Beetroot Chutney

I have made chutneys with veggies like ridge gourd, eggplant, onions and tomatoes in the past, but tried beetroot chutney for the first time. I came across this recipe on Tarla Dalal's website and tried it out with a few changes. The ingredients used in this chutney are similar to our traditional coconut chutney with the addition of grated beetroot which makes this chutney very healthy. The beetroot also gives it a beautiful dark red color. This chutney tasted awesome with the Nachni/ Ragi Dosa I made for dinner last sunday. (Nachni Dosa recipe to follow).

Ingredients -
1 cup shredded beetroot
1 small sliced onion
1 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal
1 big garlic clove
1 tbsp chopped ginger
3-4 dried red chillies
5 curry leaves
4 tbsps fresh grated coconut
2 tbsps crushed peanuts
2-3 tbsps chopped cilantro

For the Tempering/ Tadka -
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal
1 pinch hing/ asafoetida
3-4 curry leaves

Method -
1. Heat some oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds and urad dal and fry for sometime.
2. Add curry leaves, dried red chillies, garlic and ginger and saute for sometime.
3. To this add sliced onions and cook them for some time. Then add grated beetroot and cook for some more time. Add fresh grated coconut and crushed peanuts and cook for couple of mins.
4. Allow this cooked beetroot to cool completely. Grind it into a fine paste in your blender. Take it out in a bowl and add some chopped cilantro.
5. Heat some oil in another pan. Add mustard seeds into the hot oil. When they splutter, add urad dal, asafoetida/ hing and curry leaves.
6. Pour this tempering on the chutney.

This goes to Priya's 'Healing Foods - Beetroot' event, originally started by Siri.

Roasted Corn Guacamole

Couple of weeks back we had this Roasted Corn Guacamole at Chili's. We loved it so much that I decided to recreate this at home for a quick snack last weekend. The roasted corn adds some natural sweetness and a pleasant bite to the guacomole which we really loved. I think this is probably the best way to experience the true taste of avocados. I served these with some healthy flaxseed corn chips.

Ingredients -
2 Avocados
1 jalopeno
2-3 cloves garlic
1 lime
1 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 cup sweet corn kernels
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1/4 cup finely chopped tomato (peel the tomato and chop into small pieces)
1 tsp oil
salt to taste

Method -
1. Cut the avocados in half, discard the seeds and scoop out the avocado from the peel into the blender.
2. Blend the avocados along with garlic and jalopeno into a smooth paste.
3. Heat a tsp of oil in a skillet and roast the corn kernels.
4. Add onions, tomatoes, roasted corn, cilantro, lime juice, salt to the avocado puree and mix well.
5. Serve with corn chips.

I'm sending this to Priya Mitharwal's A.W.E.D - Spain event originally started by DK of Chef In You.

Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney

These days I have been saving vegetable peels, stalks and even leaves hoping to make edibile and delicious dishes from them. I have heard many a times from different people that vegetable and fruit peels, stalks and leaves have lots of nutrients in them. I agree, we can easily transform some of these veggie wastes which we usually toss in the bin into tasty delicious dishes. One such dish that I often make with vegetable peels is this Ridge Gourd Peel Chutney. I served this chutney with the Masala Dosas I made for dinner sometime last week. This chutney tastes just as good as regular coconut chutney and one wont be able to guess that it was made from peels that usually get thrown away!

Ingredients -
3 cups ridge gourd peels
3 green chillies
1 inch piece ginger
1 tbsp crushed peanuts
2 tbsps fresh grated coconut
1/2 cup grated raw mango (or tamarind to taste)
1 handful cilantro leaves
1/4 cup jaggery
Salt to taste
2 tbsps oil
1/4 tsp asafoetida/ hing

Method -
1.Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan and fry the green chillies and ridge gourd peels till they turn slightly brown and crisp.
2.Transfer this to the blender and add the remaining ingredients such as ginger, crushed peanuts, coconut, raw mango, cilantro, tamarind, jaggery, salt and some water. Blend this into a fine paste by adding some water as needed.
3.In a small kadai, heat a tbsp of oil and add hing. Pour this oil on the chutney and mix well.

This goes to Nithu's 'Best Out Of Waste' event.

BeNNe Dosa/ Butter Dosa

I first read about BeNNe Dosa on Shilpa's Blog. I have been a regular reader of her blog and especially love all of her mom's traditional Konkani recipes. When I read her interesting post of the crowded restaurant that served these dosas, I immediately wanted to try them out.

