Brown rice rottis
Posted in: Breakfast, Gluten Free, Karnataka | Comments (10)
One of the easiest and quick snack in the evenings (or even breakfast) is Akki rotti (rice flour rottis), very famous in Bangalore. Back home in Tamilnadu we call it as arisi rotti. My mom made it as a quick after school snack when I was a kid. This year when I had time to roam around Bangalore, I was surprised to see the demand for these rottis in AS Iyengar stores in Jaynagar. People were standing in a queue and ordering anywhere between 12-50 rottis. The ones sold in the shop are paper thin, and as crunchy as a masala dosa, served with a coconut chutney, these are favorites of almost everyone. This is the favorite breakfast of N’s grandmother too!
Couple of days ago, I cooked brown rice to make some fried rice and had a cup of cooked rice left over and staring at me. I know for sure it I stored it in the fridge, its going to stay there for 2-3 days and then go to the bin. Instead, I just thought of using the rice in rottis.
Usually, rice flour is cooked in boiling water and then made as rottis. Since the rice is already cooked, I just mashed it in the blender and made rottis like the regular ones.
Ingredients: (Makes 6 rottis)
Cooked Brown rice- 1 cup
Salt to taste
Chopped onions- 1/4 cup
Chopped green chilies- 1 tbsp
Chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)- 2 tbsp
Chopped Ginger- 1/2 tsp
Regular rice flour- 1 tsp
For tempering:
Oil- 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Hing- 1 pinch
Curry leaves- 1 or 2
Method:
Pulse the cooked rice in the blender so that it gets to the consistency of a paste, but not like baby food. Add chopped onions, ginger, green chilies, salt and cilantro.
Heat oil in a pan and add hing and mustard seeds, when they splutter, add curry leaves and add this tempering to the mashed rice.
Mix all the ingredients well. If the mixture is too mushy, add a tea spoon of rice flour to bind them well.
Heat a frying pan and add a couple of drops of oil.
Keep a bowl of water handy.
Make a lemon size ball of the rice mixture. Place the ball on the pan. Dip your fingers in the water and quickly pat the ball into a round shape, almost like a crepe. Make sure that you do not make the rottis too thin, as it will be tough to flip them and your fingers will get in touch with the pan if the rotti is too thin!
(Alternatively you can make rottis in a ziplock bag/plantain leaf and transfer it to the pan, like how we make vadais)
Keep the flame on medium-low and let it cook slowly. If you need oil, you can add it on the sides like we do for dosa. Do not keep moving it or turning it, once it is ready to turn (after 2-3 minutes on the first side), gently flip it to the second side and cook it for another 2 minutes till both sides are golden brown.
Transfer to a plate and serve it with any chutney, or with pickles. It actually tastes good on its own!
Note: You can make the rottis thick like cutlets or thin like dosas. Tempering is optional.
This brown rice rotti is on its way to Priya’s Only Low oil/Low calorie event , started by Pari.
Nutritional information for Brown Basmati can be found here and here and from whole foods, here.
ruchikacook @ September 2, 2010
A simple way to prepare no Bitter-better gourd
Posted in: Side dishes with rice | Comments (17)
I don’t need anyone to tell me that I am not a big fan of bitter gourd(karela), I’d say so myself. I must have had the bitter gourd about 5 times in the past 10 years..Or may be even less than that. Though there are people in my family who can set a perfect example by savoring it, say my 4 year old nephew A, who loves pagaikai pitla, I always run away from the vegetable.
Luckily for me, N is not a big fan of Bitter gourd either(partner’s in crime huh!!) and we never buy the vegetable from Indian grocery shops. Last year, when we started a vegetable garden, we decided to plant karela as well, only to be rewarded by a dozen gourds every week 
I have tried almost all the methods suggested to take the bitterness away:
- Soaking bittergourd in butter milk the night before cooking it
- Soaking bittergourd in tamarind water and turmeric before cooking it
-Soaking it in the water which was used to wash rice
-Adding jaggery
-Cutting thin slices of karela and making bajjis
-Immersing one karela in a pan full of onion-tomato masala, calling it healthy (I end up eating one gourd nah?)
and so on and so forth.
Then one fine day, I saw this recipe from Indira and I tried it. This is so far the best way to take away the bitterness from the gourd. Believe it or not, when you finish cooking the karela this way, you can taste only 5% of the original bitterness. And no, you don’t need to fry it, soak it in masala or anything.
