"Onion Uttapam topped with Red Chilly Flakes, Coconut Ginger Chutney, Ginger Tea and Sliced Apple" ... crisp onion fried uttapam is a delight to relish leisurely for breakfast ... all you need is any type of coconut chutney to be served along with it ... try it, tastes scrumptious ... Yummilicious ...
** Uttapam is a very famous South Indian dosa, a breakfast item that is very relished all round the world. Onion and tomato uttapam is just a additional version to the same. Finley sliced onions and tomatoes are topped on Uttapam a thick dosa with some finely chopped coriander leaves too if desired for the same. I have already posted onion, tomato, capsicum mini uttapam before, the batter remains the same with a little bit of variation with addition of some rava and toppings are also tweaked a bit.
** Dosa's are always a delight to relish hot from tava dunked in equally tasty freshly prepared coconut chutney. I grew up eating either dosas and Idlies often for breakfast as Amma always insisted that we go to school with a healthy and equally filling breakfast dishes. Uttapam is a thick textured dosa more so prepared with onion topping while addition of tomatoes etc. are slightly rare. However, one really needs to relish this dish to know the taste of those crisp fried onion toppings that we definitely leave them hooked on.
** These days however, the fancy of other types of instant dosas with addition of eno salt/ cooking soda etc. has come into vogue and people rarely now prepare uttapam. Though I do try out dosa with inclusion of soda, it is not to my liking or preference as I personally feel fermentation is the right process for dosa and adding on soda is just a short cut, again not so healthy a option. So, whenever you have the time try opting out for more of fermented dishes as they are tastier and healthy for the gut/ stomach.
** Here is my recipe for "Onion Uttapam topped with Red Chilly Flakes" ... my Style ....
** Ingredients :
Urad Dal/ Black Gram Dal : 1 cup
Rice/ Tandul/ Akki : 3 cups
Bombay Rava/ Rulavu : 1/2 cup
Methi Seeds/ Fenugreek : 1 tsp
Onion/ Piyavu/ Kanda : 2 medium sized
Red Chilly Flakes : As required.
Salt/ Namak/ Meeta : to taste
** Oil (Tel/ Tela)+ Ghee/ Toop in 1:1 ratio for frying the dosa.
** Wash, soak urad dal and rice separately in plenty of water for about 4-5 hours. Also soak Methi seeds in ¼ cup of water separately for an hour or so.
** Soaking of Methi : Soak methi/ fenugreek seeds separately in water is just my method of doing so for dosas. I use it later along with the water while grinding the dosa batter as I believe that if methi is added to dal while soaking, the nutrients and medicinal properties of methi seeds are lost when getting washed again after soaking period.
** Note : Almost everybody I know, even my Mom soaks the methi seeds along with the rice or dals while soaking the same. Therefore, it is not necessary to follow my method of soaking separately. You may do so with other ingredients too, choice is yours.
** Once the ingredients have been soaked well, drain the water and once again wash with clean water and drain off the excess water and its ready to be ground. I have used the table top wet grinder here, you can use mixer grinder too.
** Just before grinding add the rava into a bowl with water just enough to soak it say to the same level as that of rava and let rest until the batter is ground and ready. Say about 15 minutes which is more than enough for the same.
** First grind urad dal to a fluffy thick batter with addition of minimum water, remove and pour it into a vessel. Next add in rice and methi along with the water in which it is soaked and grind to a smooth paste, remove and add it to the urad batter.
** Finally add the soaked and kept rava into the batter and mix all together, check and add water only if necessary. The batter for uttapam is always desired to be kept thicker than that for dosa, say the texture should be of Idly batter.
** Lastly add salt on top of the batter (do not mix). Cover and leave aside near a warm place to ferment overnight/ 8-10 hours. The fermentation process defers from place to place. Where the weather is hot it may take lesser time and vice versa.
** Next morning or after 8-10 hours, the batter will have risen and fermented well. Just mix it all together adding in more water if necessary Only. Beat the batter well to a smooth texture before removing the Uttapams.
