French Toast

 

 

What you will need:

• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp sugar
• 4 slices of bread
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 tbsp butter

How to prepare

Combine the sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla extract and beat well. Dip the bread slices in the egg mixture.

I usually leave it for 30 seconds so that the bread absobs the mixture a little.

Heat a skillet and apply some butter. Take the bread slices out of the egg mixture, shake off the excess and place it on the hot skillet. Fry on each side until brown. Repeat this for the rest of the bread slices.

Serve with a little syrup and butter on top.

 

Akki Rotti (Rice flour rotti)

Akki rotti means rice flour in kannada. This is also known as tandla pitta rotti or tandla pitta bhakri in konkani.
Its usually eaten for breakfast in South India. The fresh coconut makes this bhakri soft in the inside and crispy on the outside. And its healthy too :)

What you will need:
Rice flour - 1 cup
1 onion - finely chopped
1 small carrot - grated (optional)
Coriander leaves - 2 to 3 strands
Fresh coconut - 1/2 cup
Green chillies - 3 - 4 chopped
Ghee or butter for frying
Salt to taste

How to prepare
Mix all the ingredients except for the ghee or butter. Add water to make a nice paste. The coconut makes the akki rotti soft. You can add milk instead of the water. The dough should be like a paste, yet thick and not too watery.

Apply butter on a pan and spread the mixture with your hand. Do not spread the mixture too thick. Keep the pan on the stove. Cover and cook. When the first side is cooked, apply some butter on top and turn it over to cook the other side until nice and crisp.
Apply some butter on top and serve with chutney.

Vegetable Upma / Uppittu / Rulavu

What you will need:
Rava / Sooji - 1 1/2 cups
Onion - 2 medium sized, chopped
Vegetables - 1 cup (beans, carrot, peas etc , this is optional)
Coriander leaves - few, finely chopped
Shredded coconut,fresh - 1/4 cup
Sugar - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 strands
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Green chillies - 4 to 5
Warm water - 2 1/2 cups
Oil/Ghee - 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

How to prepare
Cook the vegetables with a little salt. Drain all the water and keep aside.
Heat oil/ghee in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds crackle, add urad dal, green chillies, curry leaves and onions.
Fry until the onions turn golden brown. Now add the rava. Fry the rava until a nice aroma comes out. Now add the sugar, salt and cooked vegetables and stir.
Pour the warm water into the pan and mix it well with the rava. Cover and cook on low flame for 5 minutes. Add the coconut and coriander leaves and mix well. Cook until all the water is absorbed by the rava. Serve hot.

Phova upkari / Sweet and spicy poha

What you will need:
Thin Poha - 1 1/2 cups
Sugar - 3 tsp (you can also use a small amount of jaggery)
Freshly grated coconut - 3 tbsp
Sambar powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 strands
Oil - 2 tsp

How to prepare
In a bowl mix coconut with sugar, salt and sambar powder. Now add the poha to it and mix well.
If the poha is too dry, you can sprinkle some water.
Heat oil. Add mustard seeds. When the seeds crackle, add curry leaves. Allow this to cool for a couple of minutes.
Now add to the poha and its ready to be served.

Optional: You can also add one finely chopped onion to the poha.

Rava dosa

What you will need:

Riceflour-1 cup
Rava or sooji- 1/2 cup ( or 3/4 cup for more crispy dosas)
Maida- 1/4 cup
Salt to taste

For seasoning

Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Green chillie-1 chopped finely
Curry leaves- a few
Ginger- a small piece finely chopped
Coriander leaves- a few finely chopped
Onion- 1 cup finely chopped
Oil / ghee - 2 tsp
Butter - 2 tsp

How to prepare:

Mix the rice flour, maida and rava. Add salt, chopped green chillies, chopped ginger and coriander leaves. Add water or buttermilk and make sure that the batter is of a very watery consistency . Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and mustard seeds, when it splutters add curry leaves and then the onion.Fry the onion until it turns transparent. Allow it to cool for a couple of minutes and then pour it over the batter.
Heat the griddle and grease it with oil/ghee. Take one ladleful of batter and pour it on the tawa. This dosa cannot be spread like normal dosas. Put some butter on top. Cover and cook. After the first side is cooked and is golden brown in color, fold the dosa and remove it from the griddle. This dosa is only fried on one side.
Serve hot with coriander chutney or hing chutney.

Poori / Puri (Fried South Asian unleavened bread)

Poori is deep fried Indian bread made with wheat flour. I have always loved poori bhaji for breakfast. My brother and I always used to compete against each other on who can eat more pooris. Even to this day I can eat 10-15 pooris easily. When I started making puris, they would never puff up. But with a little practice I can say that I can make pretty good puris. In the picture I have served poori with aloo bhaji and vegetable korma. I will post the recipe for vegetable korma soon.