Indira’s recipe is for stuffed bitter gourds, but I modified the recipe so that I use the dal powder as a stir fry powder. Try this anyway you like it and you will keep making it again and again.
Ingredients:
For 4 Bitter gourds:
For the dal powder:
Chana dal- 5 tbsp (or use chutney kadalai- dalia, like in the original recipe)
Coconut- 5 tbsp
Dried red chilies- 4
Cumin- 1/4 tsp
Salt- to taste
Oil- to stir fry
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
Method:
Preparing the bitter gourd:
Wash the bitter gourd and using a peeler, peel the harsh surface of the gourd.
Run the knife through the gourd lengthwise, but do not cut it in to two. Scoop out the seeds.
In a microwave safe bowl, add the bitter gourd, a dash of salt, enough water to steam(about 4-5 tbsp) and steam the gourd for 2-3 minutes.
Remove the gourd from the bowl, chop them like rings. Let it cool.
Dal powder:
Toast all ingredients given under the dal powder section and blend them to a fine powder.
Making the stir fry:
Heat oil in a pan, add any tempering(mustard seeds, cumin, curry leaves) and add the chopped bitter gourd. Add salt to taste, stir fry for 2-3 minutes, add the dal powder, stir fry again, sprinkle some water for the gourd to cook through. Since it is already steamed, the gourd cooks faster and you do not need more oil or water.
Serve hot with any main dish like sambar or rasam.
Note:
I chopped the bitter gourd after steaming, but you can use it as a whole for stuffing after the steaming. Use either the dal powder, potatoes or any masala you like. And you won’t notice the bitterness at all! Steaming is the Key I guess. Thanks Indira, for this wonderful trick!
This Stir fried no bitter-better gourd goes to Priya’s Bookmarked recipes event.
ruchikacook @ August 31, 2010
Arachu Kalakki- The 5 minute Kerala Sauce/Chutney
Posted in: Gluten Free, Kerala, Mango, Side dishes with rice | Comments (15)
Looking at the picture without the title, you’d think it is some kinda soup right? But it is the simplest and flavorful- spicy-tangy sauce called arachu kalakki, usually made to go with molagootal in pakalad families. It’s super simple, arachu means grind, kalakki means mix..and that’s it!
Now since I grew up in Tamilnadu, my mom makes something similar with mango called azugina manga pachadi (almost rotten mango pickle chutney), the speciality of the recipe is the really ripe and soft mangoes in mango pickle(mavadu), mixed with chilies and yogurt which makes a wonderful side dish from lemon rice to adais.
There is not much of a difference between arachu kalakki and the mango pachadi my mom makes. Only thing is that arachu kalakki may or may not need mangoes(depends on your taste) while the main ingredient in pachadi is mango from the pickled mavadus. You gotta use only mavadu pickle, not avakkai mango pickle.
Looking for something that you can make out of nothing? Then this is your chutney/sauce. Pair it with milagootal, kootu, coconut rice, lemon rice or even as a raitha.
Let’s start the clock and look and the ingredients shall we?
Ingredients:
Medium size mango from mavadu pickle(very soft and ripe mango) – 1-2 pieces (you can leave it out using plain yogurt)
Red chilies- 4
Ginger- 1/2″ piece
Coconut- 4 tbsp
Sour yogurt- 1 cup
Tamarind paste- a dash, less than 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Method:
The first minute mark:
Chop the mango pickle in to two, add red chilies, salt, ginger,tamarind paste, coconut to the blender. Make a coarse paste.
Second minute:
Add half the yogurt, blend the ingredients to a thick, smooth paste, add the rest of the yogurt and beat well.
Third minute:
Transfer to a bowl..Hah! See you don’t even need 5 minutes!
Tempering is optional, you can use cumin or mustard seeds and curry leaves. But this tastes good on its own.
Note:
If the yogurt is really sour, you do not need the tamarind paste. Have a taste and alter the recipe according to your taste, make it more tangy or spicy or with more coconut or more yogurt. This almost tastes like the gravy of aviyal, but without adding vegetables or even cooking it!
If you do not have mango pickle(vadu mango), use peeled and cubed mango slices(1 or 2). Check the salt, as pickled mangoes already have salt in them.
