Potato soup - a 'soup'er bowl of potatoes for a hearty, healthy soup

Didn't I just talk about Summer and summer solstice in my last post? I did and showed you pictures of gorgeous summer too. And yet here I am with a soup recipe which is typically made on a cold day. Well, that is typical of where I live and one of the reasons I love this place. Summer started off bright & cheery last week but then the weekend has gone back to the old ways of gray skies and occasional showers bringing the temperature down a bit and making you crave for something warm & hearty. While pongal/huggi/khichdi is my all time favorite comfort food, a hot bowl of soup with a side of good, crusty bread brings a smile to the faces in my family and it saves a lot of time and effort in cooking, a win-win for a week day dinner. Less cooking, less cleaning and everyone is happy :-). And then it is perfect for the weekend before the travel when you are trying to finish up those last remaining pieces of vegetables and the potatoes in your pantry.

Did I say travel? Yep and now you know the reason why my spirits are high and the grin won't stop quickly even on a cold, cloudy day. I am off for a vacation in a couple of days and excited beyond expression, looking forward to seeing family, sitting down holding hands together, eat a little , talk a lot and do everything you do when you go home. So my posts will be somewhat infrequent but I will keep increasing the size of my pictures folders and draft posts until I can sit down and polish them nicely for presentation. Happy Summer everyone, keep talking, stay healthy.

I have been exploring the Seattle downtown market area on my way to & from work whenever possible and have found many hidden treasures by way of small, local businesses. There is a bakery called '3 girls bakery' in the market area which bakes and sells fresh bread. If you go towards the evening, they are almost always out of bread which kind of indicates they make bread fresh daily :-). I have got a few French baguettes, a super hearty whole wheat raisin bread which have both become our favorites. But we all love their mini sour dough breads, they are just the right size for us if we share and works as a beautiful soup holder for soup of any kind.

Soups are not common in Indian cuisine, I tasted them only after we moved here and what a variety of soups there is if you love the feeling it creates as the hot spoonful goes down the throat and lights up a tired body on a cold day. Yumm! I used to think there were not many vegetarian soups available but since the time I started making soups I have experimented with different vegetables and spices/herbs to create soups that we all love. If you love veggies and herbs, there is no limit to the number of soup variations you can create.

I have a few soups already on the blog (check out the recipe index for links) but today's is an especially creamy and delicious soup with crumbly bites of potato chunks and broccoli that will make you feel rested as you gulp down a bowlful (or a breadful :-)). I first tasted this soup in an office party, a colleague had brought this for the vegetarians in the group. I took a small serving hesitantly but went back to it eagerly for a second and third time. While you can eat it paired with any bread, sourdough makes a great combination as it lends that tangy taste to the slightly bland soup. And it is super easy to put together and can be customized to taste.

Now that the monsoons have reached most parts of India and while the weather is still mild in most parts of the USA, this soup makes a wonderful dinner with minimal work. I have used fresh oregano in this recipe as I have a plant that is really growing wild :-) but you can substitute with dry oregano. Go ahead, give it a try and let me know how you liked it. We kicked off our weekend last Friday with this yummy soup in a sourdough bowl and polished it all up nicely.

What do you need to make potato soup?
3 medium sized potatoes
1 small piece of broccoli (optional but recommended)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove of garlic (increase it if you like the flavor)
1/4 cup of chopped celery (optional, I like the flavor in my soups)
1 Tsp olive oil
1/2 cup milk
1 Tsp freshly ground black pepper powder
10-12 leaves of fresh oregano or 1/2 Tsp dried oregano
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
pinch of dry mango powder/amchur powder

How do you make potato soup?

• Wash, scrub and chop the potatoes into bite sized cubes. If using yukon gold or red potatoes (which have thin skins), I like to leave the skin on. 
• Chop broccoli into small florets.
• Chop onions and celery (if using).

• Heat a stock pot or soup pot on medium heat, add olive oil. 
• Add the chopped onion and let it sweat for a couple of minutes. 
• Add the celery and broccoli and stir fry them for another minute. 
• Add the potato pieces and continue to fry for another 2 minutes until the vegetables get coated well with oil and start to soften. 
• Add salt, 1/2 Tsp of black pepper powder. 
• If you are using dry oregano add it at this stage along with 3 cups of water. 
• Cover and let cook for 8-10 minutes until potatoes turn soft. 
• If you are using fresh oregano, add them after potatoes turn soft. 
• Simmer the stove, scoop out most of the vegetables into a blender jar, leave some potato and broccoli pieces for bite.

