Bombay sandwich

We always have sandwich at 'Haji Ali Fruit and Sandwich shop'. They serve such awesome sandwich, but my friend from Mumbai - Shefali Arvind always disagrees. She says that the sandwich wallah in Mumbai makes the most awesome sandwiches!

I have never had the guts to eat the roadside sandwiches in Mumbai (do I dare say unhygienic?), but when a video of a sandwich wallah from Mumbai was circulated in (one of my many) WhatsApp group, I had to make it at home.

The green chutney sandwich made with cucumber is light and non-guilty! If you are worried seeing the amount of butter and cheese used in this white bread sandwich recipe, that would be a great option!

Note: I have not added any salt or Chaat masala in my recipe as in the video. As I felt there was enough salt in the cheese and green chutney. Chaat masala is not liked by my family.
I do not have a sandwich maker, so I used a tawa.

Ingredients for 3 sandwiches:

Bread - 9 slices
Tomato - 3 medium (cut into rounds)
Onion - 2 medium (minced)
Capsicum - 1 large (minced)
Cheese grated - 4 tbsp
Butter - 6 tbsp (room temperature)
Green chutney* - 6 tsp
Pepper - 3 pinches

* if you do not have mint, make chutney with only coriander leaf, green chilly, roasted gram, salt and lemon juice.

Method:
Assembling the sandwich is fairly easy.
Apply green chutney on a slice of bread.
Top with onion and capsicum.
Place a buttered slice of bread on top.
Apply butter also on top of this second bread.
Place your tomato and cheese on top.
Cover with a slice of bread which has green chutney spread on it.
Apply butter on top.
Grill on a medium hot tawa / sandwich maker till golden brown on both sides.
Cut into pieces and serve.

Pictorial:

Traditional Adai / dosa made with variety lentils

Adai (not ada) is a spicy, high in protein, dosa variant. But unlike dosa which is made with just rice and urad dal, Adai is more nutritious. It is made with other lentils like tur dal, muthira (horse gram) and channa dal. This makes adai high in proteins.

Moringa / Methi leaf dosa is a speciality of the GSB community; while this Adai is mostly a Tam-Bram one!

There is a famous saying in the Tamil Brahmin dialect - Talayalam, "Adai thinnal thoda thattum."
Literally translation: Eat 'adai', thigh hit.

Interpretaions are either you will love it so much that you say 'bhalle besh' / 'wah-wah' / 'moi bien' and slap your thighs relishing it.
Second is slightly scary. Since adai is made of lots of protein and much oil is used in it's cooking, the distance between your two thighs will reduce due to fat accumulation and they will rub against each other!!
Both are right. As it is tasty and very heavy!

In Malayalam, they call 2 close friends - Adayum chakkarayum.

As you can see Adai used to be a tiffin made frequently in households before. Or else, would there have been so many references to it in our language?

What is the accompaniment to Adai?
1. I love it with Chakka Varatti.
2. But Jaggery / sharkara/ gud works fine too.
3. My brother likes his with Honey.
4. My mama loves his with butter.
5. My cousins with butter and sugar.
6. Restaurants are promoting Adai with Avial.

Chakka varatti / Jackfruit jam

Avial

Ratio of Rice : mixed dals = 3:1

Ingredients:
White rice / pacharissi - 3 cups
Tur dal - 1/3 cup
Channa dal / kadala parippu - 1/3 cup
Urad dal (with skin) / karutha uzhundu - 1/3 cup
Red chilly - 3

Salt to taste
Pepper - 1 tsp (opt)
Jeera - 1 tsp (opt)
Dry Coconut (Copra) - 2 tbsp (opt)
Curry leaf - 3 sprigs
Asafoetida - 2 tsp

Til oil / nallenai - as required to make ada

Method:
Soak the rice, dals and red chilly in ample water for 3 hours.

Grind to a paste (might be coarse) with ample water.
Ferment batter for 6 hours.
Add salt, asafoetida, torn curry leaf and any of the other optional ingredients mentioned. Mix well.

Make dosa on hot tawa and use the til oil liberally to crisp it.
Serve hot with any of the accompaniments mentioned above.

Rava Dosa

No one can eat just one!!

If you do not have dosa batter at home , but you have the urge to eat dosa, then THIS is the dosa to make. No fermentation required. Crispy, tasty and easy to make.

Notes:

1. Unlike the ordinary dosa, where the batter is spread as a circle on the tawa, here the batter is splashed on the hot tawa to make a thin net. And since the dosa is extremely thin, we do not flip it.

2. Before you make each dosa, mix the batter very well, as the rava settles in the bottom.

3. Keep adding more water to the batter if it thickens.

Recipe courtesy: Mrs. Shefali Arvind and Mrs. Rajalakshmi Parameswaran (my mom)

My mom always adds Maida / All purpose flour in the batter, but my friend Shefali advised me to use whole wheat flour instead.

