healthy breakfast

Rajamudi rice Pundi:

October 30, 2020

Pundi/Unde/mudde is nothing but steamed rice dumpling from south canara/Mangalore region. It is our traditional Breakfast recipe. After steaming, we have two to three options to have this super healthy dish. One is with liquid jaggery combined with ghee, or pundi can be drizzled with coconut oil and dipped in an onion flavoured coconut chutney. Last but not the least, by soaking in a masala gravy, known as Unde bendi.

Traditionally we use Red boiled rice to prepare. Here I have used fragrant Rajamudi variety of red rice, that was earlier grown exclusively for the “Maharajas of Mysore” . It is high in fibre, antioxidants, and Iron. It is unpolished and grains are beautiful with the mix and match of pinkish red lines, which has a nice aroma and it surely enhances the flavour of the Pundi.

I did this particular trial for Rice Calendar 2019. Unique effort by Save Our Rice Campaign and Sahaja Samrudha to Popularize traditional Rice and Recipes.

Save Our rice campaign is proud to proclaim that it has successfully mainstreamed around 100 different varieties of traditional rice across the country. Each rice variety is unique and differs in its taste, colour, texture, and cooking quality and contains some special properties like being medicinal, scented, sticky and so on.

It is one of the four recipes ,which I have shared with and got to be a part of this project in a very small way.

Ingredients:

Rajamudi rice – 2 cups

Salt

Coconut oil – 1 tablespoon

Coconut – ½ cup (grated)

Method:

-Wash, soak rice for 3 to 4 hours

-Grind rice into little grainy texture by adding salt.

-Put ground batter, oil, coconut in thick kadai, cook this into ball like mass.

-Cool a bit, take little cooked dough at a time, and make roundels.

– Place this in an idli steamer and cook for 20-30 minutes and enjoy with chutney or liquid jaggery mixed with little ghee.

Unde/Pundi Bendi/ dumpling in masala gravy:

Here, we ned to break pundi into big chunks and keep it ready.

For Masala: Take one bowl of grated coconut, roasted red chillies – 2 to 4 , 1 tsp of coriander, ¼ tsp of cumin, 2 cloves of garlic, little tamarind, and grind into smooth paste.

In a wok, heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, splutter mustard,1 broken red chilli and add curry leaves. Add half finely chopped onion and fry until it turns brown.

Now, add ground masala paste into the seasoning and adjust the consistency, add salt, pinch of jaggery and boil.

When it starts to boil, add broken chunks, and further boil for 5 more minutes or until it reaches the thick consistency.

Serve hot and enjoy.

Sabudana/Sago idli:

March 30, 2019

Sago/ Sabudana is also known as Sabbakki, Javasiri in Southern part of India. Yes! It has many names and is one of the favourite staple foods during the festivals or fasting time. Sabudana is rich in complex carbohydrates due to which, it is easy to digest as well as takes longer to breakdown. Hence, you don’t feel hungry for long.

In our tradition, it has been used from ages during the summer time to maintain body heat, during the time of illness or as baby food. During all these situations, people need to take low calorie, high in energy, easily digestible meal option. Traditionally it is combined with rice while making gruel.

In India we normally make sweets as well as savouries from these edible pearls. Sago is usually confused with Tapioca pearls. Sago is extracted from the inner pith of the tropical palm trees. On the other hand, Tapioca pearls are made by using Cassava, it is a tuber.

In Summer, it is a good idea to include Sago, rice as well as curds in your diet to maintain body heat. I have included fresh homemade turmeric powder, fresh coconut, cumin as well as chopped coriander to enhance the taste as well as nutrients.

Ingredients:

Rice Rava / Idli Rava – 2 cups

Sabudana – 1 cup

Curds – 2 cups

Water – 1 cup

Cumin – 1 table spoon

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Salt

Grated coconut – 1 fist full

Chopped coriander leaves – 3 table spoons

Eno fruit salt or cooking soda – 1 tsp

Method:

-Mix Rice Rava and Sabudana, wash twice and drain. Add curd, water, cumin, turmeric powder, salt and keep it covered overnight.

