Ragi Masala Dosa

Dosa is one of the most favourite breakfast (or anytime snack!) dish in the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.  The world famous Mysore Masala Dosa is what most of us Mysoreans grow up eating, but never tire of.  However, it is not easy to master the art of making a regular rice dosa.  It is primarily dependent on the variety of rice and proportions of parboiled rice, raw white rice and black gram daal or Urad Daal.  Besides, the white dosa has to ferment to perfection for superior output and all this is a bit complicated for people who have never tried it.


The Ragi* Dosa is simple to make, nutritious and always turns out perfectly well!
In my last post I promised to give the recipe for Ragi Dosa.  I know it may not be possible to get Ragi flour everywhere else in the world.  I encourage you to try this recipe with Buckwheat Flour or any other flour made from non-glutenous grains or cereals like buckwheat, quinoa and millet.  Here's the recipe and you may substitute the Ragi flour with the non-glutenous flour available to you.  My friend Mark Steinberg from New York did a fantastic experiment with buckwheat flour and I am proud to reproduce excerpts of his email communication to me along with his pictures of the process.  Also check out recipes for potato palya and chutney below!


RAGI DOSA

Ragi: African millet grown mainly in the southern states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.  It is the cheapest millet available in India.  People make ragi porridge or ragi balls with ragi.  Because ragi is inexpensive yet nutritious, ragi balls form the staple of most farmers’ and peasants’ diet in these states.

Ingredients
Ragi Flour (or any non glutenous flour such as buck wheat flour)              5 measures
Urad Daal (black gram daal)                                                                   1 measure
salt to taste
water as required

Method
Wash and Soak the urad daal in plenty of water for about 2-3 hours.  Drain the water and blend the bloated soaked daal with fresh water and salt in a blender into a fine paste the consistency of pancake batter.  Blend the flour along with water into a paste of the same consistency and mix the two pastes well.  Let the batter stand for 6 hours (or more in cold climatic conditions) to ferment.  The batter should be fluffy when it is ready and sufficiently fermented.

Scoop up a little fermented batter and pour it on the center of a heated skillet or tava an spread the batter evenly using a flat bottomed steel cup or a deep ladle.  While spreading the batter, move your hand in a circular motion, spreading the batter wider on the pan with each round.  This takes a little practice.  Add a few drops of oil on the dosa and leave it on the pan until the edges begin to rise.  If the dosa is thick, flip it over to cook the other side. Put some potato palya in the center and fold the dosa into half.  Serve with coconut or peanut chutney. 


Now check out what Mark did in his kitchen with buckwheat instead of ragi!

Here's what he had to say - " I think what happened is that it took a very long time to ferment. I left the batter out for about 6 hours before I made the dosa, but little had changed. Also, maybe I didn't have the
pan hot enough. They came out more like a pancake than a dosa. So I left the batter out overnight and in the morning, no change. But by the late afternoon it was fluffy and bubbly! I'm guessing that's what is supposed to happen. "

The next afternoon ~ bubbly-frothy dosa batter.  Perfectly ready to pour out!

Potato Palya

Ingredients

Serves 4 to 6.

Potatoes, boiled and semi mashed	4 large
Cooking oil	4 Tbsp
Mustard seeds	½ tsp
Cumin seeds	½ tsp
Curry leaves	2 sprigs
Green chillies, slit in the middle	4
Chana daal	1 tsp
Onions, finely sliced	2 cups
Turmeric powder	¼ tsp
Water	½ cup
Ginger, freshly grated	1 tsp
Coriander leaves, finely chopped	garnish
Salt	to taste

Method

Heat oil in a hot pan.  Add the mustard seeds and heat until they pop or sputter.  Add cumin seeds, curry leaves,chana daal and chillies and fry until chillies are sautéed and the daal turns golden.  Add onions and fry for about 2 minutes.  Add turmeric powder and fry for a few seconds.  Add ½ cup of water and salt to the frying mixture and cook for about 2 minutes.  Add ginger and mashed potatoes and mix well.  Leave on the stove for a couple of minutes.  Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves and serve with dosas, chapattis, and poories.  You may even use the potato palya to make excellent grilled sandwiches.

Peanut Chutney

Ingredients

Makes approximately 4 to 6 servings.

