Tawa Idli

Had made Kancheepuram idli's recently for dinner. Had got so excited with the texture of the idlis and ended up making so many more idlis than can be eaten..:-) So, they became Tawa idli's the next morning for breakfast;-) It was raining idlis from dinner until breakfast that in the end, I had to stop making idli batter for the next 10 days:-)

Tawa idlis are the best way to use up left over idli's and will always be an instant hit and you will be surprised there is no more left over. I have earlier uploaded a different version of this Tawa idli, which is more South Indian....Idli Upma while this is more a North Indian version!

Try making any of these versions and enjoy the flavours of the left over idlis....

Ingredients:

- 8-10 left over kancheepuram idlis or normal idlis
- 1 medium onion finely chopped
- 1 medium tomato finely chopped
- 1/2 cup green peas
- 2-3 green chillies
- 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
- 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
- salt to taste

Seasoning:
- 1 tbsp gingely oil or cooking oil
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp channa dhal
- 1 tsp urad dhal
- few curry leaves or coriander leaves

Prep time: 10 mins                             Cook time: 15 mins

Preparation:

- Cut the left over idlis into bite sized cubes.

- In a tawa, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add the channa dhal, urad dhal and curry leaves and fry them till the dhals turn golden brown.
- Add the onions, green chillies and fry until they turn translucent. Now, add the green peas and tomatoes. To this, add salt, turmeric and chilly powder.
- Fry these until the raw smell of the chilly powder leaves and the green peas is cooked well. This may take 5-7 minutes.
- When the masala is cooked, add the cut idlis and mix up well such that the masala gets coated over the cooked idlis.

- Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with any sauce or chutney.

Note: Pls note, idlis already have salt. So, add only salt necessary for the masala to cook.

Methi Veg mixed rice with Left over Rice!

Had not posted any recipe under the left over section for a long time. Though I try and make the best with the left overs...they are usually done too quickly to remember to be clicked for blog post. This too was one such recipe which I started clicking mid way through the making!

There was enough rice left over from lunch and I did not want to carry it over to the next day. Usually the best way to get this done with is to make a tasty...never can say no...'bagalabath' or curd rice with garnish. However, this time I tried a mixed veggie rice for a change and I turned out quite good.

Off to the making.....If you do not want to try with left over rice, you can use freshly cooked basmati rice too..

Ingredients:

2 cups cooked rice
1 cup methi leaves(fenugreek)
1 onion
1 medium potato
1 small carrot(shredded)
1 small capsicum
1 small tomato
6-8 long beans
3-4 green chillies
2-3 cashews
2 cloves
1 tsp fennel seeds(saunf)
1 piece cinnamon
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp ghee(clarified butter) or cooking oil
Salt to taste

Prep time: 10 mins                       Cook time: 15 mins

Preparation:

Cut the veggies into thin long slices. You can use any veggies of your choice.I like to shred the carrots as it addsa rich  colour to the food.
In a wide pan, heat the oil and add the bay leaf, fennel seeds, cloves,cinnamon and once they splutter add the green chillies and onion.

Saute for a couple of mins and add the other veggies, except methi, tomato and carrots.

Add salt to taste and when these veggies are well cooked, add the methi, tomato and carrots and give them a good toss for 3 to 4 mins.

Then, add the rice and mix with the veggies. Quick and easy methi veg rice is ready to serve with your favourite raitha or chips!

Note:
- If pre-cooked rice, heat it and loosen a bit before adding to the veggies. If you add cold rice..it will tend to get sticky.
- You can make this freshly cooked basmati rice too!

Thirattupal or Milk Halwa with Ricotta Cheese & Apple

As you keep reading my blogs you will conclude that I have a sweet tooth and one that is too strong...:-)) I am crazy about sweets from childhood though I would say my craving for sweets has come down to a very large extent in the recent years! Thanks to consciousness about health and fitness.

