ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

If you go to any Havyaka home in North Kanara, you will find a kind of paper like thin dosa for the breakfast. That is Tellevu! Tellevu is one of the special food of Havyakas. Preparing Tellevu is really an art; once the batter is poured onto the hot dosa pan, it should be spread very quickly. Else, the batter will get cooked and you can't spread it thinly. A waste credit card or a plastic playing card will be useful to spread the batter on the dosa pan. In my native, they will use the folded Banana leaf to spread the batter. But this is not going to be a better idea for people living in cities!
It was a long time ago I prepared Tellevu in our home. Last week, I prepared it for breakfast and was telling my husband that I will post this recipe on my blog. Suddenly, he gave an idea to shoot the tellevu preparation! Then, he came with the camera and took the video of the same. I was bit nervous coz for me, this was the first presentation :) But we thought that, video clip will be really helpful to give a proper idea of spreading the batter.. hope you like this new presentation :)

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Fermentation time: 7 - 8 hours
Soaking time: 4 - 5 hours
Servings: 2

Ingredients:
Rice - 1 1/2 cup
Urad dal - 1/4 cup
1 medium size cucumber
Fenugreek seeds - 1 spoon
Salt to taste
Sugar / jaggery - 1/2 spoon
Oil

Procedure:
Soak rice, urad dal and fenugreek seeds in water for 4 - 5 hours.
Peel the cucumber and chop them.
Grind the chopped cucumber along with soaked ingredients and prepare a fine dosa batter.
Water content in the cucumber will be sufficient to prepare the batter. If required, add little more water.
Keep the tellevu batter in a warm place for 7 - 8 hours or overnight.
Heat the dosa pan and apply very little oil. For preparing each dosa, you need to apply 2 - 3 drops of oil to avoid sticking it to the pan.
Add salt and sugar to the tellevu batter and mix well.
Take one ladle full of batter and pour it onto the hot dosa pan. Spread the batter quickly using the plastic card very thinly.
Once it is done, start from the edges and remove it off.
Serve the hot Tellevu with any kind of chutney or other side dish.

For Tellevu demo, check out the below video clip..

Tips:

• For preparing the tellevu batter, you can also use yellow cucumber or zucchini instead of cucumber. If not using any of these veggies, just increase the quantity of urad dal to 1/2 cup instead of 1/4th cup.
• If you like crispy Tellevu, you can roast it littlebit. If you want a smooth one, take it out little early.
• For good results, keep the dosa pan covered with cold water for 8 - 10 hours before preparing any kind of dosa / Tellevu.

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ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

Set dosa is my all time favorite. Whenever some guests are coming to our home, I will be in a confusion about the food menu. Most of the times, I will prepare Set dosa for the breakfast. Its for the simple reason that, set dosa will come out nicely all the time. Totally, there be Zero risk if I opt for this dosa!

For set dosa to come out well, batter need to be kept in a warm place for fermentation. During winter time, fermentation will be bit difficult. What I do during such times is, I will cover the vessel with batter with one more slightly bigger vessel. This will help to maintain the warmth to some extent. If you have a microwave oven, you can heat it little-bit and keep the batter inside the oven for fermentation.

 

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Fermentation time: 7 - 8 hours

Soaking time: 5 - 6 hours

Servings: 3 - 4

Ingredients:

Rice - 3 cups

Urad dal - 1 cup

Fenugreek seeds - 1 tbsp

Flattened rice (Poha) or cooked rice - little less than 1/4th cup

Salt to taste

Sugar - 1 tbsp

Oil

Procedure:

Soak rice, urad dal and fenugreek seeds in water for 5 - 6 hours.

Grind the soaked ingredients along with flattened rice / cooked rice and prepare the dosa batter. You can use some water while grinding. 

Keep the batter in a warm place for 7 - 8 hours for fermentation.

Add salt and sugar to the batter and mix well.

Heat the dosa pan and apply little oil. Take a ladle full of batter and pour it on the pan. Spread it little-bit and prepare a thick dosa.

Add few drops of oil or ghee while cooking the dosa. 

Cook the dosa on both the sides and serve hot with Chutney.

Tips:

• If you won't have sufficient time to soak the ingredients, you can soak them in hot water for around 3 hours.  

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ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

Rava Kesari or Shira is a common sweet dish in all parts of India. Most of the people prefer this for entertaining the unexpected guests Because it is simple to prepare and great to serve! This kind of Kesari can be prepared using the wheat flour also. I always prefer Semolina Kesari than wheat flour one. I prepared it last month to entertain the guests. It was a long time since we have eaten this Kesari and we enjoyed eating this delicious sweet.

Preparation time: 40 - 45 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

Semolina / sooji rava - 1 1/2 cup

Sugar - 3 cup

Ghee - 1 cup

Cashews, raisins

Cardamom powder - 1/2 spoon

Milk - 1/4 cup

Few strands of saffron (optional)

Water - 3 3/4 cup (2 1/2 cup of water for each cup of semolina)

Pinch of salt

Procedure:

Heat half the ghee in a pan. Add semolina to the pan and roast until golden brown or until you get the nice aroma.
Heat the oil in a vessel and it should be nicely hot (or boiling) by the time semolina is roasted.
Add the boiling water to the roasted semolina and mix well. Add pinch of salt and close the lid.
Open the lid after 5 - 6 minutes and check whether the semolina is cooked nicely. Take a little-bit quantity and check it with your fingers. If needed, add little more water and close the lid for few more minutes.
Once all the water is absorbed and semolina is cooked, add sugar. Again, it will become little bit watery when you add the sugar.
Cook it for 7 - 8 minutes. Check the sweetness and add some more if needed.
Add saffron strands or food color if you wish.
Roast the cashews and raisins with ghee and add the same to the Kesari mixture.
Add milk and little more ghee and cook it for 8 - 10 minutes in low flame.
Right consistency is when the ghee starts separating from the mixture. Add the cardamom powder and switch off the flame.
Serve this delicious sweet wish some spicy snacks!

