Paruppu Vadai w/ Coconut Chutney

We had our friends visiting us over the weekend after a long time.Since they are not from southern part of India , I decided to make the dinner completely South Indian .We started off with Vadai - Chutney for appetizer and followed with Idly , Pongal,Hotel Sambhar, Chutney  and some spice kothu parotta.Here is the recipe for Paruppu Vadai.


I used only channa dal to make these paruppu vadais for a long long time until one trip to the grocery store with my late father in law.He picked up a packet of "Pattani Paruppu aka Yellow Split Dal" and said 'This is what we should use for authentic Paruppu Vadai' . Since then I have used only this dal .

Paruppu Vadai

What do you need

Yellow split dal aka Pattani paruppu - 1 cup
Red chillies - 4
Asafoedita - a pinch
Curry leaves - as needed
Onion - 1/2 (chopped)
Green chillies - 2 (chopped)
Jeera - 1tsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - for deep frying

How you make it


Soak yellow split dal along with red chillies and jeera for about 2 hrs.After 2 hours , take out 2 tbsp of dal and keep them aside. Grind the rest of the soaked dal into a coarse paste in a mixie(  using very very less water).Add salt ,asafoetida and 2 tbsp of soaked dal (that we kept aside) into this mix . Now add chopped onions, green chillies , curry leaves and make them into small patties. Heat oil for deepfrying in medium flame. Once the oil is hot enough start deep frying these vadai-s until they are golden brown. Serve them hot with coconut chutney.

Note  :Make sure you don't use too much water while grinding dal. Even slightly watery batter won't make good vadais. If at all you think the mix is slightly watery , you can use couple of tbsp of rice flour to adjust the thickness.

Coconut Chutney

What do you need

To grind

Coconut  -  1 cup (shredded)

Green Chillies - 2

Tamarind - a small gooseberry size piece 

Garlic - 1 small pod

Salt - as need

For tempering

Oil - 2tsp

Mustard seeds  - 1/4 tsp

Urad dal - 1/4tsp

Curry leaves - a few

How you make it

Grind the ingredients listed under " To grind" into a paste using little water . Check salt at this point and add if needed.The consistency of the chutney should not be watery,Heat a pan and do the tadka aka tempering with ther ingredients listed under "For Tempering". Serve this side for Idly , Vada, Dosa etc.

Inukku Podi

Inukku Podi, an instant podi made for Dosa/Idly.I am so fond  of this podi that I frequently make it even though I have other sides for Dosa/Idly. 

What you need
Coconut - 1 cup (Shredded)Garlic - 1 podWhole Red Chillies - 6-8Curry leaves - a fewSalt - as neededGingelly oil  - For serving

How you will make it

In a mixie jar , put coconut, red chillies , garlic, curry leaves and salt and pulse it a few times.Viola , that's it , It's ready! The aroma itself will lure you to it.Serve it with few drops gingelly  oil for Dosa/Idly.

Note : Please adjust the amount of red chillies as per your taste.

Chinna Ulli Chutney/Small Onion Chutney

It's fun to see my kids eat Idly . They carry one whole Idly in their hand as if it was a piece of cake , and dip in a bowl of chutney.I have tried to make them eat Idly the right way, my way. My way  especially with this Onion chutney is 'placing 4 idly in a plate, pour a big spoon of chutney and then the fun part , mash them well with your fingers and eat'. :D .The best part is licking that last bits of chutney out of your fingers!

Well , that might not be a sophisticated way to eat in front of others :D

What You need

Small Onions - 1 cup (chopped)
Curry leaves - a needed
Oil -  2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 3 tsp (Warning : adjust as per your taste)
Salt - As needed
Tamarind - 1 small gooseberry sized
Asafoetida - a pinch
Water - as needed

How you will make it


Take tamarind extract and keep aside.In a pan, heat oil and splutter mustard seeds.Now add chopped onion and curry leaves.Saute for next 4 minutes on medium flame.(You don't have to fry it so much as we are going to cook it with tamarind extract).Add salt, red chilli powder and fry a bit till raw smell of red chilli is gone.Finally add tamarind extract and water (as needed).Let this mixture boil until onions are cooked well and chutney has the right consistency.Add a pinch of asafoetida and boil for next two minutes and switch off.Serve it hot with Idly.

Bell Pepper - Raspberry chutney

This spicy 'n tangy chutney is made with roasted bell peppers and raspberries.This is my entry for VOW-JFI "Bell peppers" hosted by Pooja of My creative ideas.




Ingredients

Red Bell pepper - 1 ( used store brought roasted bell pepper)
Raspberry - 10
Olive oil - 2 tsp
Sugar - a pinch
Red chilly powder - 2 tsp
Grated ginger - 1/2tsp
Salt - as needed

Method

Take out roasted bell pepper from the bottle and drain it in a paper towel.Chop it into fine piecesIn a sauce pan, heat olive oil.Add ginger and raspberry and saute them.As they started to cook, add roasted bell pepper,chilly powder,salt and sugar.Saute well and mush the gravy very well so that you won't get pieces of raspberry or bell peppers.Serve it with dosa,roti or bread.





Note : If you want reduce the tanginess (i hope this is the word, well u know what i mean :D), you can always adjust the number of raspberry.

