Avalakki Oggarane - Poha - (No onion)

 Generally in Avalakki oggarane one cannot skip onions. Onions is one of the main taste giving ingredients to the dish. But this particular recipe is made without onions, without impacting the taste much. The chef uses a paste of green chilies and coconut, instead of adding them separately, and roasts it nicely, which gives this dish a unique flavor. 

Avalakki can be made this way for festivals, also for no rice diets. 

Enjoy! 

Happy Dussehra! 

Gojjavalakki mix

 Happy Janmashtami!! 

Here’s an instant gojjavalakki mix I fell in love with. This gets ready in less than 20 mins. And with the mix ready, all you need to do is add in hot water. This mix comes in real handy while traveling, or for lunch box in busy mornings, or for just quick breakfast/lunch or dinner. 

This is one of my favorite breakfast items. Do try! 

   

Set Dose - 2

Found this another gem of a recipe online. I already had one recipe for set dose, which turns out good as it is[Recipe can be found here]. 

But this new recipe I came across(link given below), looked equally good, but used different ingredients which gave me an incentive to try.. 

It turned out extremely good. And with lots of extra ghee/oil it tastes hotel-like. 

This is my current goto recipe for set dose. 

Do try! 

Cabbage Dose

 Try this very yummy, and popular dose from coastal Karnataka region. This is basically heerekai chatti hittu, with finely chopped cabbage as vegetable instead of ridge gourd. I didn’t know it could be made with cabbage as well. My mom makes it with ridge gourd, spinach and dantina soppu(amaranth leaves). This recipe is from Hebbar’s kitchen [link given below]. 

This pic was taken when I made it for the very first time, hence the poor color and scarce veggies :). Now the color is lot more better and I am adding lot more cabbage, sometimes a mix of veggies like cabbage, spinach and onion too. But alas! the photographer(aka my husband) is showing a lot of “nakhara” these days to take pictures! 

Rave Rotti - 2

 Tried this delicious rave(semolina) rotti recipe some time back. We as a family love our rottis. Rottis are basically thick pancakes made with stiff dough(batter) often made with rice flour/ ragi flour/ rave(semolina). Check out their links. 

Traditionally rottis are patted on a banana leaf and transferred to the hot tava. But this rotti is spread with your hands(or ladle), more like a dosa. So one step made easy. I got this recipe from vegrecipesofkarnataka (link given below).  

Enjoy this traditional breakfast with some coconut chutney and some butter. 

Fig Milkshake

 

Fig-Banana-Strwaberry milkshake is a great after-school or breakfast drink for school going kids. I was not too fond of strawberry taste in this milkshake, I’d rather add only fig and bananas, but my daughter loved it. So hear goes - 

Akki Rotti

 Akki rotti is one of the most popular breakfast items in a Kannadiga’s household. It is basically rotti(flatbread) made out of rice(flour). 

I like crunchy yet soft texture in akki rottis. Initially my akki rottis were turning out chewy rather than soft. Later in one of the recipes I found online for ragi rotti, I got to know about usage of avalakki(poha) which gave the desired results. Recipe for ragi rotti can be found here - ragi rotti. 

Enjoy these with some butter and coconut chutney!

Idiyappam

Idiyappam - is basically rice flour noodles from Kerala, a variation of our very own ottu shaavige(Karnataka). Traditionally ottu shaavige is made in “shaavige oralu”. Making ottu shavige is time consuming and frankly speaking very cumbersome. I only love eating part of it. 

Idiyappam on the other hand is mini version and can be pressed in Chakli press. I don’t know if traditionally it is made this way. May be it was similar to ottu shaavige before but over the years became mini.. no idea.  But anyways the recipes I saw online seemed very doable compared to ottu shavige.

I made 2 batches. First one clicked, second one flopped. I was nervous before making the first batch and prayed to God. While making second batch I was confident and hence didn’t pray. I think that was the major reason for failure :). In this particular recipe, you mix rice flour with hot water. In other recipes I’ve seen online, you cook rice flour in boiling water till it comes together as a dough. That can make a difference in the texture too. 

