Murungai Ilai Adai - Savoury Crepes made with Drumstick Leaves

Adai is a lentil and rice crepe. It is very high in protein. Makes a filling breakfast or dinner. It is a very easy recipe to make and very forgiving. A little more or less of any of these ingredients won't make much difference to the taste. So even a novice cook can make awesome adai.



Adai is one of the first recipes that I posted in my blog and I was just looking at the photos and was wondering, how a person can take such aweful photos. I have come a long way from there.

Some Adai recipes in my blog
1. Adai
2. Milagu Adai
3. Oats Adai

Now coming to today's recipe, the speciality is the Murunga Ilai - Drumstick Leaf. We used to have a tree in our backyard and we could get as much leaves and drum stick as we wanted. Now it is a rarity. I am still glad, well no grateful that we get it in our Indian Store. Hear it is hard to get even in India.



Avial (Recipe here) is served as a side dish for adai. Do not ask me why? No idea. It is just a very popular combo though Avial is usually a side dish for rice. I guess you just have to eat it to fall in love with the combo



Ingredients (Makes about 15-16 adai)



Sona Masuri Rice (or Raw Rice) 1/2 cup
Idli Rice 1/2 cup (or use any rice)
Toor Dal 1/2 cup
Urad Dal 1/2 cup
Channa Dal 1/4 cup

Onion 1 finely chopped
Drumstick Leaves 1 cup tightly packed (use spinach finely chopped if you do not get these leaves)
Dry Red Chilli 1
Green Chilli 2
Curry Leaves few
Hing (Asafoetida) a little

Salt to taste
Oil to cook

Method of Preparation

1. Soak the rice and dal overnight (or for 3-4 hours).

2. Grind into a coarse paste adding enough water along with red chilli, curry leaf, green chilli, hing and salt.

3. Add the onions and drumstick leaves and mix well.

4. In a tawa (flat pan), pour a laddle of the batter and spread with the back of the laddle. Drizzle a little oil and cook the bottom side. It will take a minute or 2.

5. Flip and cook the other side, about a minute.

6. Repeat for the rest of the batter.

Serve with a chutney or sambar. Avial (a vegetable stew makes an amazing combination for adai. See recipe here).

Batata Nu Shaak - Gujarati Potato Curry

A very simple Potato Dish prepared in the Western State of Gujarat. I made it as part of the Gujarati Thali. Check it out for all other dishes from the cuisine.

Recipe given to me by Vaishali



Ingredients

Potato 4 cubed (no need to peal)
Tomato 1 chopped finely
Oil 2 tbsp
Mustard Seeds 1/2 tsp
Cumin Seeds 1/2 tsp
Hing a little
Turmeric Powder 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder 1 tsp
Cumin Powder 1 tsp
Coriander Powder 1 tsp
Sugar 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Coriander Leaves to garnish

Method of Preparation

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds.

2. When it sputters, add the cumin seeds, hing.

3. When it sizzles, add the cubed potatoes. Saute for a couple of minutes.

4. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Saute for another minute.

5. Add the chopped tomatoes, sugar and 1 cup of water.

6. Cook in low flame till all the water is absorbed and the potatoes are cooked.

7. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with some warm rotis. 

Baked Vella Seedai - Sweet Seedai (Cheedai)

Happy Krishna Jayanthi to all of you. Krishna Jayanthi (Gokulashtami) is a celebration of the birth of Lord Krishna. It falls in the Aug-Sept month. A lot of snacks that Krishna likes are prepared to celebrate. Young kids dress up as Krishna and Radha and perform dances. In the evening, Prasadam (all food prepared) is offered to God and little steps are drawn from outside to the prasadam to represent the foot prints of little Krishna (symbolic of Krishna coming and eating the snacks).

Vella Sedai is made with flour and jaggery. It is usually a deep fried snack. But here I have made a baked version of it. It was actually very tasty. I have made a very small quantity. Increase to make more.



Ingredients (makes 20 seedai)

Rice Flour 1/2 cup
Urad Dal Flour 2 tbsp (see recipe below)
Coconut 2 tbsp
Jaggery 1/2 cup
Cardamom 1/8 tsp

Method of Preparation

1. Dry Roast the rice flour in a low flame till the colour changes slightly and a nice aroma comes.

2. Dry roast the pealed whole urad dal. Let it cool and powder into a fine flour.

3. In a bowl, mix the rice flour, urad dal flour and cardamom.

4. Add the jaggery along with 1/4 cup of water to a pan. Simmer till it is melted. Filter to clean out any impurities. Return the jaggery syrup back to the pan. Simmer till it thickens.

