Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Idli/Dosa Batter

Ingredients:
4 Cups - Idli Rice or Ponni Bolied Rice
2 Cups - Whole Urad Dal
2 Tea Spoons - Salt (or as per taste)
Water

Procedure:
  1. Wash Idli rice and Soak the rice for 8 hours or over night.
  2. 2 hours before grinding, wash Urad dal and soak it. Cover it with a lid.
  3. Drain urad dal water in a bowl and grind urad dal first. Use urad dal water during grinding.
  4. If grinding using a wet grinder, we usually grind urad dal for 30-45 mins. This makes urad dal batter very soft, light and fluffy, thus when making idles they come out spongier.
  5. Take out the urad dal batter and later grind Idli rice for 20 minutes in a wet grinder. Add water as required.
  6. Make sure you do not add more water, as the idlis will come out flat.
  7. Take out the rice batter and mix it along with urad dal. Add salt and mix well with your hand.
  8. Cover the batter and store it in a warm place preferably.
  9. The fermentation process usually takes 8-10 hrs or more depending on the outside temperature.
  10. After 8 hours, the batter will rise atleast half of the original batter quantity. If the batter did not rise,  do not mix the batter instead let it be for few more hours. Batter should rise inorder to get soft idlis.
  11. Once the batter is ready, mix the batter well. Idli/dosa batter is ready to use.
  12. For making idlis the batter should be little thick, but when dipped with a ladle and poured it should flow smoothly. If the batter is too thick and doesn't flow smoothly add little water and mix well.
  13. For making dosas the batter should be thin, we usually take some batter separately and mix little extra water and make dosas with this batter and we make idlis with the remaining batter.




Monday, November 26, 2012

Gunta Ponganalu

Ingredients:
6 Cups - Dosa Batter
1 - Big Onion chopped
6 - Green Chilles chopped
1 Cup - Coriander leaves
1/4th Cup - Chana Dal
Oil






Procedure:
1. Soak ChanaDal for 30 minutes.
2. Add all the ingredients to the Dosa batter and mix well.


3. Heat the Gunta Ponganalu pan and add few drops of oil in each slot.
4. Put the Stove on medium heat.
5. Use a spoon and pour a spoonful of batter into the Gunta ponganalu pan, fill 3/4th of the slot with batter, this way they have room when they expand over the heat.

6. Cover the pan with a lid. After few minutes, try to move the ponganalu and if they move easily which means they are fried on one side, turn them upside down in the pan and wait for few more minutes and take them out of the pan.
7. Gunta Ponganalu are ready to serve.
8. This can be served  with Putnalu or Coconut Chutney or Tomato Ketchup.




Monday, November 19, 2012

Masala Muruku


Ingredients:
2 Cups - Rice Flour
1 Cup - Besan
2 teaspoons - Jeera
1 teaspoon - Ginger Garlic Paste
2 tablespoons - Butter
Chilli Powder/Green Chillies
Hing
Salt to taste
Oil
Water

Procedure:
1. Heat oil for deep frying.
2. Apply butter to Muruku Instrument.
3. Mix all the ingredients along with 2 teaspoons of hot oil.
4. Add water and mix the dough a bit softer than Chapathi dough.

5. Once the oil is heated, put it on Medium heat. To test if the oil is heated, drop a small piece of dough into the oil and if the dough comes onto the top with some bubbles then the oil is ready for frying.
6. Add dough to Muruku instrument and press the dough into the oil.

7. Fry till they are Golden brown.