Heerekayi Dose (Ridge gourd dosa)

During my graduation days, I got a chance to enter into a dreamland of dosas. My PG auntie was from Kundapur & she used to prepare different varieties of dosas. Some of them being, cabbage dosa, drumstick flower dosa, tomato dosa & what not?? She used to mainly serve these dosas as a sidedish, rather than for breakfast. After marriage, it was another fantasy world of dosas.., jackfruit dosa, raw banana dosa, cucumbar dosa, matti gulla dosa(brinjal dosa), heerekayi dosa & many many more.

Over all these years, I tasted varieties of dosas & also learnt handful of them. I had tasted this heerekayi dosa only once during my visit to my in-law's native. It was awesome & during my in-law's stay recently, I requested her to prepare the dosa for me. Because, other dishes took higher priorities, this dosa was queued up & one the last day of her stay here, she gave me the recipe & asked me to prepare it myself .., THUD....(sob sob.., I knew the recipe, I wanted to relish what she prepared).

Anyways, you must be thinking, how much I blabber for a simple heerekayi dosa.., what to do, I dont have anybody to listen here.., hence.., puking out everything in my space.

Finally coming to the recipe, the key to this dosa is "serve it straight from the pan or atleast warm". The dosa becomes a little hard once it reaches room temperature. One can relish this as a tiffin(breakfast item) with ghee or as a side dish for rasam + rice. It tastes great with curd rice too...

Ingredients:

Raw rice: 3 cups

Beaten rice: 1 tbsp

Red chillies: 2-3

Tamarind powder: 1 big pinch (optional)

Ridged Gourd/Heerekayi/Luffa: 1 no (peeled & sliced)

Curry leaves: 1 string

Asafoetida: a small pinch

Salt: According to taste

Sugar: A pinch (optional)

Other ingredients:

Oil: 1 tsp for each dosa

Method:

• Wash the rice & beaten rice thoroughly & Soak it for 3-4 hours.


• Prepare a smooth batter of rice, beaten rice, red chillies, tamarind powder, curry leaves. Batter should be like bonda/bajji or pakora batter (batter is little thicker than normal dosa batter). Add salt, asafoetida & sugar to the batter. Mix well.


• Meantime, place the ridgegourd slices in water.


• Heat the dosa griddle, drizzle few drops of oil to it. Dip ridgegourd in the batter & arrange them on the tava/griddle(refer to picture below).

• The ridgegourd slices must touch each other. Add 1/2 tsp oil, cover the griddle with a lid & cook on low-medium heat for 1-1.5mins. Turn the dosa & cook on the other side too for a min.


• Serve it hot with ghee as a breakfast or a sidedish to rice.

Notes:

1. Instead of raw rice, I used Thai rice. Hence, I increased the beaten rice to 1/3rd cup for 3 cups of thai rice. So, it is important to adjust the beaten rice accordingly to get soft dosas. Else, the dosa becomes very hard & rubbery.


2. Addition of coconut (around 1 tbsp) will also enhance the flavor & softness of the dosa, however I try to avoid as we normally consume a lot of coconut otherwise.


3. If some more batter is left over, add some water & make it pouring consistency. Prepare thin crepes/dosas with it. (We call it uppu-huli-khara dose. Uppu-Salt, Huli- Sour, Khara-Heat/Spice dosa). These thin crepes/dosa are also equally tasty.

Blog Events:

1. Goes to Sia & Lakshmi for "Udupi-Mangalorean Cuisine", as it an authentic South/North Canara dish.

2. Padma for her event "Dosa Corner".

Heerekayi Tambli (Luffa in yogurt sauce)

By now, it would be clear for all of you that, I use curd/yogurt to prepare lots and lots of dishes. We love eating yogurt in any form. Also, as I previously mentioned in one of the posts that, thin yogurt is said to have a cooling effect on the body & is very beneficial in tropical countries like Singapore. The situation for me is like.., ರೋಗಿ ಬಯಸಿದ್ದು ಹಾಲು ಅನ್ನ, ವೈದ್ಯ ಹೇಳಿದ್ದು ಹಾಲು ಅನ್ನ (Kannada proverb). The meaning of this is.., you ask for it & you get it (Please forgive my bad translation skills)

I enjoy preparing & eating atleast one variety of tambli (Yogurt sauce) every week. Tambli is such an easy preparation & it can well be prepared within 15-20mins. Not only easy to cook, but also packed with nutrition & tastes heaven.

You can find more information about ಹೀರೇಕಾಯಿ/ridged gourd here or in wikipedia

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped ridged gourd(use tender ones for preparing)
1-2 green chillies
1/2 tsp cumin seeds/jeerige
3tbsp cup grated coconut (fresh/frozen)
1.5 cups thin butter-milk/yogurt
salt according to taste

For tempering:
1 tsp ghee/clarified butter
a generous pinch of asafoetida
4-6 curry leaves
1 broken red chilli (optional)

Method:

• Grind together the ridged gourd, cumin seeds, green chillies, grated coconut using the buttermilk to a smooth paste.
• Mix this paste, salt with the remaining butter-milk.
• Prepare the tempering in a separate pan. Add ghee to a pan, when ghee is hot, add mustard seeds, when mustard seeds splutter, add curry leaves, broken red chilli & finally add asafoetida.
• Pour this tempering on the yogurt sauce prepared.
• Mix well & serve it with rice.

Note :

1. Ridged gourd can be used with the skin, there is no need to peel & discard the skin.
2. If ridged gourd is not very tender, then cook it until soft by adding little water & then use the cooked ridged gourd to prepare the above recipe