Bisibele Bhaat

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 1 cup
Rice - 1 cup
Mixed vegetables (beans, carrots, capsicum, green peas etc)
Tamarind paste - 2 tsp.
Jaggery - small piece

For tadka

Ghee - 3-4 tsps
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
asafoetida - just a pinch
Curry leaves - 1-2 sprigs

For grinding:

Dry red chillies - 4 - 5 (reduce if you want less spicy)
Dhania seeds (kotthambari beeja) - 2 handfulls.
methi seeds (menthya) - 1/4 tsp
cloves (lavanga) - 1-2
Cinnamon stick (chakke) - a small piece
Fresh coconut - 1/2 cup.

Paste Preparation:

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan. Fry all the grinding ingredients except the coconut, till medium roast. let it cool.
2. Grind the roasted ingredients with coconut and little water to make a smooth paste.







Bhaat preparation:

1. Cook the dal, rice and vegetables.
2. Add tamarind paste, the ground paste (as told above), 1 cup water, jaggery piece, salt to taste and bring it to boil.
3. Prepare the tadka in a separate kadai. For this heat ghee. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then add asafoetida and curry leaves.
4. Add this tadka to the dal, rice and vegetable mixture.







Bisibelebath is ready. If it is too thick, add little more water to get the desired consistency and bring it to boil.

Serve with Appalams or chips.

Methi Bhaat

Ingredients:

2 bunches of Methi (menthyada soppu)
Vangibath powder (home made or MTR) - 5 - 6 tsp
small piece of Jaggery.
Cooked Rice
salt to taste.

For tadka or Oggarane:

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal (uddina bele) - 1 tsp
asafoetida(hing) - pinch
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
curry leaves (karibevu) - 6-7 leaves

Vangibath Powder Preparation: Will post it soon

Bath Preparation:

1. Cut off the root portion from the methi bunch. Clean and chop it.
(if you chop and clean, all the sap of the methi will get washed off and so will the nutrients)

2. Heat 2 tsps of oil in a kadai.
3. Add the mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Then add urad dal, hing and turmeric.

4. Add the chopped methi leaves. Fry it for a while. Add a little salt and let it cook.

5. When the methi is cooked, add jaggery and add 4-5 spoons of the Vangibath powder.
6. Mix well. cover it with a lid and let it cook for 3-4 mts (call this the methi mixture). Stir in between to prevent charring.

7. Add cooked rice little by little, salt as per taste and mix.

Notes: The amount of vangibath powder depends on the spice level. You can can also add 3-4 pieces of dry red chilli to make it spicier.

The methi mixture with the vangibath powder can be stored in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Whenever you need, just mix hot rice and methi bath is ready.

Variations:
You can use capsicum or brinjal instead of methi and follow the same process to make capsicum bath or Vangibath.
You can also add a little tamarind paste (1/2 tsp) or 3 -4 tsps of tamarind water.
you can add some grated dry coconut or dry coconut powder for added taste.

Akki Rotti (Spicy Rice Roti)

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 2 cups
Green Chillies or Jalapenos finely shopped
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Grated fresh Coconut - 1/2 cup
Cilantro - 4-5 stems
Hot Oil - 2 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - just a pinch
Salt - as per taste.

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl.

2. Make some space on side of the bowl.
3. Add little water and make a small ball(abt the size of a small orange) mixing some flour mixture and water. The flour ball should be soft enough to pat it into a flat round shape (like chapathi).
(since we have added onions, coconut and salt, they start leaving water after a while. So if you mix all of the flour in the beginning itself, by the time you are done with 2-3 rottis, the flour consistency will be watery and difficult to pat. So mix a little at a time - enough for one rotti).
4. Take the tawa (flat pan) that you use for making chapathi or dosa. Grease it with little oil.
5. place the flour ball in the center and press it with your hand into a flat round shape (like chapathi).


6. put some oil around the rotti. This will make it easy for you to flip the rotti to cook the other side.
7. Now keep the tawa on the stove at medium heat. Cover it with a lid.
8. wait for 2-3 mts. You will know it is cooked when the color of the rotti turns from white to dull brown color on the top.
9. Then flip the rotti to cook the other side.

Rotti is done. Serve with chutney or chutney powder with oil/ghee.

Notes: You can either directly pat the rotti on the tawa or pat it on a greased banana leaf or plastic sheet and then transfer to the heated tawa. To directly pat it on the tawa, make sure you cool and grease the tawa after each rotti. If you have two you can interchange them. When you use plastic sheet, the rotti might be a little thicker cos if it is very thin, transferring to the tawa becomes difficult. Greasing the surface with oil before patting the rotti is important.

Mango Dal

Ingredients:

Raw Mango - 1
Toor Dal - 1 cup
Salt to taste

For the powder:

Dhania seeds - 1/2 cup
Dry Red Chillies - 5-6 (depending on spice level)
Methi seeds- 1 spoon

Powder preparation:

1) In a pan, heat 1 tsp oil. Add the red chillies, Dhania seeds and Methi seeds and fry till the ingredients are medium roasted
2) Let it cool.
3) Grind the roasted ingredients in a coffee grinder into a fine powder.

For oggarane or Tadka (Garnish):

Mustard seeds - 1 spoon
Asafoetida - Just a pinch
Curry leaves - 7-8 leaves
Turmeric powder - 1/2 spoon.

Preparation Method:

1) Cook the Toor Dal and keep aside
2) Cut mangoes into small pieces and keep aside.
3) In a kadai, heat 2 TSP oil.
4) Add the mustard seed and let it splutter. Then add a pinch of asafoetida, turmeric and curry leaves.
5) Add the cut mangoes and fry for 5-8 minutes.
6) Add salt as per taste to the mangoes.
7) close the kadai till mangoes cook. Keep stirring in between to prevent charring.
8) when the mangoes are cooked, add the ground powder (see below for powder preparation). 9) Mix well, close the lid and let the mangoes cook further with the powder.
10) Add the cooked Dal and bring it to boil. When the dal is added, watch out for spluttering.

Mango Dal is ready. Excellent side dish to eat with rotis and rice.