Idli upma and Idli Manchurian

What does one do with about eight to ten leftover idlis?

 Here is the answer.

•  Lets begin by crumbling them in a bowl.

• Then lets take one teaspoon of mustard seeds ( I forgot to put them in this picture ), a few curry leaves , one inch piece ginger grated , one teaspoon each of urad dal and chana dal , a handful of peanuts and about half a cup of peas ( I added them as an after thought so its not there in the picture ) and three medium onions chopped fine and yes two green chillies chopped fine too.

• In a pan we take oil anywhere between two to six tablespoons depending on how calorie conscious you are.

• Throw in the mustard seeds and let them make a lot of noise while spluttering .

• The curry leaves follow suit.

• Followed by the dals and let them pinken a little.

• Add the peanuts and stir till they are cooked completly.

• Add the grated ginger and stir for a minute.

• Now its the turn of the chopped onions to go in and turn pink.

• As I mentioned earlier that the peas was an after thought , you could skip this part if you dont have peas. And if you like them then toss the peas for a while till they are cooked but still a little crunchy.

• Now comes the crumbled idli for which we have taken so much of pains. Toss them well and add salt to taste.

• And serve with chutney or even plain tastes nice.

And if that doesn' t suit your style here is another recipe which will use up the idlis and turn out a delicious snack as well. 
Coming up soon is "Idli Manchurian".

peas· school tiffin meals· snacks and in between meals· south Indian food

Idli upma and Idli Manchurian

What does one do with about eight to ten leftover idlis?

 Here is the answer.

•  Lets begin by crumbling them in a bowl.

• Then lets take one teaspoon of mustard seeds ( I forgot to put them in this picture ), a few curry leaves , one inch piece ginger grated , one teaspoon each of urad dal and chana dal , a handful of peanuts and about half a cup of peas ( I added them as an after thought so its not there in the picture ) and three medium onions chopped fine and yes two green chillies chopped fine too.

• In a pan we take oil anywhere between two to six tablespoons depending on how calorie conscious you are.

• Throw in the mustard seeds and let them make a lot of noise while spluttering .

• The curry leaves follow suit.

• Followed by the dals and let them pinken a little.

• Add the peanuts and stir till they are cooked completly.

• Add the grated ginger and stir for a minute.

• Now its the turn of the chopped onions to go in and turn pink.

• As I mentioned earlier that the peas was an after thought , you could skip this part if you dont have peas. And if you like them then toss the peas for a while till they are cooked but still a little crunchy.

• Now comes the crumbled idli for which we have taken so much of pains. Toss them well and add salt to taste.

• And serve with chutney or even plain tastes nice.

And if that doesn' t suit your style here is another recipe which will use up the idlis and turn out a delicious snack as well. 
Coming up soon is "Idli Manchurian".

Paniyaram

What happens when a Punjabi kudi ( those who don't know my age can permit me to write that) , born in Haryana and spent the lifetime in the remotest corners of the country and met people and made friends with people from all regions of India decide to make Paniyaram.

          By now I have justified the name of my blog which to many seems a little difficult to remember , spell or pronounce.

  Kaleidoscope...where in a little juggle of the hands makes the most beautiful and different designs.Well to me my food looks good and it is different , I will let you all be the judge of the taste as you are the one cooking it.

        I tasted "paniyaram"( I didn't know that was the name of this delicious snack )about eight years back when my neighbour sent me some . I remember to this day that we were living in a temporary accomodation ( ignore it if you can't relate to this term , this living in a two room set with the boxes piled up in the verandah and the neighbours being in such close proximity that each time one sneezes one must say excuse me too , is an absolutely fun experience if one has the right attitude for it ) , so as I was saying that my neighbour with whom I would exchange recipes also taught me how to make this , well being a punjabi myself  I have yet to master it but so far this is the way I figured it out.

     I am fortunate to have a lot of friends from the beautiful south of the country and I am sure they will have lots to add to make this recipe better.

