Uthappam / Oothappam /Uthappa

           Oothappam is a south indian dish, made with rice and black gram / urud dal. This pancake like dosa is crispy on the outside with a soft layer in the middle. With preferred vegetable toppings, it's also called indian lentil pizza. Coconut chutney is our favourite side dish for uthappam. There is a link for coconut chutney recipe in the end of this post. We can also use, leftover dosa batter to make uthappam 

Crispy uthappam ready!

To soak and grind:
1 cup              rice (for perfect batter use 1/2 cup iddly rice and 1/2                 
                               cup raw rice) 
1/2 cup          black gram / ulundu /urud dal 
1  tsp              fenugreek / methi / venthayam
salt to taste
1. Soak the rice in water and soak methi with urud dal separately for 4 hours.
2. Grind the rice and urud dal separetely.
3. Combine both batter with salt and mix it thoroughly with hand.
4. Pour it into any container with lid and let it ferment over night.

Oothappam!!!

Oothappam:
1              onion 
4              green chillies
1 tsp        cumin seed / jeera
few          curry leaves
1/4 "        ginger
1/2 cup    shredded carrot     (optional)
1/2 cup    shredded cabbage  (optional)   
Method:    
1. Chop the onion, chilli and ginger finely.
2. Combine all the ingredients except onion with the fermented batter. Check for salt.
3. The consistency of the batter should be somewhere between  dosa batter and iddly batter, add water accordingly.
4. Heat the dosa tawa or any large flat non stick pan on med/ high, apply oil to its surface and sprinkle 1 tbs of onion, decrease the heat. 
5. Pour 1-2 ladles of batter and spread it over the onion carefully with out any gap.
 6. Pour 3 tsp of oil over it, increase the heat and cook. 
7. When the pan side of the appam becomes brown and crispy, reduce the heat and flip it over carefully with a flat spoon.
8. Remove the uthappam from the pan when it's cooked through, continue the process with the remaining batter. 
9. Serve it with coconut chutney and sambar. 
Tips for taste:
     The dosa pan should be hot for the batter to stick to it, but if it becomes too hot it'll be hard to spread the batter around, so reduce the heat before pouring the batter.
   Click here for a creamy coconut chutney recipe. 

onions and green chillies...

Applying oil....

onion...

oothappam...

ready!!!

                  

Shrimp Chilli Fry/ Prawn Chilli Fry

      This is an easy and yummy recipe. It pairs well with fried rice, plain rice with raitha or any other mild flavored rice

Chilli shrimp fry!!!

1 lb/ 1/2 kg       shrimp/ prawns
1                      onion
1                      bellpepper/ capsicum 
1 tbs                 corn starch
1 tsp                 chilli pwdr
2 tsp                 tomato sauce 
2 tbs                 chilli sauce
2 tsp                 soya sauce
3 tbs                 oil 
1 tsp                 sesame seed
1/2 tsp              lemon juice  
few leaves         curry leaves  
1/2 tsp               sugar
salt to taste

yummm!

Method:
1. Cut the onion and bell pepper into equal sized small wedges.
2. Marinate the shrimp with salt, lemon juice, cornstarch, 1 tsp soya sauce and chilli pwdr.
3. Heat 1 tbs of oil in a pan and fry sesame seeds and curry leaves increase the heat and stir fry the onion and bell pepper. Cook till the onion becomes golden brown yet crispy.
4. Remove the vegetables from the pan and keep it aside, add the remaining oil to the same pan and cook the marinated shrimp till its almost done.
5. Add the vegetables to the shrimp stir it well, now add the remaining soya sauce, chilli sauce and tomato sauce. Cook till the shrimp mixture becomes dry. Add sugar and mix it well before removing it from fire.
6. Transfer it to a serving plate and garnish it with thinly sliced onion. 
Tips for taste:
The sauces already have salt in it so be careful when adding more salt to the dish.

stir fried veggies....

marinated prawns...

colorful combo...

add the chilli sauce...

                                              

Shahi PaneerTukda / Paneer Double ka Meetha

         I was planning to make shahi tukda for a get together, I had some unused paneer left in the fridge, so i used it as a stuffing for the bread before frying it in ghee. 
         This is a rich dish reserved for special occasions, it's a popular sweet in Hyderabad and it originated in Pakistan. Shahi means royal, tukda means piece. Frying in ghee and soaking it in the creamy rabri makes the humble bread a royal fare. Other variants of this sweet, are double ka meetha ( bread sweet)  and indian bread pudding 

Shahi Paneer Tudka

Stuff the bread with paneer. Fry it in ghee, soak it in sugar syrup and creamy milk, finally garnish it with mixed nuts and raisins.  
Ingredients:
6 slices          white bread
1:1 ratio        oil : ghee to fry 
1/4 cup          sugar 
2                   cardamoms (powdered)
1.5 cup          milk
3-4 strands    saffron 
filling:          
3/4 cup        paneer (shredded)
1 tbs            sugar  
1                 cardamom (powdered) 
sugar syrup:
1/4 cup        sugar
1/2 cup        water  
to garnish:   
1/2 cup           finely chopped nuts and raisins
Method:
 Rabri: 
1. To make rabri, first soak the saffron strands in 2 tsp milk for few minutes
2. Heat the remaining milk and sugar in a pan on low flame, add the saffron milk to it, stir it and scrape the sides of the pan often.   
3. Remove from heat when the mixture becomes thick / when it reduces to half  it's original amount.
4. Add the cardamom powder.
Sugar syrup:
1. Heat the sugar with water and bring it to boil.
2. Lower the heat after the sugar gets dissolved. 
Filling and frying :
1. Carefully cut the crusts off the bread slices, spoon 2tbs of paneer  mix on each of the bread slice, fold and seal the edges together by pressing it.
2. Heat the ghee/oil in a frying pan and fry the stuffed bread slices till golden brown.
3. Soak the bread in the warm sugar syrup for a minute, repeat the process with all the bread slices. Now dip it in the rabri.
4. In a serving plate pour few spoons of rabri and arrange the bread slices over it pour any remaining rabri over it. Sprinkle the nuts and raisins over it.

white bread slices

paneer and sugar ....

paneer stuffed bread

fried bread...

rabri...

rabri

Shahi stuffed tukda....