** Peel off the outer skin of onion and slice them thinly lengthwise or into fine pieces (Whichever way you like) and keep aside ready. Also Keep some red chilly flakes ready for sprinkling on top of the uttapam along with onions.
** Note : Red chilly flakes are easy to prepare, just sun dry the dry red chillies to crisp. You can either microwave or dry roast them on tava too. Now add them into a mixer and grind using pulse mode a few time until coarse and done.
** To Prepare Onion Uttapam : Heat a thick iron/ non stick tava to smoking hot. I use iron tava as it gives the best result and is healthier option too. Once the tava is hot sprinkle some water and wait for the bubbles that appear to go off.
** Lower the heat, wait for a few seconds and then sprinkle some oil+ ghee and gently wipe with a tissue, leaving a thin film of oil on the tava. Now pour 2 large ladle full of batter at the center of tava, and gently with the back of the round ladle/ spatula spread dosa into a round medium thick dosa say about 6-8 inches in diameter.
** Now immediately top the dosa with thinly sliced onion into a thin layer and sprinkle some chilly flakes too. With the help of the dosa removing flat spatula press it down into the dosa so that they stick into the dosa well on cooking.
** Now sprinkle some oil+ ghee drops on outer rim of the dosa and a few drops on the top of dosa too and let cook on medium to low heat, once cooked on the bottom side, loosen it through edges with a dosa spatula.
** Once again sprinkle some oil+ ghee on the top (this will make those onions turn crispy brown when flipped over and cooked). Now gently flip it over to cook and press it down gently so that the onions stick to the dosa tava evenly and get crisp done. You can raise the heat a little bit for proper roasting of uttapam on top side.
** When done remove and place it on a serving plate. Dosa does take some time to turn out crisp, so be patient and also be careful when you remove the side on which the onions are being crisp done otherwise you will not get the desired effect you see on the picture, you have to be careful and don't worry its just a matter of practice..
** To remove more uttapam's/ dosa's you need to follow the procedure all over again as was followed while preparing first dosa. Do remember to rub the tava with a tissue before following the procedure to remove any residue of onion or red chilly flakes if any otherwise the they may stick to the freshly applied dosa and burn it.
** Uttapam dosas should always be served hot from tava immediately for best of taste as the onions should remain crisp and not turn over limp. Remove the required number of dosas in similar pattern as mentioned above and do not forget to add oil+ ghee after each dosa to get perfectly done crisp textured dosas.
** "Onion Uttapam topped with Red Chilly Flakes" is done and ready to be served. Always serve dosas hot from tava with any chutney, sambar, chutney podi, pickle or any other side dishes of your choice. I served it with simple traditional coconut- ginger chutney for breakfast along with my lifeline for the day, my adraki chai/ ginger tea and a few slices of apple, it all tasted simply awesome.
** In case you have excess batter, store it immediately in airtight container in fridge, remains good for 24-36 hours. I always prepare dosa batter in excess which lasts me for 3 days, however I do take care to see that I do not ferment it too much, say, just for 6 hours or so, after which I immediately refrigerate it, till need. This way it gives me a break from having to prepare items on daily basis and also gives needed rest for my back issues, while we still get good home cooked breakfast.
** Note : I always follow my Mom's method of using oil+ ghee in the ratio of 1:1 for removing of dosas as they turn out great. You can use either ghee or oil for the same too, it's a matter of individual choice. I use Iron tava for preparing dosa which requires a little bit of oil/ ghee to cook and remove the dosa, if non stick is used you may add sparingly too, however I always recommend Iron tava for health benefits.
** Sharing a common link below to all “Dosa/Polo” recipes shared in the Blog, please browse through and try them out in leisure …
** Sharing a common link below to all “Chutney” recipes shared in the Blog, which includes the coriander chutney shared above too, please browse through and try them out in leisure, there are plenty of choices and they all taste great …
** Sharing a common link below to a few types of “Tea” recipes shared in the Blog, which include the Adraki Chai/ Ginger Tea, shared on picture ….
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