Coconut and Tomato Chutney

It is a slightly abridged version of regular coconut chutney.

Ingredients:

Fresh Coconut- 1/2- Shell peeled out but if the skin is soft, retain it

Tomatoes- 2- Quartered

Onion- 1- Quartered

Garlic- 6-8 cloves, peeled

Curry Leaves- 6

Mustard Seeds(Rai)-1/2 tspn

Red Dry chillies- 2, Soaked for about 1 hour. If you don;t like it too hot, take out the seeds before soaking

Ginger- about /2 inch piece of tender ginger

Salt

oil

Method: Pour about 2 tspn oil in a non stick pan and add mustard seeds. Wait till they splutter and add all other ingredients one by one. Including the coconut. roast it for about 5 minutes or till everything starts to look little cooked.

Put everything in a blender and add little water and salt and make a very smooth paste. Can be served with any South Indian preparations. Tastes great with paranthas as well.

Chana Dal Pakoras

This is one of my favorite snack items. It is suppossed to be deep fried. But to make it healthy, I am alternating it a bit.

Ingredients:

Chana Dal (Bengal Gram Dal)- 1 cup

Green Chillies- Choppes- 2-3

Cilantro/ Coriandar finely chopped- about 1/2 cup

Onlion, Very finely chopped- 1 big

Curry Leaves(not bay leaves)- 7-8- finely chopped

Salt

Red Chilli Powder

Oil

Mehtod: Soak Chana dal for 4-6 hours. One can accelerate it by soaking the dal in warm water.

Grind it without water or with water just enough to make the grinder move. Do not make a paste. the dal should be broken into small pieces. Takeout in a mixing bowl and add all other ingredients.

Now make balls half the size of a ping pong ball and flatten it with your palms. Apply oil on palms before starting to make balls. 

Now you can either deep fry it or follow my healthy detour. 

Grease* a tava and lay flattened balls on it. pour little oil from sides of each patty. Flip it and press it slightly to make it crispy from both sides.

Serve Hot with Mango and Mint chutney.

*Grease- This does not mean putting automobile grease on tava. It means speading little oil. Just Kidding!!

Dosa Batter

This is very easy and most of you knw it. But just to make my blog a little handy and busy looking. Here it is....

Ingredients: 

Split Urad Dal(without skin)- 1 cup

Rice- 2 cups

Methi seeds- 1/2 tspn

Salt- 1 tspn

Poha(flat rice) or Murmure(puffed rice) -about a handful

Method: Soak Dal, Rice and methi seeds over night. Sieve excessive water and keep aside and keep enough water just to make grinding possible. Grind them with salt and puffed rice in a grinder/ blender. Keep feeling with fingers. It should feel like a smooth paste with minimum flakes. Add the water that we kept aside if required. The consistency should be like custard. Keep it in a container with enough room for fermentation and try to keep it in sun for a few hours. I usually ferment it for one full day in sun.

Mix it with hand or a long table spoon and spread on a heated tava in circular motion. sprinkle some oil. The dosa will start coming off itself. Let it cook on minimum flame. Do not flip it over.

If making masala dosa, stuff the potato stuffing before taking it off the tava. Serve Hot with Coconut Chutney, Coconut and tomato chutney and sambhar.

Vegetable Dosa

Not vegetarian Dosa. There is no big deal about making that. There is no big deal about making this one either.

This one is a very simple recipe and turned out nice. 

Guinea Pig Credits to: Nishet, Aanya, Mamaji, Mamiji, Nitin and Deepika.

Ingredients:

1 packet of ID  dosa batter. (home made dosa batter can be used. Recipe is here)

Grated Carrots-2

Grated Fresh coconut- 1/4

Onion Finely chopped- 2

Coriander/ Cilantro finely chopped- about a bunch.

Green chillies finely chopped-2

Bell peppers/ Capsicums, finely choppes- about 1/2

Salt to taste

Red Chilli Powder- 1/2 tspn

Oil

Method:  Keep the batter at room temperature and add all vegetables, salt and pepper.

Clean a non stick pan or tava(skillet) and heat it on medium flame. Sprinkle little oin on the tava and pour 1 big tb. spn of the mixture and spread out like dosa. Keep it about 1/4cm thick. spread oil from all sides and over the entire spead as well. when the Dosa starts coming off from sides, use a spatula to flip it over. cook on slow flame so that it can be cooked till the core.Make it little crispy from both sides. Serve hot with Coconut Chutney.

Observation: All Guinea Pigs looked happy or lets say not sad while eating it. And did not deny taking second helping.

Conclusion: Upto you.