-Next morning, add coconut, Eno fruit salt, coriander. If needed, adjust the consistency of the batter by adding little extra water.

Mix well and make idlies like regular idlies in an idli steamer for about 10 minutes and serve with chutney.

NOTE: Vegans can substitute with any plant based curds to make this batter.

Rava idli with Oats/ Semolina idli with Oats:

June 10, 2018

I normally used to make plain Oats idli, earlier. It is our favourite breakfast item and I wanted to make a slight change while preparing and used my Rava idli making method with oats added in it and served with Potato Sagu as how I serve normal Rava idli. It tasted good and we started liking this method instead of making plain Rava idli. This is one more instant and handy recipe for me and works just fine even in kid’s lunch box as well. Addition of oats increases the nutritional value of the dish. So, whenever excess curd is there, this is one more recipe to indulge in that too without any grinding and prior planning.

I normally prepare the dry mixture the previous night and keep it ready to cut short my early morning job. It works very well. Dry mix consists of seasoning and roasting part.

How I make –

Ingredients:

Normal Rava / Semolina – 2 cups

Oats – 2 cups

Curds – 2 cups

Water – 3 cups

Eno fruit salt – 1 tea spoon

Salt

Coriander leaves – ¼ cup (chopped)

Seasoning:

Ghee or oil – 2 table spoons

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1tea spoon

Chana dal – 1 tea spoon

Hing – ¼ tea spoon

Cumin – 1 tea spoon

Cashew bits – 2 table spoons (optional)

Curry leaves – 2 springs (Shredded)

Method:

-Take one kadai, do seasoning part. Heat ghee, splutter mustard, then add urad and chana dal.

-When dals become red, add cashew, hing, cumin, curry leaves and fry for 1 minute.

-Add Rava and roast for a while (until it is grainy) and add oats and proceed the roasting process for some more time. (May be 2 minutes more).

– Add in chopped coriander and mix until it distributes evenly and wilts a little.

-Switch off the gas and leave this mixture to cool. (I usually prepare this much in the previous night and keep it ready)

-Next comes the batter preparation. Use room temperature mixture. Don’t use hot Rava mixture to make idli batter.

-Take one big bowl, pour in curd and water (here I normally take one cup of liquid to each cup of oats and 1 ½ cup of liquid to each cup of rawa) It is a very simple calculation 😊

-Add salt and Eno fruit salt (you can use cooking soda as well) beat a little to attain frothy texture.

-Add seasoned Rava and oats mixture to this and mix.

-Now comes the idli steaming part.

-Take one cooker, pour one cup of water at the base and heat.

-Rinse idli mould by using fresh water. (it is an alternate to greasing the mould)

-Pour ready batter to idli mould, keep it in a steamer and steam cook for 10 minutes.

-Remove, cool, de mould and serve with chutney or potato Sagu.

Tamilnadu Style Idli and Dosa Batter:

November 5, 2017

It is a Two in one bonanza—Yes!!!!

I always wondered how to get a pillowy soft kind of idli which is a speciality of Tamilnadu. In our coastal side, idli turns out soft but has a little grainy texture, not spongy which we get in all Tamilian eating joints. During one such discussion in our Foodie group, we asked to provide Tamilian style idli recipe with our ever energetic, multitalented uncle Senguttuvan. I really was not expecting this kind of response after one week. He and his wife literally took all the trouble and wrote step by step procedures with pictures, some tricks and notes. Added to that, there were a couple of video’s too. I was really overwhelmed and wanted to give its due credit by publishing this recipe in my blog after preparing it myself at home and we all loved it.

I tried his Idli recipe and paired it with another hit recipe of his Onion Garlic Kolumbu. It was a pair made in heaven kind of breakfast. I will post the Kolumbu recipe next and once again all thanks to Senguttuvan Subburathina and his wife Jayanthi Senguttuvan for this amazing recipe. Now, over to his words as it is and my pictures-

Here we go!

The selection of Rice is important. Boiled Rice (Idly rice) with patches of white will help in better softness of Idly.

We use whole white Urad Dal. Not broken one. (why? This also help soft Idly they say. I am not sure)

Fenugreek (Methi /Menthya Seeds)

Salt to taste.