But if someone places a plate of sweets in front of me and expects me to behave like a Sage....sorry...am not in for that game! Well, this time around no one gave me a platter of sweets but my fridge presented itself with all the leftovers I needed to satiate my cravings:-)

It had the left over ricotta cheese from my Lasagna evening, left over condensed milk from krishna jayanthi day, left over 3/4 of an apple...now that is not strange in our house! As I have mentioned in my earlier post on the Apple milkshake ....this is truly a forbidden fruit..;-) and ofcourse there was this exactly half stick of butter too....that was some coincidence! The outcome of all these leftovers was this supper yummy "thiratupal" or "milk halwa" which I would say is now hardly left over....

Now, this recipe I know is all over the net and I have made it myself a couple of times before but not with Apples! That was quite an idea! I simply wanted to use the left over apple and decided to grate it in and the result was this super yummy and perfectly coloured halwa! Ofcourse I made it in the microwave....

Ingredients:
(alter proportions as needed...below is all what I had & used up:-))

- 3/4 of 15oz pack Ricotta Cheese
- 1/3 of 14oz tin of sweetened condensed milk
- 1/2 stick of unsalted butter approx 4 tbsp
- 3/4 apple, skin peeled & grated
- 6 tbsp of sugar - powdered
- 2 tbsp milk, i used 1%

Prep time: 5 mins                     Cook time: 30 mins

- In a microwave safe  bowl, add the ricotta cheese, butter, grated apple and condensed milk.
- Warm the milk and pour it in the condensed milk tin. Milk is mainly to get all of the condensed milk from the tin:-)!

Apple changes to this caramel colour the instant you grate them

- Place it in the microwave and heat for 3 minutes. At the end of 3 minutes, remove the bowl, mix all ingredients together. Now, add the powdered sugar to this and mix well.

End of 1st 3 minutes of heating

- Place the bowl in the microwave and heat for a further 3 to 4 minutes. Keep checking so that the mix does not spill out.

At the end of 8 minutes

- Every 4 minutes, stop heating and stir up the bowl to ensure the sweet gets cooked evenly.

At the end of 15 minutes

- The sweet is ready once the ingredients come together and all the butter and milk gets absorbed well.
- It took me about 21 minutes to finish up! This time might vary depending on your microwave. So, pls use your judgement.

At the end of 21 minutes....Done!

- The addition of apples gives a very nice colour and flavour to this halwa. You could add some coarsely ground dates too for additional taste and colour!

This recipe is participating in ABC Series - A for Apple being hosted by Ramya..

Sending the recipe to Friday Potluck at Show and Tell by Vatsala

Mor Kuzhu / Mor Kali or Rice Doklas

Mor kuzhu or Mor Kali is a very popular snack of Tamilnadu which has been passed down through generations. This is a super simple and easy dish and is a very tasty evening snack. It may not look very appetizing but one needs to eat before deciding! When you have excess curd or buttermilk left out and you need ways to use it...then this will defenitely fit the bill:-) I call it the TN variation of Dhoklas!

There are two ways of making this..one the traditional way which involves grinding the rice batter and the other for the quickies...using store bought rice flour. Will explain both ways below. I made it the traditional way though....

Method 1: Traditional way

Ingredients:

- 1/2 cup raw rice soaked for 3 hours
- 2 tbsp sabudhana / javarisi soaked for 3 hours
- 1 cup curd whisked
- 1 green chilly
- few curry leaves
- 3 to 4 sundried chillies ( cured in buttermilk) or mor millagai
- mustard for seasoning
- 2 tbsp sesame oil or other

Prep time: 3 hours                          Cook time: 15 mins

Preparation:

- Grind the soaked rice along with 1 tbsp of soaked sabudhana, green chilly and salt, adding some water.
- Make it into the consistency of idly batter. If you do not have sundried chilly then you can increase the quantity of green chilly for spice level.
- After grinding, add the batter to the whisked curd and mix well without any lumps.

Rice batter mixed with curd

- Add the remaining soaked sabudhana to this batter.
- In a non-stick pan or a thick bottomed pan, heat the oil.
- On heating, add the sundried chillies and let it fry until dark.Later add the mustard and curry leaves and let it crackle.