• Make a smooth paste of the cooked vegetables, return them to the pot. 
• Add milk, adjust salt, pepper to taste and let it come to a boil. 
• Switch off and serve hot soup with bread or crackers. 
• I had a baby, sour dough bread I had bought, we used that as the soup holder. Rich, delicious soup with equally yummy bread made up for the rainy evening dinner. 

Notes: 

• You can add chopped carrots to this recipe. 
• You can use butter instead of olive oil for more flavor and ofcourse more fat :-)
• If you want a vegan version, replace milk with almond or cashew milk. 

Akki Tari (Rice rava) Uppittu - an old classic rejuvenated with fragrant herbs

Staying home during Holidays is fun and exhausting, fun because of all the stuff we get to do together as a family in a relaxed manner and exhausting because that is when I start opening closets and cupboards for a deep cleaning :-). We enjoyed the mundane things such as a lazy breakfast as the pace was so much slower compared to a week day rush. Actually, I have been cooking sporadically this past week, did minimal cooking when it was the three of us at home, skipped cooking altogether on some days and had sandwiches on the go and then went back to the kitchen with a vengeance to cook elaborate meals on the days I had guests. No pictures taken so will get to the new recipes next time I make them. I baked 3 different cakes within a span of a week, starting off with the fruit cake, followed by the muffins (not a cake exactly, but..) and finished it off with a carrot cake for the dinner on Friday. All three cakes were shared with different groups of people and devoured. After all the baking, I am a little caked out and baked out for now :-). I tried a few variations in my carrot cake recipe this time and it turned out as delicious as the previous version, I have updated the post, so if you haven't tried this recipe yet go ahead and make it your dessert next time. Served with a scoop of ice cream, it reminded us of the carrot halwa+ice cream combo.

The past week has been a mixture of sweet and sad events as we try to bid farewell to 2013 and welcome the new year. First of all, I don't even know how the entire year consisting of 12 months with an average of 30 days went by so fast, I look back and still remember the beginning of the year, I like to think this is because we had fun doing what we did and had a good year overall. Last week, I heard the news of one of my favorite Kannada poets passing on. Dr. G.S. Shivarudrappa whose poems made such wonderful Bhavageethegalu (light music genre) was someone I had the privilege of personally meeting at his home. While he became a household name with the music his songs made, he wrote much poignant pieces outside the genre too. The writer is gone but the writing lingers in the hearts of many and the legacy lives on.., here is a wonderful piece of poetry sung beautifully by 2 of Karnataka's greatest light music singers - for those of you who do not understand Kannada, the song is from the perspective of a singer, how he/she derives happiness just by the act of singing and does not sing for the listeners or the accolades.

Click here to listen - Yede Tumbi Haaduvenu

Two days back came the news of Farooque Sheikh's sudden death from a cardiac arrest. If you enjoy old Bollywood movies, go watch this natural actor in movies like "Chasme Baddoor" and "Kissi se na kehna" for a light comedy or "Umrao Jaan" and "Katha" for a more serious fare. Handsome, sincere and charismatic, he was one of the heroes I enjoyed watching movies of.

2 exits that act as a reminder of life so transient, and the weather is not helping much either. I am actually looking forward to starting work tomorrow and keep the brain engaged a little more rigorously elsewhere.

Before we end the year, here is a very homely and simple uppittu/upma made with a different ingredient than the usual upma rava. In our house, it featured on special days during the winter season when avarekalu abounded the market. Nammamma always made this with avarekalu (papdi lilva). After that one year of making a rare finding of this bean in my local grocery store, I haven't been lucky again. I resort to the frozen packs to satisfy my cravings when they hit bad. Since I didn't have the avarekalu this time, I used the frozen green Toor beans (these are whole beans and are available in frozen bags at most Indian groceries).

If you are used to avarekalu, you will be familiar with their unmistakable aroma which makes this uppittu very special, since I didn't have it, I used some fresh Dill leaves to make up for the missing aroma and the result was a delicious uppittu. This upma tastes very different from the regular upma and is a refreshing change. It is a saatvik uppittu usually made without onions.

