Thovve:

Our Thovve is nothing but dali thoye, a delicacy of the Konkani household. With Idli or buns,thovve is somewhat the most loved combo of my husband and his family. Over the years, even I have started to relish this combo as much as they do.

According to my father-in-law, tempering is the basis of any dish. Here, cooked toor dal is boiled and added with a liberal tempering. As we have now monsoon season, it is a most comforting and soothing meal option for us.

Ingredients:

Toor dal – 1 cup

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Green chillies – 2 (slit)

Salt

Hing – ¼ + ¼  tsp

Ghee or coconut oil – 1 tbl spoon

Mustard – 1 to 2 tsp

Red chillies – 1 or 2

Curry leaves

Method:

-I prefer to soak toor dal in advance to get a smooth texture. Wash the dal, add sufficient water, and collect and discard all the foamy froth which forms at the upper surface.

-Now, before closing the cooker lid, put turmeric, green chillies and a tsp of coconut oil or ghee and cook for 3 to 4 whistles with sufficient water.

-Mash the dal, and adjust the consistency by adding extra water. Add salt, ¼ tsp of hing and nicely boil.

-Now, do the tempering. Heat oil or ghee, crackle mustard, hing, red chillies, and curry leaves and pour over the boiled dal.

-Close the lid for some time and allow it to seep in all the flavours. Serve with Idli or buns.

NOTE:

-Soaking the dal and skimming (removing the foam) is optional. It does change the taste of the final product. Hence, I follow the process.

 

 

Idli soup /Side dish for Idlies :

Idli dunked in hot dhal is known as Idli soup. Which is an ideal breakfast, especially when you are not well and craving for a soothing meal. It is one of our favourites too.

Here dhal is made by mixing Toor as well as Green gram / moong dal.

Ingredients:

Toor dal – ¾ cup

Moong dal – ¼ cup

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Ghee – 1 tablespoon

Mustard – 1 tsp

Cumin – ½ tsp

Hing – ¼ tsp

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Ginger julienne – 1 tsp

Green chillies – 2 to 4

Onion – 1 Small ( chopped )

Tomato – 1 small (chopped)

Lemon – (optional)

Method:

-Wash both the dals, cook by adding turmeric and water, mash and keep aside.

-Do seasoning: Heat ghee, splutter mustard, cumin, hing, curry leaves, green chillies, ginger, onion  and fry for a while.

-Add chopped tomato and fry further. Add mashed dhal, sufficient water ,salt, boil for a while.

-Garnish with coriander as well as little lime juice and serve with idlies .

Note:

-This dhal should be a little thin in consistency.

-Dunk idlies with soup and enjoy.

 

 

 

Tiffin Sambar:

Tiffin usually depicts south Indian breakfast. Normally Idli, Dosa, Pongal. This particular sambar is very good combination with Idlies or dosas as well as goes very well with mini idlies which normally known or served as 14 idlies, mini idlies or button idlies at restaurants.

In this sambar, we don’t use any coconut and basically a seasoned mixed dhal with sambar powder as well as baby onions, tomatoes and with or without drumstick pieces.

Ingredients:

Toor dal – 1 cup

Moong dal – ½ cup

Green chillies – 2 (slit)

Baby onions /shallots – 20 (halved)

Tomato – 1 (chopped)

Drum stick – 1 (Cut into 2” pieces) (optional)

Tamarind – 1 tsp

Salt

Jaggery – 1 tsp

Turmeric – 1 tsp

Sambar powder – As needed

Chopped coriander leaves – 2 table spoons

Seasoning:

Oil – 2 table spoons

Mustard – 1 tsp

Cumin – 1 tsp

Hing – ½ tsp

Curry leaves – 1 string

Method:

-Wash and cook toor and moong dal in a pressure cooker. Mash and keep aside.

-Take one tawa, do seasoning. Heat Oil, splutter mustard, cumin, hing and curry leaves.

-Fry onion until it is transparent. Add turmeric, green chillies, tomato and drumstick pieces as well as salt and fry until tomato cooks.

-Add Sambar powder toss for 2 minutes and pour tamarind water, jaggery and boil.

-Add Cooked dal and adjust the consistency and boil nicely.

-Garnish with chopped coriander and serve as a side dish for any south Indian breakfast items.

-If you are serving with Button idlies/ mini idlies Pour one to two serving spoons of sambar, place 14 idlies and once again pour some sambar over those idlies and serve.