Roasted peanuts	2 cups
Fresh grated coconut (optional)	½ cup
Green chilli or dried red chilli	2 or per taste
Mint leaves	1 cup (loosely)
Tamarind paste	1½ Tbsp
Onion, chopped (optional)	1 small
Garlic (optional)	2 cloves
Coriander leaves	1 small bunch
Salt	to taste
Water for grinding

Method

Sauté mint leaves and chillies for a couple of minutes with two to three drops of oil.  You can also skip sautéing the mint and chilies, and instead add raw mint and chillies to the mixture.  Blend this with peanuts, coconut, tamarind, and salt, with enough water to make a rough paste.  Add garlic, onion, and coriander leaves and grind for five more seconds.  Serve with items such as idli, dosa, chapattis, upma.

Serve Ragi Masala Dosa hot for breakfast or an anytime healthy snack!

All pictures (except one - the dosa on the pan) in this blog are taken by Mark Steinberg in his New York apartment kitchen!

Enjoy making dosas and remember the golden rule of all times applicable to everything in life - practice makes perfect!

Dedication to Mark Steinberg

A couple of years ago, a guy named Mark Steinberg came to Mysore on a short visit and happened to attend one of my cooking classes.

Mark Steinberg in his NY apartment kitchen

As usual, after the class, I tell the people who attended, that it would make me very happy if they shared their experiences with me after they tried out my recipes at home.  Some assure me they would and they do!  Mark Steinberg too did that.  He not only wrote back to me saying he tried out my recipes and that the food had turned out real good, but also sent me pictures of the food he had cooked and his guests raising a toast to me!

Mark's friend Chris (extreme right) with his guests Henk (center) and Carolein from Holland

Mark's string quartet colleagues enjoying his Indian cooking!

I loved his enthusiasm and sent to him a few more recipes.  I received more pictures and sent him more recipes and received more pictures...

Here's a picture of the dishes he cooked on 5th Jan 2010, all arranged in a thali!

As you can see, there is Lemon Rice, Chana Masala, Daal, Baingan Bharta, Bhindi Masala, Aloo Gobi, Pachadi and Chapati! Phew! And it all looks simply awesome!  I bet it tasted divine!

And guess what he served his guests for dessert... Kheer!

What better returns would a teacher expect from his/her student!  Mark has tried many more of my recipes and most diligently sent me pictures with encouraging feedback.  He motivated me to go on teaching...

Sometime back I asked Mark if he would do me a favour and make Buck Wheat Dosas and let me know how they turned out.  I make and teach Ragi Dosas and always had a feeling that Buck Wheat Dosas may turn out just the same as Ragi.  Now Mark lives in New York and this time of the year is brrrrrrrr..... freezing! But he made them Buck Wheat Dosas and sent me his notes too, with 17 pictures of the entire process and he had never ever made any kind of dosas before!  And yes, he made the potato palya (stuffing) and the peanut chutney too! and additionally made Baingan Delight! How delightful can this be!!!

I would like to dedicate this blog to my very dear dear friend Mark Steinberg, who has made me very proud and has provided super encouragement to me, to go on with teaching cooking.  Thank you Mark!  And much love to you!

Watch out for my next post.  I will give out recipes for Ragi (or Buck Wheat) Dosa, courtesy Mark Steinberg!

Wishing all readers Merry Christmas and a Very Very Peaceful New Year!

Kobri Mithai

As a 9 year old when mum and dad first brought my brother and me to Mysore city, I remember both mum and bro were going through what I now understand as a 'culture shock'. Bombay, or Mumbai as its name has reverted to now, a metro, a big city held the greatest charm and attachment, yes attachment for them. They definitely did not like the quiet, sleepy, lazy Mysore. I think I was born only to come to Mysore and get rooted ultimately. Well the whole family was rooted physically, but I guess my soul had found its place. I loved the quiet, the weather, the fruits, the open fields and gardens, the people, the language, the food & sweets and oh! most of all the jasmine flowers... mmm... the ones we know in Inda as mogra (Hindi) or mysooru mallige (kannada)!

As a young school goer my daily allowance was 25 paise (quarter of a rupee). I cannot tell you how many nice things I'd buy from the petty shop and the cartman on the roadside by the school. My favourites were chur-muri, batani, raw mangoes, goose berries, chikkis, tiny tangerines, kobri mithai and much more! mmmmm... just loved those days of fun and eating stuff on the roadside with girlie friends. I assure you though, roadside food never made us sick then.