   Lets begin with the soaking of one cup of urad dal along with half a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds overnight.

If you do not get the rounded urad dal in your grocery stores like the one in the picture , no sweat the regular split variety  will do.

Then we take about two cups of idli rice in a seperate utensil and soak it too .

 Every one has their own proportion of the rice and dals to be used  , and also the kind of rice  , and trust me they are all correct.

From my limited knowledge and the little experience in this cuisine per say I would say that by far this proportion 

has given me the best results . Now idli rice might not be available every where so the next best option is to use raw rice in the same proportion. We soak them seperately overnight.

 I prefer using steel as much as possible for my cooking etc .Its a personal choice so you would find steel in all shapes and sizes in my pictures.

Usha , also advised me in investing in a grinder...

...The poor guy is a little old now but has been a faithful friend all these years.

   It makes grinding a lot more easier especially if you a re going to make south Indian food often.

So we begin by draining out any extra water from the dal and grinding it in this machine till it becomes light and fluffy. If you are doing it in your mixer it might take a few minutes longer.

We scoop out the batter into the utensil. I must add here that this lady I am talking about would scoop out the batter while the machine would be on and the stones would be rotating and  grinding with such ease and finesse that it seemd the easiest thing to do. I have yet to be able to do it like her. So I stop the machine and with a little bit of twisting and turning of my hands take out the whole batter so that Ican grind my rice along with two tablespoons of poha to a slightly coarse texture. We scoop again and take out the rice and mix it with the dal  batter along with a teaspoon of salt . Let the batter ferment for about eight hours.

This is the regular idli batter , but we are talking Paniyaram here , so lets treat this batter a little more.

Take a little oil , about two tablespoons and put a teaspoon of mustard seeds, let them splitter and splutter a bit and then quieten them down by adding a few curry leaves followed by two very finely chopped "small onions" or shallots being the right technical term for them. Let them pinken a bit and let the "tadka "cool a bit and then add two cups of the dal idli batter and mix well. You could  use the rest of the batter to make the idlis or else treble the quantity of the tempering and add to the batter to make  lots and lots of "Paniyarams".

We  are not going to use the regular idli steamer here...

but the paniyarakkal....

I use the Prestige non stick one though there are heavy duty iron ones available too . You can even buy a slightly larger size if you want to make more in one go. But they turn out good in a matter of a few minutes so for a small family I feel  this set of seven is fine.

So we put about a tablespoon each into the pits and just to make them tastier a little oil too.

Cover them with a lid and in about a minute turn them over with the help of a spoon.

Serve them hot as they taste best that way with coconut chutney.

coconut· school tiffin meals· snacks and in between meals· south Indian food

Paniyaram

What happens when a Punjabi kudi ( those who don't know my age can permit me to write that) , born in Haryana and spent the lifetime in the remotest corners of the country and met people and made friends with people from all regions of India decide to make Paniyaram.

          By now I have justified the name of my blog which to many seems a little difficult to remember , spell or pronounce.

  Kaleidoscope...where in a little juggle of the hands makes the most beautiful and different designs.Well to me my food looks good and it is different , I will let you all be the judge of the taste as you are the one cooking it.

        I tasted "paniyaram"( I didn't know that was the name of this delicious snack )about eight years back when my neighbour sent me some . I remember to this day that we were living in a temporary accomodation ( ignore it if you can't relate to this term , this living in a two room set with the boxes piled up in the verandah and the neighbours being in such close proximity that each time one sneezes one must say excuse me too , is an absolutely fun experience if one has the right attitude for it ) , so as I was saying that my neighbour with whom I would exchange recipes also taught me how to make this , well being a punjabi myself  I have yet to master it but so far this is the way I figured it out.

     I am fortunate to have a lot of friends from the beautiful south of the country and I am sure they will have lots to add to make this recipe better.

   Lets begin with the soaking of one cup of urad dal along with half a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds overnight.

If you do not get the rounded urad dal in your grocery stores like the one in the picture , no sweat the regular split variety  will do.