 

 

 

 

 

Potato Sagu:

Potato Sagu is an ultimate combo for Rava idli, here in Bangalore. I came to know about Rava idli or Sagu only after coming to Bangalore, after my marriage. Earlier, we never found this combo in Mangalore. I like potato Sagu which is served with Rava idli in MTR hotel, Bangalore. It is here, that the invention of Rava idli happened, during the world war II. At that time, making of idli was so difficult, due to short supply of the rice, this is how they experimented with semolina to prepare idli and it is now history and Rava idli has become a staple diet of south Indians throughout the world.

Earlier I used to use MTR or Mayya’s Potato Sagu masala to this side dish to get a taste as close as their Sagu. But, now they have stopped the product. To replace it, I started using my own masala. 

My preparation goes like this-

Ingredients:

Potato – ½ kg

Onion – 2

Ginger – ½ “

Green chillies – 2

Tomato – 2

Coriander leaves – 2 table spoons

Salt

Sugar/ jaggery

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Sagu masala powder – 1 ½ to 2 tea spoons (Mixture of Puffed chana/ Putani powder, coriander powder, jeera powder, little garam masala and tamarind powder) 

Seasoning:

Cooking oil – 2 table spoons

Mustard – 1 tea spoon

Urad dal – 1 tea spoon

Chana dal – 1 tea spoon

Cumin – ½ tea spoon

Hing – one pinch

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Method:

-Wash potato, cut it into half and cook in sufficient water for 2 whistles in a pressure cooker.

-When it is cool, remove skin, mash and keep aside.

-Chop onion, ginger, green chillies, tomatoes and coriander leaves.

-Take one deep pan, add oil for the seasoning, when it is hot, splutter mustard, fry urad dal and chana dal. Next add hing, cumin, curry leaves.

-Next- fry onion, green chillies, ginger. While frying add turmeric powder as well.

-When onion is light brown, add tomatoes, salt, sugar or jaggery, Sagu masala and fry until tomato is mushy.

-Add 2 to 3 cups of water and when it starts boiling, add mashed potato, coriander leaves and cook for 5 to 10 minutes or until it becomes a homogeneous mix in a low fire.

-Serve with Rava Idli Or Rava and Oats idli  as a dip.

 

 

 

Onion Garlic Kulambu / Poondu – Vengaya Kulambu:

As I said in earlier post of Tamilnadu style Idli, Kulambu is a very good side dish for idli, if you like sweet and sour kind of taste. We all enjoyed this flavourful curry with idli and I had promised to post this recipe in my earlier post. Basically, it is a simple curry with tamarind base, which has shallots and garlic as the main veggies in it. Once again, all thanks to Senguttuvan Subburathina and his wife, Jayanthi Senguttuvan for this amazing recipe. I have made some changes to suit our requirement.

pic main

Ingredient:

Peeled garlic – 20

Shallots /sambar onions – 20

Tamarind – small lemon size.

Salt

Jaggery – as needed.

Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon

Sambar powder – 1 tea spoon

Hing – pea size

Turmeric – ½ tea spoon

Coconut – ¼ cup

Rice flour – 1 tea spoon

Seasoning: Gingelly oil – 1 tea spoon, refined oil – 1 tea spoon, fenugreek seeds – ½ tea spoon, mustard – 1 tea spoon, curry leaves – 1 spring.

Method:

-Remove outer skin of shallots and garlic. If shallots are big, make couple of pieces.

-Soak tamarind in one cup of water.

-Take a vessel, do seasoning by pouring both the oils, when it is hot, add fenugreek, when it is light brown, add mustard. When it crackles, add curry leaves.

Ribbet collage 1

-Add garlic and shallots and fry for a while. Meanwhile add turmeric, hing and toss for a while.

-Add tamarind water, red chilli powder, sambar powder, salt, jaggery and cook onions and garlic.

-Grind coconut and rice flour into smooth paste and add the paste to cooked onion.

Ribbet collage 2

-Adjust the consistency by adding some water, check the seasoning like salt, sweet and hot. If needed add and adjust the taste.

– Boil this for 5 minutes, so that rice flour and coconut paste also cooks and becomes little thick.

-When it is ready, enjoy with hot idlies.

Note:

-Original recipe is a little hot, hence I reduced the quantity of chilli and sambar powder.

-Usage of gingelly oil gives the authentic taste. If you are not accustomed to its taste, mix half of any vegetable oil.

-Usage of coconut paste is optional.

-We like little thick texture Kolumbu, so I added rice flour as well. It gives a little creamy texture and is also tasty.