What do you need to make Akki Tari Uppittu?
2 cups akki tari/rice rave - See below to make recipe at home
2 cups water
2 Tblsp grated coconut
3/4 cup frozen green Toor or avarekalu (papdi lilva)
1 cup chopped dill leaves
2 Tblsp oil
1 Tsp mustard
1 Tsp cumin
2 green chilies
1/2 Tsp black pepper coarsely crushed
few curry leaves
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

How do you make Akki Tari at home?

• I used brown rice for a richer fiber alternative.
• Wash rice twice in running water and drain all the water from it.
• Spread a cheese cloth or kitchen napkin in a dry spot on your counter and spread the washed rice evenly in a thin layer.
• Let it dry overnight or for 6-8 hours until the dampness is gone completely.
• Powder in your mixer/grinder to a coarse rava consistency.
• A cup of brown rice yields about a cup of rice rava.
• This can be preserved for a few weeks stored in a dry container with lid. Make sure rice is devoid of any moisture before you powder it. I have learnt this lesson the hard way as damp rice results in distasteful growth in the powder and makes it inedible.

How do you make Akki(Rice) Tari(Rava) uppittu?

• Remove stems and cut green chilies into 2 or 3 pieces.
• Clean and chop Dill leaves finely.
• Cook Toor or avarekalu with a pinch of salt in 1 cup of water until soft.
• Measure 2 cups of rice rava, heat a skillet on medium heat and roast the rice rava stirring frequently for 5-7 minutes or until it warms up. It doesn't need to be browned but just heated through.
• Take the rice rave onto a plate and keep aside.
• Heat oil in the same pan, add mustard, cumin and green chilies. Let mustard pop.
• Add coarsely crushed black pepper and curry leaves.
• Add the chopped Dill leaves and sauté for 2-3 minutes until the leaves wilt and you get the aroma of the leaves.

• Drain and reserve the water used to cook Toor (or Avarekalu) and add the cooked beans to the seasoning along with remaining salt.
• Add the roasted rice rava and grated coconut and give a good mix.

• Measure 3 cups of water (use the water from the cooked beans) and add it to the rava mixture slowly while stirring the mixture with a spatula to avoid lumps.
• Cover, reduce heat to low and let it cook for 8-10 minutes until the rava fluffs up and becomes soft.
• Serve with a drop of ghee and a side of pickle and yogurt.

Notes:

• You can make rice rava with white rice (Sona masoori), follow the same process above.
• If you are pressed for time, a quick alternative is to use store bought idli rava. This is a decent replacement if you do not want to make the rice rava at home. Use the coarser variety.

Pumpkin-celery soup: Make way, here comes the vegetable of the season

A very happy Navaratri/Dasara to all my readers celebrating the festivals. We are getting ready for our traditional doll display (Bommala koluvu) and meeting and greeting some friends over the next week. Yes, I will make sure I will get atleast some of the recipes captured on the blog this time for future reference. I really suck at making festival specials ahead of time, but am hoping to build that recipe collection over time here so you & I can come back in a few years and look up all recipes related to a festival or an event :-). Big promises, with honest intentions to fulfill them. Until then, walk with me as I make those recipes during the festivals and post them afterwards. We started off Navaratri this year on Saturday with a delicious banana sajjige. I usually start the bommala Koluvu on the 7th day or Saraswathi pooje day and then the daily offerings will follow too.

Today's post is nothing about Navaratri but a quick and easy bowl of comfort to keep you company as you try and ward off those stuffy noses and scratchy throats which comes with the change of seasons. Did I tell you I have a burst of colors in the trees all around me? last week's rains dampened them a little bit but then things perked up totally with the bright and sunny weekend we have had. I see orange, I see red, I see yellow and I see green, how does your neighborhood look?

Autumn signals the end of Farmers markets here, bye bye until next Spring but there are lot of signs for pumpkin and apple picking. Stores are already flooded with Halloween and harvest goodies and before I realize they will be replaced with year end, festive sales. I do Halloween and Navaratri decorations hand in hand, get some pumpkins and candies for the former and make Indian recipes for the latter, works well every year.

So while I was picking up some jack-o-lantern pumpkins for the front yard, I also got home some edible fresh pumpkin to cook. I have a mouth watering recipe coming up later this month (part of an event) but until then, enjoy this seasonal delicacy to send warm signals all through your system. This is a soup you will not get bored of eating again and again as the spices added make it refreshing. We have been having some soup-salad dinners lately and this is one of the family favorite soups.