Though we try at home even now to make the chur-muri, chikkis and kobri mithai, they never taste as they were made then. It was either the age, or then, these goodies were really made well those days. I learned to make kobri mithai from a sweet and loving lady Mutthu Aunty who lived across from our house in Gokulam and always gave me little treats whenever I dropped in on her. Here goes Mutthu Aunty's kobri mithai recipe.

Ingredients

Freshly grated coconut 2 cups

White granulated sugar 2 cups

Cardamom powdered 1/5 tsp

Raisins 2 Tbs

Cashew nuts a handful

Ghee 1 Tbs

Method

Fry the raisins and cashew nuts in ghee until golden. Remove from ghee and keep aside.

Use the leftover ghee to grease a steel plate. Keep aside.

In a thick bottom pan or wok mix the coconut and sugar and cook on medium flame, stirring all the time. As the sugar melts, the mixture will be more manageable. Keep stirring, taking care not to allow the mixture to burn or become brown (control the heat). After around 12 to 15 minutes of stirring and once you notice the sugar drying up or turning powdery white, get the

mix off the stove, mix in cardamom powder, cashew nuts and raisins (keep a few cashews and raisins aside for decorating) and mix thoroughly. Transfer the mix on to the greased plate and spread it out to half an inch thickness, patting it flat or running a greased rolling pin over the surface to make it even. Decorate it with more cashew and raisins. Run a greased knife to mark the pieces in squares or diamond shapes. Allow to cool to room temperature. Gobble gobble!!

As sweet as pumpkin!

Sweet Pumpkin Delight

Until Anu’s Bamboo Hut came into being, I had neither cooked nor had a clue about how to cook sweet pumpkin! As an experiment, my kitchen help Shashikala and I took on the humungous vegetable. Although hard, the pumpkin flesh also contains a lot of water and is fibrous. All we knew was that pumpkin was cooked with its skin and not with its seeds. We decided to dice the vegetable and just cook it in simple seasoning without water, until it was done, and then garnish it with lots of grated coconut and coriander leaves. The dish turned out to be a great hit the first time we served it. The garnish gave the vegetable a little more personality while still retaining its original sweet flavor and texture. Even the skin was agreeable to my guinea pigs!

In India, sweet pumpkin is found in various shapes, sizes, and colors. There are the huge peach or pale orange ones and the flattened or oblong ones with a hard skin and that can be stored for a month or more. Some are small, round, flattened and dark orange. Others are huge, with green skins and dark orange flesh inside. The green ones are my favorite, as they are tender and the skin is softer and rich in minerals like Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium and Zinc. The pumpkin is also rich in vitamins like vitamin A, B1, B2, B3, B6, C and E, besides containing a high level of β carotene. You can use any type of pumpkin available to you. Try eating a piece of it raw—it tastes like a sweet, hard fruit!

Sweet pumpkin seeds are quite popular. They are separated from the flesh, washed, salted, and dried in the sun until they lose all of their moisture. The dried seeds are then gently roasted until they turn crisp. Crack them with your front teeth to open them and then eat the inner tasty seed. These are good for people with constant cravings, as getting through a handful of seeds takes a long time! Pumpkin seeds are rich in the abovementioned minerals, especially zinc, which promotes prostrate health in men. The seeds have anti-inflammatory benefits in arthritis and are good for strong bones.

Ingredients

Serves [4 - 6].

Sweet pumpkin, diced with skin (no seeds)	1 kg or about 2 pounds
Oil	2 Tbsp
Mustard seeds	½ tsp
Curry leaves	2 sprigs
Chana daal	1 Tbsp
Urad daal	1 Tbsp
Dry chillies	4 to 5
Cumin seeds	1 tsp
Sesame seeds	2 Tbsp
Asafoetida	pinch or two
Ginger grated	1 one-inch piece
Turmeric powder	¼ tsp
Salt	to taste
Coconut, freshly grated	½ cup
Coriander leaves, chopped roughly	½ cup

Method

Add oil to a heated, thick-bottomed pan. Add the mustard seeds and heat until they pop or sputter. Add the curry leaves, chana daal, urad daal, dry chillies, and cumin seeds, and fry for half a minute. Add the sesame seeds and stir-fry until the daals begin to turn slightly golden. Add the asafoetida and stir-fry for 5 seconds. Add the turmeric powder into the seasoning and stir for a just few seconds. Add the diced pumpkin and mix well to spread the seasoning evenly. Add the shredded ginger and mix. Cover and cook on a low-medium flame, stirring occasionally, until the pumpkin is almost done. Add the salt and cook on a low flame for a few more minutes until the pumpkin is cooked. Garnish with freshly grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves and serve.