Masala dosai

Masala dosai , yet another delicious dosai type filled with potato masala and coconut chutney.

Coconut chutney

Coconut - 1/2 cup (shredded)
Pottu kadalai/Dalia - 2tbsp
Garlic - 1 clove
Green chillies - 4
Tamarind - a small amla size
Curry leaves-as needed
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Urad dal - 1/2tsp
Shallots - 2 *chopped)
Oil-as needed
Salt-as needed


Method

Grind coconut,pottu kadalai,garlic,tamarind,curry leaves,green chillies and salt together with little water into a smooth paste.Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds,urad dal,curry leaves and chopped shallots.Pour this tadka into the grounded coconut chutney.


Potato Masala


Ingredients

Potato - 3
Onion - 2 (small sized, sliced)
Green chillies - 3
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Ginger - 1/2tsp (grated)
Fennel/Perunjeragam - 1tsp
Curry leaves - as needed
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Urad dal - 1/2tsp
Oil - as needed
Salt - as needed



Method

Boil potatoes and peel and smash them with a fork.In a pan, heat oil and fry mustard seeds, urad dal,fennel seeds,curry leaves, green chillies,ginger and sliced onions.Fry well till the onions are golden brown.Now add the boiled potatoes and add turmeric powder and salt.Add water and mix well.Adding water is to make little gravy,so add only required amount.Let it boil for abt 2-3 min.s and switch off the heat.



Masala Dosai

Ingredients

Dosa batter - as needed
Coconut chutney - as needed
Potato masala - as needed
Oil - as needed


Method

In a hot tawa, make a thin dosa.Place dosai in a serving plate.Spread one half of the dosai with coconut chutney and the other half with potato masala.Fold the dosai in half and serve it hot with Coconut chutney and Sambhar.

Cabbage chutney

This chutney is a bit differentt from the usual coconut, onion chutney..
I adapted the recipe from a tamil magazine.The original recipe calls for coconut, i skipped coconut altogether.Very easy to make and goes well not only with idly,dosas but with any variety rice, i tried with some curd rice.

Ingredients

Cabbage - 1 1/2 cup (chopped)
Urad dal - 1tsp
Turmeric powder -1/4tsp
Red chillies - 4
Perungayam/Asafoetida - a pinch
Curry leaves - as needed
Oil - 2tsp
Salt - as needed
Tamarind paste - 1/2tsp

Method

Heat oil in a pan, fry urad dal till golden brown, now add red chillies, curry leaves and cabbage one by one.Then add, turmeric powder,salt and asfoedita.Fry well.Switch off the heat and let it cool down.After cooling down, grind it into fine paste.Garnish with chopped coriander/curry leaves.

Rava dosa with Tomato-Onion chutney

Rava uppuma, rava idly, rava dosa, rava halwa...etc so many things from this one handy ingredient.This rava dosa ,very easy and fast dosa recipe when there is so little time to cook...

Rava dosa


Ingredients

Rava - 1/2 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
Maida flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - as needed

For tadka

Oil - 2tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies - 10 (adjust according to u'r palatte)
Jeera - 1/2tsp
Cashew nuts - 6 (fried in ghee)(optional)
Curry leaves - as needed
Coriander leaves - as needed


Method

Soak rava in little water for abt 15-30 minutes.Now mix rava, maida,rice flour and salt together into a batter using water.The batter should be thinner than the usual dosa batter.Do the tadka and pour it into the batter.If you want you can add chopped onion now.In a hot tava, make thin dosas using this batter.If you want you can 2 tbsp of yougurt to the batter for little bit different taste.Serve it hot with any type of chutney or milagu podi.



Tomato - onion chutney

(ref : aval vikatan)


Ingredients

Tomato - 4
Onion - 2
Garlic - 6 small pods
Red chillies - 5
Urad dal -1tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Perungayam - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - amla sized ball
Salt - as needed
Oil - 2tbsp
Coriander leaves - as needed


Method

Chop tomato, onion into big sized pieces.In pan heat oil and fry mustard,urad dal,red chillies.Now add garlic and chopped onion into it and fry till they are golden brown.Add tomato, tamarind, perungayam and salt to this and fry till tomatoes are melt completely.Finally add chopped coriander leaves and fry for another 2 min.s.Switch off the heat and let it cool down.After cooling down , grind it into a fine paste.This chutney goes well with all dosas and idlies.

Lemon rice with Coriander chutney

This one i made last week for lunch , forgot to post it.This good old traditional lemon rice with a twist.


Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Lemon juice - 3 tbsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
asafoedita - 1/4 tsp
Green chillies- 2
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Curry leaves - as needed
salt- as needed

For Powdering : Red chiilies -4,Channa dal- 1tsp,dania-1/2tsp.

For tadka : mustard seeds - 1/2tsp,urad dal-1tsp,channa dal- 1/2tsp,oil-2tbsp


Method

Boil rice with little bit of salt.Be careful not to over cook the rice.Dry roast and powder the ingredients listed under Powdering.This is what makes the lemon rice special.Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds,urad dal,channa dal,chopped ginger,green chillies,curry leaves and asafoedita.After this add, turmeric powder,salt and lemon juice.Mix cooked rice and the powder into this.Serve it with potato fry or dania chutney.