Neer Dosa Upama /नीर दोसा उपमा (Low fat Indian Savory)

Neer Dosa Upama

One beauty with Indian cooking is that with little imagination and the varied ingredients permutation combination any and every left over can be turned into delicious dish. I had learnt how to make Neer Dosa from Subhiksha and in order gain perfection I used to make it daily but did not have the courage to make my husband eat Neer Dosa daily for lunch. So I used to make three-four daily take one or two for breakfast and keep rest in fridge. In 3-4 days I became adept in making them. Alemnish who is an eager learner asked Mamma what you will do of the ones kept in the fridge. So I made the Upama of the Neer Dosa kept in the fridge and we had it for breakfast. It was so tasty that she was astonished well I told her it is called Fir-Fir of India (Fir-fir is actually upama of left over Injera only they do not put as many vegetables as I had put in Neer Upama Dosa). Neer Dosa Upama makes excellent snack/breakfast when paired with any chutney (Indian sauces).

Preparation Time: 15 min.

Cooking Time: 15 min

Servings: 4 Large Servings

Ingredients Required Fort Making Neer Dosa Upama:

• 5-6 Medium size Neer Dosa

• 1 Large Size Onion

• 1 Carrot

• 10-12 French Beans

• 2 Tea spoon Dhuli Urd Dal

• 1 Tea spoon Cumin seeds

• 1/2Tea spoon Mustard seeds

• 5-6 Curry leaves (Kadipatta)

• 1 Green Chili

• 1 Whole Red chili

• Salt to taste

• 2 Tea spoons Olive oil/Any cooking oil

Directions For Making Neer Dosa Upama:

• Shred Left over Neer dosa to small pieces (Do not make powder)

Shredded Neer Dosa

• Cut onion finely.

• Cut beans and carrots to finely.

• Wash urd dal and keep aside. Do not soak in water.

• Break red chili to small pieces.

• Heat oil in a wok till the oil is smoking hot, lower the gas and add

• Mustard seeds

• Cumin seeds

• Urd Dal

• Red Chili pieces and green chili pieces

• Kadi patta

• Saute for one min, the chili pieces will turn dark red and seeds would have spluttered, kadi patta will become crisp. Do not let the curry leaves and chili pieces to turn black.

Seasoning Ready

• Add finely cut onion and cook for 2-3 min. They should turn transparent, not brown.

Onions being Sauteed with seasoning

• Add carrots and cook on low flame for one minute with continuous stirring.

• Add beans and cook on low flame for one minute with continuous stirring.

• Add Neer dosa pieces and mix nicely.

• Add

• Red chili powder

• Salt and mix nicely.

Shredded Neer Dosa added to the Vegetable mixture

• Cover and cook for 5 min. on low flame with occasional stirring.

• Sprinkle 5 ml. water and mix, cover and cook for 2-3 min. on low flame.

• Yummy Upama of Neer Dosa is ready.

Neer Dosa Upama

Neer Dosa Upama

• Take out the upama in a serving dish and garnish with Cilantro (Coriander leafs).

• Serve with coconut chutney/coriander-mint chutney/curd or Instant chutney

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2012/08/tangy-delicious-coconut-chutney.html

http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.in/2013/08/instant-chutney.html

Tips:

• Do not soak urd dal in water, just wash drain and keep aside.

• Do not Saute the seasoning so much that the seeds, chili pieces and dal become black. If they become black the look and taste will get completely spoiled.

• Do not add water too much; just sprinkle 5 ml. of water so that the moistness is maintained.

• Do not churn the Neer dosa in mixer it will become paste like/ powder. Just shred them to small pieces.

Suggested Variations:

• One medium size finely cut tomato can be added after beans are cooked for a min. Cook the tomatoes till the mixture starts leaving the edges of the wok.

• Red chili pieces can be replaced with green chili.

• Half tea cup Peas can be added along with Beans.

• Finely cut capsicum, red/yellow bell pepper can be added. More the vegetables better the taste.

Chicken Angara/चिकन अंगारा (Spicy - Barbecued Chicken)

Chicken Angara

As the name suggests Chicken Angara is chicken cooked on Angara (Amber). Piping hot chicken pieces spiced with red chili powder and marinated with curd and cream, served with sour and sweet barbecue sauce and tandoori roti make wonderful combination. Chicken Angara can be taken as appetizers as well as main course or side dish. Oil less, lean healthy can be enjoyed by all those who are watching their weight and also by those who avoid fatty substances and red meat for health reasons.

Preparation Time:30 min.