Pumpkin (or any of the winter squashes) are made for soups if you ask me, they cook fast, puree smooth and have a neutral flavor bordering on sweetish, so it is easy to pair them off with different spices for variety and give the soup a new look every time. I generally use regular pumpkins or butter nut squashes in soups and flavor them with an array of spices & herbs. Celery adds a very slight sharp taste like flavored water and brings in a whole sleuth of health benefits. I usually throw in carrots to most of my vegetable soups for taste and color.

You can use store bought pumpkin puree or make it at home yourself. Peel and chop pumpkin into bite sized pieces, add 1/4 cup water and bring to boil with spices of your choice. Cinnamon, nutmeg & cloves bring out the best flavors in pumpkin. Once pumpkin is cooked soft, let it cool and lend into a fine puree. You can either strain and use it or use it directly depending on the dish. There you go, no preservatives, no added salt, home made puree that can go into pies, breads, cakes and hearty soups.

What do you need to make Pumpkin-Celery soup?
2 cups chopped pumpkin (or 1 cup pureed pumpkin)
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1 cup chopped carrots (1 large carrot)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger - julienned into thin slices
1 clove
1/2 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 Tblsp milk
1/4 Tsp freshly powdered nutmeg
1 Tblsp oil (use a mild oil like canola or sunflower)

How do you make Pumpkin-Celery soup?

• Heat oil in a pan, add ginger juliennes, let it roast for 30 seconds.
• Add chopped onion and let it cook for 2 minutes until it becomes soft.
• Add the chopped vegetables along with 1/2 cup water, salt, cloves and nutmeg.

• Cover and cook on medium heat for 12-14 minutes until the vegetables are soft and cooked.
• Let it cool down to room temperature.
• Take all the cooked ingredients to the blender and make a smooth puree.
• Pour the puree into a sauce pan, add fresh ground black pepper, milk and bring everything to a rolling boil.

• Serve hot with saltine crackers, bread and a salad for a hearty meal.

Notes:

• Cooking nutmeg and cloves along with vegetable infuses the spices well into the soup making it very flavorful.
• You can use butter instead of oil for sautéing the vegetables.
• The amount of water and milk given here makes a thick, creamy soup. If you want, adjust the consistency with either water or milk.

Indo Chinese - Vegetable noodles, spicy, tangy and made in a jiffy

A decade or so ago when access to International food in India was very limited, Indo-Chinese cuisine was one of the most sought after cuisine after our special Dosa and the very Indian chats. Gobi Manchurian became such a popular dish that it is now main streamed into Indian snacks :-). I have heard my Chinese friends say that Indo-Chinese doesn't taste anything like Chinese and not anything like what they cook at home :-), I understand the sentiment totally which is how I feel when I go to an Indian restaurant. The food has to adapt to its surrounding culture and sensibilities for survival.

According to Wikipedia - Indian Chinese cuisine is the adaptation of Chinese seasoning and cooking techniques to Indian tastes. This brand of cooking is thought to have originated in Kolkata started by the 1700s Chinese immigrants to India. I found a nice article about Sino-Indian cooking and its popularity in CNN travel here, it is about 3 years old but a good read.

There was a restaurant close to where I worked in the heart of Bengaluru before our offices moved all the way out of city and after I started working, I found out that it was a favorite joint for most office parties. It was right across from the street, had decent and spacious dining rooms and served good food. The first time I went there, I found that the food was Indo-Chinese which I had never tasted thus far. After pouring over the menu and customizing the order, I had a plate of Vegetable Fried rice. It was very different from the Fried rice I was used to and there was a very distinct flavor in it which I later found out was the Soy sauce. When I told BH about my lunch adventure, he said that I should have tried their noodles. I did eventually and liked it.

Both BH & DD love pastas and noodles while I am indifferent to them. So I started making them at home to see the happiness quotient go up and the pesto pasta has been a favorite with both of them. I was not very sure of this vegetable noodles being a success with DD as she picks out bell peppers (with the exception when grilled). But to my pleasant delight, the bowl was wiped clean and there was not a single whiny sound about 'why I had to have bell peppers in the dish' :-). Buoyed by the success, I made it again the next time when she had a friend visiting and both the girls enjoyed it thoroughly. This is now a favorite at home. I have used the Angel Hair pasta I get here and not the Chinese Hakka noodles, you can use either one or any other thin spaghetti in this recipe.

