Panagam

This is Lord NarasimhaDev's favourite, The Panagam at our place has a little twist. We add chia seeds to it.

Ingredients

Jaggery - 11/2 cups
Water - 3 cups
Dry ginger - 1 tsp
Cardamom - 3 pods
Pepper - 4 
Salt - a very small pinch
Lemon - 1
Chia seeds - 3 tsps

Method

Soak the chia seeds in one cup of water overnight or atleast 2 to 3 hours before making panagam.

In a another vessel soak the jaggery in the remaining two cups of water. 
To the jaggery water mix add the dry ginger, salt and juice of lemon.
Break the pepper and cardamom coarsely with a hand grinder and add it to the jaggery mix.
Mix everything well and make sure all jaggery is melted. Strain the panagam.
Add the soaked chia seeds to the panagam. Serve chilled.

Ulundu Vadai/ Medu vadai/ Lentil Salty Donut

Meduvadai or Ulundu vadai is one of the popular dish of south Indian cuisine which can be served as a snack in the evening or served along with idlis, dosas and pongal as breakfast. It is often made on all festivals and auspicious occasions in South India.

Ingredients
Urad dal- 1 cup
green chillies- 1
ginger- 2 inch
curry leaves- a string
whole black pepper- 1/4 tsp
baking soda- a pinch (optional)
water
salt to taste
oil for deep frying

Preparation:
Wash and soak the urad dal for 1-2 hours. I

Strain the water and grind the urad dal in a blender with curry leaves, ginger, green chillies and little water to get a fine thick paste and as smooth as a butter.

Add salt and whole black pepper to the paste and mix well.

Heat oil in a pan for frying. Check the temperature of the oil by dropping a small drop of the paste.

Grease your palm with oil or  wet your palm with water so that the paste doesn't stick to your hand.

Take a spoonful of the paste in the palm. Slowly slide it to you four finger and make a hole with your thumb in the middle and gently slide it into the oil.

Fry the vadai on a medium flame.

After 4-5 minutes flip them and fry them until golden brown.

 Remove them from oil and drain them on a paper towel.

Serve them hot with coconut chutney and sambar.

Note:
I prefer to refrigerated the urad dal while soaking because this will prevent the batter to get heated while grinding.
To make vadais in large quantities I prefer using a wet grinder to make the batter inorder to get the butter consistency.

Chettinad Tomato soup

Chettinad refers to the southern part of Tamil Nadu, India. Chettinad cuisine is one of the spiciest and aromatic cuisine of India. I gathered information from a couple of food blogs regarding this soup and have presented my own 'no onion no garlic' version.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes, ripe- 2
green chilli - 1
toor dal- 1tablespoon
Mung dal- 1 tablespoon
curry leaves- a string
fennel seeds- 1 teaspoon
cumin seeds- 1 teaspoon
black pepper, whole- 1 teaspoon
bay leaf- 2
cinnamon stick- 1
turmeric powder- a pinch
asafoetida- a pinch
salt to taste
corriander leaves- to garnish

Method:
Heat some oil in a pressure cooker. Add cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black pepper, cinnamon sticks, bay leaf .

When the cumin cracks, add green chilli, chopped tomatoes, toor & mung dal, asafoetida, tumeric powder, curry leaves and saute them for a minute.

 Add salt and 2 cups of water and steam them for atleast 3 whistles.

 Turn off the heat and wait until the pressure releases.

Then pour them in a strainer and strain them to get a clear soup.

If possibble, squeeze out the tomatoes and dal by handor a potato masher.

Garnish the spicy clear soup with corriander leaves .

Add black pepper powser if required.

Serve hot.

Rava Dosa / crispy semolina pancake

Rava Dosa is a crispy pancake of South India. It is a derivative of the popular Dosa. This variety of dosa does not require fermentation. It is usually considered as a light meal which can be served for breakfast or dinner.

Ingredients: 

Semolina/ Sooji rava/ Farina- 1 cup 

Maida / All purpose flour- 1/2 cup

Rice flour- 1 cup

Ginger- 1 inch (chopped)

Green Chillies- 2-3

Cumin seeds- 1-2 tsp

Crushed black pepper- 1 tsp

Few broken cashew nuts (optional)

salt to taste

water

oil / ghee to make dosa

Preparation:

Mix the above ingredients with water and bring it to butter milk consistency. Heat a flat pan and sprinkle the batter evenly on the pan with your hand. Add ghee or oil  and cook it on a medium high flame. You would get a crispy Rava Dosa. Rava Dosa can be served with coconut chutney and sambar.

Suggestion: Finely chopped cabbage can be used as a topping for the dosa.

Ragi(Finger Millet/Red Millet) Dosa

Ragi is rich in calcium and extremely good for vegans and vegetarians. It is the best source of calcium. 100 gms of ragi contains approx 350 mg of calcium. We make ragi dosas very regularly at home to get our required calcium intake. Women should have a good amount of calcium in the diet as with age and deficiency of calcium, the bones become porous and cause problems. This recipe is from my mother. Very simple to prepare and goes very well with the Tamarind Cilantro Chutney that I had posted earlier.

Ingredients:

Ragi Flour (Red Millet/ Finger Millet) – 2 cups
Urad Dhal - 1/2 cup
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Salt according to taste

Method:

Soak the urad dhal and fenugreek seeds for 45 minutes and grind the same like we do for our regular dosas adding water in a mixer. Next mix the ground urad dhal, ragi flour and salt together. Add water and mix everything well. The batter should be slightly thin than the regular dosa batter. Keep this batter covered overnight.




In the morning mix the puffed up batter very well. On a medium hot tava pour the batter with a help of a ladle and spread it slowly.

Sprinkle some oil on top. Flip and cook the other side. Serve hot with chutney or sambhar.

The above picture shows the ragi dosa served with the Tamarind Cliantro chutney.