Cooking Time:5 min per skewer

Servings: 4 Medium size servings

Ingredients Required For Making Chicken Angara:

• 250 gm. Bone less chicken

• 100 gm. Thick Curd

Thick fresh curd

• 1 Tea spoon Garammasala Powder

• 1 Tea spoon Coriander Powder

• 1 Tea spoon Garlic Paste

Garlic paste

• 1 Tea spoon Ginger Paste

Ginger paste

• 2 Tea spoon Red chili Powder

• Salt to taste

• 2 Tea spoon Cream

Cream

• 3 Tea spoon Lemon Juice

Directions For Making Chicken Angara:

• Wash the chicken and drain the water nicely.

• Poke washed and drained chicken with fork.

• Cut chicken to 4-5 cm. big pieces.

Chicken pieces cleaned for marination

• Take all chicken pieces in a bowl and add lemon juice to the chicken, mix nicely, cover and keep aside for 15 minutes.

Lemon juice added to washed poked and cut boneless chicken

Chicken in lemon juice

• In a bowl take 

• Curd

• Red chili powder

• Coriander powder

• Turmeric powder

• Ginger paste

• Garlic paste

• Salt

Spices added to the thick fresh curd

• Mix nicely

• Add cream and beat to mix all ingredients nicely and make smooth, curdy-creamy marinade.

Marinade for Chicken Angara

• Drain all juice from the chicken and discard the juices.

Chicken pieces after squeezing lemon juice from them

Lemon juice drained from chicken

• Dip the chicken pieces in marinade and keep in a big bowl.

• Pour all remaining marinade over the marinade coated chicken pieces. Cover and keep aside for 15 minutes.

Chicken in marinade

• Skewer the marinated chicken pieces and cook them over red hot amber (Barbecue) with occasional turning the skewer for 4-5 min.

• The chicken pieces will start becoming black at the edges and yummy smell will start coming from your barbecue pit.

 Chicken Angara (Barbecued chicken) on the skewer

• Remove the barbecued chicken pieces and serve hot with rings of onion, lemon wedge and red chili sauce / any sauce of your liking/coriander-mint chutney.

Chicken Angara with onion rings and salsa sauce

• Tandoori roti and Angara chicken are wonderful combination.

Tips:

• Skewer the chicken pieces at least 1 cm. apart to make sure chicken gets cooked from all sides.

• Curd should be fresh and should not be sour.

• Cut the onion to rings and dip them in ice cold water the onion rings will remain fresh and crisp.

• Drain the lemon juice completely, if required give a gentle squeeze to the chicken pieces to remove the excess lemon juices.

Suggested Variations:

• A small piece of grated nutmeg can be added to the curd while making marinade.

• For those who are watching weight and dieting cream can be avoided while making marinade.

• Red chili powder can be increased /decreased as per taste but my suggestion increase but do not decrease Angara chicken tastes best when really spicy.

Veg Cutlets(Cutlets of leftover vegetables)

Clearance Cutlets

Clearance sale is most sort after by ladies because they can shop to their heart content without husbands cribbing too much. One day I was talking to my daughter-in –laws mother and she told she has made clearance dosa. I was intrigued by such name for the dosa and wanted to learn it from her. She laughed and said Mrs. Pant this name is given by me only and I call it so because whatever dals are left at the end of month I add to the remaining boiled rice and make dosa from it thus clearance before bringing groceries takes place and so Clearance Dosa!. I got the idea for naming these cutlets from her and thus came the name Clearance Cutlets. As the name suggests whatever vegetables are left in fridge and the old bread all is used in these cutlets. Wonderful use for the vegetables which we do not want to repeat again in next meal is converting them to Clearance Cutlets. I make it for breakfast with burger buns, for snacks I serve them with onion rings and chutney.

Preparation Time:5-10 min.

Cooking Time: 30 min

Servings: 6-8 Clearance Cutlets

Ingredients Required For Making Clearance Cutlets:

• 2-3 Large serving of Left over vegetables

• 4-5 Bread pieces

• 1 Teaspoon Garam masala

• 1-2 Green chilies

• 1-2 cm. Ginger Piece

• 2-3 Sprigs of Fresh Coriander leafs (Cilantro)

• Salt to taste

• 2 ml. Olive oil / cooking oil (optional)

Direction For Making Clearance Cutlets:

• Wash drain and cut Coriander sprigs.

• Grate ginger.

• Remove seeds from green chilies and cut fine.

• Dry all the liquid of the vegetables if they have curry.

• Mash the left over vegetables nicely.

Left Over Vegetables

Mashed Left Over Vegetables

• Crush the bread slices and make nice crumbs from it.