"BeNNe" means butter in Kannada. Apparently, this dosa is said to have originated in the Davanagere district of the state of Karnataka. It is prepared by adding liberal doses of butter (Benne) and hence the name. What makes it different than the traditional dosa is the addition of rice flour and maida in addition to rice and urad dal. The rice flour makes it very crispy on the outside and maida gives it some softness. The main ingredient "BeNNe" gives it a nice golden brown color and heavenly aroma. I made a few changes to the dosa batter by adding some methi/ fenugreek seeds and some cooked rice which I usually add for fermentation. I served these dosa's with palya or potato bhaji, coconut chutney and my mom's spicy peanut chutney. I made the potato bhaji following my usual recipe. I made some changes to the chutney. Since I didn’t have dalia on hand, I replaced it with some roasted channa dal, added some tamarind for sourness and also added some cilantro for color. This recipe is a keeper and I'm definitely going to make these dosas very often.



FOR DOSAS
Ingredients -
1 cup urad dal
2 cups dosa rice/ boiled rice (You can also use regular rice)
2 cups rice flour
1/2 cup maida
1 tbsp methi/ fenugreek seeds
1/4 cup cooked rice (optional)
1/8th tea spn baking soda
Butter
Oil
Salt

Method -
1. Soak urad dal and rice separately overnight. Also soak the methi seeds either with the urad dal/ rice.
2. Grind urad dal to a very smooth paste in your blender or wet grinder.
3. Then grind soaked rice to a smooth paste along with some cooked rice.
4. In a large bowl, mix together the rice and urad dal paste.
5. Now add rice flour, maida, water, salt to it and mix well. Do not make the batter too thin.
6. Let it ferment for few hours.
7. Add soda to it and mix well.
8. While making dosas: Heat your dosa pan/ griddle and grease it with some oil when hot.
9. Take some water in a bowl and add 1 tsp of salt to it. Sprinkle this water on the hot pan to get nice golden brown crisp dosa. Repeat the oil and salt water procedure every time you make a dosa.
10. After the water quickly dries out, pour the dosa batter on the pan with the help of your ladle and spread it in circular motion to form a dosa. Again apply some oil on and around the edges of the dosa and cook the dosa till golden brown.
11. Spread some potato bhaji/ palya and butter over the dosa and fold it.

NOTE - Depending on where you live, fermentation of the batter can take anywhere from 6 hrs to coupe of days. I usually leave the batter in my oven and it takes a day for the batter to ferment and rise well. Always let the batter ferment in a relatively large cooking pot or bowl to prevent it from overflowing the pot after fermentation (Has happened to me few times …it wasn’t really fun to clean the oven with the fermented mess :-))

POTATO BHAJI / PALYA
Ingredients -
3 medium sized boiled potatoes (chop/ lightly mash the potatoes while they are still warm)
2 medium sized onions sliced vertically
½ tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds/ jeera
1 tsp split urad dal
1 tsp chana dal
2 dried red chillies broken into pieces
2 tbsp broken cashewnuts (optional)
3-4 green chilies slit in the middle and chopped into pieces
10-12 curry leaves
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
½ tsp turmeric powder
½ tsp hing
2 -3 tbsp oil
1 tbsp butter (optional)
1 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
1 tbsp lime/ lemon juice
Chopped cilantro

Method -
1. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds
2. When the mustard seeds splutter add chana dal and let it roast for sometime. Then add urad dal.
3. When urad dal is lightly fried, add cumin seeds, dried red chillies, hing and turmeric
4. Add cashewnuts and fry till golden brown
5. Add, ginger, garlic, curry leaves and green chillies, mix well and fry for sometime
6. Add chopped onions and fry for sometime. Don’t cook the onions too much.
7. Now add salt , sugar and boiled potatoes and mix well. Mash the potatoes some more if needed.
8. Add few tbsps of water and cook the bhaji covered for sometime.
9. Then add lemon/ lime juice and butter and cook for few seconds.
10. Garnish liberally with finely chopped cilantro

COCONUT CHUTNEY -
Ingredients -
1/2 cup dalia (Since I didn’t have Dalia, I used 2 tbsp of chana dal. I roasted the chana dal in 1 tsp of oil on slow flame)
1 cup fresh or frozen coconut
1 tbsp chopped ginger
4-5 green chilies
3-4 sprigs of cilantro
Tamarind to taste
½ tsp sugar
Salt to taste

Method -
Grind all the ingredients to a smooth paste. Add a little water to bring it to required consistency.