What you will need:
1 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp oil/ghee
2 cups wheat flour

How to prepare:
In a bowl add the salt and ghee. To this add 1 cup of warm water. Now add the wheat flour. Mix everything and knead the dough.
Add a little more wheat flour if the dough is too soft. The dough should be a little harder than the chapati/roti dough.
Make lemon sized balls with the dough. Flatten each ball in your palms and dust with some wheat flour so that it does not stick when rolling. Roll the puris and keep them covered.

Heat oil in a pan. Deep fry one poori at a time. Slightly press the pooris and they will puff up.

Serve hot with vegetable korma or aloo(potato) bhaji.

Ragi / Nachni dosa ( finger millet pancakes)

I never liked ragi until I tasted this dosa. It tastes best when served hot with mint/ pudina chutney.

What you will need:
2 cups ragi flour
1 cup shredded coconut fresh/frozen
1 cup chopped onions
5-6 green chillies, finely chopped
1 small bunch coriander leaves, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsp ghee / clarified butter
salt to taste

How to prepare:
In a bowl, mix onions, coriander leaves, green chillies, coconut, salt and sugar with 2 cups of warm water. Add the ragi flour and mix well so that no lumps are formed. The consistency should be similar to that of the dosa batter.
Keep it aside for 15 minutes.
Heat the griddle and grease it with ghee. Pour a spoonful of the batter on the griddle. Cover and cook. Pour some ghee on the top and then flip it and cook the other side. The onions in the batter should be slightly roasted. Remove the dosa when done.

Tausha / Magge Doddakka ( Cucumber Pancake )

What you will need:
1 small cucumber / magge (yellow cucumber)
1 1/2 cups thin rava / rice rava
1/2 cup wheat flour
4 tsp sugar
ginger - a small piece
4 green chillies - chopped into small pieces
3 tbsp shredded coconut
curry leaves - 2 strands
salt to taste

How to prepare:
Peel the skin of the cucumber and grate it.
Add the rava, wheat flour, coconut, green chillies, chopped ginger ,chopped curry leaves, sugar and salt. Mix everything well. If required, add just a little water. Do not add too much water.
Heat the griddle and grease it. Spread the mixture on the pan with your hand.
Cover and cook. After the first side is done, flip and cook the other side.
Serve hot with butter on top.

Batat phovu / poha ( Flattened rice with potatoes )

What you will need:
3 cups poha
1 cup chopped onions
1 potato - cut into very small cubes
4-5 green chillies cut into big pieces
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4 tbsp shreadded fresh/frozen coconut
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp mustard seeds
curry leaves - 2 strands
some chopped coriander leaves
2 tsp lemon juice
6 tsp oil / ghee
salt to taste

How to prepare:
Add water to the poha and wash it and immediately drain all the water out.Squeeze excess water if necessary. Add the salt and sugar to the poha and mix. With your hands,break any lumps that might be formed in the poha.
Heat oil/ghee in a pan. When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds. When these crackle, add the green chillies, urad dal, curry leaves, turmeric powder and mix. Then add the chopped onions. When the onions are slightly brown, add the potatoes. Add a little salt and cover and cook until the potatoes are done. Now add the poha and coconut. Cover and cook on a low flame for 5 minutes. Turn the heat off. Add the lemon juice and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Udidu mooga polo ( urad and moong dal dosa )

This is one of the other easy dosas because you dont have to leave it overnight for fermentation. The same dosa can be prepared by using chana dal instead of moong dal.

What you will need:
1 cup urad dal ( black gram split)
1 cup moong dal ( green gram split)
4 green chillies
1" ginger
salt to taste

How to prepare:
Soak the urad dal and moong dal for 2-3 hours.
Grind both the dals. Add 2 of the green chillies and grind to make a smooth batter.
Chop the other 2 green chillies and ginger.
Mix it to the battter. Heat the flat pan, then grease it with oil and then pour the batter onto the pan. Cover and cook the dosa. Once the first side is done, pour a little oil adn flip the dosa. Fry on the other side.
Serve with any chutney.

Panpolo ( Neeru / Neer dosa or Coconut dosa)

This is one of my favourite dosas as it tastes so good and is very easy to prepare. Also unlike the other dosas, I don't have to leave it overnight for fermentation. This dosa tastes best when served with garlic chutney. It is also served with spicy fish curry. The picture shows the dosa with hinga (asafoetida) chutney.

What you will need:
1 cup white rice
1 cup grated coconut or half cup coconut milk
salt to taste

How to prepare:
Soak the rice for 2-3 hours. Grind the rice along with grated coconut. If using coconut milk, grind the rice and mix the coconut milk to it. Make sure you grind the rice into a smooth paste. Add enough water so that the consistency of the batter is not very thick. Heat the griddle, then grease it with oil and then pour the batter onto the pan. This dosa is fried only on one side.

After the first side is done, fold the dosa in half from the centre.

Fold one more time and the dosa is ready.