Verum Arisi Adai

Verum Arisi Adai translates to Plain Rice Adai, a Palakkad specialty. Among the various griddle-cooked pancake-like flatbreads of south India, this Verum Arisi Adai is not that well-known.

It is fairly thick, even up to a quarter inch thick, and needs to cook over medium-low heat for enough time so insides are not raw. Usually it helps to make 3 or 4 "holes" on the surface and drops some oil in to help with crisping the surface.

My favorite additives to the plain rice adai batter are: chopped greens like kale, beet greens, spinach, grated carrots, finely diced onions, finely chopped coconut, whole black pepper, coriander and curry leaves. Of course, not all of these at the same time - that would just overload the adai.

The picture doesn't do justice to the taste, naturally. In fact, the resident eight year old who has an opinion about everything, told me that it looks like dried up fake puke and refused to try even a courtesy bite.

Soak 2 cups red par-boiled rice overnight (with 1 Tbsp fenugreek seeds), grind it to a coarse batter that is thick, with very little water; should be able to scoop a handful, roll it into a ball so it will still hold its shape on its own. This batter tastes better when allowed to ferment overnight with natural wild yeast fermentation, no additives.

However, since I don't get the traditional variety of rice here, and since I don't want to go to the trouble of soaking and grinding the long grain rice batter just for me, I have this alternate recipe using coarse rice meal like for Arisi Upma Kozhakattai.

1. Soak required amount of Coarse ricemeal (also sold as Rice Idlee Rava in Indian stores), grind it with just enough water to make a thick paste; and allow it to ferment overnight 
2. When ready to make the adais, add a tad bit of rice flour if the batter is too brittle and breaks apart when made into adai; the flour seems to help keep it together;
3. Add in grated carrots or kale or onion or any other favorite veggies, adjust salt to taste, and cook on a medium hot pan on both sides till cooked through
4. Serve with favorite chutneys or pickles; I serve it with pickled beets

While the original par-boiled rice Verum Arisi Adai will be just fine no matter how long after getting out of the pan, this quick short-cut method adai has to be eaten hot off the pan as it can get quite hard ("jaw-breaker") if allowed to cool down. It is very filling - just 2 medium sized (5" diameter) Verum Arisi Adai makes a big brunch.

adai dosai waffles

There was very little adai batter left for breakfast for all of us, and, this recipe sort of came together as an experiment...

Jaggery, and a mixture of sugar & ghee were quintessential companions of adai in our home when i was growing up...

As adai batter already had dry red chilies and black pepper, these waffles were best served with some brown sugar and a mixture of sugar and butter. But, coconut thogayal, or curry leaf chutney would be good with these as well...


Ingredients
2 cups fermented adai batter
1 cup Bisquick® pancake mix
½ medium onion, finely chopped
1 green chili finely chopped
1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
some chopped cilantro
adjust salt to taste
water as needed

Preparation

mix the adai batter and pancake mix with some water; add the rest of the ingredients, stir gently to have no lumps; this is a fairly thick batter

pour enough of the batter in a pre-heated waffle iron and cook just like waffles

serve warm with maple syrup, or chutney, or brown sugar, or my favorite: sugar with ghee (or butter)

Adai Dosai

Adai is a thick pan cake made of fermented dal (lentils) batter usually, and some times made just out of rice ("verum arisi adai"). Dosai is usually thinner crepe type dish made with rice and urad dal. Adai-Dosai is sort of a combination of the two - uses dals like for adai, but is a thinner batter and hence ends up more like a dosai.

My wee one started liking dosai a lot since she turned one. So, I try to make dosai or adai-dosai batter once a week; this way she gets enough protein and fiber. The fermented batter from this recipe is usually about 1.5-2 gallons in volume and lasts a whole week for me. I save the unused batter in the fridge and use it on and off over the course of the week.

I try to make different shapes of adai-dosai rather than the traditional round form just to entertain my little one - picture above shows my attempt at a bear :-) It was quite rewarding to hear Ms.Little Tiny saying, "Doh-say- bay" (dosai bear) when I set the above plate in front of her this morning.

This recipe here is sort of made up - I wanted to incorporate as many ingredients as I have handy and I feel is healthy. Each time I make the batter, I vary the proportions a bit just to get a slightly different mix.

Also, in winter, I prefer to use yeast to make the batter rise and ferment well overnight; alternately, the batter can be left for a few days to gather the natural yeast from its environment and take its own sweet time to ferment...

Ingredients:
1 cup urad dal
1 cup whole green moong dal
1 cup chana dal
1 cup par-boiled rice(puzhungal arisi, or idlee arisi)
2 cups toor dal
3 Tbsp fenugreek seeds
3 Tbsp flax seeds
3 Tbsp poppy seeds - optional
6-8 dry red chilies
1 tsp rapid rise yeast
--------------------
some water
some oil
salt to taste
1 medium onion diced finely (optional)

Preparation:

1. soak all the above adai batter ingredients, except yeast, in enough water for 4-6 hours; grind into a fine batter; add the yeast and leave it in a warm place to rise overnight or up to 16 hrs.
2. the batter usually gets fluffy and rises well as in picture above
3. scoop 4-6 ladleful of the fermented batter into a bowl, add the onions, some salt, and a little water at a time to make a pourble batter of sorts - like the consistency of a medium-thin pancake batter
4. heat a non-stick pan or griddle; use a touch of oil to ensure that the adai-dosai lifts off the pan without struggle
5. scoop a ladleful of the prepared batter and spread/draw it into desired shape on the hot pan; or just spread them into simple circular form
6. leave pan in uniform medium-high heat; when underside seems done, flip carefully and cook the other side
7. serve warm with mint chutney or ridge gourd peel chutney or sambar or paruppurundai kozhambu
8. traditionally, my mom used to serve this with sugar & ghee, or jaggery or both:)

Fermented Adai batter is quite a sight - and smell - a pleasant sour smell when perfect, can turn to putrid if left too long :)