Some highlights of Indo-Chinese cooking are that the vegetables are never mushy but always retain the crunch and crispiness. The dish is almost always doused with a generous dose of soy sauce. I do not use ajinomoto or MSG (Mono Sodium Glutamate) in my cooking and with the limited knowledge I have, I do not recommend it but will show you how to make a really awesome Indo Chinese noodles loaded with vegetables and gets ready in a matter of minutes. I have a secret ingredient which makes this dish irresistible but will also show you alternative ingredient should you not have access to it :-)

What do you need to make Indo-Chinese vegetable noodles?
2 cups cooked noodles (angel hair pasta/hakka noodles/thin spaghetti)
2 Tblsp sesame oil
1/2 cup thinly chopped onion - preferably red onions or shallots
1/2 cup french cut green beans
1/2 cup carrots - chopped into thin match sticks
1/2 cup finely shredded cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced bell peppers - mix colors if you have
1/4 cup chopped green onions/scallions/spring onions
1/4 Tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 Tsp salt (divided use)
1 Tblsp soy sauce
1 Tblsp Maggie hot & sweet sauce (or use 1 Tblsp Tomato ketchup + 1/2 Tsp regular chili sauce)

How do you make Indo-Chinese vegetable noodles?

• Cook the noodles per package instructions until al dente and as soon as it reaches the right texture, switch off, pour it into a sieve, and run cold water on it for 15-20 seconds. 
• Heat oil in a wide wok on high heat, add onions and give it a stir. Add green beans, carrots and cabbage.
• Cook for a minute stirring continuously. 
• Add salt and freshly ground black pepper.
• Add the bell peppers followed by the sauces.

• Add the cooked, drained pasta and mix it well. 

• Top it with chopped green onions, give a mix.
• Serve warm. 

Notes: 

• Keep the heat on high and ensure that the entire bottom surface of the pan/wok is heated uniformly. This is important to get the vegetables cooked right. 
• I use sesame oil for the flavor it adds to the dish but you can use any other regular oil you use in your kitchen.
• Use a tong and spoon to quickly mix and serve the noodles.

 

Butternut Squash soup - Fall back to cold weather recipes

Most of us in the US of A and Europe turned our clocks an hour back last night and went to the standard time until next Spring. This means brighter mornings when you get up and darker evenings before (much before) you get back home from work. It takes a few days to adjust to the new clock and I don't like to see the sky become dark by 4.30 in the evening.

Shorter days and the nip in the air remind me to also start falling back to the winter favorites, as I think of winter favorites the first thing that gets voted hands down is a hot soup with some hearty bread. Easy to put together and quick to make soups are relished at our home. Butternut squash soup is a classic made with the abundantly available seasonal gourd.

Autumn or Fall also floods the market with a variety of orange hued winter squashes and pumpkins. I used to reverently walk through the aisles with pumpkins of all sizes and shapes when I first moved here. The pumpkins we see in India are much smaller and usually of the same type, the sheer variety of the vegetable found here was breath taking for a new immigrant like me. I have grown used to it in all these years but still love the beautiful color it adds to everything.

Butternut squash is a type of pumpkin - slightly sweet, cooks very quickly. It has a hard outer shell which allows the vegetable to keep well during the winter months and the inside stays as juicy and sweet as freshly picked. These squashes are a nutritional power house with significantly less calories and overflowing with vitamins and minerals. Butternut squash is very well suited for soups, I generally add a few spices as the vegetable itself is mild in taste and flavor. I prefer thicker, pureed soups to the clearer or chunky soups.

Roasted butternut squash is extremely flavorful and makes for a good, low calorie snack. Peel and dice the squash into small cubes, toss in olive oil flavored with salt and dried herbs, arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet, bake until fork tender (25-30 minutes) at 350F. You can use the baked squash in the soup for extra flavor.

What do you need to make butternut squash soup? 
Serves 4 people
4 cups of diced butternut squash
1 small onion - chopped
2 medium sized carrots - chopped
1 medium sized green apple - peeled, cored and diced or 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1 Tsp dried Thyme
1X1 inch piece of peeled ginger
1/4 Tsp cumin
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
2 cups water
1 Tblsp oil/butter

How do you make butternut squash soup? 

• Heat oil/butter in a sauce pan. Add cumin and let sizzle. Add ginger and saute for a minute.
• Add the chopped onion, carrots and fry for a couple of minutes. 
• Add the butternut squash pieces and apple pieces (if using), dry thyme and 2 cups of water. 

