Wednesday 21 September 2016

BABY SAMBAR IDLIES!

Most of the times, we are choosing foods based on the taste rather than the value of nutriment. It is not to be bothered if we are not  nutrition experts but we should have at least simple knowledge about keeping us nourished as we enjoy the tasty food.

A perfect meal is supposed to consist of protein+fat+carbs. That means  it should have all macronutrients and micronutrients as many as possible. When we consume food that contains macro nutrients with vegetables, it can be assured that we are getting all micronutrients simultaneously. When we eat the cooked meal, fat is already in it as cooking oil and ghee. 

Just take a stock report of what's on our plate casually.

Let's say that we have idlies with sambar.

We sort out what is actually in this meal. 

Idli rice, oil and ghee, toor dal, urad dal and fried Bengal gram, greens(Cilantro), coconut, ginger any vegetable say potato or carrot or beans or all you have.
Just brand out all the ingredients. Potato and rice are falling under starch. coconut, cooking oil, and ghee are fat, vegetables like onion, green chilli, red chilli, cilantro and curry leaves etc. Dals Urad dal and fenugreek seeds in idlies, Toor dal in sambar are considerable protein. 

This is a rough calculation yet satisfies us as a perfect meal. When we go back to olden days, we were being trained to eat a perfect meal  every time by our fore- mothers of  South India. It is highly admirable that cooking and serving the perfect meal is being  passed on from generation to generation. Still, the engineering of the raw materials into a tasty as well  as nutritious meal is the most noble job.

I think, this is enough to admire about our traditional meal i.e., idlies with sambar.


Let us see how to make  baby idlies with delicious sambar.







You can purchase mini idli stand in all departmental stores and vessel marts.

Refer how to make idli batter in our previous posts. 

Soak idli rice (organic) or hand pound unpolished rice three cups and urad dal 100 gms with one spoon of fenugreek seeds for four hours.
Grind them coarsely with adequate water and add salt to taste.
Mix well and cover the batter with the lid.
Set aside for more than seven hours or overnight.
Grease the slots of the mini idli mould.
Pour three cups of water in the cooker.
Pour the batter in every slot of the mini idli mould and place it in a pressure cooker.
Steam them without placing the whistle for six minutes in a medium flame.
Switch off the flame and take out the idli mould.
Remove the idlies and collect them in a bowl.
Repeat the process as per your need.

Simultaneously you can make special sambar, pair with idlies.

Pressure cook Mysore dal or Toor dal with adequate water, one spoon of turmeric powder and few drops of castor oil. 
Allow four whistles.
Soak tamarind one marble size in water for ten minutes.
Extract it.
Chop the tomatoes into small dices.
In a tempering pan, add mustard seeds to pop up.
Add shallots, curry leaves, and any vegetable you like to have.
Saute until the shallots turn translucent.
Add turmeric, sambar powder, and saute a second in a low flame.
Add thick tamarind extract.
Add little jaggery and salt required. ( little salt is sufficient as sambar is drinkable)
Allow to boil for five minutes.
Add the mashed dal to it.
Adjust with adequate water.
Sambar must be thin, so adjust with adequate water.
Allow to boil until the vegetable cooked.
Finally, the thick coconut milk to be added, (optional but delicious)
Garnish with fine chops of coriander leaves,
Toss the sambar with one spoon of fresh ghee.

 .





Transfer the sambar in a serving bowl.
Just make the idlies, float in sambar base
Set aside for five minutes to absorb sambar.







Serve hot.
Smells divine. taste superb.
Kids and adults will love abundantly.
Everyone's favorite breakfast.

Above all, a perfect and complete meal, I am sure.









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