Then we take about two cups of idli rice in a seperate utensil and soak it too .

 Every one has their own proportion of the rice and dals to be used  , and also the kind of rice  , and trust me they are all correct.

From my limited knowledge and the little experience in this cuisine per say I would say that by far this proportion 

has given me the best results . Now idli rice might not be available every where so the next best option is to use raw rice in the same proportion. We soak them seperately overnight.

 I prefer using steel as much as possible for my cooking etc .Its a personal choice so you would find steel in all shapes and sizes in my pictures.

Usha , also advised me in investing in a grinder...

...The poor guy is a little old now but has been a faithful friend all these years.

   It makes grinding a lot more easier especially if you a re going to make south Indian food often.

So we begin by draining out any extra water from the dal and grinding it in this machine till it becomes light and fluffy. If you are doing it in your mixer it might take a few minutes longer.

We scoop out the batter into the utensil. I must add here that this lady I am talking about would scoop out the batter while the machine would be on and the stones would be rotating and  grinding with such ease and finesse that it seemd the easiest thing to do. I have yet to be able to do it like her. So I stop the machine and with a little bit of twisting and turning of my hands take out the whole batter so that Ican grind my rice along with two tablespoons of poha to a slightly coarse texture. We scoop again and take out the rice and mix it with the dal  batter along with a teaspoon of salt . Let the batter ferment for about eight hours.

This is the regular idli batter , but we are talking Paniyaram here , so lets treat this batter a little more.

Take a little oil , about two tablespoons and put a teaspoon of mustard seeds, let them splitter and splutter a bit and then quieten them down by adding a few curry leaves followed by two very finely chopped "small onions" or shallots being the right technical term for them. Let them pinken a bit and let the "tadka "cool a bit and then add two cups of the dal idli batter and mix well. You could  use the rest of the batter to make the idlis or else treble the quantity of the tempering and add to the batter to make  lots and lots of "Paniyarams".

We  are not going to use the regular idli steamer here...

but the paniyarakkal....

I use the Prestige non stick one though there are heavy duty iron ones available too . You can even buy a slightly larger size if you want to make more in one go. But they turn out good in a matter of a few minutes so for a small family I feel  this set of seven is fine.

So we put about a tablespoon each into the pits and just to make them tastier a little oil too.

Cover them with a lid and in about a minute turn them over with the help of a spoon.

Serve them hot as they taste best that way with coconut chutney.

Egg dosa / chickpea flour pancakes

Once upon a time there was half a cup of chick pea flour. It was also known by the hindi name of besan. It fell into a mixing bowl.

It asked one cup of water and one level teaspoon of salt  to join in.Then the whisk went whrrr whrrr and they  mixed well and rested  happily in one corner of the kitchen for half an hour.

Four eggs hopped in and the whisk again went whrrr whrrr. 

Then two onions , quarter  cup of coriander leaves, one green chilly and one  inch piece ginger chopped themselves very fine and joined the rest of the gang in the mixing bowl.

Then came a non stick pan with a tablespoon of oil and invited a 

ladle ful of the batter to fall into it.

The pan swirled and the batter spread into a delicious looking pan cake or egg dosa if you care to call it by the original desi name. Another tablespoon of oil went into the pan to make it tastier.

Then it flipped onto the other side to get cooked on both the sides.

It jumped onto a plate and was joined in by a coriander chutney and some tomato ketchup.

Then it got gobbled up by two hungry and naughty children.

chickpea flour or besan· egg.· school tiffin meals· snacks and in between meals

Egg dosa / chickpea flour pancakes

Once upon a time there was half a cup of chick pea flour. It was also known by the hindi name of besan. It fell into a mixing bowl.

It asked one cup of water and one level teaspoon of salt  to join in.Then the whisk went whrrr whrrr and they  mixed well and rested  happily in one corner of the kitchen for half an hour.

Four eggs hopped in and the whisk again went whrrr whrrr. 

