Methi Sanna Polo (Savory Fenugreek Leaves Dosa)

        Methi sanna polo is one of the easiest and most nutritious recipes. It uses very basic ingredients and gets ready in no time.
        This is one of the very first recipes that I learnt. I got this recipe from my sister's mother in law.

Ingredients:

2 med. bunches of fenugreek leaves
1 med. onion
2 med. tomatoes
2 tbsp. besan/chickpea flour
2 tbsp. cream of wheat/sooji/upma rava
1 tsp red chilli powder (adjust according to taste)
Salt to taste
Oil for frying the dosa

Directions:

Wash Methi Leaves.
Finely chop the methi leaves, onions and tomatoes.Put it in a mixing bowl. Add besan, sooji, red chilli powder and salt to taste.
Squeeze it and mix it well using your hands. Do not add any water.
Cover it and keep it aside for 15-20 minutes.Heat a pan and drizzle some oil. Take a handful of methi leaves batter and spread it into small circles patting using your fingers. You can put 2-3 dosas at once. Drizzle some more oil and allow the dosa to cook.

Carefully flip it over and cook on the other side as well. (Dosas tend to break as it is very delicate).
Serve hot with rice and dal or any other curry.

Puffed Rice Dosa (Charmbure polo)

I got this recipe from the book "the konkani saraswat cook book" by Asha S Philar. I simply love the texture and softness of this dosa. It goes really well with some coconut chutney or sambar or any curry.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup urad dal/split black gram
2 cups rice
1/2 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
11/2 cups puffed rice
Salt to taste
Oil for frying (you can also use a combination of oil and ghee)

Directions:

Soak urad dal, rice and methi seeds in 5 cups of water for 4-5 hrs. Soak puffed rice separately.

Wash the urad dal and rice. Squeeze out water from the soaked puffed rice. Grind everything to a smooth batter.
Allow it to ferment overnight.
Next morning, add salt and mix the batter thoroughly with a whipping movement to incorporate as much air as possible.
When the griddle/iron tawa is hot, turn down the heat to medium. Take a ladleful of the batter and pour it on the center of the tawa. Spread it slightly as it must be spongy, with holes appearing as it cooks. Spoon a little oil around the dosa.
Cover and cook on one side only until light brown.
Serve hot with coconut chutney.



Parboiled Rice Pancake (Ukde Tandla Bhakri / Akki Rotti)

Ukde tandla bhakri/parboiled rice Pancake / akki rotti is very tasty and nutritious breakfast recipe.  It goes well with any curry, chutney, pickle or simply, with a knob of butter. Traditionally it was made using a greased banana leaf. But I don't get banana leaves easily here, so I made it directly on the tawa. Alternatively you can use plastic bags or wax paper instead of banana leaves.

Prep time: 15 minutes (excludes soaking time)

Cook time: 5 minutes

Serves: 3

Ingredients:

1 cup parboiled rice/Ukdo rice (I used palakkadan matta rice available in the indian grocery stores)

Salt to taste
2 tbsp. fresh/frozen grated coconut
1 small onion, finely chopped
1-2 green chillies, chopped
Oil for making rotti

Directions:

Soak rice overnight. Next morning, wash the rice in several changes of water until the water runs clear.
Put it in a blender along with salt to taste and some water and grind to a coarse paste (add little water at a time as the batter needs to be very thick)
Transfer the batter in a bowl and add grated coconut, onions and green chillies. Mix well. Keep it aside for 10 minutes. (You can add coconut to the rice while grinding or you can mix it once  the batter is ready).
Heat the tawa (preferably cast iron) in moderate heat and grease it lightly. Once it's hot enough, simmer the heat to lowest.
Place a handful of batter on the tawa and gently start flattening the batter to form a disk with the help of your fingers. Dip your fingers in the water to prevent the batter from sticking and continue to form the rotti not too thick not too thin. Bring the heat back to medium.
Drizzle some oil and cook for 1-2 minutes and flip it carefully as it tends to break very easily.
Cook for another 1 minute until slightly golden.
Serve hot.

Note:



You can also make plain rotti without adding onions and chillies.