Avarekalu akki roti

Akki roti ( rice flat bread)  is one of the famous tiffin items of Karnataka. Having grown in Bangalore, this was something most of my  kannadiga friends brought in their  lunch boxes.This time my mom had brought some lab lab beans during her visit and there is a special jadoo when she makes it and  so it was she made these rotis during her visit to my home.

 One of the disadvantage of this method in my style of making this roti is, the tava has to be washed under cold running water till  it is cool enough to pat again. Patting it while hot will burn our fingers.   My atthai ( father’s sister)  who travelled  and  lived in the interiors of Karnataka  and learnt many dishes makes it in a different way, she adds a boiled potato to the dough to make it crispy and she pats it on an iron kadhai. There are many variations in this dish by adding/deleting a few ingredients and also in the way it is made. . Although, my atthai makes it on a iron kadhai….i  generally make it in an iron tava

Ingredients for filling:

Rice flour  - 2 cup

Finely Chopped onions from 1 onion

1 medium sized boiled and mashed  potato

Carrot gratings from one carrot

Lab lab beans or avarai – ¼ cup

Coconut gratings – 1 table spoon

Green chillies finely chopped ( or you can even grind) – 2

Chopped coriander/curry leaf  -1 teaspoon

Jeera/cumin – ½ tsp

Salt ( according to taste)

Sesame oil for cooking

Method for preparing dough

Take a wide bowl….add all the ingredients and dry mix them till all the ingredients mix well.  Onions and the veggies will release water into the mix  helping you to bind the dough. Add sufficient warm water to bind it like a thick dough( slightly thinner than chappati dough and thicker than dosa dough).  Cover  it and  rest it for half an hour.

Method to pat:

There are various method of patting the dough but I pat directly on the tava.  While some pat it on a greased plastic sheet/ banana leaf and then release it on a hot tava.  I genereally take a cricket ball sized dough and pat it on a greased room temperature tava( not hot) . I make holes 3 holes in between  and then light the tawa.  After some time,  I drizzle oil around the roti so that it seeps close to theholes and cooks the roti in in the middle. When brown at the bottom, it has to be flipped over and cooked for a while.   The roti is  then ready crispy and soft at some points depending on how we have patted.

The roti tastes delish by itself since it has all ingredients but it can also be had with gun powder/ chutney or butter depending on one’s taste buds.

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The dough consistency

                                                            hand patted on the tava

                                                  The flipped over roti

                                         tastes good by itself  or you can eat with gunpowder, butter or chutney of your choice

Note: 

1.This can also be prepared with left over mushy rice in the ratio 2:1 (1 measure of rice flour) 

2 .veggies are optional

3. You can add veggies like finely chopped capsicum, dill leaves etc to suit your taste.

.I used the below lab lab beans and that is why it is called avarekalu akki roti

Masala dosa

Yummm! My salivary glands overwork the moment the name of Masala dosa is mentioned. It is one of my favorite food, although a breakfast item, I can eat it for lunch, dinner or during any time of the day. Such is my love for Masala dosa especially the ones you get in a few hotels /darshinis and sagars of Bangalore. But at home, my dad also makes some of the yummiest masala dosas. Yes, you read it right, my dad is a super cook and my children and all my parents neighbours too love when my dad makes it. Of course, it is my mom who does the hard work of soaking and grinding batter, boiling and peeling potatoes, onions and other ground work for making masala dosa. She ably assists my dad.

During my younger days, we generally ate it at Kamat, gandhi bazaar, vidyarthi bhavan, new krishna bhavan, malleswaram or at the sajjan rao circle bandi hotel. Infact, the sajjan rao circle bandi's kemp chutney would be so awesome that many a times, I and my uncle would sprint to get the chutney when the dinner plates were laid. There are so many memories related to this dish and I have tasted it at many places but the tastes of only a few places linger like that of the above mentioned hotels and later at Janta hotel, Vijayanagar, MTR, Jayanagar 4th block Ganesh darshan etc. Even today, my family  especially my sis, my kids, my niece and myself order Masala dosa anytime we enter a hotel, we don't wait for the bearer/waiter to rattle out the choices.

But the taste of home is unbeatable. Luckily for me, all my paternal uncles and aunts are also good cooks, so they too dish out some best masala dosas. My children simply love the masala dosas which are coated with kemp chutney and topped with dollop of butter.


Now for the recipe:

Kemp chutney:

Red chillies: 6 no's

garlic : 3 cloves

grated coconut t: 2 tablespoons

or 

fried grams : 2 tablespoons

tamarind : a small marble size

( grated coconut or fried grams is to give body to the chutney, my aunt prepared omitting these two)

Grind the above ingredients by adding salt to taste. The red chutney is ready.( i have  added  copra powder)

Alu masala curry

Ingredients

Boiled potatoes  - 6 no's

chopped onions from 2 no's

green chilly - 1 no

red chilli powder -  1 teaspoon

salt  --------------- 1 teaspoon

haldi    1/2 teaspoon

oil for tadka - 1 table spoon

mustard - 1/2 teaspoon

coriander for garnishing

Method:

Peel the potatoes, mash them and keep aside.

Take a wok, add the oil and heat it. When heated, add mustard seeds to splutter.

Fry the chillies and then add onions in the oil till transluscent.

Now add the mashed potatoes, haldi, red chilli powder and turn them in the wok till the masala and alu get mixed well. 

Cook them on slow heat for 2 minutes.

Garnish with chopped coriander 

For Dosa batter:

1/2 cup urad dal soaked for 1 hour to 3 hour

2 cup parboiled rice soaked for 6 hours

Grind them in a grinder, add salt and let it ferment overnight

The ingredients ready for making masala dosa: batter, alu curry, kemp chutney and a mix of ghee and gingelly oil

Method for making dosa:

Take a iron griddle or non-stick tava

Pour the batter on the heated tava in circular pattern till the dosa shape is formed

Keep the flame high, drizzle  a teaspoon of gingelly oil or ghee around it.

After some time, spread the red chutney on the surface of the dosa and let it cook for a few seconds.

Now place the alu curry on it and fold the dosa.

When folded and served with a dollop of butter, we in our family don't need accompaniment like coconut chutney or sambar. Just the  dosa, kemp chutney and alu suffice for us.

what marks the regular masala dosa from Mysore masala dosa is the kemp chutney.

* A tip to have a brown base- a table spoon of maida to the batter gives a brown dosa like in hotels. but i have avoided.

Cheedai Kozhakattai

This is a steamed tiffin item made with rice flour.

Mani kozhakattai

Ingredients:

Rice flour ------ 1 cup

Toor dal ------- ¼ cup

Coconut gratings ------- 3 table spoon

Dry red chilli ------------ 4 nos

Asafoetida ------------ ¼ tea spoon

Mustard --------------- 1 spoon

Urad dal ---------------- 2 spoon

Salt to taste

Method:

Soak toor dal in water for 10 minutes. Drain the water and grind toor dal with red chillies.

Take a wok and heat 1 table spoon of oil.

Splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida and curry leaf.

When the above getst roasted lightly, add 2 cups of water.

Add grated coconut , salt and ground paste of urad dal and chillies to the boiling water.

Follow it with rice flour into the boiling water slowly until it turns into the consistency of pliable dough .

Cover the dough with a lid and allow it to cool.

When slightly cool, roll the dough into small marble sized balls.

Arrange them in a steamer or idli plates and steam for 10 minutes.

It can be eaten plain or to the accompaniment of milaga podi/ chutney.