Dosa is a versatile dish. Set Dosa with Saagu dish is like a couple made in heaven. They complement each other just perfectly. Set dosa is very spongy and soft in texture and is also known as Aval Dosa or Poha Dosa. The batter you get and the method to cook/roast is just like how we make the pancakes. While Saagu is a mixture of vegetables cooked in a thick textured curry where a blend of some interesting spices come together. It is one yummy curry!


Set dosa is similar to mushti pola (another Konkani style dosas) which is very soft and fluffy and has grated coconut ingredient in it. At home, my mom made it once in a while, as everyone loved Plain Dosas. My husband loves this combo so much that I am forced to make it and I prefer to have it for dinner instead of breakfast. It fits perfectly in the dinner menu. Filling and Yumilicious!!


So let us take a look at the Set Dosa Recipe and Saagu Recipe as well.

Here we are in lockdown and its getting hard to get by each day without going out and interacting personally with loved ones.. Thank God we are still getting supply of essentials.
It is such a heartache to watch the news with casualties spiking up at insane rate.

Masala Puri - Bangalore Delight!

So Food comes to my rescue. Lately am indulging in preparing and dishing out many chatpata meaning tangy, sweet, spicy street food from India. Along with fond memories it brings in the much needed warmth and comfort around the house. And it definitely makes for a hot topic that tops the list during video meets and chats with family and friends.
Many are enjoying baking, cooking a feast for their families and some getting out of their comfort zone and trying out new things. Me am stuck with fast food  and comfort food for now :)



Masala Puri is a street food from south India. Hailed as Bangalore's delight, is loved by millions across the country and is now becoming an international fare. It is a famous south Indian fast food loaded with spicy, tangy, tart and thick sweet flavors all bundled up in one plate.

I say its Indian Nachos :) where a plateful of crushed puris is drenched in desi goodness like hot dried white peas curry followed by onion, tomatoes, green chutney, sweet chutney, sev etc ..innumerable toppings of your choice! Wait there is more, if any curry is left use it as a side dish to enjoy with your rotis.
Actually my kid pours all the deliciousness over his plate of spicy Doritos(No Kidding:)) It tastes great. Try it.

Doritos Masala :)

I have always been a Ragada pattis girl which is a street food from Mumbai. And I am actually surprised that I have not registered it on my blog yet! Point mentally noted. Have been enjoying this Masala Poori treat every now and then during our get togethers and festival meets. Finally thought of putting it up on my blog. Btw you may also check out Pav Bhaji, Vada Pav, Missal Pav too.

I am always looking for a quick, easy recipe that wont compromise on the taste and flavors. So after scanning through few recipes and trying out couple of times, came up with this combo of ingredients which screams less is more and gives out great flavors and swad that is sure to make your soul happy!


Lets get to the recipe:

Please be kind to leave message in the feedback box if you like this recipe:

Ingredients:

Curry:

• 1 cup dried white or green peas (vatana) soaked overnight or 4-6 hours atleast
• 1 med size potato peeled and cut into big 3-4 pieces
• 1 bay leaf

• 3 tbsp oil
• 1 med size onion sliced
• 1 tomato chopped chunkily
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 inch cinnamon stick 
• 3 cloves
• 3-4 pods garlic chopped roughly
• 1 inch ginger piece chopped roughly
• 4 green chillies chopped roughly [adjust as per your spice level]
• handful mint leaves [ 4-5 leaves will do too if you can]
• handful cilantro leaves along with stem will do
• big pinch turmeric pwd
• 1 tsp garam masala pwd
• 1/2 tsp chat masala pwd
• 1 tsp coriander pwd
• 1/2 tsp tamarind pulp [optional -[ if you feel your tomatoes are not sour enough]
• 1/2 tsp jaggery/sugar [optional]
• salt to taste

Toppings:

• finely chopped onion
• finely chopped tomato
• finely chopped cilantro
• date tamarind chutney [store bought]
• sev [store bought]
• Puris [store bought] - can use Doritos spicy Chips as a substitute :) 

Preparation:

• Use Instant pot(IP) to pressure cook the soaked dried peas. Add 3 cups of water with peas, potato, bay leaf. Pressure cook on high manual - 22 min. QPR release after 15 min or let it NPR. If using pressure Cooker, let it blow 3 whistles. Let the cooker cool down and allow pressure to release. Take out the peas and mash gently. Keep aside.
• In the mean time, take a pan, heat oil, add cumin seeds, cinnamon, cloves, add onion and saute for few minutes, once its translucent add ginger, garlic, green chillies, saute further for couple more minutes, add tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes more till tomatoes soften. 
• Transfer this cooled mixture in mixer along with mint and cilantro leaves. Grind to a paste- you get nice green color.
• Now in the same pan, add little oil and on low medium add turmeric, garam masala, chat masala, coriander pwd and quickly stir. Pour the ground paste and mix everything. 
• Now add the cooked dried peas give it a nice stir, add water as required consistency then add salt.
• This curry thickens as we have potato in it. Consistency should be on the med thinner side- pourable consistency over the puris.