To make: 10 Rava Dosas

Ingredients:

Rava / Semolina - 1/2 cup

Rice flour - 1/4 cup

Wheat flour - 1/4 cup

Green chilly - 1, finely chopped

Ginger - 1 inch , finely chopped

Curry leaf - 1 sprig , chopped

Coriander leaf - 3 tbsp

Cashew nuts - 1 tbsp, chopped

Jeera / cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Pepper corn - 1 tsp, slightly crushed

Salt

Asafoetida powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil (preferably til / gingelly oil) - nearly 1 tbsp per dosa

Onion -1 large (optional)

Method:

Mix together all the above ingredients, except the til oil and onion.

Add just enough water to make a thick paste.

Leave aside for 10 minutes.

(enough time to make your chutney and possibly chop the onions!)

Add water, mix well and make a very thin batter.

Heat the tawa.

Spread some onions over it (if using).

Now using your hand, mix the batter well and sprinkle the batter over the hot tawa.
It will look like a net. Try to not sprinkle over areas you have already sprinkled on.

Wait for 30 seconds and drip some til oil over the dosa and around the edges.

When the dosa starts browning and edges start leaving the sides....fold (no need to flip) and transfer to serving plate.

Enjoy with chutney / dosa podi.

Green chutney sandwich

A very light healthy snack. Ideal for school and as a midday hunger satisfier.
I have not added any salt as the chutney is present.

Very easy to assemble.

Ingredients:
Bread
Green chutney
Butter
Cucumber slices

Method:
Spread butter on 1 slice and green chutney on the other.
Arrange the cucumber slices on one and cover with the other.
Slice and pack / enjoy.

Muthira ada / horse gram dosa

A very healthy Dosa made with various pulses. My mom always says that growing children need to eat pulses like Muthira. Muthira or horse gram is supposed to strenghten the bone and help in growth.

5 types of pulses are used and all are measured in equal quantity.

I used 1/4 cup of each and got 12 - 14 dosas. Feel free to increase or decrease the quantity as per your household requirements.

White rice / idly rice / pachari

Brown rice / puzhukkal ari

Urad dal with skin

Muthira / horse gram

Tur Dal

Soak all the above together for 3-4 hours.

Grind into a fine batter.

Add salt and asafoetida powder (1/2 tsp). Mix well.

Keep for fermenting overnight or for 6 hrs.

Make dosa as you usually do and use til oil for greasing. 

and enjoy with butter or any chutney.

Rontos

My neighbor is a Gowda Saraswat Brahmin and one day she gave 'to taste' , 5 white puris with a vague insipid looking dal. But when we tasted it, all our visual impressions were nullified and my kids and I fell in love.

These white puris are made from rice flour. Just like wheat flour can become either healthy chapathy or deep fried puri, rice flour mixed with boiling water, becomes Idiyappam / string hoppers when steamed , Pathiri when tawa fried and Runtos when deep fried!!

Runtos is had with a dal dish -  "Thoy". This thoy is just boiled dal with a tadka. And a strange fact is no turmeric powder is used.

I served another dish with the runtos and thoy, a pickle of sorts served at the local 'Pai Dosa' as we like sourness. But that is not really necessary.

Ingredients:

For Runtos:

Rice flour - 1 cup

Salt

Boiling water (Usually for 1 cup flour, 1 cup or 1 1/4 cup of water is sufficient)

Oil for deep frying

For thoy:

Tur dal - 1 cup

Salt

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Red chilli - 2, broken

Curry leaf - 1 sprig

Method:

Recipe of Runtos:

Mix together the rice flour and salt.

Add boiling water and mix well till a dough starts to form.

Keep covered for 10 minutes and knead well.

Make puri with a press lined with cling film.

Deep fry in hot oil and use a tissue to blot out the excess oil.

Runtos is ready.

For the dal / thoy:

Pressure cook the dal for 2 whistles and 5 minutes on simmer , until it becomes soft and mashable.

Once all the pressure gets released, boil this dal with salt and a little water (to loosen) in another vessel.
(NO Turmeric powder!!)

Heat the oil and splutter the mustard, red chilli and curry leaf.

Add this to the boiling dal.

Thoy is ready.

Optional : serve along with Pickle.

Paniyaram / spicy appam

Paniyaram at Deira Saravana bhavan

What can you do with leftover dosa batter. Paniyaram is the answer.

The sourness of the batter, crunchiness of the onion and spiciness of the chilli!

Wah!
You do need to use a special vessel - appa karai. This reduces the amount of oil and gives the dish an interesting round shape.

Ingredients:

For 1 cup of sour Dosa / idly batter:

(If your batter is not sour, add curd)

Onion - 1 small  (optional)

Green chilly - 2  

Ginger - 1 inch

Curry leaf - 5-6 

Coriander leaf - 1 tbsp 

I noticed that in Saravana Bhavan, Dubai, they use both chilly powder and turmeric powder in their batter and seemed to have omitted the onion. So really, the ingredients are yours to play with.

Why not add crushed pepper and jeera / cumin seeds?

Please see the photo at the very end.

Here I have chopped the onion, green chilli, ginger, curry leaf and coriander leaf and mixed to the batter.

Heat 1 tsp oil in each 'kuzhi' / hole of the appam vessel.

Fry spoonfuls. Turn over and cook both sides till done.

Serve hot with varieties of coconut chutney, tomato chutney and/or sambar.

Paniyaram at Deira Dubai Saravan Bhavan