Bread Crumbs

• In a bowl Take

• Mashed Vegetable

• Bread crumbs

• Finely cut chilies

• Grated ginger

• Finely cut coriander (Cilantro)

• Garam masala

• Salt

• Mix nicely to make uniform mixture for cutlets

Mixture for Clearance Cutlets

• Divide the mixture to 6-8 parts.

• Make round ball from each ball and flatten by pressing between your palms.

• Heat a Tawa (Iron plate) / Pan and place the flattened balls on the tawa/pan.

Clearance cutlets on the Tawa

• Cook till the side touching the tawa gets golden brown color.

• 

Cutlets Cooked On One Side

• Turn upside down and cook the other side also till it becomes brown.

Clearance Cutlets

• 
  If you want 1 ml oil can be sprinkled on each side and shallow fried for 1 min. on each side. (Optional)

• Serve hot with chutney and onion rings for snack.

Clearance Cutlets Served With Coriander-Mint Chutney and Onion Rings

• Cut a burger bun apply chutney on one side of the bun, Apply butter on the other side of the bun. Place salad leaf on the side with chutney, place the cutlet on the salad leaf, spread some tomato sauce and place one salad leaf on the top of sauce. Put the butter side bun on the top of all and hold them by a long tooth pick. Vegetarian, healthy, least oily Burger is ready.

Tips:

• Since salt is there in vegetables, therefore taste before adding salt to the cutlet mixture.

• Vegetables with gravy / Rajma /Chole also can be used, but only after their gravy has been dried completely.Mashed rajma, chole (Chick peas), kala chana (Black gram taste wonderful in these cutlets.

• Oil is not required at all to make these cutlets as oil of cooked vegetables is sufficient.

• The tawa / Pan which is used should be thick otherwise cutlets will burn and not get cooked nicely.

• Always use non-stick vessels for cooking oil requirement reduces many folds.

Suggested Variations:

• If bread is not there but vegetables are left in fridge / from previous meal then do not rush to get bread. Wash 1 tea cup (150 ml.) poha crush nicely and use instead of bread. You will have to knead nicely.

• Corn flour / Rice flour can be used instead of bread.

• Finely cut celery / parsley can be added instead of coriander.

• One medium size finely cut onion can be added to the cutlet mixture. (3/4 Teacup cut onion).

Instant Chutney /चना पोड़ी

Instant Chutney

God bless the soul who discovered such delicious, quickie-quick chutney, and God bless my friend Janaki who made it instantly for me. Once when I was leaving her house early morning she packed Idli for me and made chana dal chutney in just 2 minutes and told me to put some melted ghee on the chutney powder while eating it. When at home I tasted and I immediately called her to  take recipe from her. I called it Instant-Chutney. My husband is finicky about taking red chilies (: so I made my own modification and came up with my version of Instant chutney. First I would like to tell the ingredients which Janaki put in that delicious chutney.

Roasted chana

Red chilies

Jeera

Salt

She ground then and yum-yummy powder for chutney was ready. This powder can be stored for long time at room temperature in an airtight container. I being cholesterol patient wanted to avoid ghee and due to my husband red chilies. Thus due to necessity was born my version of Instant-Chutney. 

Preparation Time: 10 Minutes

Servings: 10 small helpings

Storage Time: 8-10 days at room Temperature up to one month in fridge.

Ingredients required For making Instant-Chutney:

• 50 gm. Roasted Chana dal (Roasted black gram)

• 2-3 Green Chilies

• 4-5 Cloves of Garlic

• 1 Tea spoon Cumin seeds (Jeera)

• Salt to taste

Directions For making Instant Chutney:

• Remove the brown hard cover from roasted chana.

• Peel garlic and cut to pieces.

• Cut green chilies to pieces.

• In a grinder take

• Green chili pieces

• Roasted Chana

• Garlic pieces

• Cumin seeds

• Salt

• Grind to fine / coarse paste. (No water is required as the moisture of garlic and green chilies is sufficient.

• Turning the material upside down in the mixer will be required once or twice. So in between switch the mixer and with a spoon turn the mixture and then grind again.

Instant Chutney

• Store in a airtight container.

• No oil or ghee is required in this instant chutney.

• Enjoy with idli, dosa, stuffed parantha or with any veg/non-veg meal.

Tips:

• Do not add water while grinding. If water is added then the chutney can be stored for 2-3 days only in fridge.

• Do not increase garlic too much as too much garlic results in extremely sharp taste and sulfur smell and these two thing are not welcome in food. 
• To make grinding easier make powder of the roasted chana, then add rest of the ingredients and grind.

Suggested Variations:

• Leave the grinded mixture under the sun for 2-3 hours or in shade for 24-48 hrs, Dry powder will be formed which can be mixed with ghee/ oil and taken with any thing you wish to, dried form can be stored outside fridge for 1-2 months also.

