Zucchini dosa with tomato-zucchini-onion chutney

Inspired by Bouncing-Bubble's Ragi Dosa recipe I've been making different versions with grated vegetables added pretty often. I love how easy they are to make, and I love to think I'm adding nutritional value with all the veggies. And best of all, they're unfermented- I dont seem to have much luck with the fermentation process :(

Last night I prepped all my ingredients, went to the pantry to pull out the ragi and remembered, belatedly, emptying the jar a few weeks before. So because once dosas were in my mind, I absolutely needed to eat some, I decided to substitute rice flour with the ragi and because I dont like the chewy texture of plain rice flour I added some wheat flour to the batter too. The dosas turned out very tasty, and I'm excited to add another recipe to my repertoire of unfermented dosas. I think in future I'll experiment with the quantity of these flours. Until I made them I didnt even think of using atta in a dosa recipe but now I remember something my mom used to cook up with jaggery. Some zucchini got incorporated into the chutney recipe and was, again, surprisingly tasty to eat.

Zucchini dosa
The cup measurements are for teacups, if using the actual cup measure, adjust the quantities of ingredients and vegetables accordingly.

Ingredients
1 cup rice flour
half cup wheat flour
half small red onion, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 small zucchini, grated with skin
5-6 curry leaves, chopped, if you like eating them, keep whole otherwise
handful of coriander leaves, finely chopped
quarter cup yogurt (optional)
1 tbsp. ginger, grated or finely chopped
salt to taste

Method
Mix all the ingredients (except salt) together. If I add yogurt to a batter I like to set it aside for about 15 mins, adding just a little water because the zucchini will let out water as it rests, you can add more later.

When ready to make the dosas, add enough water to allow the dosa to spread on the pan and salt to taste. Pour onto a hot pan sprinkled with oil. Cover the dosa for a little while (the rice flour needs to cook), then turn it and let it brown a bit on the other side. Serve hot with chutney.

Tomato-zucchini-onion chutney

Ingredients
1 tsp mustard seeds
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
4/5 red chillies (adjust to taste)
half small red onion, chopped
2 small tomatoes, chopped
half small zucchini, chopped
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp chana dal

Method
Add a little oil to a hot pan and roast the red chillies with hing. Set them aside, then roast the urad dal and chana dal separately and set aside.

Add the onion, tomatoes and zucchini to the pan, cover and let cook on medium heat until the tomatoes and zucchini are soft.

Add all the ingredients used so far into a mixer and grind to a fine paste with salt added to taste.

In a vessel heat some oil, add the mustard seeds to it and let pop. Add the mustard and oil to the chutney and serve.

Sabudana khichdi

As a kid, I used to wait avidly for fasting day - for Maharashtrian fasts we load up on starches and peanuts and the food is mouthwateringly delicious!! One of the staples of the fast is the sabudana (sago/tapioca pearl) khichdi. Nowadays I dont need any excuses, I make it whenever I need some quick and easy comfort food.

Soaking the sabudana pearls
This is perhaps the most labour intensive part of the entire process and the soaking can make or break your khichdi. Too much water results in a mushy mess which will cleave to your palate and under-soaking (and then cooking it because you are too tired and hungry to think of anything else) will result in either a couple of teeth missing or a rubberized mess .... so pay attention here.

Different types of sabudana require different times for soaking. In maharashtra you get the absolute freshest pearls which take 2-3 hours to soak. The ones available to me here require 8 hours and more. You'll have to do some trial and error. To figure out when the pearls are soaked perfectly - squeeze ONE pearl gently between thumb and forefinger, if it's squishy and gets back it's shape like elastic without any hard parts then it's done, if it is completely squished to powder then it's over soaked. Repeat for a few more pearls - sometimes you find that one is done, others are still hard at the center. In this case, let them soak for some more time - patience is your friend here.

What works for me - I take the pearls in a sieve, rinse them in running water for about 2-3 minutes (if not using a sieve, rinse then drain), then cover and keep aside. Before covering, I take a handful of water and sprinkle on top. From time to time, I uncover and stir the pearls, if they feel dryish I sprinkle a couple handfuls of water. Do this until the soak test above is succesful.

Sabudana Khichdi
You can add chopped parboiled potatoes after the green chillies in step 1 below, fry until they cook well, then add the sabudana. I skip this since I hate potato in my khichdi but this is the traditional way. Also the amount of peanut powder is conservative, you can certainly go crazy!! All the cup measurements below are actually teacup instead of the standard cup. 1 teacup = 120 ml.

Ingredients
2 cups sabudana, soaked
1 and a half cup roasted, unsalted peanuts, ground to a chunky peanut powder
5/6 green chillies - finely sliced (I like heat, adjust yours accordingly)
cumin seeds
half tsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
salt to taste
juice of 1 lemon
large handful of chopped coriander leaves

Method
Heat oil in a vessel on high heat. Add the cumin seeds, when they start sputtering, add green chillies and fry them for a bit.

Add the sabudana, peanut powder, salt and sugar. Reduce heat to medium and let it cook. Contrary to the patience it required before to soak the sabudana, you cant leave this alone for even a minute - it WILL burn! What I do is I cover for half a minute, then uncover and give it a stir and so on until the pearls are steamed through. When they start looking transluscent instead of the milky hue earlier you know they're done. Alternatively, just chew on them. It doesnt take long, I give them about 3-4 stirs and the khichdi is done.

Squeeze half the lemon and add more according to your taste. Check your salt seasoning.

Garnish with the coriander leaves and serve hot with a cup of thick yogurt as accompaniment.

Raw Plaintain (vazhakai) crispies

Everytime I empty the carton of corn flakes into an air tight container, I found myself staring at the crushed pieces left behind. Apart from using them for cutlets, the powdered flakes could be used for the following recipe as well.



Peel and thinly slice the raw banana and soak the pieces in water to avoid discolouration. To the crushed corn flakes, add salt, hing, ground pepper and haldi, and spread the mixture in a dry plate. Coat the cut banana with the mixture on both sides. (a thin layer would do). Heat the tava, grease it with just a hint of oil, and place the pieces on the tava. Cook both sides in medium flame, adding little oil, so that they don't stick to the tava. Remove when they are slightly brown. Makes for a great starter, and are MUCH better when compared to all the pakoras/bhajis (and the ensuing guilty consciousness!)