Pancakes: Eggless!!

This is the easiest, tastiest and the best pancake recipe ever!!! Thanks to a dear friend for sharing this one with me! Most eggless pancake recipes call for buttermilk and I am didn't want to a) buy it or b) look for a substitute. This recipe is simply perfect for me!

All Purpose/Plain flour: 1 cup
Sugar: 1 tsp
Salt: a pinch
Cinnamon: 1/2 tsp
Baking Powder: 1.5 tsp
Baking Soda: 1/2 tsp
Milk: 1 cup
Oil/Melted Butter: 2 tbsp
Vanilla Extract: 1 tsp

• Mix together the dry ingredients. The best thing to do is to sieve them together.
• In a separate bowl/jug mix together the milk, oil and vanilla.
• Pour this into the flour mix and stir to combine. Please be kind to the batter and don't whisk it to within an inch of its life! Lumps are OK. Gentle stirring will do fine!
• Now heat a pan, spray it with oil and pour a ladleful of batter onto the pan. When you see bubbles on top, flip them and cook for a minute more. Do not squish them down like you do with Dosa!! 
• Remove them to a plate, butter them, drizzle some honey/maple syrup and top with fruits if you'd like to. Makes a perfect Sunday breakfast! 

[The above measurement gives me about 6 medium pancakes. ]

The most addictive Granola!!!

I love Granola and hate the ones we get in the store! I set about attempting to make my own, and this is the best version I have had so far!

Rolled Oats (NOT instant/quick cooking) : 3 cups [I used Scott's Porage]
Chopped Almonds: 1/2 cup
Chopped Hazelnuts: 1/3 cup
Cinnamon Powder: 1/2 tsp
Almond Essence: 1/2 tsp
Vanilla Extract: 1/2 tsp
Oil: 1/4 cup
Maple Syrup: 1/3 Cup (get good quality American ones if you can!)
Brown Sugar : 1/4 - 1/2 cup (depending on sweetness required.)
Coconut: 2-3 tablespoons (optional)
Raisins/Cranberries/Dried Cherries/Dates: Any mix of your choice: 1/2 cup (optional) save it for the last

-Pre-heat your oven to 165
-Grease and line a baking sheet with greaseproof paper.
-In a big bowl, mix all the dry ingredients except the dried fruits.
-In a saucepan, mix the maplesyrup, sugar, oil and heat until the sugar is dissolved. Takes about 3 mins.
-Mix this liquid with the oat mixture and stir well to combine.
-The mix will be clumpy and heavy. This is how we want it.
-Stir to coat the oats evenly.
-Spread this onto the baking sheet and level it.
-Bake it for 30-35 mins, stirring and mixing every 5-10 minutes.
-at about 25 minutes, add the dried fruit (if using) and bake.
-Cool, store in an airtight can and it lasts for upto a month!

Onion Chutney

This is a great combination for Dosa or Idlis. You will need a blender, though.

Urad dal: 3 tablespoons
Red Chillies: 4-5
Curry Leaves: 1 Sprig
Oil: 2 tablespoons.
Onions: 2 medium, sliced thin.
Mustard seeds: 2 pinches
Hing
Salt
Tamarind: size of a cherry soaked and extracted

Heat a wok with oil, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, chillies and curry leaves.

Saute until the dal is pink.

Now add the hing, onions, salt and saute until cooked.

Put the whole lot into a blender with the tamarind extract and blend well.

Vegetable Poha

This is probably one of the healthiest dinners we have had in a while. Very easy too.

Poha/Pawa/Aval: Medium thick: 2 cups.

Cabbage finely chopped: 1 cup
Carrots finely chopped: 1 cup
One potato, cubed
Peas: 1/2 cup.
Onion: 1 medium: finely chopped
Ginger chopped: 1 heaped tablespoon
Green chillies: 2-3 finely chopped.
Curry Leaves: 1 sprig
Lemon: 1
Corriander leaves: to taste
Salt
Hing
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Red Chilli powder: 1 teaspoon
Peanuts/urad dal/chana dal/mustard

--Begin by washing the poha and draining it. This will soften it.
--Before you start chopping everything, cut the potatoes and cook them separately and drain.
--Chop everything and keep it ready. Alternatively, you can pick up stir fry veggies from a store. saves time.
--Heat a wok with some oil.
--add the peanuts, urad dal, chana dal and mustard with curry leaves and let it splutter.
--Now add the green chillies and ginger.
--Add Onions with some hing and salt and allow it to cook.
--Now add the turmeric and red chilli powder and rest of the veggies and potato.
--When everything has combined and shrunk (takes about 5 mins) add the poha.
--Stir well.
--Pour the lemon juice over the poha, adjust seasoning and garnish with corriander. Chances are, you may have to fix the hing and salt at this point.

Kadala Curry

This dish is the ultimate kerala/mallu food experience. I mean, Nothing can possibly be tastier than this curry with Puttu. I make this quite often for S and I am always thinking of Anna. He loves this dish and I cant wait to cook this for him. Anyway, I should be taking pictures of all the dishes. Unfortunately, S is not patient enough to wait for photography. Sigh! So, here goes the recipe.

