I bought Dakshin-Vegetarian Cuisine from South India by Chandra Padmanabhan on my last trip to India. It’s a neat little cookbook with lot of south Indian recipes, mostly from Tamil Nadu. I tried coconut sambhar and adai recipes from the book, they were both awesome.
I wanted to try a different mamidikaya pulihora (mango rice) recipe and found Mangai Ogaray in the book and the result was nothing like the regular mango rice I usually make. It is a lengthier process but I think it is well worth it.
Ingredients:
Grated Mango – 1½ cups (I used half of a medium mango)
Peanuts - 4 tbsp
Rice – 3 cups, cooked (I used Sona masoori rice)
Curry leaves - 6
For the Spice paste:
½tsp
Dry red Chilies – 6
Fresh Coconut, grated – ¼ cup
Hing - ½ tsp
For Tempering:
Oil – 3 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tbsp
Dry red Chili - 1, halved
Method:
- Grind the ingredients for the spice paste to a fine paste, adding ½ the grated mango; keep aside.
- Cool cooked rice on a large plate.
- Heat oil and the tempering ingredients; when the mustard seeds splutter, add the peanuts.
- When the bengal gram turns golden add the rest of the grated mango and sauté for 4-5 minutes on medium flame till mango doesn’t smell raw anymore.
- Add the spice paste and sauté for another 5-8 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Add salt and curry leaves to rice and mix well. Stir in the mango mixture, a little at a time and mix well; season with salt if needed.
I made Adai Kunukku and Sakkarai Pongal from Dk's Culinary Bazaar. It was an awesome Tamil Nadu meal that we enjoyed very much.
Ragi Dosa: Another recipe that I tried from Dakshin is Ragi Dosa. I bought ragi flour from Indian grocery sometime back and I’ve been looking to make something with it.
Ingredients:
Ragi flour – 2 cups
Rice Flour – ½ cup
Small Onion – 1, chopped fine
Green chilies – 3-4, chopped fine
Coriander leaves – chopped fine
Sour curd – ½ cup
For tempering:
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Hing – pinch
Salt – to taste
Method:
- Mix ragi flour, rice flour, onions, coriander leaves, chilies and salt. Add the curd and enough water to make thin batter. Cover and keep aside for 2 hours.
- Heat 2 tsp oil; add the seeds and hing. Mix it in the batter.
- This batter is similar to rawa dosa batter and it has to be poured from outside-in instead of inside-out like in regular dosa.
- Take a ladleful of batter and start pouring from outside-in onto the hot griddle pan. Try to make the batter thin by swirling the pan around (my husband’s trick) or with the ladle itself. Pour about ½ tsp oil along the edges and let the dosa cook for 1-2 minutes on medium-high flame. Gently lift the dosa and cook the other side for another minute. Serve hot with any chutney.
We had our dosas with Karivepaku karam (Curry leaf powder) & Chutney powder. My son enjoyed these with his apple sauce. I wrapped the leftover dosas in a foil and put in the fridge. I wasn’t sure how they would turn out; they tasted just fine microwaved after 4 days, but I had to be real careful handling them as they got very delicate and crumbly.
I don't even remember when I picked up a packet of Anil ragi semya. I found it safely stored in the pantry. After reading the instructions on how to prepare the semya, I almost gave up for today's theme. Regular semya just needs to be boiled until tender, but ragi noodles are first soaked in plenty of water and then steamed until tender.
