A Very Special Indian Food.....Idli with Sambar, Dosa, and Uttapam (II Part)

  

 

In the previous post, I only showed how to make idli and sambar. However, I did not showed two other dishes that you can make with the same batter.

The first one is dosa. Dosa is a kind of pancake or crepe that can be eaten alone or with a filling. According to Wikipedia, the first reference to a Dosa in the literature is from around 6th century AD.

Personally, I like dosa with a filling called Masala Dosa, which is a mix of potatoes, fried onions and spices. However, I make my own version, and add on top some fried shrimps.....it is delicious!!

Dosa

Same batter as for idli, but you have to grind it very fine. The process is the same (fermentation overnight).

Ghee or oil for frying them...

In a pan, put some cooking oil, and add some batter. With the back part of a spoon "make circles" in order to have a difference in thickness in the dosa. Add some oil around the dosa to make easier the turn it on.

Turn it over

Cook ir in the other side

Masala Dosa with Shrimps (Filling)

3 cooked potatoes

1/2 onion (chopped very fine)

Green peas

Green chilli  (chopped very fine)

Turmeric

Oil

Salt

Shrimps

In a pan, heat oil and fry the onion, turmeric, green peas, and chilli. Add the cooked potatoes and mash them to mix with this mixture. Add salt, and let it cook together for 5 minutes (you can add some water if needed).

In another pan, cook some shrimps with oil and salt.

Place the dosa, and on one side add the masala dosa, put the shrimps on top, fold it, and eat it.....ENJOY!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uttapam is a thick pancake tha has a topping. Traditionally, the topping is onion and green chillies, but you can use whatever you like. Uttapam is sometimes known as "Indian Pizza".

Uttapam

Same batter as for idli, but you have to grind it very fine. The process is the same (fermentation overnight).

Ghee or oil for frying them...
Vegetables to put on top

In a pan, put some cooking oil, and add some batter. Place the batter in a pancake way. Add on top what you wish. In this case, I made one of red onions, and the other of red onion, corn, and spinach. Add some oil around the pancake to make easier the turn it on.

Turn it over, and when it cooked, take it out and eat it......ENJOY!!

 

   

 

 

A Very Special Indian Food.....Idli with Sambar, Dosa, and Uttapam (I Part)

My Indian Spice Box

This is one of the Indian dishes that I do love the most. Probably, you will not have all the things to make it, but I thought it will be good to share this recipe for you to know.

When my friend Kalpana taught me how to cook Indian food, she show me the typical food that I knew it: paneer, dal, tandoori and so on. Nevertheless, one day she told me that the next lesson would be South Indian food, which is where she was from. She promised me that I would love that food!!.....and to be honest.....is one of my favourite Indian foods now.....

When she described the process of mixing the lentils (urad dal) with the rice, and let them fermented overnight it was wear to me. However, it was my ignorance.....What is fermented food?....Don't we eat fermented food daily like yoghurt and sauerkraut?....Fermented food is full of probiotics.....and everybody knows that is very healthy....

What I like of this dish is that with the same batter you can make three delicious dishes: idli, dosa, and uttapam. As I said before, probably you will not be able to make it, but if you go to a South Indian restaurant, you can try it!

Idli Batter

3 cups of ponni rice
1 cup urad dal
Salt

Soak them together for one hour. Then, grind them to a fine paste (I use the blender), add salt, and leave it to ferment overnight.

 

You will see that is fermented when the batter has bubbles.

In the morning, place the batter into greased idli molds, and steam it over boiling water. The holes of the idli molds will make the steam to go through and cook the idlis.

You have to place the idli tray in a pot with boiling water (only 3 cmc of boiling water). Cook it until firm, which is usually 15 minutes.

You will know that the idlis are cooked when they rise and are not soft.

 

 

Idlis that are cooked get rise

When they are warm, take them out of the idli molds......and serve them with sambar

 

 

 

 Freshly Made Idlis

Sambar

1 cup of toor dal

1 1/2 teaspoon tamarind paste (plus 1 cup of water)

1/2 teaspoon Turmeric 

Salt

Pinch of Asafoetida

Sambar Powder (you can use the brand MTR or MDH)

3 curry leaves

Mustard seeds

Chillies if you wish

Vegetables such as onion, carrot, green pepper, okra, tomato. 

Oil

Soak the tamarind in 1 cup of water for 25 minutes. Squeeze it out to make 1 cup of tamarind juice. Reserve it.

Wash the toor dal, and cook it in 2 cups of water with turmeric.  Discard the foam that is obtained when you cook it. Cook it until is soft. Add the tamarind juice, and the asafoetida.

 

Toor Dal

In a pan, heat two tablespoons of oil, and add the chillies, curry leaves, and mustard seeds. Fry them for two minutes. Add the vegetables that you wish, and fry them for five minutes. Transfer this mix to the cooked toor dal. Add sambar powder to taste. Cook them together for 15 minutes, or until the vegetables are cooked. Add more water if needed.

 

 

Serve the sambar with idli....ENJOY!!

 

 

 Where I place the spices to cook Indian food?.....In my Indian Spice Box....

Almost Late, But Very Tasty.....Fried Sea-Urchin with Three Tasty Dips......Exquisit!!

What a week!.....My apologies if I have not visited your blog these last couple of days, but weather has improved and we were able to go out to buy some groceries that we like. I will be visiting and enjoying your delicacies today and tomorrow!!

We had experience a very cold weather the last couple of weeks (-25 to -38 Celsius), and with that weather we were able only to buy in the nearest supermarket, and not where we like to buy. Therefore, we have been enjoying the -11C (and today +2C!!!!) to go and buy in the Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Italian and Arab Supermarket.

The tapa that I'm presenting today is a tapa that we really enjoy, and we eat at the beginning of January. Nevertheless, with the bad weather (and bad road conditions), we have not received fresh seafood the last couple of weeks.

My husband has a Birthday at the beginning of January, and he always ask for two things: Galette de Rois, and Fried Sea-Urchin. You may think that is easy, but we live 1260 kilometres from the sea!!!. Therefore, for us is a delicacy to be able to buy fresh sea urchin and enjoy as a birthday present. This year we received the sea-urchin very late......but we are enjoying it!!

 

 

With this recipe I want to contribute to the Concurso de Tapas organized by Sonia and her fantastic blog L'Exquisit.......Thanks Sonia!!

We love sea-urchin, and we always eat fresh. Nevertheless, since we tried fried sea-urchin, we have enjoyed making this dish one of our favourites at home.

 

 

Fried Sea-Urchin

Beautiful Sea-Urchin

Flour

Salt

Egg

Breadcrumbs

Oil  (In this case, I use canola oil to avoid mixing the flavours of olive oil and sea-urchin)

Clean the sea-urchin. Coat them in flour, then in a beaten egg with salt, then breadcrumbs. Fry them in hot oil, and set aside over a towel paper. Reserve.

Cilantro Dip

Mayonnaise (I made my own mayonnaise with olive oil)

Chopped Cilantro

Lemon

Sea Salt

Mix them together....and ready!!

Garlic Dip

Mayonnaise (I made my own mayonnaise with olive oil)

Chopped Garlic

Lemon

Sea Salt

Mix them together....and ready!!

Pimenton and Merken Dip

Mayonnaise (I made my own mayonnaise with olive oil)

Pimenton (I used Pimenton de la Vera)

Merken (Chilean spice made of dried chillies)

Lemon

Sea Salt

Mix them together....and ready!!

And How they look inside?.....Crunchy, Soft, and Delicate