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As with every art, cooking also requires passion, interest and time... Irrespective of doing it as a leisure activity or on a regular basis, it involves dedication. The happiness you derive out of cooking by your self and serving is endless... esp someone appreciating your recipe...how nice it feels, is it not???




You may wonder about the title of this blog..Iyer Iyengar Kitchen...I am a Tanjore Iyer married to an Iyengar and picked up cooking by learning the delicacies of both the customs....and that is what I am sharing here... Recipes popular among the Tamil Iyer & Iyengar communities..




I would be really happy if this benefits atleast few of you....if you find this useful, pass this on to your friends..

Monday 27 February 2012

Dosai / Dosa

This is as well an excellent breakfast / Tiffin menu that goes well with Chutney, Sambhar and Chilly powder
Ingredients:
1.       Idly Dosai Batter with added salt
2.       Water
3.       Cooking oil or ghee (depending on whether you want to make normal dosai or ghee dosai)
Preparation Procedure:
Dosai tastes best when the batter is fresh as immediate as possible and up to 4 days. When the batter becomes little sour, make it as Uthappam.
Using a traditional Dosai Kal in Irumbu (Heavy bottomed traditional dosai pan – not non stick)
1.       Heat the dosai kal till it is hot and add a tsp of cooking oil and smudge it evenly.
2.       Sprinkle little drops of water and clean the dosai kal again
3.       Now using a ladle, add the batter at the centre of the dosai kal and make it in the form of a circle from inner to outer by expanding the batter in circlic form. Make sure the centre is also even with no bulging.
4.       Add a tsp of cooking oil evenly on the sides and at the centre. (Ghee in case of ghee roast/dosai)
5.       Once the dosai is cooked – which you can note it, turn it upside down and allow the other side to be cooked.
6.       After taking the dosai out, using the spatula, clean the dosai kal by sprinkling little drops of water.
7.       Whenever you think that the kal is very dry/sticky add a drop of oil and smooth it out.
Soft dosais ready J
Using a Non Stick Dosai Pan
1.       Heat the non stick dosai pan till hot
2.       Don’t add oil like the traditional method
3.       Sprinkle little drops of water and clean the dosai kal
4.       Now using a ladle, add the batter at the centre of the dosai kal and make it in the form of a circle from inner to outer by expanding the batter in circlic form. Make sure the centre is also even with no bulging.
5.       Add a tsp of cooking oil evenly on the sides and at the centre. (ghee in case of ghee dosai)
6.       Once the dosai is cooked – which you can note it, turn it upside down and allow the other side to be cooked.
7.       No adding oil to the dosai pan like the traditional method. If the pan gets overheated, make the stove in sim and prepare the dosais.
Note:
If you make this dosai on the same day of making the batter, you will have the dosas appearing in the colour of light dull white – golden yellow due to the presence of fenugreek in the batter. This will taste excellent.

Sambar Idly

1. Referring to the below procedure on idly, make idlys in a small size idly pan so that the idlys are little smaller than the usual.
2. Make Tiffin Sambhar referring to the recipe in this blog.
3. Soak the small idlys in a bowl of idly sambhar and add a tsp of ghee, small coriander leaves and serve hot J

Idly

Typical southindian breakfast menu.. this is a healthy one since it is just steamed with no oil, frying, etc.
This is steamed rice pan cake. Goes excellent with Coconut Chutney and Sambhar.
Ingredients:
1.       Idly dosai batter with added salt
2.       Water
3.       Gingeley oil: few drops
Preparation Procedure:
1.       The Idly dosai batter flour should neither be too thick nor very watery. Take only the required quantity of the batter from the fridge and atleast put it out for an hour before making the idlys to obtain soft idlys.
2.       The batter grinded fresh immediately should not be used for making idly’s. Put the batter required for idlys atleast 5 hours in outside temperature without cooling. If the batter is grinded 2 or 3 days before, put it out from the fridge for an hour and use it for idlys.
3.       Take the idly pan / pressure cooker and apply small quantity of gingeley oil on all the idly plates using your hands so that the idlys wont stick to the plate after steaming.
4.       Using a ladle, pour the idly batter evenly on all plates and allow it to steam for 10 to 15 minutes.
5.       After switching off the stove, allow it to cool for 5 minutes and transfer the idlys to the hot pack.
6.       Serve it hot using Chutney, Sambhar and Molagai Podi (Chilly Powder)

Thursday 23 February 2012

Idly Dosai Batter

The first and basic thing in the preparation of Idly and Dosai is the batter.
Nowadays Idly Dosai batter / maavu is available in departmental stores as well to ease the time for office goers... in case you are buying one of that, make sure it is hygienic enough..
Else, choose to grind the maavu and store it in air tight containers in the refrigerator and use as required only...it will generally last for a week’s time… The first three to four days of the batter are very good for idly and dosai and when the maavu turns little sour, can be used for uthappams.
Ingredients:
1.       Idly Rice (Idly Arisi) : Orid dal (Ulunthu) in the ratio of 3.5 : 1 (The ratio can vary from 3 : 1 to 4 : 1) depending on the quality of ulunthu.
2.       Water
3.       Salt
4.       Vendhayam / Fenugreek (optional)  : 1 tsp
Preparation Procedure:
  1. Soak Idly rice for about  7 hours in water along with fenugreek
  2. Soak Orid dal for about  1.5 hours in water
  3. In a grinder, first grind the orid dal separately till it is very soft adding water as and when required. The well grinded orid batter should be of the consistency such that it should not be too watery or too very thick.
  4. After grinding the orid dal, take this batter using hand to a vessel and keep it aside.
  5. Now grind the rice with fenugreek separately after taking the grinded orid dal out of the grinder. No need to wash the grinder before grinding the rice.
  6. After the rice has been very well grinded with no crisps, transfer it to the same container containing orid batter and mix them well using hand. Add Salt as required and mix them well.
  7. The batter should neither be too waterty nor be too solid.
You can store this in the refrigerator for 5 days to a week.  Whenever required, take the required quantity alone out of the airtight container and use it.

Some Tiffin Varieties

After posting some meal recipes on types of Kuzhambu, Rasam, curry, kootu, pachadi, payasam, thogayal, etc... I thought it is time for some tiffin varieties too and started this thread..
Some easy to make tiffin varieties for office goers like:
1.       Idly
2.       Sambhar Idly
3.       Dosai
4.       Uthappam
5.       Pongal
6.       Rava Upma
7.       Arisi Upma
8.       Upma Kozhukkattai
9.       Rava Idly
10.   Semiya Upma
11.   Bread Upma
12.   Bread Toast Sandwich
13.   Adai
14.   Rava Dosai
15.   Masal Dosai
Some more tiffin varieties like:
1.  Poori
2.  Chappathi / Phulka

Some light snacks like:

1.   Bonda
2.   Vegetable Bonda
3.   Bajji
4.   Samosa
5.   Spicy Panneer Starters, etc..
I will also try to post some recipes on the tiffin side dishes too that goes well with the tiffin items.