Some of the Popular foods for breakfast in South India are dosa, idly, upma, appam, idi-appam (rice noodles eaten with either sweet coconut milk or a meat curry), idli and puttu whereas in North Indian breakfast khichri and Parathas are a favorite dish. ( mixture of rice, lentils, and spices)
Indian food reflects an amalgamation of the cuisines of many diverse regions. It represents its religious beliefs, cultural practices, and above all, its geographical attributes. There is great variety in Indian cuisine, and popular breakfast foods vary from region to region. Eggs scrambled with spices, potatoes, and onions are popular in the morning, as are fresh fruits and yogurt.
Soft Idly
Ingredients
Idly rice 2 cups (Ponni rice if possible)
Urud dal 1 cup
cooked rice 1/2 cup
Fenugreek seeds(Methi) 1/4 tsp
Salt as per taste
Method:
- Soak Idly rice and Methi together in water for about 5-6 hours.
- Soak urud dal in water for 3 1/2 hours.
- Drain the water from urud dal and grind it in mixie with little water.
- Fine grind it until the mixture is frothy. Keep aside
- Now drain water from soaked rice and methi.
- Grind these along with cooked rice and little water in mixie.
- Now mix the ground items and add salt.
- Allow it to ferment for 16 - 18 hours. Then make idlys in the idly steamer. Steam the idlys on high for 10 minutes
Plain Dosa
Ingredients
White gram dal/Urud Dal 2 cups
Rice 4 cups
Fenugreek 1 tsp
Salt as per taste
Method:
- Grind the dal and rice separately with some water until it become a fine paste.
- Add salt to it and mix well. keep it overnight for fermentation. (The batter should be little dilute than the idli flour so that dosa is made thinner.)
- In a flat frying pan the batter is poured and spread into a thin round like a pancake but much more thinner.
- Pour little ghee on both sides of the dosas
- When it turns golden brown, turn over to other side. In a few seconds it is ready to serve.
- Masala Dosa can be made by placing the potato masala inside the Dosa and folding it in half.
Tips The thinner and crispier the dosa, the better it tastes.
Upma
Ingredients
Rava 2 cups
Chopped Onion (medium 2 pcs)
Chopped Green Chilly 3-4 pcs
Crushed Ginger 1/2 inch
Curry leaves 2 tsp
Mustard seed 1/2 tsp
Ghee 2 tsp
Coriander leaves (small quantity)
Salt to taste
Method:
- Heat the rava till it becomes mild brown.
- Heat the ghee and fry the mustard seed.
- Add chopped onion, chilly, ginger and coriander leaves to it and fry for 2 minutes.
- Add 5 cups water and boil.
- Add rava to the boiling water little by little stirring the water properly.
- Cook until it is soft and thick.
Tips and Variations
You can experiment with the spices.
You can melt sticks of butter in place of Ghee (Ghee more traditional)
Appam
Ingredients
Boiled rice 2 cup
Grated coconut 1 cup
Pinch of Yeast
Sugar 3 tbs
Salt to taste
Method:
- Soak the rice in plenty of water in the morning.
- Grind the coconut and rice with some water in the evening in to a fine paste.
- Dissolve the yeast in some warm water and mix well with the batter and keep it overnight.
- In the morning grease the thick curved pan specially meant for appam.
- Pour 4 dsp of the batter and spread it by rotating the pan once and cook the appam by
- closing the pan with the lid.
Tips and Variations
Best if served with Chicken or vegetable stew( a dish made with potatoes, onions & coconut milk).
Tomato Omlette
Ingredients
Rice 2 1/2 cups
Black gram dal 1 cup
Bengal gram dal 1/4 cup
Onion 1
Green chillies 2
Tomatoes 2
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Method:
- Soak rice, black gram dal and chana separately for 4 hours.
- Grind all together by adding water and till it becomes very fine paste.
- Batter should not be very thick. It is like semi liquid. Add salt.
- Keep the batter for whole night.
- Next day add turmeric powder chopped onions, green chillies and finely cut tomatoes to the batter.
- Prepare dosa as usual.
Tips and Variations Serve it with chutney.
Onion Uthappa
Ingredients
Idli Batter 2 cups (check
Soft Idly)
Chopped Onions (4 medium size)
Minced Green Chilly (3-4 pcs)
Minced Ginger (1 inch size)
Oil as required
Salt to taste
Method:
- Mix idli batter, chopped onion, minced chilly and minced ginger. (stir well)
- Spread 1 spoonful of it to a heated frying pan. When the base is golden brown, turn the side and cook well.
Tips and Variations Serve it with chutney.
