This is one of the Signature dishes of my Sister and I just took the liberty of “borrowing” it from her when I started cooking for N and myself.  It is a very delicous way of hiding vegetables in a dish and the name itself catches attention right?

The only thing is the left over idli/dosa batter cannot be used to get these fluffiest uthappams and you gotta grind the batter separately. You can also use this batter to make podi uthappams or onion uthappams. This batter can also be used to make the SLV-Style set dosa with korma served on the side instead of stuffing the korma.

Ingredients: (serves-4)

Idli rice- 1.5 cups
Sona Masoori rice- 1.5 cups
Urad dal- 1/2 cup
Toor dal- 1/4 cup
Fenugreek seeds- 1/2 tsp
Salt

Method:

Wash and soak all the ingredients except salt for alteast 4 hours. Then grind them together to a no so fine- but not so coarse consistency. Add salt and let it ferment for atleast 6 hours.

Assembling the Uthappams:

Ingredients:
Uthappam batter
Already prepared vegetable korma(not piping hot)- 1 cup
Ghee- 2 tbsp

Heat a dosa pan/frying pan.

Once the pan is hot, pour a ladle full of the uthappam batter in the pan, but do not spread it thin like a dosa.

Wait for 30- 45 seconds till you can see bubbles forming on top of the uthappam. Then spread about 2 tbsp of the korma on top of the uthappam, spread some ghee on top of the double layer uthappam. (This is why the korma has to be at room temperature)

Let the uthappam cook for another 1-2 minutes on this side and slowly flip it(with the filling) and turn it.

Let the korma side also cook for 1-2 minutes and get all golden brown in color.

Transfer the uthappams to a plate and serve hot as it is. As the korma is there with every bite of the uthappam, you won’t need a side dish. This will be a very filling meal on its own.

Re-post time:

Suma of Veggie Platter has a Side-Dish theme event but not about dals and here are my entries to the event:

Kosamalli- A chettinad gravy

Kumbakonam Kadappa, a Tamilnadu speciality with potatoes and coconut

Aviyal- The mouth watering Kerala vegetable stew!

On the same note, PJ has a Healing Foods- Tomato event, an event started by Siri.

Well tomatoes are a must in the kitchen and I almost use them everyday form rasams to chutneys to gravies.
Here are my entries to her event:

Sun dried tomato Thokku

Cabbage Kofta

Sun dried Tomato Muffins- Savory Style

One of the quick but healthy options for breakfast during weekends or as a weeknight dinner option is pesarattu dosa. The simplicity of this dosa is that there is no need to soak and grind rice or wait for the batter to ferment.

This protein packed dosa is a good way to start the day than running without breakfast

Ingredients (Makes about 9 dosas)

Green gram (Moong dal)- 1 cup
Rice flour – 1 tbsp (optional)
Red chilies- 2
Ginger(optional)- 1/2″ piece
Salt- 1 tsp
Oil/Ghee- for the dosas- 2 tsp

Method:

Wash and soak the whole moong dal in water for 6-8 hours (or overnight).

The next morning, drain all the water from the dal, transfer it to a blender along with red chilies, ginger and grind to a smooth paste. Just before switching off the blender, add the rice flour and salt and give one final mix.

Transfer the batter to a bowl.

Heat a tava/non stick pan and pour a ladleful of the batter and spread it thinly. Apply some oil on the sides of the dosa and let it cook. When one side of the dosa is golden brown in color, flip the dosa and let it cook on the other side.

Serve the pesarattu dosas with chutney or idli chutney powder! Instead of the usual golden brown color, these dosas will be greenish-golden brown in color and crispy! You can also make stuffed pesatattus by serving upmas as a filling!

This dosa is off to Siri’s MLLA-25, an event started by Susan.

Both N and I have been traveling like crazy for the past few days. Last week I felt so tired that I just wanted to sleep and wanted something different to eat. It is almost like I was craving for something that will bring back the sense of taste to my tongue (eating out can make you home sick than anything else)

Besides posting my recipes, I had also marked mouth watering recipes from other blogs, some of the recipes I had cooked and informed the bloggers but I have not posted it. I guess it is about time I start posting their lovely unique recipes.

I managed to do both tasks in one recipe, made something that was tangy and spicy enough and it was a recipe from another kitchen

Starting off the tried and tasted recipes with Solai Aunty’s Kosamalli. When I first saw it at Cham’s I thought it was kosumbari, a salad made of lentils. But it is a recipe from Chettinad, served with Idli or Dosa. True to Solai aunty’s description it had wonderful flavors, had a bit of tang and spice to it.

