Breakfast recipes...

Breakfast is a meal eaten after a long period of sleep, most often eaten in the morning. The word came about because it means breaking the fast after one has not eaten (fasted) since the night before.Studies say that it is very necessary to eat your breakfast as your metabolism system also sleeps when you sleep and starts exactly when you eat something in the morning.Varieties of breakfast ,you will find all over our country, India and also in the World.Here's some dishes i often prepare at home..though I eat cereal and milk in the morning except weekends.

Rava dosa :::

This is a healthy breakfast preparation from South India what is very popular among others nowadays because of its simplicity yet so delicious and kids love too. I was out of ideas for breakfast when inlaws are here and tried for the first time. I love to prepare nowadays for our simple weeknights dinner. I have gone through lots of recipes in website but really took the idea from Rak's kitchen or Tarla Dalal.

Ingredients:::
1/2 cup Rava or semolina,
1/2 cup rice flour,
1/4 maida or all purpose flour,
2 nos. finely chopped green chillies,
1 tsp grated ginger,
2-5 nos. crushed black pepper or optional,
1 tsp cumin seeds,
half cup finely chopped onions,
1/3 cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves,
1 tsp oil,
salt and sugar as per your taste.

Ingredients:::
1. Take a big bowl and mix first three ingredients with salt and sugar adding one cup of water and let it soak for 2 hours.
2. Add rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix properly adding sufficient water. The batter should be watery or thin consistency. You can check while cooking and then add more water and adjust salt accordingly.
3. Heat a flat pan or griddle / tawa, sprinkle little oil and take a big spoon or ladle full of batter and pour first on tawa and using the handle rotate the tawa slowly to spread the batter or you can form a outer circle and then fill in the middle but don't pour extra batter on top of that. It should be lacy in form. Drizzle little oil on the dosa. For every dosa, please check the consistency if it is watery or not. Add water if needed.
4. Let it cook on low medium flame until it becomes light golden in color. Using a flat spatula, slowly fold it and serve hot with your favorite chutney or pickle.
You can make it instantly but I prefer to soak for minimum two hours. 
You can sprinkle onion on the tawa and then pour the batter but it is optional too.Sometimes you can mix finely chopped or grated carrots for nice color too.

Plain Dosa :::

Dosa or dosai, Indian spicy crepe is a typical South-Indian preparation mainly served at breakfast or tiffin item. Nowadays Dosa is very popular and favorite in other states of India also. Being a south-Indian daughter-in-law, I prepare dosa almost every week and I don't prepare dosa batter separately but use the same batter what I prepare for idli only when it becomes one or two days old. This is my mother-in-law's recipe what I use without any modifications.  

Ingredients :::
1 cup skinless split black gram / urad daal,
2 cup parboiled / Idli rice,
1/4 cup raw rice / sona musuri  (for crispness)
one fistful of tuvar daal/yellow pigeon peas, (for color)
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds,
oil,
salt as per your taste.

Method :::
1. Wash and soak all the ingredients separately overnight or 7-8 hrs with fenugreek seeds and tuvar daal.
2. Drain excess water from rice and daal but keep the soaked water from urad daal.
3. Now grind first urad daal to a smooth paste then add parboiled rice and raw rice with tuvar daal and make slightly coarse paste using that water you kept aside .Try to use less water while grinding.
4. Now take the paste in a deep bottomed bowl and start mixing the paste with little water for some minutes.Then keep it covered in a warm place / inside the oven for fermentation for 6-7 hours.When done add salt and stir well again.Batter is ready for dosa.
5. Heat tawa / flat non-stick griddle properly and now pour two drops of oil on tawa and rub with a small cloth or paper towel. If the griddle is too hot , sprinkle little water and clean with a paper or towel before pouring the batter.
6. Bring the flame to medium level and then pour a large spoonful of batter onto the center of tawa and spread in circular motion towards the edges just like pancake.
7. Once done,drizzle little oil around the dosa so that it comes out well. Wait for 2-3 mins and then flip the dosa with a flat spatula and let it cook for 2 mins.If you don't want to use oil then dip the spatula before flipping the dosa.Dosa will come out well.
8. Now fold the dosa how you want and serve with coconut chutney or podis or spicy pickle.