Then two onions , quarter  cup of coriander leaves, one green chilly and one  inch piece ginger chopped themselves very fine and joined the rest of the gang in the mixing bowl.

Then came a non stick pan with a tablespoon of oil and invited a 

ladle ful of the batter to fall into it.

The pan swirled and the batter spread into a delicious looking pan cake or egg dosa if you care to call it by the original desi name. Another tablespoon of oil went into the pan to make it tastier.

Then it flipped onto the other side to get cooked on both the sides.

It jumped onto a plate and was joined in by a coriander chutney and some tomato ketchup.

Then it got gobbled up by two hungry and naughty children.

Grilled Spinach Toasts

In Goa I often had guests for dinner parties who were pure vegetarians , I mean they would'nt even eat eggs , and I would wonder what to make as starters which would not have egg as a binding agent and since these days people don't prefer even fried snacks , just added to the challenge . I had to come up with a recipe part of which I could prepare in advance and rest of the easy stuff could be done later so that my kitchen would'nt look too messy.

        I love this recipe because we can prepare the sauce much in advance and thats better as the sauce thickens to a good consistency by the time we really need to use it.

       

If you find them irresistible then go ahead and read the recipe.

    We will begin with a tablespoon of butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Turn the gas on low flame and the moment the butter begins to melt....

.....add two tablespoon of flour to it and.... 

.....stir for a minute and then...

...add just one cup of chilled milk and stir slowly to make a .....

 .....thick white sauce.

 ..add one fourth cup of thick spinach puree and stir well. Now friends , the thick spinach puree is just a few leaves of spinach in a pressure cooker, steamed by giving just a whistle without adding any water and  cooling and sqeezing  out all the water and then blending it coarsely.

Add one fourth teaspoon of black pepper powder and salt to taste ( I added about half a teaspoon ).

The sauce should look something like this.....

I had this beautiful morning sunshine coming in through my window and I placed the tray right where I could catch the most of the light. .....anyways back to the recipe......put about a teaspoonful on  a sliced french loaf and...

...place the tray on the high rack .Grill for three minutes and....

....serve hot. If you care for some cheddar too then...

  

..... you could sprinkle a dash of cheddar too before placing them under the grill and then your finished product would look something like this.

cheddar cheese· grilled goodies· snacks and in between meals· spinach

Grilled Spinach Toasts

In Goa I often had guests for dinner parties who were pure vegetarians , I mean they would'nt even eat eggs , and I would wonder what to make as starters which would not have egg as a binding agent and since these days people don't prefer even fried snacks , just added to the challenge . I had to come up with a recipe part of which I could prepare in advance and rest of the easy stuff could be done later so that my kitchen would'nt look too messy.

        I love this recipe because we can prepare the sauce much in advance and thats better as the sauce thickens to a good consistency by the time we really need to use it.

       

If you find them irresistible then go ahead and read the recipe.

    We will begin with a tablespoon of butter in a heavy bottomed pan. Turn the gas on low flame and the moment the butter begins to melt....

.....add two tablespoon of flour to it and.... 

.....stir for a minute and then...

...add just one cup of chilled milk and stir slowly to make a .....

 .....thick white sauce.

 ..add one fourth cup of thick spinach puree and stir well. Now friends , the thick spinach puree is just a few leaves of spinach in a pressure cooker, steamed by giving just a whistle without adding any water and  cooling and sqeezing  out all the water and then blending it coarsely.

Add one fourth teaspoon of black pepper powder and salt to taste ( I added about half a teaspoon ).

The sauce should look something like this.....

I had this beautiful morning sunshine coming in through my window and I placed the tray right where I could catch the most of the light. .....anyways back to the recipe......put about a teaspoonful on  a sliced french loaf and...

...place the tray on the high rack .Grill for three minutes and....

....serve hot. If you care for some cheddar too then...

  

..... you could sprinkle a dash of cheddar too before placing them under the grill and then your finished product would look something like this.