Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Payatham Paruppu Adai a.k.a Pesarattu

We decided to make Payatham Paruppu (Moong Dal) Adai a.k.a Pesarattu, as a close friend of ours' called up and said they're coming over for dinner and we ran out of usual options for roti & side dishes, poori & masal, briyani & raita. Mainly because, we were too bored to do those usual things and/or the fact that we didnt have enough to prepare one such. Just before we could pluck our last hairs to decide what we should make for them, something struck our minds and we started off with this simple, yet mouth watering dish...

Ingredients
  1. Moong Dhal - 1 1/2 cups
  2. Plain raw rice - 1/2 cup
  3. Red Chilli - 5-6
  4. Asafoetida - 1/3 tsp
  5. Salt - As much as you want
  6. Curry Leaves - 12-15
  7. Corriander Leaves - 5-7 stems
Pesarattu

Procedure
  1. Soak the Moong Dhal and Raw Rice in water for 90 minutes. (True, you can get this going as fast as this)
  2. Grind the soaked contents with Red Chillis, Asafoetida, Salt (Dont grind it fine, let it be a little coarse - just like you would do for adai)
  3. Cut the Curry Leaves & Corriander Leaves into small pieces and mix it well with the grounded mixture
  4. Heat kadai and pour a little oil and lay the batter just as you would for dosai/adai and cook on medium flame
  5. Don't over heat the kadai as the adai would become dark (karinju poidum)
Serve hot with Tomato Pickle/Chutney, Sambhar and Curd.

Variations: You can add finely chopped onions/spinach/cabbage to the batter.

For the record - Nobody called up and said they would come for dinner, I was just trying to accentuate just for the sake of this post.

Ellam... eye wasss...

Friday, September 21, 2007

What is Vaazhai Ilai for me and you?

How/Where do I start if I have to say how much I am crazy about food? The best way would be to cite an example and then proceed further. A small dialogue sequence from Sindhu Bhairavi... (J.K.B. and Sindhu would be so immersed talking about carnatic/classical music and J.K.B. would ask Sindhu something like this...)

J.K.B: Apdina, Sangeetham-na unakku saapadu madhiri-nu sollu.
Sindhu: Illa, swasam madhiri.

For me, saapadu is... swasam madhiri.

Build ups apart - I will fill this space up about my encounters with various eatables, eateries & cookeries. I will try to enrich it with pictures as nicely as this, but no guarantees.

Stay tuned...