Water as required.

Only the above ingredients go into making of this Idly / Dosa batter.

Wash the Rice 2-3 times with water and soak in clear water for 2hrs.
Simultaneously, wash Urad Dal and Menthya seeds and soak in water.

THE RATIO IS – RICE 4:1 URAD DAL. One TeaSpoon of Menthya.

Use of wet grinder is recommended. Heat generated during use of Mixie / blender spoils the Batter making. Though ice water usage will minimize the effect in mixie.

First, Grind the Urad Dal first, using the same water in which it was soaked. Grind for 25 mins adding water little by little so that a soft thick fluffy batter consistency is reached.

Transfer to a vessel and start grinding the Rice adding water little by little as you grind. About half an hour of grinding will give a little coarseness in batter. This thick batter is to be added to the Urad/ Fenugreek mixed batter.

Add required ROCKSALT (to taste) and mix well with hands. This is important. The good bacteria in hands help fermentation of batter. Take care to choose a vessel that will allow 25% raise in the height of batter after fermentation.

Normally, the batter is prepared by noon around 2pm. By night, around 8-9 pm, the batter is well fermented, for Chennai weather. In cold climate, it is recommended to switch the light on in OTG and keep it in, so that the warm light helps in faster fermentation.

At 9pm, when you find the batter well fermented, mix it well with ladle and close and keep refrigerated.

As and when required, take the small quantity of batter in a separate vessel and use that portion leaving the main portion of batter under constant refrigeration, so that it does not get further fermented.

The batter is ready for Idly / Dosa preparation the next day morning. Mix well and use for fresh fluffy Idly.

Use a drop of oil in each pit of Idly plate and spread oil so that Idly comes out smooth. We cook Idly in pressure cooker without placing the weight. It just takes 7 minutes to get fluffy Idlies cooked.

After removing the Idly plates from cooker allow a minute or two to cool down and remove the Idly for easy removal.

For Dosa preparation:

Remove small quantity of this batter to another vessel and add little water mix well and use. A thick Dosa or thin roast Dosa can be prepared with same batter.

Trust the above details help.

Note from Me:

-In Bangalore weather it takes more time to ferment. It took me almost 16 hours.

-I personally feel very lazy to remove urad dal after grinding. So, I add soaked rice and continue grinding as it is. It also works just fine.

Kumbalakai/Ash gourd Dosa:

October 19, 2017

When I prepared Kashi halwa, so much quantity of the inner fleshy part was left and I was not in the mood to throw it away. I immediately made a couple of breakfast options from the remaining inner fleshy part, which can be made by adding ash gourd pieces as well. I feel that the inner core has more flavour than real ash gourd: D Ash gourd is considered as super food which has many healing properties and it is very good for the human body. It is low in calories hence it is good for weight watchers as well as diabetics.

This Dosa batter is like normal urad dal Dosa and one can prepare paper thin roasted Dosa or thick set Dosa as you wish.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice / White normal rice – 3 cups

Urad dal – ¼ cup

Ash gourd inner soft part – 3 cups (you can use ash gourd pieces as well)

Salt

Method:

-Wash Ash gourd, peel outer skin and remove inner core with seeded part. (Core part can be used to make Dosa batter)

-Remove seeds and take white part and keep it ready.

-Wash rice and dal together. Soak for 2 hours.

-Grind soaked rice and dal with ash gourd core part or pieces by adding sufficient salt.

-Batter should be smooth and consistency is like normal Dosa batter.

-Ferment this ground batter for 8 hours or overnight.

-Next day prepare Dosa as you wish.

-If you like crisp roasted one, spread as thin as possible on heated iron griddle.

-If you wish soft, porous kind, spread like a set Dosa and enjoy with coconut chutney.

Sorekayi Kottige / Bottle gourd steam dumpling:

September 22, 2017

Sorekayi is nothing but humble bottle gourd, which we usually neglect to use in our daily diet, which incidentally has numerous health benefits. In our native, bottle gourd is mainly used to treat stomach illness or jaundice. It is believed that, it has the power (anti-inflammatory properties) to heal our Liver and intestine during the illness. Bottle gourd has close to 90% water content and is great on the stomach and light on digestion. Apart from this, bottle gourd juice is very good for weight watchers, diabetics and for a healthy heart too. We have so many traditional preparations of bottle gourd and all are very low in calories and tasty too.