Here's the video how to prepare masala dosa I have uploaded long back,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hRv2Ng5el0

To prepare a perfect dosa , you should have the exact consistency of dosa batter and maintain the perfect temperature of the tawa or griddle . Every time you take the dosa out,bring down the heat sprinkling water on tawa and clean with a paper towel.If you are using the same tawa for cooking other stuff then wash the tawa properly and then follow step 5 two times.And the tawa should not be too dry and not too oily. I generally use Sona musuri rice as raw rice and that gives you exact taste what you get in restaurants. You can add one fistful of soaked chaana daal or chick peas lentils while grinding dosa batter too.

Daalpuri ...in Bengali style :::

I wanted to cook something special for my mom and this stuffed unleavened Indian bread what we say chholar daaler kachori was perfect choice for a chilly winter breakfast. This is a little lengthy process but if you prepare the stuffing one or two days before then takes less time to prepare. Here again I prefer to follow Suchididi's recipe and turned out the best as always.
Ingredients:::
for 10 puris..
2 cups of all purpose flour / maida,
1/2 cup of wheat flour / aata,
a pinch of salt,
1/5 tsp kalonji or black onion seeds,

for stuffing..
one small cup chana daal/split chickpeas,
one small finely chopped onion, optional
one pinch of turmeric powder,
1/4 tsp ginger paste,
2 nos. finely chopped green chillies  , optional
one pinch of whole cumin seeds,
1/4 tsp asafoetida / hing,
1/2 tsp roasted cumin powder,
oil for frying and salt to taste.
Method:::
1. Wash and soak chana daal for minimum 5-6 hours. Cook with 2 cups of water with salt and turmeric powder. Make sure daal is just cooked and not too mushy.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add whole cumin seeds, chopped green chillies and ginger  paste. Fry for a minute and then cooked daal and saute until daal is nicely fried. Mix roasted cumin powder and asafoetida with daal and mix again. Switch off flame and let it cool. Make small size balls out of the mixture.
3. Now mix all purpose flour / moida, wheat flour /  aata , salt and kalo jeere / kalonji seeds thoroughly in a big bowl and then make smooth dough adding little water at a time. Cover the dough with a wet cloth for 20-30 minutes.
4. Make 10 balls from the dough and flatten a little in the middle and stuff with daal mixture and bring all the corners together and make ball again pressing the corners and make puri flattening the ball with a rolling pin.
5. Heat sufficient oil and then fry carefully all the puri and serve with spicy aloo dum or any gravy.
Some people like to use finely chopped onions but I wanted to prepare without onions. If you want to make it spicy add more green chillies.

Pesarattu / Green moong dosa :::

Green moong daal dosa is one of the best breakfast item I have learned from my motherinlaw. Every Saturday or Sunday she likes to prepare this with coconut chutney or ginger chutney. This crispy yet soft yummy dosa is very simple and easy to digest and good for people who wants to avoid rice.

Ingredients:::
One cup green moong dal / green gram,
1/4 cup yellow moong dal and raw rice,
one fistful of shredded coconut, fresh or frozen
1 small piece of ginger,
3-4 nos. green chillies,
one small onion, finely chopped(Optional)
half cup masala podi,
salt as per taste,
Oil to fry.

Method::
1. Soak for 8 to 10 hrs all the lentils/daal and rice together after washing until clear water comes out.
2. Make a smooth paste adding ginger ,coconut and green chillies and salt. Add water to bring it medium consistency for dosa batter. Keep aside for half an hour.
3. Sprinkle oil when the griddle or tava pan is hot. Take one big ladder of batter and make round dosa
with that. Sprinkle masala podi and onion on the top of it and little oil to the corners and let it cook covering the pan. When the corners become crispy and roll it and serve with your favorite chutney.