- Now, reduce flame to low, and slowly pour in the batter into the pan while stirring continuously.

- Keep stirring for 10 mins on low-medium heat. Do not let lumps form.

- In the end, everything will come together without sticking to the sides of the pan. Another test, wet your fingers in water and touch the cooked mix. If it does not stick to your fingers, it is time to remove from pan.

- You can scoop this on to a plate and start eating right away or....
- Pour it on to a greased plate and wait for 5 mins to let it set. Then make cubes of it like cake pieces and serve as dhoklas.

Foot note:
- Popularly this is made without the sabudhana. As I said, this is passed down through generations...and my great grandma used to add sabudhana to give it the chewy texture! I like it that way...try it and am sure you too will:-)
- All my measures are for the serving size of 2 persons


Method 2: Quicky


- All the steps are the same except grinding of the rice batter and mixing sabudhana.
- Instead of soaking and grinding the rice....use 1/2 cup rice flour and mix it in with 2 tbsp of maida in the whisked curd.
- The maida will give it the chewy texture in place of the sabudhana.
- While doing the tempering you could also add some urad dhal and channa dhal for that extra crunch!
- Since this method does not have green chilly, you could add extra dried chillies for additional spice.

Sambhar for dosa/idli...hotel style

This is a very light version sambhar that i make with left over dhal! It goes very well with dosa or idli and is more like the thin sambhar you get in hotels. You could make this and soak the mini idlis to make delicious "sambhar idli"! This requires very little dhal and no tamarind at all

Ingredients:

- 1 onion sliced across
- 2 tomato sliced across
- 2 tsp sambhar powder
- 1 tbsp boiled toor dhal
- 1 green chilly slit
- 1 tsp rice flour ( thickening agent)
- curry leaves and coriander for garnish
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/2 tsp methi seeds
- 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
- Salt to taste
- Adding 1 or 2 cloves garlic is optional

Prep time: 5 mins                  Cook time: 20 mins

Preparation:

- Cut the onions and tomatoes and keep the ingredients ready

- In a deep pan, heat oil, add  the mustard, methi seeds, green chilly and curry leaves.

- Once the mustard crackles, add the onions and tomatoes and fry a couple of minutes.

- To this add the sambhar powder, salt and 2 1/2 cups of water.
- Boil on medium for 10 mins or you will get the raw smell of the sambhar powder.
- Now add the toor dhal and bring to a boil.

- If you find the sambhar is too thin, you could mix 1 tsp rice flour to very little water and add to the boiling sambhar. This will thicken the sambhar slightly.
- Use this sambhar as a side for dosa, idly or pongal as per your choice!

Rice Tepla

This is a new category am excited about blogging! "Left overs"...can't believe am trying to make something out of left over items...! Usually, am a very calculative cook and do not have too much left overs in my fridge. But one does have those days when something just does'nt go right and almost everything you made is carried over for supper or lunch the next day!

Why waste food when so many are going hungry everyday around the globe. So, this category will hold recipe's from the left over food and I hope it helps to make the best out of the waste...:-)

Ingredients:

- 1 cup Left over rice

- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds (jeera)

- 1 tsp of Besan flour ( Kadali maavu)

- a pinch of turmeric

- Finely chopped coriander and curry leaves for garnishing

- 1 or 2 finely chopped green chillies

- Salt to taste

Prep time: 5 mins Cook time: 10 mins

Preparation:

- Mix all of the above ingredients in a bowl and mash them together

- Make lemon sized dumplings of the above mix

- Flatten them out like patties on a flat surface and transfer them to a tawa

- Cook the patties on both sides with little oil till they are golden brown

- Crispy rice teplas are ready to be eaten!

Now, that was super quick is'nt it?! You could serve this with the Tomato-coco ginger chutney

This goes perfectly well with Teplas

Foot note: You could avoid the besan flour and try it with rice flour or wheat flour or ragi flour whichever combo you prefer with. For many besan is not a great favourite and may not work well with the tummy...;-) ! So, try your variant and leave ur comments in here....