Adai - A south Indian delicacy

Adai is a variety of dosa made using channa dal, toor dal and rice. Adai - Avial is a popular combination in most south Indian restaurants. Adai is more nutritious than dosa as the proportion of rice to dal is 1:1 (more protein and lesser carbs) as opposed to 3:1 to 7:1 in dosa.

We had a potluck with a few friends at my home and I decided to make adai. Adai, like any dosa, tastes great when hot and just out of the skillet. I made them right when we started eating. It went on to the plates directly from the skillet and was delicious. I served the adai with tri-colored chutneys (Cillantro, coconut and tomato) and was big hit.

Ingredients:
Channa dal - 1 cup (Can be replaced with kali channa as it is more nutritious)
Toor dal - 1 cup
Moong dal - 2 tbsp
Urad dal - 2 tbsp
Rice - 2 cups
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Red chillies - 4 -6 or to taste
Salt to taste
Center (seed area) of 1 bottle gourd (loki) - optional
Your favorite veggies and/or herbs grated or very finely chopped - to be added at the end - optional again

Soak the dals, rice, fenugreek seeds and red chillies for 2-4 hours (If using kali channa, soak it overnight). Grind the soaked mixture and the bottle gourd center together with water into a slightly coarse batter (thicker than dosa batter). Bottle gourd center makes the adai soft and fluffy. (When I cook bottle gourd, I remove the center portion and save it in the freezer. I thaw it to room temperature before grinding in to the batter. As mentioned before, it is optional and does not affect the taste.) Add salt to taste and mix well. The batter can be used right away or fermented. I prefer to ferment as it gives the subtle sour taste. To ferment, I leave it in the oven with the oven light on overnight (6-8 hrs) and the batter will rise. Once fermented, mix the batter well and it can be stored in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.

Now add your veggies and herbs and mix in. This time, I added onions and cilantro. You can add grated carrot, cabbage, spinach, parsley, mint, green onions, any kind of greens i.e. keerai or mix n match as you wish. Make adai like normal dosa but a little thicker and enjoy.

Tasty and healthy Ragi Dosa

Ragi (finger millet) is a super grain rich in calcium and fiber. Some people (including my husband) does not like the taste of ragi. This recipe makes even the ragi haters like this dosa.

Dosa is generally of 2 types - aracha dosai (Dosa for which the batter is ground) and karacha dosai (Dosa for which the batter is mixed -i.e. using flours). Ground dosa batter is poured in the center of the skillet and spread out. Mixed dosa batter is poured all around starting at the rim of the skillet.

It was my mom's tip to combine both these types by replacing 3 parts of rice in dosa batter by 3 parts of ragi (or any other like whole wheat, millet etc) flour.

Ingredients:
Urad dal - 1 cup
Rice (Boiled or Idly rice preferable) - 2 cups
Ragi flour - 3 cups
Methi (fenugreek) seeds - 1/4 tsp
Green chillies - 3-4 or to taste
Salt to taste
your favorite veggies - to be added at the end - optional (I used grated carrot, finely chopped onion, cilantro and cabbage)

Soak urad dal, rice and methi seeds for at least 4 hours. Grind them into a smooth paste in a blender. Add Ragi flour and salt and mix well (mixing with hand allows better fermentation). You can use the batter right away or allow it to ferment. I prefer fermentation, as it brings out the fluffiness and gives a mild sour taste. In India, we would just leave the batter at room temperature overnight to ferment. Here in the US, it is a lot colder than in India so room temperature fermentation does not work. There are many techniques out there - the best one that worked for me is to leave the batter in the oven with the light on overnight.

After fermentation, mix the batter well. Add thinly sliced green chillies and your favorite veggies and mix again. Then make dosa in a skillet like ground dosa (Heat the skillet over medium heat. Take a laddle full of batter and pour in the center of the skillet and spread in circular motion towards the ends. Drizzle little oil along the edges of the dosa. Turn when cooked and allow to cook on the other side. Remove from skillet). Enjoy with chutney or dosa milagai podi.