P.S If you are living in the UK or the US where canned Garbanzo/chickpeas are available, go grab a few cans. Its dirt cheap and saves you a a lot of trouble.

Canned Chickpeas : 2 cans or 500 grams (cooked)
Red Onions: 2 medium - Chopped Fine/sliced fine.
Tomatoes: 2 medium - Chopped.
Jeera
Mustard
Curry Leaves
Turmeric
Red Chilli Powder/Paprika:

To Grind:
Small red onions/Pearl Onions/Shallots: 6-7 Peeled
Curry Leaves- 2 sprigs
Dried Red Chillies: 5-6
Corriander Seeds: 1-2 tablespoons
Coconut, grated- 1 cup (fresh/frozen. NO dessicated stuff!)

1) To make the paste:
Heat oil in a pan, add the chillies, curry leaves and small onions and fry for a minute.
Now, add the corriander seeds, fry for about 4-5 seconds.
Add the coconut and fry for 2-3 minutes.
Blend the mix in a blender with some water. This should be a fairly thick paste.

2) In a large pan, heat oil and crackle the mustard, jeera and curry leaves
Now add the onions and fry with a little salt.
Once cooked, add turmeric and paprika and the tomatoes.
Cook until the tomatoes are pulpy and oil leaves the sides.
Add the chickpeas- One can drained and another one drained halfway. This water is tasty
Once the mix boils, add the ground paste.
Cook for a minute or two.
Garnish with some corriander leaves.


This is a really tasty accompaniment for - Dosa, Idli, Puttu, Appam, Idiappam.

Oats Dosa

S's mom is diabetic and the doctor has warned her to quit eating rice, or else. So I started hunting for recipes with absolutely no rice. She prefers Dosa/Idli. So I focused on those dishes. I came accross 2 recipes that seemed interesting. One was an Oats Dosa and another was Oats Idli. I tried the Oats dosa and it was actually yummy. So, here's the recipe.

Oats: 1 cup
Wheat Flour: 1cup
Semolina/Rava: 3/4 cup
Salt: To Taste
Red Chilli Powder: 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek Powder: 1 tsp (optional)
Hing/Perungayam/Kayam: a generous dose.

1) Put the oats into your mixer and grind it to a powder. Do not add any water.
2) Take this oats powder into a mixing bowl, add the wheat flour and every other ingredient and mix well.
3) Make sure it is not lumpy.
4) Make Dosas as you normally would. It is really tasty.

Note: I avoided adding mustard, green chilli etc because it has oil. You can add them if you don't mind the oil.
The Original Source is Veg Inspirations- A blog which I follow regularly and is on the right side of this page. :-)

Chutney!

Today's brunch was adai dosai with carrot chutney. I was looking to make a chutney with no cocnut and the best bet was this carrot chutney. It is faintly sweet, mostly spicy and Nice! This is great with adai and works with regular dosa and idli. Here's the recipe:

Grated Carrots: 1-11/2 cups. I usually grate 2 medium carrots.

Roasted Groundnuts - 1/4 cup. Or 3 tablespoons

Red Chilli: 4-5 nos. I add about 7. S likes it spicy.

Garlic Pod: 1.

Tamarind: a small bit

Oil: 1/4 tsp

Corriander powder: 1 tablespoon

Salt : to taste

Dry roast the garlic and chillies. Dump into the mixer.

Add the roasted groundnuts.

Now pour 1/4 tsp of oil and sautee the carrots for a few minutes.

Add the corriander powder to the carrots and take it off the heat.

Add the tamarind, salt and carrots into the mixer and blend well.

Carrot chutney is ready!

Note:

You can add a quarter cup of roasted coconut if desired.

Bread Upma

Sunday Morning. Wake up late. And ask the man "what do you want for breakfast?" He says "Anything." I say "Fine. I will give you cereal." He says"no!" and pulls a face. The options are given one after the other : Dosa, Puttu, Upma... Nope. Nothing meets his fancy. I give up and as a last option say "Bread Upma" BINGO! Fine then. This is how I made it and the picture is how it looked!

Bread : 6 slices [I used wholemeal]
Oil : 2 Tablespoons
Mustard: 1 tsp
Peanuts: 2 tablespoons
Curry Leaves: 4-6 nos
Ginger : 1 inch piece chopped fine
Green Chillies: 4 to 5 [Depending on how spicy you want it]
Onions: 2 medium sliced fine.
Tomatoes: 2 big ripe ones, sliced
Green Peas: 1/4 cup
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Red Chilli Powder: 1 tsp
Asafoetida/Hing/Perumkayam: 1 pinch


Heat a kadai and fry the mustard, peanuts and curry leaves.
Add the Ginger and Green Chillies and then add the onions.
Add Salt and fry well, until the onions are limp but cooked. [ Bread has salt. So be careful about the amount you add]
Now add the turmeric, red chilli powder and hing.
Add the peas and tomato and let it cook for a few minutes
Chop up the bread into bite sized pieces.
Add it to the tomato mixture. Mix well.
Every piece of bread must be coated with the mix. Add 2 tablespoons of water if you would like.
Finish with some corriander leaves.