5. Add to the flour mix and make a stiff dough. If it is too soft, just add a tsp or so of rice flour. The idea is to make a dough that can be rolled into balls.

6. Preheat the oven to 200C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

7. Make small balls (size of a marble). Arrange on the sheet. Brush a little oil on the balls.

8. Bake on the preheated oven for 15-20 min. I baked mine for 20 min. Check half way thru and give the tray a shake to get uniform baking.

I will bake it for 15 min next time. It was soft when it came out of the oven. But hardened a little after a little while. So the colour is what you should be looking for. 

Also, I forgot to toss in between. So it got a little burned at the base :-) 

Baked Uppu Seedai - Salt Seedai (Cheedai)

Happy Krishna Jayanthi to all of you. Krishna Jayanthi (Gokulashtami) is a celebration of the birth of Lord Krishna. It falls in the Aug-Sept month. A lot of snacks that Krishna likes are prepared to celebrate. Young kids dress up as Krishna and Radha and perform dances. In the evening, Prasadam (all food prepared) is offered to God and little steps are drawn from outside to the prasadam to represent the foot prints of little Krishna (symbolic of Krishna coming and eating the snacks).

Uppu Seedai is a very popular snack made in Tamil Nadu for Krishna. Making it is quite easy. The dough balls are made as in the recipe below and deep fried. But it has a small problem. It is quite notorious for bursting while frying in the oil. I had an accident (minor one) last year and so I am very scared of making seedai now. Luckily I saw a message from a friend of mine  (latha), who said she made Baked Seedai. So I decided to give it a go. It was really good actually.



Ingredients

Rice Flour 1 cup
Roasted Urad Dal Flour 1 tbsp (see below)
Asafotida 1/2 tsp
Salt 1/2 tsp (or to taste)
Pepper Powder 1/4 tsp
Butter 1 tbsp (Just use oil for a vegan version, butter adds to the authentic taste)
Oil 2 tbsp

More Oil to brush

Method of Preparation

1. Dry Roast the rice flour in a low flame till the colour changes slightly and a nice aroma comes.

2. Dry roast the pealed whole urad dal. Let it cool and powder into a fine flour.

3. In a bowl, mix the rice flour, urad dal flour, asafotida, salt and pepper.

4. Add butter (at room temperature) and oil. Crumble with your hands.

5. Add little water at a time and make a stiff dough. I needed less than 1/2 cup of water. The idea is to make a dough that can be rolled into balls.

6. Preheat the oven to 200C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

7. Make small balls (size of a marble). Arrange on the sheet. Brush a little oil on the balls.

8. Bake on the preheated oven for 20-30 min. I baked mine for 30 min. Check half way thru and give the tray a shake to get uniform baking.

You are looking for a Golden Brown colour for the Seedai. 

Gujarati Thali

Gujarat is a state in the Western Side of India. I have special love for that state cause I was born there and my mother grew up there. Though I have not lived there, I have great memories of my childhood holidays spent there.

When Avant Garde Cookies decided to make Thali for this week, I knew I wanted to try Gujarati Thali. I usually make Tamil Thali and Kerala Thali. But I have never been bold enough to try a Thali from another state. This experience has given me the confidence to try out more Thali.



Before I proceed to describe the Thali, let me first say a very very Big Thank You to Vaishaliji. She is a blogger who blogs at Ribbons and Pastas. She helped me come up with the items in this Thali. I have tried to stick to her ideas and have tried to make as Authentic Gujarati as possible. I am posting the Thali today. I will add the individual dishes in the next few days and link back to this post. Stay Tuned!!



Dishes Prepared

Drink 
Chaas - Buttermilk flavoured with cumin, green chillies, ginger and hing

Sweets
Gol Papdi - Made with Wheat Flour, Ghee and Jaggery. It is supposed to be square in shape. it did not quite set for me. So I rolled it into a ball.

Shrikhand - Thickened Yogurt with sugar and cardamom

Side Dishes
Batata Nu Shaak - Potato Curry
Tindora Nu Shaak - Tindora Curry

Dal
Gujarati Dal - Toor Dal cooked with Gujarati Flavours

Starter/Accompaniments
Dhokla - Steamed Besan or Chickpea flour
Leele Chutney - Green Chutney made with coriander and peanuts
Papads
Kachumber - Indian Salad with onions,tomatoes,cucumber tossed in lemon juice

Mains
Rice
Rotli - Thin Roti made with Wheat Flour