Ingredients:

Makes- 2 cups of Kosamalli

Potato-1
Small Purple eggplants- 4
Red onion- one small
Tomato- one (big)
Curry leaves- few
Cilantro- a handful
Red chilies-3
Green chilies-6 (adjust to taste)
Tamarind- half the size of one key lime
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Salt- to taste

For Tempering:
Oil- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp

Method:

Soak the tamarind in one cup of hot water and extract the juice.

Wash the potato and eggplants. Pressure cook the potato and eggplants together. Cool, remove the outer skin of egg plants and mash it well along with the potato.

Chop onions and tomato into chunks. Slice the green chilies.

Add salt and an additional one cup of water to the already prepared tamarind extract.

Heat oil in a kadai and mustard seeds. When they splutter, add curry leaves, red chilies, green chilies, turmeric powder, onion and tomato. Just stir fry for 2-3 minutes. Pour the tamarind mixture to it, the mashed eggplant and potato and mix them well. Check if salt is enough.

Let it boil for 6-7 minutes (Not too much but just so that the veggies are blended in with the liquid and cooked). Garnish with cilantro leaves. Serve hot with Idli, Dosa- Indian Savory crepes or Idiyappam(rice noodles). A simple recipe but it tastes so good that you will make it again and again. I was so hungry and was in a hurry to eat that I did not take step by step pictures, will do that the next time I make kosamalli.

I followed some of the tips given by Solai aunty and cham:

The gravy will be very watery, but that is how it is served (I just reduced the water a bit to make it slightly thick)

Tomato and tamarind quantities are proportional. If you change one ingredient, change others accordingly.

Adding so many green chilies does not make it hot. Suma of Veggie Platter has a Side-Dish theme event but not about dals and this kosamalli is an entry.

Repost time:

Usha is hosting the Healthy Soups event and I have been wanting to post some of the soups I made earlier for her event.

Mulligatawny Soup

Clear Tomato Soup

I thought of taking part in this
marathon hosted by Nupur with a 7 course meal concept. Before I started blogging, I’d be randomly reading blogs and I had marked a couple of recipes to try out. These recipes are from different categories, breakfast, gravies, elegant dinners and twists in traditional ones.

I’ll be starting with recipes in breakfast and moving on to the elegant dinner as we move forward in the marathon.

Recipe 7: Sun dried Tomato thokku

I saw this recipe from Sheela’s space. I immediately fell in love with the recipe as I love pickles and thokkus like anything. And I have never heard of sun dried tomato thokku. I just use them for pastas. And Sheela’s recipes are very creative, like this adai waffle.

My first step in the marathon is tomato thokku dosa. This is how it goes. The thokku part is very simple and uses 3 major ingredients.

To make the thokku:

Sun dried tomatoes(without oil)- 5 each
Dried red chilies- 5
Fresh roma tomato- 1
Salt- to taste
Sesame oil- 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Hing- one pinch

Method:
Soak red chilies and dried tomatoes in hot water for 10 minutes to plump them up. Blend chopped tomato, red chilies and dried tomatoes without adding water to a smooth paste.

Make sure that you add the fresh tomato while grinding and do not just use sun-dried ones.

Heat oil in a pan and add hing and mustard seeds. When they splutter, add this blended tomato and salt and let it bubble and thicken (5 mins) till the oil is absorbed and let out again. Store in a air tight container.

Now, this is what I did with the tomato thokku. N had visited Kanyakumari in the 90′s and he was after me to make a special tomato egg masala dosa he had there. And I made my adapted version of the dosa with this thokku for breakfast.

Ingredients:
Dosa batter- 1 cup
Tomato thokku- 1/4 cup
Sliced onions- few
Cilantro- well chopped- few strands
Green onions- few strands
Oil- 2 tsp

Method:
1) Ladle the dosa batter thin like how we’d make a dosa. Make sure that the pan is hot.

2) Break an egg on top of this dosa and scramble it quickly, spreading it all over the dosa.

3) Spoon some thookku on top and scramble it as well.

4) Add the sliced onions, cilantro, green onions and pour some oil on top.

5) When the egg is cooked on top, flip and cook the other side.

Serve hot as it is or with any chutney. To be honest, it tastes good on its own.

Suggestions:

We liked the combination and were thinking about different fillings on top of the egg thokku – grated panner, chopped baby spinach, cheese etc., etc..build up as many layers as you want. The tomato thokku keeps the dosa moist and it is not heavy, greasy food. And its much lighter than the potato masala dosa. My favorite part : No need to grind chutney or make sambar or gulp down podis with it.

Besides, this thokku can also be used as a tomato paste for gravies/tomato rice and I always like ingredients which can be used for more than one recipe.

Stay tuned, we are going to enter into the Lunch Territory with a spicy-tangy combo!
See you all tomorrow.

This dosa is going to srivalli’s kids delight event