I’ve also listed other reasons I think might’ve caused the problem, below in notes. Do try!

Happy Makara Sankranti! Happy New Year!!

Rave rotti

I don’t know what I was thinking when I stored upma rava in the spot where I generally store idly rava. It was bound to happen sooner or later that I soaked regular uppit rava instead of idly rava while making idli. Not knowing what to do with the soaked rave, I asked my mother. She suggested I can either make rave dose or rave rotti. I had never tried rave rotti before, even though many people had given me the recipe. I really loved the taste. It was crunchy and soft at the same time. Very easy recipe. Even kids will love it.

Simple breakfast item.

Do try! 

Raagi Rotti

Hallelujah!! 

Finally, finally, finally I mastered the trick of getting perfect rottis. I like my rottis crunchy and soft at the same time. They never came out that way. So as usual, anytime I see some new technique online, I would try.. try.. try. But my search has ended with this particular recipe on Udupi recipes website(link given below). Do check it out, it has some great Udupi recipes I refer to on and off. 

My ragi rottis were so hard and chewy before. With this method they were crunchy when hot and soft after cooling down. The trick is - use soaked avalakki(poha)! I had seen in some places people put cooked rice in the dough, probably for the same reason. Poha is so much better and easier. I have followed the recipe for most part but for few things here and there. Do try! 

Enjoy hot rottis with some butter and chutney. 

Gojjavalakki/ Spiced Poha

Happy Krishnashtami! 

Gojjavalakki is basically crushed poha mixed with puliyogare-like masala. One of the very popular devara-prasadas served in temples. Very simple to make. This particular recipe makes masala from scratch. You can also use any other puliyogare mix instead of the masala below. 

Do try! 

HuLi Avalakki/ Udupi style Spiced poha

Avalakki is considererd “shreshta”(rough translation: superior) to Lord Krishna. HuLi(literally sour/tangy) avalakki, is a sweet and tangy tasting avalakki - tasting very close to gojjavalakki. 

This is generally made during festival times as an evening snack along with some kadle usli(channa stir fry) and badam milk, for no-rice diets. In Kota community this is popularly made during engagement-ceremonies, or as one of the breakfast items during weddings.  

This is one of my favorite dishes. My mom makes it best, very close to the ones made by Adige battru(cooks in marriages) :)

This is her recipe. 

Do try!

Happy Krishnashtami!! 

Rave guliyappa

Tried this easy, quick breakfast recipe recently - Rave guliyappa. Loved the taste. It tasted somewhat in between rave idli and rave dosa - more like crunchiness of dosa and softness of idlis put together. 

Something different from regular idli dosa. Easy recipe - just mix everything together and pour into guliyappa kallu, roast to crispiness and enjoy with some chutney. 

Do try!

Tomato Dose

A different take on our very humble, regular, everyday breakfast - uddina dose. Just add tomato along with masala, you have a different tasting dose. Tastes tangy because of the tomatoes. I would say it will be good not to over-ferment the batter, so that sourness is mostly form tomatoes.

I think tomato dose is popular in Tamil Nadu. It is very easy to make if you already have dose batter. I followed this recipe from Sihi Kahi Chandru’s cooking show - barjari bhojana.. it tasted really good.. Do try!

Kothu Parotta

I have never tasted kothu parotta before. I am always skeptical trying out new dishes at restaurants. Lest I try something new and it doesn’t turn out as good as my expectations, then my whole “restaurant going” experience is ruined. The kind of hunger I’m in when I go to restaurants, I’m in no mood to wait nor to try out anything new.

For new dishes, either I try from frozen section at Indian stores, or I try to make it at home, or I taste from my husband’s plate when he is trying out something new :)

So I find this kothu parotta in frozen section. I bring it home and open it, only to realize that it’s just plain parotta cut into fancy strips. That's when I googled for it and found out about salna. 

