Chivda (Beaten rice snack)

Week 2, Recipe 2

Well, I’m  now making up for what was supposed to be a post last week with a healthy and tasty snack. Wow, I sound like an advertisement for Maggi. 😛 Anyway, moving on to today’s recipe, I present to you a version of the Chivda! Chivda (Maharashtrian) or Chivdo (Gujarathi) is a light and crunchy making it ideal and ideal nibble food. My gujju aunt used to send  freezer bags full of fresh homemade chivda while I did my bachelor’s away from home, becoming my favorite snack to quell my late night hunger pangs. I’ve modified her recipe and converted it into an very efficient oven recipe, that I borrowed from Bhavna’s kitchen.

Chivda

The Recipe:

Source – Son chickamma (my aunt)

Active cooking time – 5 minutes

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 500 gms or 3-4 cups of thin beaten rice (poha/avalakki/aval)
• 3 tbsp peanuts
• 3 tbsp roasted bengal gram
• 2 tbsp sliced dry coconut
• 10-12 curry leaves
• 4-5 chillies slit along the length
• 4 tbsp oil
• a generous pinch of turmeric
• 2 tsp sugar (powdered)
• Salt to taste

How to make it:

1. If you’re following the oven method then, preheat the oven to 100 deg celsius. Keep the beaten rice ready in a  large flat pyrex glass or a baking tray.
2. Heat the oil in a pan. Once its smoking, add the mustard and let it crackle. Lower the temperature to sim andadd the coconut bits, the peanuts and the bengral gram and stir carefully until golden brown. Add the chillies and the curry leaves and turn of the heat. Add the turmeric and salt.
3. Pour it over the beaten rice, mix well for a minute and place it in the preheated oven. Let it is stay in the oven for an hour, and mix the beaten rice once every 20 mins.
4. If you’re not using the oven, then add the beaten rice to the pan and mix well. Keep mixing on slow flame for 25-30 minutes or until crisp.
5. When it turns crisp, add the powdered sugar, mix well and continue the heating for another 5-10 mins.

Note: Using the oven recipe, reduces the actual cooking time and effort while making chivda. Don’t increase the oven temperature and then all you need to do is check on it once in a while and carry on with your other chores.

Adai (South Indian Lentil Pancake)

After a short lull, I’m back to the blogosphere with renewed energies and one thing I’m learning along the way is that blogging everyday regularly requires discipline. Having made that reflection, my aim in the coming days is to get at least 3 posts out every week. My test period is the month of July and by the end of 4 weeks I aim to have posted 12 good quality recipes. This might not seem like much, after the super-hit film, ‘Julie and Julia’, which I loved by the way. But I have decided to start with baby steps. 🙂

So here goes, Week 1, Recipe 1.

I’m really excited to share with you a recipe for Adai, a scrumptious, wholesome dosa-like pancake! Adai is a mixture of different lentils, rice and spices ground together into a coarse batter and is popular evening snack in Tamil households. I’ve borrowed this no-fail formula for my mum, who got it from my Paati. The recipe below produces enough batter to make around 10-12 palm-sized Adais. This is actually quite a filling snack (could even be my dinner) so you can’t eat too many together. It would be too heavy on your stomach as well. I normally make this batter and store it in the refrigerator for almost 2 weeks and it tastes perfectly fine (just follow the tip at the end of the post). Just a pointer, though very easy to make it requires the dals and rice to be soaked in water for at least 5 hours, so you need to plan for this a day in advance. Try it and let me know how it turned out. 🙂

Adai served with mint chutney and curd

The Recipe:

Source – Mum

Makes 10 – 12 palm sized Adai

Here’s what you’ll need:

For the batter

• 1 1/4 cup rice
• 1/4 cup Chana dal (dal from bengal gram)
• 1/4 cup Toor dal
• 1/4 Moong dal
• slightly less than 1/4 cup Urad dal
• 3 – 4 dried red chillies
• a generous pinch of asafoetida (hing)
• salt to taste

While making the Adai

• 1 big onion (chopped)
• 3 heaped tbsp coconut (grated)
• 4-5 curry leaves (chopped)
• a few strands of coriander (chopped)
• Oil (around 2-3 tsp for each adai)

How to make it:

1. Soak the rice and dals together in sufficient water overnight. If you are running a little short of time, you could use soak them for 4 – 5 hours in hot water.
2. After the dals have been allowed to bathe and swell wash them thoroughly. Put them in a liquidizer, add the dried chillies, hing, salt and 1/2 a cup of water and grind into a slightly coarse batter. The consistency of the batter should be much thicker than dosa batter. And be sure not to grind it completely smooth like you would with the batter for dosa or idli. The coarseness of the batter adds the characteristic taste integral to the Adai. Let the batter sit for 2 hours at least, before you make the first one.
3. Add the chopped onions, coconut, coriander and curry leaves to the batter and mix well. Give it a quick taste check to make sure the salt is just fine.
4. Take a flat pan (tawa) and heat on high flame. Add a little oil on the pan. When the pan is sufficiently hot, scoop 2 ladlefuls of the batter on the pan. Spread it out and make a small coin sized hole (around 1/2 an inch) in the centre of the adai. Drizzle a little oil around the edges and in the hole you just made. Now reduce the flame to medium high and cover with a lid for around a minute. Once it seems done on one side, flip it over and let the other side cook under slow to medium flame, just to make sure that the adai is completely cooked inside. Wait until it is golden brown or as crisp as you like it and then its ready to be served.
5. Serve hot with curd. The adai tastes great plain or with curd, chutney, pickle etc. I served it with pudina chutney and cold curd out of the fridge. Delicious!

A couple of ideas:

• As I said at the beginning of the post, I make the batter using these proportions and it serves the Husband and me for 3- 4 times over 2 weeks. So what I normally do is refrigerate the batter and pour out as much required into a separate bowl and add the onions etc. just while I make them. That way the batter stays fresh long.
• You could try adding some chopped green chillies or pudina to flavor it up a notch further.

So how do you make your Adai? Have you tried any variations to the classic?