Serving: 

• First lay out roughly crushed puris on a plate. Pour the warm vatana (peas) curry over it. Then add tbsp chopped onions, 1 tbsp tomatoes, 1 tbsp sev, little cilantro, date chutney[sweet], cilantro  chutney and start relishing it! I promise you will wipe out in no time... :)
• Please add any amount and kind of topping of your choice!! You are the King of your own tastebuds :)

njoY!! happY cookinG!!

Dalimbi  or Val, also known as butter beans or Bitter Beans and some call it field beans is a very staple pulse in Maharashtra state, Gujarat state etc. Its funny that in most of my posts I have to mention various names of 1 ingredient - such is the culture and global influence we live in today! It can be cooked as a nice dry Usal or as a nice slurpy Rassa. Some even make it with full fledge ground coconut masala called Birde. This is basically my Mother In Laws recipe, which she makes fondly for her ladla beta ..yes.. you heard me right :) Intentional or not the biaseness oozes out in one form or the other hehe.. Well thats how most moms are. Who knows I may turn out the same way, only time will tell :)

Dalimbi Rassa

Frankly at my home while growing up this dish was not cooked very often but I had tasted it at my neighbors home and I simply love anything that is slurpicious with exquisite red color along with that oil floating on top of the curry. I will never say NO to that, cross my heart. After I married, and as my husband loved it so much, I started getting a bag of split Val or whole Val at home. Usually I get split one. But right now beggars are not choosers applies to us because of lockdowns in most of the states. Just grabbing whatever is found :) in the aisle or in shopping cart online.

Veg Thali

 Coming to the recipe, I have already posted Dalimbi dry Usal on my blog. You can take a look if interested. I like Curry style with more Rassa any day. This particular beans has a nice soft bitter taste to it which has to be complimented with sweet so the usage of gud/jaggery is important and as well as sourness, so kokum water is used in this recipe to give that particular unique flavor to the curry. Use of ginger/chillies and goda masala are few other ingredients that bring out a lovely taste to it.

Lets take a look at the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup val (or butter beans)- soaked and sprouted preferably- yields approx  2 cups
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 2 tsp jaggery 
• 4-5 kokum petals - washed and soaked in 1/2 cup of warm water for 10 min
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• pinch of asafoetida (hing)
• 1 tsp chopped ginger
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• big pinch turmeric powder
• 1 1/2 tsp goda masala (or onion masala or garam masala pwd)
• handful cilantro finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh coconut for garnish (optional)
• salt to taste

Boiled Butter  Beans

Kokum Petals

Chopped other ingredients

Preparation:

• Soak the val beans in the water overnight or for 8 hours. If you want to make sprouted val beans  (which is more nutritious) then drain the water and keep it to sprout for 8 hours in a muslin cloth tied up. 
• In a saucepan add enough water till val beans is immersed and on med heat cook for 15-20 minutes. Keep a close eye after 15 minutes. It must be just soft. ( It gets mushy quickly and we don't want that). Switch off the gas and drain the water out. Keep cooked val beans dal aside.
• During this time also soak kokum in half cup water and keep aside for 10 min.
• In a pan, heat oil , add cumin seeds-  once it starts to splutter add curry leaves, then add hing and then chopped ginger - saute for couple of min on med flame. 
• Add chopped onion, saute onion till light brown, then add the powders, red chili pwd, turmeric, goda masala - stir quickly on a low flame. 
• Transfer the cooked butter beans to this mixture, add kokum water and discard the kokum leaves, add jaggery, salt to taste.
• Now add 1 cup + more water as per your required consistency and let the curry simmer for few minutes where you will see a nice red color and some oil floating on top! 
• Add cilantro and grated coconut(optional) Your curry is done, serve hot with rice or rotis.

Health Benefits:

Val or Lima beans (butter beans), like any other beans, are rich in dietary fiber. It is a slow burning complex carbohydrate. Val Beans gives you much energy to burn while stabilizing blood sugar. Also, has a good amount of Iron which is very crucial for the body. It is a power packed protein. A good source of manganese and folate along with potassium and has low sodium content.