Parotta(malabar parotta) is basically maida based flaky paratha(bread). It is little time consuming to make from scratch. But is easily available in frozen section at Indian stores. Kottu parotta(vegetarian version) is made by sautéing parotta pieces in salna(tomato based gravy) and some vegetables. 

It turned out very tasty. Both my husband and daughter loved it. Do try!

sabbakki rotti/ sabudana thalipeeth

I don’t think there’s anybody who is unaware of Hebbar’s kitchen. So much popularity in such a short time. Hers to-the-point videos make any complicated recipe look like a piece of cake. 

I have only tried couple of her recipes, though many have made into my bookmark folder. 

Sabbakki, as I knew, was used only in payasa(kheer), or sandige(fryums). Long time back, before blogging, I had tried sabudana vada, which had turned out very tasty and crunchy. But it had taken really long time to fry, which had put me off in trying it again. 

Then I saw this video of Sabudana thalipeeth(sabbakki rotti), which looked pretty easy, like all her other videos. The dough was almost same to what I had tried before, so I knew it would be tasty. And making rotti is anyways less complicated than frying. So I tried and I  must say, I was not disappointed. Taste was awesome! But time taken to cook was not as quick as regular rotti. 

If you don’t roast it thoroughly, it breaks apart very easily while flipping. It is very filling. So I would advise making small rottis, and roast two rottis at a time.

Do try!

Set Dose/Set Dosa

All these days I was using my regular dosa batter, pour it thick, and make set dose. It would come out good, but it didn’t have that restaurant taste. Then I came across this interesting recipe with different proportion of urad dal and rice. The dosa came out very soft, fluffy and airy. The taste was also very close to the restaurant ones.   

The only catch is (as the blogger points out), dosa batter becomes thin as it ferments. Then you’ll need to adjust by adding rice flour. Hence the batter should be ground thick. 

Enjoy set dose with some veg kurma(my next post) and chutney!

Eggless Blueberry muffin

After success of using flax meal as an egg substitute in Chocolate cake, I’ve been following more of regular baking recipes(with eggs) and replacing eggs with flax meal, instead of searching for eggless version. I’ve grown out of baking powder+baking soda, which most of the eggless versions have as an egg substitute, as it leaves an after taste in your mouth. Flax meal doesn’t do that. 

I had a box of blueberries from Costco, which nobody wanted to eat. Hence I decided to bake this blueberry muffin to use it up. The muffin rose beautifully as seen in the picture. 

The recipe is fairly easy. This also makes a good item for your kid’s lunch box or snack. Make mini muffins and you can easily fit them in their tiny lunch boxes, or take them for a kid’s potluck. 

Do try!

Veg Palya for Sandwich/Paratha - Mixed Veg Stuffing

Sandwich is a staple in our house. My daughter loves them and I love them too. I can stuff any kind of vegetable and she wouldn’t even notice..  

I generally make mixed vegetable palya with potato, carrot, beans and peas. Nothing fancy just regular potato palya with added vegetables...
  

Then I came across this mix veg paratha at Indian Stores which had crushed vegetables in them; which gave me an idea to crush the frozen mixed vegetables, instead of cutting all the vegetables from scratch. 

Result?
..
Tada!

I got an easy and a better tasting Playa. 

I coarsely ground frozen vegetables. And when they are ground together the individual taste of each vegetable is blended together to give an unique taste in every bite. 

This stuffing could be used for Parathas as well... you can make cutlets.. or tikkis.. or mix veg bonda.. basically anything which requires stuffing..

Do try! 

Bombay Saagu/Potato Saagu

Bombay Saagu/ Potato Saagu is a nice accompaniment for Set dosa, Rave idli or Poori/Chapathi. I like rave idli-bombay saagu-chutney combination very much and I make it a point to prepare this every time I make rave idli. 

This is my amma’s recipe. It is basically just cooked potato mixed in some besan(gram flour) based curry. I think the usage of besan as a thickening agent, just like jhunka(which is very much a North Karnataka/Maharashtra-ian dish), is the reason behind having “bombay” in its name. 

The procedure is very very easy and the taste is simply awesome.

Enjoy!