Adai ( Lentil Pancake) and Avial - Tamil traditional breakfast dish

Ingredients
Raw rice – 1 cup
Par boiled rice – 1 cup
Red chilli – 10 nos
Channa dal – ¼  cup
Thur dal – ¼ cup
Urad dal – ¼ cup
Onion – 1 big size (chopped)
Salt to taste
Black pepper corns – ½ tspn
Cumin seeds – 1 tspn
Asafoetida powder – a pinch
Preparation
1.Soak the rice and dals in water for 4-5 hours.
2. Drain the water and grind along with the red chillies, peppercorns and cumin to a coarse paste, without adding too much water.The batter will be thick with pieces of dal not fully ground. This gives crisper adais.
3. To the batter add grated asafoetida and salt. Add the chopped onions to the batter just before making the adais.
4. Heat a non stick griddle or a dosa tava and pour one ladle of the batter; spread gently into a medium circle which will be a bit thick. 
5. Drizzle half a tsp of oil all around the adai and cook on a medium high flame for about 3-4 minutes, once it becomes golden brown on the bottom flip it over and cook the other side for another 2-3. minutes.
6. Serve hot with Avial or jaggery on the side.


For Avial recipe Click here

Kalan -vazhayka Moru curry

Ingredients
Raw Banana - 1
Yam – 200gms
Thick sour curd – 3 cups
Turmeric powder – 1 tspn
Chilli powder – 1 tspn
Pepper corns – 1tblspn
Salt to taste
Coconut – 1 cup
Cumin seeds - 2tspn
Green chillies – 4nos
Curry leaves – 2 springs
Methi Seeds – 1 tspn
Mustard seeds – 1tspn
Red chillies –3 (broken into two)
Coconut oil – 2 tblspn
Preparation
1.Wash and cut the vegetables into 2" square pieces.
2.Cook the vegetables, in just enough water, adding turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt.
3.Grind together to a very fine paste, coconut, pepper corns ,green chillies and cumin seeds.
4.When vegetables are cooked, add ground ingredients, well beaten curd and more salt. 
5.Simmer, stirring occasionally till the mixture becomes quite thick (10 -15 minutes). Remove from fire. 
6.Heat oil in a pan.
7.Add fenugreek, mustard seeds and broken red chillies.
8.When seeds crackle, add curry leaves and temper the dish.

Pizza – Home made pizza crust ( dough)

Ingredients

All Purpose Flour – 1 cup (125 g)

Chapati Flour – 1/4 cup (45 g)

Fine Sooji/Semolina Powder – 1/4 cup (45 g)

Salt – 1/2 tsp

Black Pepper – 1/8 tsp or to taste

Garlic Powder – 1/2 tsp

Sugar – 1/2 tspYeast – 1 tsp

Warm Water – 3/4 cup

Olive Oil – 1/2 tsp

All Purpose Flour – 4-5 tbsp (for kneading) 

Preparation

1. Add Sugar and Yeast to Warm Water and mix until yeast is dissolved. Cover and let the mixture rest until it becomes frothy (5-10 minutes).

2. Add All-purpose flour, Chapati Flour, Fine Sooji, Garlic Powder, Black Pepper and Salt to a mixing bowl and mix through. 

3. Add Yeast mixture slowly to the dry ingredients and form a dough (it will be sticky).

4. Once the dough comes together, sprinkle 1-2 Tbsp of All-purpose flour and knead the dough until a soft ball forms.

5. Coat the dough ball with Olive Oil, cover and keep in a warm place for 1 hour to rise (An oven heated to 180 F/ 82 C and turned off is perfect). 

6. Lightly Oil fingers and punch down the dough. Form it into a ball again, cover and replace in the oven for 1 more hour to rise. 

7. Sprinkle all-purpose flour and start to knead the dough for 4-5 minutes. Keep sprinkling dry flour as and when the dough becomes sticky. 

8. Divide the dough into 2 portions (for 2 medium size pizzas) and roll it out with a rolling pin or by hand. Keep sprinkling dry flour to help the rolling process. 

9. Preheat oven to highest possible temperature (550 F/ 288 C). If using a pizza stone, heat the stone with the oven. 

10. Sprinkle Corn Meal on the stone or pan and place rolled out dough over the corn meal.

11. Bake for 4-5 minutes (until crust is light golden). 

12. Remove from oven and spread with pizza sauce, cheese and your choice of toppings.

13. Bake until cheese is melted and light golden.

Tip: If dough is too soft to work with, coat with oil, wrap it in plastic wrap and keep it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to harden.