Many names and one magical sweet dish that melts in the mouth. Holi, festival of colors and Puran Poli go hand in hand, it is a must to do dish during this festival in the state of Maharashtra. It is offered into the fire which is lit for Holika Dahan and after that everyone gets to eat and enjoy it. It is a fun dish and one may need a little practice to roll out these stuffed polis. It basically contains 2 parts, puran(huran) the stuffing (chana dal/jaggery mixture) and all-purpose flour dough called kanik. It feels like an accomplishment when you make these polis successfully :)
Let's quickly check the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chana dal
• 1 cup jaggery (grated)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (maida)
• 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
• 4 tbsp Oil (vegetable)
• 1 tsp cardamom powder

Today I was in a great mood to have these yummilicious Ragi Rotti. Ragi rotti (in Karnataka) also known as Nachani chi Bhakri in Maharashtra: is a very staple and savory breakfast dish. Ragi(finger millet) is hailed as a very nutritious millet/grain with a naturally nutty flavor. Lots of recipes are churned out using this ancient grain and Rotti (flat bread) is one of them. Feel free to take a look at few more interesting recipes on my blog that use Ragi as the main ingredient. In the past few years Ragi has taken a permanent place in my pantry :)



Ragi Rotti is nothing but a finger millet pancake made with mixing ragi flour, hot water, onions, chilies and few other ingredients to make a semi-soft dough. It makes a power packed breakfast or meal for that matter. It is usually served with spicy chutney, yogurt and dollops of ghee/butter.
Most authentic way of making it is by patting a rotti on a banana leaf and then frying the rotti on both the sides on a griddle till it's cooked. The flavors are amazing. As banana leaves are not easily available in the USA,  I use wax paper to roll it 🙂 . Many a times I directly pat the rotti on the griddle/tava itself. I wouldn't recommend it for the beginners though.


Ragi digests slowly and hence keeps you full for a longer period of time, just like protein. That's the reason why it is very loved and common amongst hard working class of people like farmers, construction workers etc. Ragi Mudde is another such example. Ragi flour porridge is given to babies once they start on solid food. A very staple grain found in almost every household in India. I highly recommend to incorporate this grain in your lifestyle.


Let us take a look at this recipe of Ragi Rotti.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ragi flour (finger millet flour)
• 3/4 cup hot water (approx)
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 green chili chopped
• 1 inch ginger minced
• couple sprigs of cilantro chopped
• salt as per taste
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• oil to fry
• 2 tbsp grated coconut (optional)*

Semi Soft Dough

Spread the ball of dough on a wax paper with your greased fingers,

Fry on both sides.

Preparation:

• In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients except water.
• Nicely mix everything with your hands or use a wooden ladle. Pour hot water slowly little by little as you keep mixing the mixture in circular motion. Keep doing it till you get a nice soft dough. Not too hard. Keep aside closed for 5-10 minutes.
• Now heat a griddle/tava till smoking hot and then reduce the heat to med. Add 1 tsp of oil.
• Take a square piece of wax paper to roll out rotti's. Take a portion of the dough about the size of a tennis ball and keep it on the wax paper. Grease your palms with oil and flatten it nicely using your fingers slowly and gently making a round rotti about 5 inch in diameter. (You can also use a rolling pin to make rotti).
• If the edges are cracking, do not worry, just dip your finger with some water and gather it and seal the crack. Make some holes in between to make sure the oil gets absorbed uniformly well.
• Lift the rotti along with the wax paper and invert it on the hot tava carefully and peel the wax paper out leaving the rotti on it.
• Add oil or ghee gingerly around the rotti and over it. Cover with a lid and cook for couple of minutes. Flip the rotti and add more oil if you want and let it cook for another 2 minutes or till its done.
• Take it out and serve hot with ghee/butter/yogurt/chutney etc.

njoY!! happY cookinG!!

Note:* Usually the ragi rotti turns out little on the crispier side.
If you want it more on the softer side then add coconut.
If you think that dough is too soft to make rottis, add a tsp (or more) of rice flour to make it semi-soft.
You can also add veggies in it to make it more nutritious like grated carrot, cucumber etc.

You may also like:

Ragi Mudde
Ragi Iddiyapam
Ragi Poori
Potato Stew



Health Benefits: 
Finger Millet(Ragi) is a power packed grain! It is high in protein and minerals. Helpful in controlling diabetes, keeps one younger for a long period(cross-linking of collagen), reduces bad cholesterol, also has anti-microbial properties and has been found to act against a number of bacteria including Bacillus cereus, which causes food poisoning, Salmonella sp., which causes a typhoid-like fever etc. Try and include this healthy food in your diet when you can.

Thank you for dropping by this post! Your feedback is greatly appreciated.