'Adai'

Adai is another South Indian Tamil dish which is exclusively prepared by Tamil people.
It is also made like a Dosa on a Hot Plate or Dosai Kallu. This is much more healthier as lots of lentils are used in this dish.
Ingredients:

1. Raw Rice 1/2 cup
2. boiled idli rice 1/2 cup (alternately one cup of raw rice can also be used)
3. urad dal 1/3rd cup
4. channa dal 1/3 cup
5. tur dal 1/3 cup
6. black small chick peas a hand ful
7. green chillies 2 or 3
8. red chillies 3 to 4
9. ginger a small bit
10. Asafotida /perungayam little
11. salt to taste (approximately 1 and 1/2 t spoons )
12. curry leaves and coriander leaves
13. one onion cut into small bits.(optional)
14. 1 to 2 table spoons of grated coconut (optional)
15. oil for making the adai on the hotplate.

Method:

• Soak the rice and the three dals together for 4 to 5 hours

• Soak the chick peas separately for 4 to 5 hours.

• Grind the drained chick peas with chillies, ginger, asafotida, salt into a nice paste in the mixer.

• Drain the water from the dals and add this on top of the paste into the mixer and grind it into a little coarse batter. (If you want smoother 'adai' you can grind this also into a smooth batter.

• Cut the coriander and curry leaves and mix it thouroughlly with the batter.
• Add the grated coconut and mix it well.
• Use the batter to make adai immediately or keep the batter inside the fridge so as to take it out when ever you want to make adai, as this batter should not be kept outside for raising like dosa batter.

• Onion should be cut into very small pieces and added to the batter just before making the adai.

• Heat the dosai kallu very well and make the adai adding oil around the adai and this should be done on a medium flame and wait till the adai becomes golden brown and then turn it around.
• Unlike dosa the adai takes a little longer time to get crisp.

• Eat it with ' sambhar' or 'vellam' (jaggery).

• Adai aviyal is a famous dish in the South Indian Restaurants but some how I don't like the combination of adai with avial
• A little butter on top of the hot adai will add to the taste very much but watch your weight!!

Dosai/Idli Maavu (Batter)

• Dosai is generally called Dosa and I am going to give tips as to how to make the basic batter or maavu.

• Dosai is made out of Rice and Urad dal.

• At home, the Maavu is same for Idli and Dosai and normally the first two days idlis are made and then dosai is made with the same batter .

• If you have a typical Idli Grinder:

• Soak 4 cups of rice for 6 hours. 1 cup of urad dal for one hour.
  

• For this raw rice can be used. if you need good idlis it is better to use idli rice which is boiled rice which is specially used for making idlis and dosas.
  

• For best results use 3 cups of idli rice and 1 cup of raw rice.

• Soak 1 cup of urad dal just one hour prior to your grinding time.

• Grind the rice into a nice batter in the grinder keep aside and then grind the urad dal separately.

• While grinding the urad dal keep adding little water so that you get a fluffy smooth batter.

• Add 1 and half table spoon of salt and mix both the batters thouroughlly with hands and keep for the maavu to raise. (yeast is formed which makes this dish very healthy)

• Normally it is kept over night at normal temperature. (around 30 degree C).

• This can be stored in the fridge for upto 10 days.

• Before making idlis, keep the batter out side the fridge for some time. Just mix the maavu lightly and make idlis for the first two days so that you will get soft idlis.

• Then onwards mix the maavu thoroughly and make dosas.

• Dosas can be made from first day also after mixing the maavu nicely.

• One table spoon of vendhiyam (fenugreek seeds) can be added to the urad dal and ground together for better results and healthier idlis and dosas.

• One table spoon of 'aval' or rice flakes can be added to the rice while grinding it so that you get crispier dosas.

• If you don't have a grinder and you have only the normal mixer here is what should be done:

• Soak 3 cups of Rice and 1 cup of urad dal. the soaking time for urad dal is same . (just one hour )

• Use only raw rice as it is tough to grind the boiled idli rice in the mixer.

• While grinding the dal use ice cold water for fluffy batter.

• Alternately you get what is called 'idli' rava in the stores and you can buy it and just mix some water with it and make it into a batter , just grind the urad dal and mix both adding salt.

• This batter will be nice only for idlis as the idli rava is coarse and dosa will not come out smooth.

• The best and easiest method to make dosa while you have only the mixer:

• Just soak 2 cups of raw rice and one cup of urad dal together for around 4 to 5 hours. you can add some fenugreek seeds and also a little rice flakes.

• Grind them into a paste using cold water. add salt.
  
• Keep it outside the fridge for about 6 to 8 hours and you can make crisp nice dosas with this batter.