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.

I know, you are wondering, why a post about omelette, right? Let me explain.The story behind this recipe starts from my recent trip to India.

Now I love eggs in any form for breakfast, sunny side up or omelette or scrambled eggs to stuff inside the bread like a sandwich to go. But N is not a big fan of these for breakfast. So, one fine morning I went to the kitchen to see N’s ayah(almost like a nanny, who took care of him when he was a kid) gearing up to make omelettes for breakfast.

Since I know N does not like them, I made the mistake of telling her that only to be met by a blank expression with a we’ll see look.

So she proceeded with the prep work chopping onions, cilantro and green chilies while the conversation went like this:

Me: Some tomatoes?
Ayah: No
Me: Mushrooms?
Ayah: No
Me: Peppers?
Ayah: No
Me: Spinach?
Ayah: No
Me: Cheese?
Ayah: … (By now you should have guessed the answer)

Me: You know you can make a wholesome breakfast with cheese and milk and veggies in an omelette
Ayah: Giving me a look which translates to, no wonder N does not eat the omelettes you make.

So ayah quickly sauteed the onions and chilies and mixed them with eggs and made an omelette which was very tasty, simple yet full of flavor wihtout the addition of anything else. Needless to say, instead of getting it to the table to N, I finished it off in the kitchen itself and N had to wait for the second one!

After we came back, this has become our favorite weekday/weekend breakfast which can be put together in a flash. I usually make it square instead of a circle to stuff it between two slices of bread, pack it as a “To go” breakfast.

Ingredients (Makes one omelette):

Large egg-1
Chopped onions(or shallots)- 3 tbsp
Chopped cilantro- 1 tbsp
Chopped green chili- I used one small birds eye chili
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Ghee- 1/2 tsp

Method:

Saute the onions and chilies together in ghee till onions turn translucent, adding a pinch of salt. Transfer them to a bowl, mix chopped cilantro, another pinch of salt and pepper and let it cool for a minute. Now break in the egg into the bowl and beat well.

Heat the same pan used for sauteeing onions, spread the rest of the ghee and pour the egg mixture into the pan. Swirl the pan to get the shape you like. Let the omelette cook on one side and turn golden brown, flip it to the other side and let it cook through.

Transfer to a plate, serve with a drop of ketchup and toast or make an omelette sandwich and enjoy!

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

The Hurricane season has started in Houston and we had a mini version last month with Hurricane(Tropical Storm) Alex which gave with a lot of showers. The trend seems to continue even this week as we have had couple of days of rain with the works- thunder and lightning.

Such days reminds me of my childhood and of course a hot and satisfying dinner that can match the weather. I opted to make one of our favorites, adai(legume crepe) and aviyal(almost a vegetable stew).

Here is how it goes:

Adai:

Ingredients:
Idli rice(par boiled rice)-1 cup
Sona Masoori rice(ordinary rice)- 1 cup
Urad dal, toor dal and chana dal- all together 1 cup
Red chilies- 4
Ginger – 1/2″ piece
Asafoetida- 1/2 tsp
Salt- to taste

Method:

Wash and soak the rice and dals together for atleast 6 hours along with the red chilies.

Grind the rice, dal,red chilies and ginger to a coarse paste. Transfer to a tall container, add salt and asafoetida and let it ferment for 8-12 hours.

When the batter is all bubbly and has doubled in volume, its time to make the adais!

Heat a pan and pour about a ladle of the batter and spread it to medium thickness. Poke some holes through the crepe and liberally sprinkle some oil/ghee on top.

Once the crepe is golden brown on one side, flip the adai to the other side and let it turn golden brown in color. Transfer to a plate and serve it with aviyal!.

I just made plain adai, though combinations of onion, cilantro can be sprinkled on top of the adai. Other favorite topping is to use drumstick leaves on top of the adai which makes the adai a legume and folic acid rich food!
Another favorite side dish for adai is butter and jaggery. Which ever is your favorite, you will surely enjoy this hot combo!