A healthy dinner with Adai, Avial & Fruits

This weekend I had guests at home and wanting to be a good hostess, I decided to make something they like. "Adai" became the obvious choice of main course after careful consideration of the time of their visit, the liking and the preparation process all put together. Since I had just made a few South Indian dishes for the Tamil New Year, I was in the cooking zone. After inquiring about the recipe a bit from reliable sources back at home I decided to go for "Avial" as the side dish. With that all the veggies, protein and carbs for the day would be met, so the dessert choice for was fruit salad with ice-cream ;).

Lets get to the details, Adai is a crepe made with ground pulse batter and I can go on and on with its protein and carb value. It is easy to prepare the batter and to make the dish, although a little planning may be required for time management. To add to its nutritional richness my mom adds Soya beans to it. Then the Avial, its simple steamed veggies in a coconut, chili & yogurt broth. Both dishes use a little oil (or more if you are all about taste :D). Then the dessert a lovely medley of seasonal fruits and a nice little scoop of ice-cream.

Now the making... (in my style)

1. Adai (serves 4):
Soak channa dal - 1/2 cup, toor dal(thuvar dal) - 1/2 cup, urad dal (black gram dal) - 1/2 cup and Soya beans(dried) - 1/2 cups and Soak 1 cup of raw rice/boiled rice (preferrably the one used to make idlis) separately, all for 2 hrs or more in warm water. Drain the rice first and grind it coarsely with few curry leaves, 2 red chilies, 1 green chili and finely cut ginger (2 tsp). Now drain and add the dals to it, add necessary water to make a thick finely ground batter. The consistency should be a little looser than vada batter and thicker than dosa batter. This process would take 10 minutes.

Before making the crepe add some chopped onion (1/2 cup) to the batter, if are not a big fan of Onion you can skip this step. Heat a round skillet/pan/tawa on the stove top until water drops sizzles. On a medium heat start by pouring the batter in the center and then working it in a circle outwards (about 6inch-8inch in diameter). The crepe should be thick unlike dosa. Add a few drops of oil around the edges and cover it with a lid for complete cooking. After 30 - 40 secs turn it over. Give it 15-20 secs and remove it off the pan.

2. Avial (serves 4):
Cut a variety of vegetables into 1-2 inch rectangular pieces, totaling 3 cups. The veggies that could be used are raw bananas, potatoes, yam, eggplant (small Indian ones), drumstick, carrot, green beans, broad beans (avaraikai) etc., the ones that are not generally used are leafy vegetables and Onion varieties.

Steam the veggies in a pan or pressure cooker with a little salt, don’t make them mushy though. While they cook, take 1/4 cup of yogurt, add 1-2 tbsp of water to loosen it mix it well and keep it separately. Now grind 1/2 cup coconut with 2-3 green chilies and 1 tsp of jeera to a fine paste. Once the veggies are done, heat 1 tbsp of coconut oil in a pan, add curry leaves to it and sauté for a few seconds, add the veggies to it and reduce the heat to Low. Mix in the coconut paste. Add 1/4 tsp of turmeric and add the required salt (remember that there is already some salt in the veggies). Switch off the heat and after 30-45 seconds mix in the yogurt. Voila tasty Avial is ready :).

3. Fruit Salad:
Depending on your love for fruits you might just devour it single handedly but I would say 4 people can eat it. I tend to avoid bananas in this because they change the taste so much. Now the trick is to add enough amounts of sweet, sour and tart fruits, no bitter ones please. You can use strawberries, blue berries, papaya, mango (make sure it is fully ripe), kiwi, apple, orange, grapes (white/black), cantaloupe, honey dew and so on... Using toasted walnuts/almonds and honey drizzle as toppings adds to flavor and is healthier than fudge :)

If using papaya, keep it separately and add them in the end based on individual taste. Also the ice-cream add it only if asked for, have at least 2 kinds (vanilla/chocolate). Infact when I made it I had to go for 3 different styles of this item. one just fruits, then fruits with honey drizzle, then fruits with ice-cream and honey drizzled :) Toasted walnuts finished it beautifully!

Tips:

• Once the batter is ready you can refrigerate it, if it is not used immediately.
• Before using the refrigerated batter thaw it in a hot water bath for 5 mins or in room temperature for 15-20 mins.
• Boiled Rice here refers to Puzhungal rice that is used in Indian cooking for making dosa/idli batter.
• Adai is best when eaten hot, but as an option you can save them in hot packs until it is served.
• If you end up with left over Adai, refrigerate it and then thaw in microwave for 40 secs to a minute until it is soft, break it into little pieces and soak it in a salted buttermilk cup and enjoy as a tasty snack!
• In Avial, make sure the veggies are of the same size so they cook even.
• I would not suggest any replacement for coconut oil but if you really want try any vegetable/sunflower oil.
• Remember not to add the yogurt when the stove is still hot, it would make the yogurt go watery. The look and taste will be affected. If by mistake you poured it remove from the stove top immediately!