste)

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/8 tsp asafoetida (hing)

handful of cilantro

3 1/2 cups of water

A few drops of sesame oil or any other oil to shallow fry the dosai 

Add all the ingredients from1 through 5 in a large bowl, mix well and keep aside.

Grind all the ingredients mentioned in grind together along with half a cup of water until fine and  add to the dry flours.

Add the balance of  the water (3 cups) a little at a time, mixing thoroughly while doing so.

Let the batter rest for a few minutes

Heat a griddle/ flat pan on medium to medium high heat

Pour a ladle of  the batter on the center and spread quickly in a thin circle as thinly as you would like it

A very thin crepe would be crisp whereas a thicker crepe would be soft and tender so you can make the thickness of the crepe depending on your likes 

Sprinkle a few drops of oil on the side facing upwards. When the lower side is browned, flip the crepe over and cook the other side for a few minutes until pinkish/ brownish spots appear on the other side.

Serve hot with chutney of choice or sambar of choice

Yielded approximately 14 to 15 average sized crepes

Notes

You can use brown rice flour instead of plain rice flour too

With serrano peppers this was very very mild and not very spicy so if  you  like more heat try using Indian variety or thai variety of green chillies

 

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