Oats Idly (Savory Oats Cakes)

Oats is an ingredient that has gained a lot of popularity over the past few years, especially in India. People who ate only traditional foods like idlys, dosas etc., made of rice are slowly shifting to oats. This could be because oats are loaded in dietary fiber and have cholesterol-lowering properties. But the unfortunate fact is that since oats is a recent entrant to the Indian food scene, there aren’t many creative uses for it.

I love experimenting with recipes and have tried to make oats more attractive to the palate. Here’s my most recent attempt.

The final product was very close to the very popular rava idly and hence the combination of potato masala (as served in Bengaluru’s famous MTR restaurant).

 Ingredients (Makes 4)

For Idlys

Oats – 1 cup

Yogurt – ¼ cup

Channa dal (split chickpeas) – 1 tbsp

Dried red chili/chili flakes – 2 or 2 tsps

Curry leaves

Eno fruit salt – ½ tsp

Oil – 1 tbsp

Salt to taste

Water as required

For Masala

Big potato (diced) – 1

Medium sized onion (diced) – 1

Green chilies (finely chopped) – 2 (more if you want it spicy)

Ginger (finely chopped) – 2 tsps

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Oil – 1 tbsp

Curry leaves

Water a required

Salt to taste

Method

Idlys

Toast the oats until they turn a shade darker and give out an aroma. Allow it to cool and then grind into a slightly coarse powder. Heat oil in a pan and add the channa dal, curry leaves and chili. Sauté until the dal turns a shade darker. Add to the powdered oats.

At this point, the mixture can be stored in the refrigerator/freezer to be used later.

To the oats mixture, add yogurt, salt and water to make a thick batter. It should be thicker than idly batter.

Grease the idly plates and keep ready. When you are ready to make the idlys, add the Eno fruit salt and pour the batter into the idly plates. Steam for 10-12 minutes. Remove from the steamer plates and serve hot with a chutney/potato masala/podi. 

Masala

Add the potatoes, onion, chilies, and ginger along with the turmeric powder, salt and water (enough to cover the mixture) to a pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles or for about 15 minutes. You can do this in a regular vessel too, just cover and allow the vegetables to cook thoroughly. Take oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. As they start spluttering, add curry leaves. To this, add the cooked potato-onion mixture and allow to simmer for 5-10 minutes or until the masala comes together nicely.

This can be had with pooris, rava idlys, regular idlys and of course my oats idlys. 

For more interesting oats dishes, please visit Chatpata Oats , Oats Dumplings (Kozhukatta), My Experiments with Granola, Oats Chakkara Pongal.

A Paneer Curry Without a Name

Why does this curry not have a name, you might think. Well, that's because it has been improvised from a chicken curry called 'Vattichu Chicken' seen on TV.

The process involved cooking the chicken with just the liquid released from the meat, tomatoes and onions and allowing all the water to cook off.  The procedure was fairly simple and the end product looked delicious. I figured it would taste well with paneer too, hence the trial.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

Paneer cubes – 1 cup (approx)

Finely chopped onion – ½ cup

Diced tomatoes – ½ cup

Ginger-garlic paste – 2 tsps

Red chili powder – 2 tsps or to taste

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Garam masala powder – 1 tsp

Chopped cilantro, mint and curry leaves – 2-3 tbsps

Water – 2 tbsps + 1 cup more for the paneer

Coconut/cooking oil – 1 ½ tbsps

Salt to taste

Method

Bring one cup of water to a boil, turn off the heat and add the paneer to it. Cover and keep aside until required. This will make the paneer softer.

Heat oil in a pan and add the ginger-garlic paste. I learnt, while watching this recipe being made, that adding the ginger-garlic paste before the onions brings out the flavor of the garlic. Sauté for a minute and add the chopped onions.

Sauté for 3-4 minutes, or until the onions are tender. Now add the chili and turmeric powders and salt; mix well. Add the diced tomatoes and stir. Add the paneer, cover and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes. Check the gravy in between and if the gravy feels to dry, add a little water.

Once the gravy and paneer look well mixed, add the garam masala. If you would like to retain some gravy, take it off the heat at this point. If you like it more dry, increase the heat and allow all the water to boil off, in an open pan.  Garnish with cilantro and/mint leaves and serve hot. We had it with chapathis but with a little gravy, I think it will complement plain rice or even jeera rice. Bon Appétit. 

Kara Dosa (Spicy Dosa)

Here is a recipe I tried last night. The dosas came out so well that I couldn't wait to share it with you. The recipe was taken from the Shastha Foods recipe book. 

Ingredients

2 tbs - Coriander seeds

1/2 tsp - Cumin seeds

2 tsps - Tamarind paste

1/4 cup - Shredded coconut

5-6 (depending on your spice level) - Finely chopped red chilies 

1/2 tsp - Powdered pepper

Gingelly oil

Salt - to taste

Dosa Batter (Recipe given below)

Method for Kara Dosa

Saute all ingredients and grind. Add ground mixture to dosa batter and mix well. Make dosas and serve hot with the chutney of your choice.

Recipe for Idly/Dosa Batter

• 3 cups of parboiled rice/idli rice
• 1 cup whole black gram dal/urad dal
• 2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds
• Water for soaking and grinding.
• Salt to taste

Soak dal and fenugreek seeds together and soak the rice separately for about 4-5 hours.  Grind the dal first, adding small amounts of water, making sure it becomes a smooth paste. Grind rice into a smooth batter, adding water occasionally, and add to the dal mixture. Add salt, mix well and let the batter ferment(preferably overnight). In colder regions, it helps to place the batter in the oven and leave the light on, as the light gives enough warmth for the batter to rise. In case your oven does not have a light, preheat the oven at about 250 degrees Farenheit, switch off and place the dough inside. Once the dough has risen well, you can use the batter for making idlys. The freshly fermented batter will give you light and fluffy idlys. After two or three uses, you can use the same batter for your favourite dosas. If the batter feels too thick, dilute it with a little water.

Simple Coconut Chutney

Grated coconut

Green chilies

Ginger - sliced

Curry leaves (optional)

Salt

Method

Grind all ingredients together and voila you have a delicious chutney for your spicy dosa.

Chutneys are so versatile that you can easily pick and choose the ingredients that you want to add. The simplest chutney would be the coconut chutney, with green chillies and ginger. But if you want to experiment with flavours, feel free to add coriander leaves/mint leaves/onion/red chillies etc, according to your taste buds.