• A piece of ginger can be added after grating to the mixture before grinding.

• Roasted and powdered urd dal can be powdered and added to the grinded mixture before storing.

• Coconut powder can be added to the mixture of ingredients before grinding.

• 1/4 Teaspoon methi seeds can be roasted and grinded along with the rest of the ingredients.

• 2-3 cm. piece jaggery /1-2 tea spoon sugar can be added while grinding.

Khandvi (Indian savory made of Gram Flour)

Khandavi

Khandavi is a Gujarati preparation from Bengal gram / Chana flour (Besan). In Maharashtra some thing similar in looks and taste is there called Surali Vadi. In Gujarat Dhokla, Khaman, Farsan, Khandavi are a must accompaniment with any and every main meal and of course they double up as wonderful snack also.  In my endeavor to taste different type of food from Indian as well as other part of world (Whenever possible) I order different Thali (Complete meal) from different state of India. Once while I ordered for Gujarati Thali I never imagined it will be an array of savories. Kadi, Khichadi, rice and vegetables etc. Almost everything in Gujarati food has a touch of sweet taste. They add bura(http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2012/11/bura-dry-grainy-powdered-sugar.html) in the food. Extremely tasty filling and nourishing food but what I loved most was Dhokla, Khandavi and Khaman. In Ethiopia I met Sefali a young lady who not only demonstrated the whole process of making Khandavi but gave me and my husband a sumptuous treat of Gujarati meal and hospitality. Thank you Sefali for this. I share what I learnt for the benefit for all my followers and friends. Preparation Time: 5 min. Cooking Time: 10 min Setting Time 10-15 min Servings: 4-5 Medium helpings. Ingredients Required For Making Khandavi: 1 Cup Besan (Bengal gran / Black gram flour) 1 Cup Butter milk Besan and butter milk 1/2Tea spoon Red Chili Powder 1/2Teaspoon Salt / or to taste 1/4Teaspoon Turmeric Powder 1 Pinch asefoetida 1/2Teaspoon oil / ghee 1/2Teaspoon Mustard seeds 1/2Teaspoon Cumin seeds 2-3 Teaspoons Sesame seeds (Preferably white) 5-6 Teaspoon freshly grated coconut Direction For Making Khandavi: In a big thick bottom stain less steel container take Besan Butter milk Salt Turmeric powder Red chili powder Butter Milk, Besan, Red Chili Powder, Salt, Turmeric Powder before mixing Mix all ingredients nicely to get a uniform paste. Cook the mixture of spices, besan and butter milk on low flame with continuous stirring till a thick paste is obtained. It will take 10 min. Butter milk, Besan, Spices added and mixed and being cooked on low heat Khandavi mixture after 5 min of being cooked on low heat Cooked Khandavi Mixture after 10 min of being cooked on low heat Add asafoetida and cook for one minute. Consistency of Khandavi mixture before spreading Spread the hot cooked mixture on the plastic sheet thinly. Khandavi Mixture Spread on Plastic Sheet Allow to cool. It will take 5-10 min. When cold the spread paste should be set nicely so that it can be peeled from the plastic sheet. Checking Before cutting Cut the set paste carefully to square pieces (4-6 inches).  Cutting before rolling Roll each piece from the sheet to make a roll. Place each roll on a serving dish. Khandavi Ready For Garnishing Grate coconut (Fresh/Dry) and spread 2-3 teaspoon on the rolled Khandavi. In a pan take 1/2Teaspoon oil / ghee and heat. When the oil is smoking hot add Mustard seeds Cumin seeds Sesame seeds Green Chilies Kadi patta Let the seeds splutter and the sesame seeds become light brown in color. Pour the mixture on the rolled Khandavi. Mouthwatering, soft, Delicious Khandavi is ready. Enjoy it as side dish as Gujarati do or enjoy it as snacks with Coriander-Mint chutney.( http://jyotsna-pant.blogspot.com/2011/10/green-coriander-and-mint-chutney.html) Tips: Measure the butter milk and besan with the same size cup. While cooking keep stirring and cook on low flame. Else either lumps will be formed or the mixture will get burnt. Before spreading all paste for setting test with one spoon. If the mixture peels off nicely after getting cold then it is ready for spreading else cook for some more time. The thickness of the mixture should be as shown in the picture. While preparing the garnishing for Khandavi add coconut last else it will get burnt. Suggested Variations: Very finely cut 2-3 teaspoon coriander leaves (Cilantro) can be added to the besan mixture before cooking. When coriander leaves are added then the mixture should be spread slightly thicker (2 mm. maximum). 1 Teaspoon sugar / Jaggery can be added to the besan mixture before cooking.