Note

Substitute sweet pumpkin with peeled and diced sweet potatoes. Add a quarter cup of water after adding the diced sweet potato to reduce the cooking time.

Enjoy this dish and do let me know how it turned out if you tried!

CHOW-CHOW BHATH

It is quite customary for people in the southern part of India to start their meal with a sweet dish. The first bit served on a banana leaf that is eaten first, is the payasam. A breakfast sweet Kesari Bhath with its counterpart Khara Bhath are popularly known as 'chow-chow bhath' in Mysore.

Chow-chow is the term that means a mixture (of sweet and savoury in this case). Chow-chow bhath is Upma or Khara Bhath (the savoury) and Kesari Bhath (the sweet) served together. The texture of the dishes that are made with semolina would depend primarily on the quantity of ghee or oil you use - meaning, more ghee/oil = more tastier (as we would say at home). Here's an extract from my unpublished book (don't ask me when it will be published pleeeeez).

Kesari Bhath

Kesari bhath is a semolina-based sweet dish, also known as sheera in the north. This sweet dish is normally served with its savory version, called khara bhath or upma. When served together on one plate, the dish is known as chow-chow bhath (chow-chow = mixture). In the north, sheera is served with hot poories.

Ingredients

Serves 4

Semolina (fine or medium sized)	2 cups
Ghee	1½ cups
Sugar	1½ cups
Cloves	5
Cardamom powder	¾ tsp
Water	4 cups
Cashews, split	handful
Almonds, split	handful
Ripe banana OR	½ OR
Pineapple, diced	½ cup
Saffron	pinch

Method

Soak the saffron in ¼ cup of warm water for at least 20 minutes and set aside.

Add sugar to the water and bring to a boil. Simmer while you fry the following ingredients.

Heat a thick-bottomed pot and add ghee until it melts. Fry raisins, cashews, and almonds on a low to medium flame until the raisins become round and the cashews and almonds turn golden. Remove the fried nuts and raisins from the ghee and set aside.

Add the semolina to the same ghee and fry for 2 to 3 minutes on a high flame, stirring constantly. Add the cardamom and fry until the aroma begins to rise. (Add more ghee for better results.) Add the smashed banana or the finely diced pineapple and stir for about a minute. Reduce the flame and gently pour the hot sugar water into the fried semolina and mix thoroughly to ensure there are no lumps. Add soaked saffron and mix. Cover and cook on low flame for 3 minutes. Mix in half the quantity of raisins, cashews, and almonds and decorate the top with the other half. Serve hot or warm.

Note: Use yellow, spotted ripe bananas in kesari bhath.

Upma or Khara Bhath

Ingredients

Serves 4

Semolina (medium or large size)	2 cups
Oil	¼ cup
Mustard seeds	½ tsp
Chillies, fresh green or dry	2
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Cumin seeds	1 tsp
Urad daal	1 tsp
Chana daal	1 tsp
Asafoetida (if garlic is not used)	pinch
Onion, finely chopped	2 medium
Diced carrot, potato, green peppers, peas	1 cup
Ginger, shredded or ground	½ to 1 tsp
Tomatoes, diced OR Lemon juice	1 cup OR 2 Tbsp
Water	4 cups
Ghee	2 Tbsp
Grated coconut	½ cup
Coriander, freshly chopped	1 Tbsp
Salt	to taste

Method

Lightly dry roast the semolina in a pan or pot, constantly stirring on a medium to high flame for 3 to 4 minutes to remove all of the moisture (adding a tbs of ghee while roasting semolina give the upma a great texture). Set aside.

Heat the oil in a pot and add the following ingredients in this order: mustard seeds until they pop or sputter, curry leaves, cumin seeds, chillies, chana and urad daals. Fry until daals are golden brown. Add asafoetida and stir for a few more seconds. Add onions and fry until translucent (garlic may be added along with onions if asafoetida is not used). Mix in the diced vegetables and cook with the lid on for about 7 to 10 minutes or until the vegetables are almost done. Add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes soften. Add water, ginger, and salt to this mixture and bring to a boil. Pour the semolina slowly into the boiling mixture while stirring well. The mixture will begin to thicken. If using lemon juice instead of tomatoes, add it now. Cover with lid and cook on a low flame for 5 more minutes. Garnish with ghee, coriander, and grated coconut and serve hot.