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ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

We always prefer some or the other kind of dosa for the daily breakfast. Sometimes, I prepare rotti or idli also, but most of the days, our day starts with dosa! Here, we get a vegetable called Zucchini. It looks like cucumber, but tastes like bottle-gourd! Sometime back, we had been to a Farmers market nearby and bought this vegetable from the market. Somehow, I was not able to finish it off and it started spoiling. I thought of using the zucchini for preparing the dosa batter. Dosas came out very well and we couldn't make it out that it is made of zucchini!! Then, the stock of zucchini got over very easily. 

Last week I tried preparing Spicy Dosa or Khaara Dose, which I learned from my mom using the zucchini. It came out very well. I already prepared it three times using zucchini and we people enjoyed it a lot. Now, I am sharing this recipe with you as well! Zucchini is not a must, you can replace it with green cucumber or yellow cucumber. 

Preparation time: 1/2 hour

Soaking time: 3 hours

Fermentation time: 7 - 8 hours or overnight

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 1/2 cup

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 spoon

Dry red chillies 3 - 4

Coriander seeds - 1 1/2 spoon

Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon

Turmeric - 1/4 spoon

Carom seeds - 1/4 spoon

Mustard seeds - 1/2 spoon

Sesame seeds - 1/2 spoon

Pinch of asafoetida

Curry leaves 5 - 6

Zucchini - 1 (or small size cucumber)

1 medium size onion

Salt to taste

Sugar or jaggery - 1/2 spoon

Oil or butter

Procedure:

Soak the rice and fenugreek seeds in water for at-least 3 hours.

Peel the zucchini and cut into small pieces or grate them using the grater or shredder.

Combine the soaked rice and fenugreek seeds, chopped/ grated zucchini, red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, turmeric, carom seeds, mustard seeds, sesame seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves and grind into a smooth paste.

You may need very less water for grinding them, because of the water content present in the zucchini/ cucumber. If required, add little water.

Keep the batter in a warm place for 7 - 8 hours or overnight.

Before preparing the dosa, chop the onion, mix it with salt and keep it for 10 - 15 minutes. If will make the onion pieces smooth and they will adjust with the batter nicely.

Heat the dosa pan on medium flame. Add salt, sugar and chopped onion to the dosa batter and mix well.

Pour a ladle full of batter on the dosa pan and spread it a little; don't make it too thin.

Cook the dosa on both the sides. Add little oil or butter if you like.

Serve the warm dosa with butter.

 

 Tips:

• Add 2 spoons of grated coconut while grinding the ingredients to make the dosas very smooth.

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ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

Vade is one of the authentic Havyaka delicacies, especially prepared for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. People will prepare Chakli and Vade in lots for this festival and enjoy them upto a month after the festival. This dish can be prepared with very less items which will be there in everybody's kitchen.. but it needs bit more time and little stressful job! Better to get a helping hand instead of doing it alone..

Preparation time: 1 hour
Soaking time: 5 hours
Yield: 24 vade of medium size

Ingredients:
Rice - 3 cups
Urad dal (split) - 1/4 cup
Fenugreek 8 - 10 seeds
Carom seeds - 1/4 spoon
Cumin seeds - 1 spoon
Sesame seeds - 1 spoon
Green chilli - small piece
Oil for deep frying
Salt to taste

Procedure:
Soak urad dal and fenugreek seeds in water for 2 - 3 hours.
Wash the rice thoroughly with enough water and spread them on a cotton cloth for 5 minutes to absorb the excess water. Powder them coarsely like sooji rava before it gets dried up.
Grind the soaked urad dal and fenugreek seeds into smooth paste using water. Consistency of this paste should be the same as Dosa batter.

Add the carom seeds, cumin seeds, sesame seeds and green chilli while grinding, or powder them separately and add to the batter.
Don't use all the batter to prepare the dough; keep around 1/4th portion of the dough separately to add later.
Now, take the batter, add salt and coarsely powdered rice little by little. Prepare a smooth dough like Chapati dough. Knead the dough nicely for at-least 8 - 10 minutes to ensure proper mixing.
Keep the dough covered and let it sit for about 2 hours before preparing the Vade.
After 2 hours, knead the dough again. If needed, add the urad dal batter which was kept aside.
Heat the oil in a pan. Oil should be extremely hot (smoking level) for preparing the Vade; else, it won't puff up nicely.

Take small lemon size dough and knead it nicely for a minute. Roll it into a small roundel like Poori on a greased plastic sheet. Make a hole in the middle.
Once the oil becomes nicely hot, transfer the rolled Vade into the hot oil and deep fry till golden brown on both the sides. It won't take much time to deep fry them.
Preserve the Vade in airtight containers and enjoy eating them upto a month!

Tips:

• Don't keep the dough balls ready for longer time to avoid them getting dried up. Simultaneously, you need to prepare the dough balls, roll them and deep fry! That's why it will be better to have some helping hands.

Sending this recipe to the 'Flavours of South India', ongoing event at Simply Food.

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