• Let cook on medium heat for 6-8 minutes or until the vegetables become soft. 

• Cool the vegetables and puree it in the blender.
• Pour it back into the sauce pan, add salt and apple sauce if using, let it come to a gentle boil. 
• Serve hot soup topped with thin slices of squash strips and a side of hearty bread. 

Notes: 

• See above to oven bake butternut squash, you can use roasted squash in the soup for enhanced flavor. 
• I used ready made, unsweetened green apple sauce and added it to the soup after the vegetables are pureed. 
• The tart apple balances the flavors, if you cannot get hold of green apple add 1/4 Tsp of amchoor powder. 

• I use oil instead of butter as there is no compromise in the taste. 
• Play around with the herbs used, I have tried Oragano, Mint for different flavors.

Methi roti - fresh greens in soft rotis

As we get ready to welcome the Autumn and the subsequent Wintry weather, I am wrapping up on my kitchen garden for this year. It is always such a nice feeling to be able to look through my bed room window and plan the next day's meal based on what is available in the tiny patch in the backyard. I love the flavor and freshness the home grown veggies bring to the dishes. As we bid goodbye to a really beautiful Summer we had over the last few months, I harvested the last batch of methi (fenugreek) leaves this week. I love these slightly bitter tasting, extremely flavorful greens in any form. Since there wasn't much today, I decided to make some methi rotis with them for lunch.

DD keeps reminding me that I haven't posted many basic recipes here on the blog so she can make them on her own and surprise me :-), while the offer is really tempting I see myself backing out of really basic, every day kind of food unless I see myself adding some value to it. But here is a pretty basic recipe that can be made by anyone. Sometimes if I crave for methi rotis and do not have fresh leaves I use kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) instead but be forewarned that is not the same as the methi rotis made with fresh leaves.

The methi rotis are packed with all the flavor of fresh methi leaves, a little goes a long way here. You don't need a lot of methi leaves to enjoy the taste (although more is merrier and you can add as much as you want) so you can jazz up your every day roti with a handful of methi leaves. Roasting the methi leaves brings out their flavor and softens the leaves which makes it easier to roll the rotis.

Whole wheat flour + couple spoons of oil + roasted methi leaves rolled into soft, hot rotis, we had them with some dal and tomato pachadi.

What do you need to make methi rotis? 
Makes about 10 regular sized rotis
2 cups wheat flour + 1 Tsp for dusting
3/4 cup water
1 cup chopped fenugreek leaves
3/4 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp red chili powder
2 Tsp oil (divided use)

How do you make methi rotis? 

• Heat 1/2 Tsp oil in a small pan, add chopped methi leaves and saute for a minute or until it wilts.
• Add salt, red chili powder to the leaves and cook for another minute until the leaves soften. 
• Take the wheat flour in a wide bowl, add 1/2 Tsp oil, roasted methi leaves and mix it well. 

• Add water slowly to get a soft, pliant dough, cover and set aside for 30 minutes. 
• Remove the cover, knead the dough for a couple of minutes and pinch out lemon sized balls.
• Roll the balls into thin discs using wheat flour to dust as required. 

• Heat a flat griddle and roast the roti with a few drops of oil until it develops small brown spot on both surfaces. 

• Serve it with any side dish of choice, I like to eat the hot off the griddle methi rotis just like that - bite by bite. 

Notes: 

• Quantity of water given above is pretty close to what you would need to get a soft dough, different brands of wheat flour absorb water differently so watch out for it and adjust water. 
• Keep the dough covered with a wet paper napkin or muslin cloth for about 30 minutes and also knead the dough for 3-4 minutes or until it is soft and elastic to touch. These make soft rotis. 
• Don't roll these rotis very thin as they need to puff up and form layers when cooked. 
• Be adventurous and add other spice powders such as amchoor powder or garam masala per your taste. You can use ground green chilies instead of the red chili powder for a different taste.