To make podi, roast red chillies,chana daal or yellow split peas, curry leaves,mustard seeds and urad daal. When nice aroma oozes out, spread on a plate to make it cool and then make a coarse paste of it adding salt.
If you add yellow moong Dal / yellow gram lentils to green ones, that gives a nice color and softness and raw rice gives crispness.


Chirer Pulao ::::

Chira or flattened/beaten rice is made of raw rice and very popular across India and this dish which is easy to cook and digest,very popular in Eastern parts of India as Sunday breakfast.This recipe is from one of my sweet sister, Nabamita with little variation.

Ingredients:
3 cups of thick chire/poha/flattened rice,
1 cup small diced vegetables,
1 small size onion chopped,
4-5 chopped green chillies,
1/5 tsp mustard seeds,
1 bay leaf,
1 or 2 whole dry red chilly,
4-5 curry leaves,
1 cinnamon,
2-3 cardamon,
2 cloves,
a handful of peanuts or cashew nuts,
1/4 tsp turmeric powder,
1/4 tsp of roasted cumin powder,
a pinch of sugar,
salt as per taste,
oil.

Method::
1.Wash chire/poha and drain water properly. Then spread on tissue paper/paper napkin to absorb the remaining water as shown in above picture.
2.Heat oil in a kadai/frying pan,add sugar wait for 1 min. Then add mustard seeds,bay leaf, dry red chilly, cinnamon,cloves,cardamon and fry for a min.
3.Now curry leaves and peanuts/cashew nuts and stir for half a min.
4.Add chopped onions and green chillies and fry nicely until onion turns light brown.
5.Now add small diced vegetables,like potatoes,cauliflower,carrot,beans and peas and add turmeric powder and salt. Stir fry nicely on high flame for 3-4 mins and sprinkle very little water and cover the pan for 2-3 mins.
6.Open the lid and add washed chire / poha and mix slowly and thoroughly to avoid lumps.
7.sprinkle roasted cumin powder and if you want you can add gorom masala too,but optional both. Serve hot with tomato ketchup or just like that.
You can adjust spice level according to your taste.As I love spicy ,i sprinkle little bit red chilly powder too.

Rava/Semolina Upma:::


Upma,a very common breakfast item in Telugu family and even other Southern states too. It is generally made with refined wheat grains ,called Cream of Wheat generally called Suji in North India and Rava in South India and Variety of Upma can be made but here i have shared the simplest one and which i learned from my father-in-law when i got married.

Ingredients :
2 cup suji/rava,
1 small size onion chopped,
3-4 green chillies chopped,
5-6 broken/whole cashew nuts/peanuts,
1/4 mustard seeds, chana dal,urad dal each,
3-4 curry leaves,
1 pinch of hing/asafoetida powder,
1 dry whole red chilly,
salt as per taste,
oil/ghee.

Method:::
1.First take a pan and heat 2 tsp oil/ghee and fry suji nicely stirring continuously until nice aroma comes and suji becomes light brown.Keep aside.
2.Now same pan,heat oil and add mustard seeds,chana Dal,urad Dal,hing powder,curry leaves, whole red chilly and cashew nuts/peanuts.and fry for 2 mins.
3.Now add chopped onions and chopped green chillies and fry until onion changes its color to light brown.
4.Now add 4 cups of water and add salt..it should little bit more than normal.mix nice and let it boil.
5.Once water starts boiling,start adding fried suji stirring continuously otherwise lumps will come very fast.mix thoroughly until mixing suji properly with water.cover with a lid for 15mins and let it cook in low flame.
6.Once done,serve hot with yogurt or coconut chutney.

Idli::::

Idli , steamed rice cake, is most popular South Indian breakfast and every week I prepare Idly as breakfast, snacks or sometimes in dinner at home as my kid loves to eat Nowadays this south Indian dish is very popular all over the world and it goes well with Sambar and Chutney as well with Molagai Podi specially in Tamil Nadu. My mother-in-law prepares very soft idli just like jasmine flower and I follow her recipe only.