Ingredients:

Dosa rice – 2 cups

Bottle gourd – 1 or 2 (according to size)

Salt

Banana leaves or turmeric leaves – to wrap

Method:

-Wash Dosa rice and soak it for 3 hours.

-Grate bottle gourd by using big hole of a grater or chop it into very small chunks.

-Grind soaked rice into a fine paste with minimal amount of water and salt.

-Mix chopped or grated veggie and rice batter.

-If you are using turmeric leaves, wipe it and use as it is.

-If you are using banana leaves, take banana leaf, hold it over a gas flame (for wilting) then clean it with a wet cloth.

– If you are using turmeric leaves, use 2 leaves, place it in a “Plus” position, now pour one serving spoon of batter and fold the leaves like a packet.

-If you are using banana leaf, pour batter, fold side wise, then close the ends.

-Steam cook these ready packets in a water filled idly steamer for 30 minutes to 40 minutes in a medium heat.

– Serve this kottige with jaggery syrup with ghee / Honey, coconut chutney or sambar.

Idly/Idli Batter:

August 24, 2017

Idli is very basic, staple breakfast of south India. It is very healthy steam cooked rice and lentil cake which is very nutritious too. Each place has their own rice and lentil ratio or proportion and grinding technique also changes from region to region. In Mangalore, we soak rice and dal separately and grind very fine paste of urad dal and either we mix rice rawa or we are grinding the rice, we keep it a little coarse, hence this batter will be a little coarse. After fermenting the batter, the next day we proceed to make idlies by using either idly stand or idly cups. In our region, idly cups are regular and very common in every house hold and we use special type of idly steamer and invariably we use this for so many kinds of steam cooking.

Ingredients for idli batter:

Idly rice or Idly rawa – 2 cups

Urad/Black gram dal – 1 cup

Poha – 1 fist full

salt

Method:

-Wash and soak rice in one vessel. If you are using idli rawa, you can wash idly rawa and put very little water and keep aside.

-Wash Urad dal and poha in another vessel and soak for 3 to 4 hours.

-At first, drain excess water from urad dal and put this into wet grinder.

-Grind this into smooth paste by adding water in-between while grinding.

-When urad dal batter becomes fine and smooth, its consistency becomes almost double and colour of the batter looks milky white.

– When you think urad dal batter is ready, add soaked rice or rice rawa by draining its soaked water.

-You can use this water while grinding or adjusting the consistency of the batter or to wash wet grinder at first to remove the dough that is stuck on the stone.

-Grind this into small rawa consistency by adding salt and remove this ready batter into big vessel. If you are using rice rawa ,allow batter to mix for couple of minutes and then remove.

-I usually grind urad dal first, then mix in drained rice so that batter mixes uniformly and becomes light and airy.

– Batter consistency should be a little thick and when u hold and drop the batter it should not drop very easily and it should stick to the spoon.

-Close the lid and keep this batter for 8 to 10 hours or more (according to outside weather where you live) for fermentation.

-Next day morning fill idly steamer or pressure cooker with sufficient water, place the porous plate at the centre of the vessel and keep this on the fire.

-Mix fermented batter vigorously, if needed add water and adjust the consistency keep it ready.

-Rinse the idly moulds in fresh water once, it will act as a non-sticky layer between idly and mould.

-When water starts boiling, pour one spoon of batter into respective moulds and steam cook.

-If you are using cups, cook this in a steamer for 15 to 20 minutes. Cups holds more batter than idly stand.

-If you are using idly stand, 7 to 8 minutes of steam cooking is sufficient.

-When it is done, switch off the gas, open the lid and remove moulds outside.

-Once it is cool, remove idly and serve with chutney or sambar or with your choice of side dish.

NOTE:

-Use wet grinder to get awesome soft idlies.

– Use soaked and drained water from the dal or rice while grinding. It will enhance the taste.

-Always mix and pour the batter to the moulds, only after water starts boiling.