Godhi(Wheat flour) dosa and peanut chutney - delectably addictive combination

Do you all agree marriages expand horizons including those of culinary kind? When families come together as part of a marriage, there is so much sharing that goes on. I got to taste the Godhi dosa for the first time after my sister got married, it was a very common dinner item at her in-laws place that it actually had a name - 'GoDoKaCha', one of my BIL's smart commentaries :-). GoDoKaCha is an acronym derived from Go(Godhi/Wheat), Do(Dosa), Ka(Kadlekayi/peanuts) and Cha(Chatney). I remember all of us gaping when my BIL and his siblings decided to make GoDoKaCha for dinner one day and only realized the delicious combination when we sat down for dinner. Akka's FIL used to eat cooked greens (mostly spinach)with this as a side and I am hooked to that combination as well. Though I don't cook spinach every time, Godhi Dosa and peanut Chutney is a standard combination in my kitchen. Both are easy and quick to fix and delicious when eaten together.

As you might tell, I favor thin dosas (not necessarily crisp but just thin) so all my dosa pictures usually show a thin dosa. I will have some notes to make thicker dosas and you can follow these pointers if that is your preference. Godhi dosa typically turns out soft just because of the wheat flour in it unless you roast it with a lot of oil.

I consider Godhi dosa a very good and easy alternative to chapatis/rotis. If you are a beginner and looking for a healthy, sumptuous meal, this is for you. This does not need any fermentation and you can expand the basic batter with any flavor with only your creativity to limit/set boundaries. It doesn't have to be accompanied by the peanut chutney but I am sure you will be hooked once you try the combination :-). DD is so addicted to this combination that she will make an instant chutney with the peanut powder I always keep in stock if we are too tired to make fresh chutney, another time on the instant chutney perhaps?

What do you need to make Godhi dosa? 
Makes about 4-5 regular size dosas
1 cup whole wheat flour/regular chapati flour
1 Tsp rice flour
2.5 cups water
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp mustard seeds
1/2 Tsp red chili powder (optional but recommended)
1 Tblsp finely chopped cilantro/coriander leaves
1-2 Tsp oil to fry dosa

How do you make Godhi Dosa? 

• Take a big vessel, add all the ingredients except for water and mix them well. 
• Add water slowly into the vessel and mix into a batter of pouring consistency without any lumps.

• Heat a dosa pan/griddle on medium high. 
• Pour a ladle of batter and move it quickly into a circle (thickness depends on your preference). I usually do not work it a lot but let the batter find its way and just do a gentle move of the pan.

• Drizzle a couple of drops of oil around the dosa, let it cook for a minute before flipping it over with a spatula.

 

• Let the other side cook for 30-45 seconds. 

• Serve it hot off the griddle with peanut chutney (<Grin>, ok I will give you a break, you can eat this dosa with any other chutney of your choice)

 

• Repeat for the remaining batter and enjoy the hot Dosas.

What do you need to make peanut chutney?
The below ingredients make a slightly spicy, tangy and sweetish peanut chutney. Adjust the spices to suit your palate. 
1 cup peanuts
3-4 dry red chilies (adjust to taste)
Small piece of tamarind or 1/2 Tsp tamarind concentrate
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1 Tsp crushed jaggery or brown sugar
2 cups water
Seasoning: 
1 Tsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/2 Tsp cumin (optional)
1/4 Tsp Asafoetida powder

How do you make peanut chutney? 

• Roast the peanuts well until the raw smell disappears (you can do either the stove top or the microwave method), keep aside.
• Roast the red chilies for a minute in the hot pan, switch off and add the tamarind and cumin seeds. 
• Let the ingredients cool off before taking them to the blender with salt and jaggery. 
• Grind into a smooth paste with water.
• Heat the oil, add ingredients under seasoning, let the mustard crackle before adding the sizzling seasoning into the chutney. 

Notes: 

• Some suggestions for making Godhi dosa more interesting - Add cumin, ajwain, finely chopped green chilies, curry leaves or onions, any combination or each on its own will provide a different flavor. 
• Notice that I have added raw mustard, it will get cooked on the hot pan along with the dosa and you get a nice crunchy bite and flavor when you eat it. 
• I do not cover the Godhi dosa while it is cooking, this along with the oil drops helps it develop some crispy parts which I love. 
• If you prefer soft dosas, cover the pan with a lid after you drizzle oil and let it cook for a minute before turning it over. The moisture that forms inside the cover helps the dosa to become soft. 
• Peanuts can be roasted in microwave by spreading them a wide MW safe dish, you will need to try out the timings on your device as it depends on the power settings. Mine usually takes 4 MW runs of 3-2-1-1 minute. 
• I add the tamarind to the hot pan so it softens up a little and will be kinder to the blender :-)
• Cumin gets roasted very quickly, add it only after you switch the stove off and it will be just done right.