Ingredients :
1 cup split Black Gram Dal / urad Dal,
2 cup para boiled rice / Idli rice,
1 cup normal rice / sona musuri rice
1/4 fenugreek seeds,
a fistful of cooked rice,
salt to taste,
little oil for greasing the idli stand.
Method::
1. Wash all the ingredients thoroughly and then soak the ingredients separately overnight or 8-9hrs with some fenugreek seeds. Fenugreek seeds enhances the taste and helps fermenting too.
2. Now add urad Dal first to the wet grinder or mixer and run the mixer for 10 min and then add idli rice, normal rice and then cooked rice one by one and  make a smooth paste of all the ingredients adding little water. Use only the water what you use to soak urad Dal and idly rice. That will help better fermentation of your idly batter. It will take minimum 30 minutes to prepare a smooth paste.
3. Mix thoroughly everything for 5-6 min unless lumps disappeared if you are using normal mixer. Wet grinder itself does this process.
4. You can mix a handful of cooked rice while grinding rices and that will give easy fermentation. But if you want a pinch of baking power is good enough.
5. Now cover the vessel, for overnight fermentation(or 6-7hrs) in a warm place.Here I preheat the over to 100'F for 5 min and then switch off and then keep it for fermentation for overnight.
6. After 6-7hrs,the batter will be doubled in volume. The consistency of the batter should be medium,neither watery nor too tight.
7. Now you can add salt as per your taste .
8. Now in a very deep saucepan/vessel add 1 1/2 cups of water and keep for boiling.
9. Take the idli stand(as shown in picture),take out the plates from the stand and grease the round portion with little oil and pour 2-3 spoonful of batter.
10.fill all the plates in the same way and fix the stand and keep the stand inside the vessel and close with a tight lid and allow to cook on steam .
11.After 20 min,open the lid and touch the batter if it is soft and not sticky like wet batter,it is done.
12.Take out the idly stand and keep idli plates separately to allow it cool.Now take a spoon and take out the idlis. Serve with hot sambar, coconut chutney and podis. 
I generally use big pressure cooker for steaming idlis without the pressure.You can get the idli stand in any Indian grocery store in USA. Tamil Nadu is the birthplace of Idli and dosa and my mother-in-law was born and brought there and if you use the tips I have given , idli will come out very soft and tasty.


Uttappam ::::

Uttappam or flat rice cake ,popularly called Indian pancake, is favorite and easy breakfast of my in laws house. When the dosa batter becomes 3 to 4 days old and tastes sour in taste, uttapam is prepared with the same batter. You can make with fresh batter too but the actual taste of uttapam doesn't come at all.I love to make this dish with vegetables and nuts and you don't need to serve with any side dishes. But some people like to have with sambar and chutneys.

Ingredients :::
1 cup of urad dal / spilt black gram dal,
3 cup of para boiled rice,
3-4 green chillies,
1 small size onion chopped,
1 small size carrot chopped finely,
1/2 inch ginger chopped finely,
1/4 cup coriander leaves & curry leaves chopped,Optional,
a handful of peanuts,
salt as per taste,
oil to fry.

Method :::
1. Wash nicely and soak dal and rice for 6-7 hours and grind to a smooth batter and keep for fermentation for 7-8 hours.
2. Take a pan,heat a little oil and fry ginger and peanuts for a half a minute.
3. Add onions,green chillies,carrot,coriander leaves and curry leaves and fry for a while.
4. You can add vegetables of your choice too.
5. Mix all to the batter and adjust the salt.
6. Heat tawa / griddle, spread a large spoonful of batter not too thin just like a pancake.
7. Drizzle a little oil over and around the uttappam and cover it for a minute to cook.
8. When the sides starts becoming brownish , turn and cook for half a minute.
9. When done ,serve hot.

You can fry all the ingredients and add after spreading the uttappam on tawa and I have seen my friends to add raw chopped vegetables to the batter. And try to make the uttappam on the non-stick tawa that reduces the use of oil.