Since this sauce is made with leftover yogurt/pickle, this is my entry for PJ’s Scrumptious delights from Left over’s event.
ruchikacook @ August 29, 2010
Back to Basics: Home made Sambhar Powder
Posted in: Home made basics, Sambar | Comments (9)
When is enough never enough? I’d say with Sambhar powder 
I have three big plastic containers filled with sambhar powder, sitting in my freezer (best way to store them), made by my mom. She makes it a point to pack kilos of sambhar powder, paruppu podi(dal powder for rice), kootu podi (dal powder for vegetables), idli milagai podi(gun powder), pickles, vadams etc etc to bring back when we go home. Whenever some relative travels this side, her first question is always,” Do you have enough sambhar powder or shall I send some”?.
It is alright with mom if her dear daughter and SIL go without electricity if a Hurricane hits but the kitchen should be stocked with sambhar powder 
Jokes apart, the taste of sambhar with homemade sambhar powder is awesome! Once, only once when the stock was over I have bought store bought powder, N and I felt that store bought powder does not taste like the typical Iyer sambar powder that we are used to. I made a call home and within a few weeks I got a big pack of sambar powder from home, thanks to some folks traveling back and forth. Besides, these make good instant gifts with unexpected friends- you just have to ask and you’ll know.
I feel guilty everytime I ask her but I realized it gives mom satisfaction. Once when I was telling this story to a relative old enough to be my grandma, she cooly said, “My daughter has a 10 year old daughter and I still make sambhar powder for her”…So I decided to be guilt free and enjoy these simple pleasures that you cant get anywhere else.
Now there are two different sambhar powders, one that is sundried and ground in the food mill, the other called as arachu vitta sambhar powder(freshly ground sambhar paste instead of a powder), you can also get the taste of arachu vitta sambhar by just sprinkling a teaspoon of the powder while using regular/store bought powders.
I guess there is no specific recipe for the powder as mom’s have their own recipe- adding extra coriander seeds or pepper or cumin to varying proportions.
Method 1:
Ingredients:
Toor Dal: 1/2 kg
Chana Dal- 1/2 Kg
Coriander seeds- 3/4 kg
Dried red chilies- 1/4 kg
Fenugreek seeds- 25g
Thick Asafoedita(not powder)- 50 g
How to: First fry fenugreek seeds to a golden brown color. Keep it aside. Then fry chana dal, toor dal, dry red chilies and coriander seeds in the same order. Cool.
Fry asafoetida in oil and cool. Grind all ingredients together to a powder in a coffee grinder/blender and use as sambhar powder.
Traditional one:
Coriander seeds- 3 cups
Pepper- 1 cup
Toor dal- 1 cup
Chana dal- 1 cup
Fenugreek seeds- less than 1/4 cup
Dried red chilies- 3 cups
Whole dried turmeric- about 10 or 15
Dry all these ingredients in the sun and then blend them to a fine powder(done in a food mill in India).
Method 3:
Arachu vitta sambhar recipe can be found here.
The powder recipe:
Ingredients:
Chana dal -(Kadalai paruppu)- 2 tbsp
Coriander seeds- 4 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds (methi seeds) – a pinch
Red chilies- 6
Coconut- 5 tbsp
Method:
Fry the ingredients given under the section to “grind”. Toast coriander seeds, red chilies, chana dal, fenugreek seeds together without adding any oil till they turn golden brown color. Transfer to a blender.
Add coconut to the hot pan and quickly stir fry for a minute before it turns brown (Look for a golden color). Transfer to the blender. Adding coconut along with other ingredients will toast the coconut quicker and all other ingredients will be raw. So fry coconut at the last minute.
Let these ingredients cool and grind to a smooth, fine powder in one whole grinding pulse. Do not stop and grind and do not open the lid of the blender as soon as you stop grinding. You’ll be celebrating Holi if you do so
Store this powder in an airtight container in the fridge/freezer if you are going to use it to flavor the sambhar. To use the powder for fresh sambhar(one time use), add water and make it to a smooth paste. Follow the recipe for sambhar like here.
Another tip is that though the sambhar powder can be used in making vathakozhambus, there is also a seperate flavor powder to make vathakozhambu which can be found here.
What are you waiting for? Make some hot idli sambhar!
This sambhar powder goes to aqua’s Back to basics event, started by Jaya.
Reposts:
For Jay’s Lets Relishh Paneer event, my entries are:
Paneer Tikka
Malai Paneer- Paneer with rich cream and cashew sauce
My favorite flavored paneer- chili infused paneer in a fried rice
ruchikacook @ August 27, 2010
