Crispy Karuppu Kavuni Rice Dosa - Crispy Black Rice Dosa Recipe

 Recently I had posted the recipe for Black Rice or Karuppu Kavuni Arisi Sweet Pongal. After seeing that my sister had tried preparing dosa with Kavuni Arisi and she had shared the recipe. So I am sharing the recipe here for you.

 

Before that I am also re-posting the benefits of Black Rice, in case if you haven't checked my previous post.

Benefits:

Rice being a staple food of Asia, this deep Black Rice has an interesting story behind it. Black Rice or Karuppu Kavuni Arisi is also known as the Emperors Rice or Forbidden Rice. It was called so because, in ancient China,  this unique rice was grown in very limited quantities and consumed only by the Emperor to ensure his health and longevity and was forbidden to any common man, due to its enormous nutritional benefits. 

This rice when soaked or cooked turns blackish purple. This is due to the presence of a pigment called Anthocyanin, present in the outer layer of the grains which has potent antioxidant properties. Anthocyanins are a group of flavonoid plant pigments that are responsible for the purple color. The amount of Anthocyanin contained in Black rice is higher than any other grain including brown rice, red rice or other colored whole grain varieties. Studies say that anthocyanins have strong anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer effects and also rich in Vitamin E. Furthermore, it is said that eating foods high in anthocyanins may help protect against several chronic diseases, including heart disease, obesity, and some forms of cancer.

Research says that black rice contains over 23 types of antioxidants and has the highest antioxidant activity of all rice varieties. The high amounts of Lutein and Zeaxanthin, the two types of carotenoids supports our eye health.

Black rice is low in calories, which makes it great for people who wants to reduce weight without giving up on rice. It is also a great source of plant-based protein (which is a great news for vegetarians and vegans) and provides minerals like iron and copper.

Here's a comparison of different rice varieties (100gm serving)

• Polished white rice – 6.8g protein, 1.2g iron, 0.6g fiber.
• Brown rice – 7.9g protein, 2.2g iron, and 2.8g fiber.
• Red rice – 7.0g protein, 5.5g iron, and 2.0g fiber.
• Black rice – 8.5g protein, 3.5g iron, 4.9g fiber.

Other health benefits of this naturally gluten-free rice includes; helps in treating asthma, aids weight loss, natural detoxifier, maintains sugar levels, maintains cholesterol levels, aids healthy brain function, improves digestive health and also an excellent source of good fat.

And, now here's the recipe for preparing Dosas.

 

 Ingredients:

Black Rice / Karuppu Kavuni Arisi - 1 cup

Idly Rice - 1/4 cup

Urad Dal -1/4 Cup

Vendhayam / Fenugreek Seeds - 1 tsp

Salt and oil/ghee as per need

Method:

 1. Wash the black rice, idly rice and ural dal. Add all the washed ingredients along with fenugreek seeds and soak them together for 5 hours.

Soak them

   

2.  In a mixer jar, blend them to a fine batter adding sufficient water. You don't have to drain the soaked water. You can use it for grinding.

Grind in a mixer jar

3. Transfer the batter to a container add enough salt and leave it overnight to ferment.

Transfer to a bowl and allow to ferment

 4. Now that the batter is ready to prepare dosa. Give a good mix, heat the dosa pan and pour a ladle full of batter. drizzle oil or ghee as per your preference, cover it with a lid and cook until it turns crispy.

5. As we have covered and cooked, it is not necessary to flip the dosa. Or if you prefer cooking on both the sides, you can also flip and leave for few seconds and then serve. Enjoy with chutney of your choice.

Karuppu Kavuni Rice Sweet Pongal - Karuppu Kavuni Arisi Sweet Pongal - Black Rice Sweet Pongal - Pressure Cooker Recipe

Rice being a staple food of Asia, this deep Black Rice has an interesting story behind it. Black Rice or Karuppu Kavuni Arisi is also known as the Emperors Rice or Forbidden Rice. It was called so because, in ancient China,  this unique rice was grown in very limited quantities and consumed only by the Emperor to ensure his health and longevity and was forbidden to any common man, due to its enormous nutritional benefits. 

This rice when soaked or cooked turns blackish purple. This is due to the presence of a pigment called Anthocyanin, present in the outer layer of the grains which has potent antioxidant properties. Anthocyanins are a group of flavonoid plant pigments that are responsible for the purple color. The amount of Anthocyanin contained in Black rice is higher than any other grain including brown rice, red rice or other colored whole grain varieties. Studies say that anthocyanins have strong anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer effects and also rich in Vitamin E. Furthermore, it is said that eating foods high in anthocyanins may help protect against several chronic diseases, including heart disease, obesity, and some forms of cancer.

Research says that black rice contains over 23 types of antioxidants and has the highest antioxidant activity of all rice varieties. The high amounts of Lutein and Zeaxanthin, the two types of carotenoids supports our eye health.

Black rice is low in calories, which makes it great for people who wants to reduce weight without giving up on rice. It is also a great source of plant-based protein (which is a great news for vegetarians and vegans) and provides minerals like iron and copper.

Here's a comparison of different rice varieties (100gm serving)

• Polished white rice – 6.8g protein, 1.2g iron, 0.6g fiber.
• Brown rice – 7.9g protein, 2.2g iron, and 2.8g fiber.
• Red rice – 7.0g protein, 5.5g iron, and 2.0g fiber.
• Black rice – 8.5g protein, 3.5g iron, 4.9g fiber.

Other health benefits of this naturally gluten-free rice includes; helps in treating asthma, aids weight loss, natural detoxifier, maintains sugar levels, maintains cholesterol levels, aids healthy brain function, improves digestive health and also an excellent source of good fat.

I’m sure all these interesting facts about black rice have made you want to include this in your  routine. Kavuni arisi is a popular sweet recipe in Chettinad region. It is served in all Chettinad wedding feast. We can also use this rice for making idly/dosa, kanji/porridge, kuzhipaniyaram etc. Or instead of white rice, you can just have this for your meal with the regular sambar or rasam. Since black rice is unrefined and denser than brown rice, the way we cook it is also slightly different. It has a mild nutty taste and a chewy texture. And it has to be soaked well enough before cooking. With enough heads-up here's a yummy recipe for making Pongal using Black Rice. Let me know how this turned up for you :-)

 

 

Ingredients

Karuppu Kavuni Arisi/Black Rice - 1/2 cup (this will yield more than double the quantity of cooked rice, as we are soaking overnight)

Moong dal - 1 or 2 tbsp

Water - 1.5 cups (2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. Here I have used extra water as I had used moong dal)

Powdered Jaggery/Country Sugar - 1/2 cup

Cardamom - 3 or 4 pods, powdered

Cashews - as per taste

Ghee - 1 tbsp or as per taste

Milk - 1/4 cup (optional)

Method:

1. Take 1/2 cup of Black rice in a bowl. Wash it couple of times and add water and soak it overnight or atleast for 6 hours.

Karuppu Kavuni Arisi

 

 

Soak Overnight

2. Next morning, the soaked rice and the water would have turned pink. Do not discard this water, measure this and use it along with more water for cooking the black rice.

 

 

 

Rice and water turns pink upon soaking

The soaked water which has turned pink, reserve it for cooking the kavuni arisi

3. In a pressure cooker, add the soaked rice and water. Close the lid and cook for 1 whistle in high and simmer for 10 mins.

Add it to the Pressure Cooker

4. Once the Pressure settles, open the lid, try to mash it a little. This rice wouldn't mash up. If you have added moong dal that would help to stick the rice grains together and give a pongal like texture. If you haven't added moong dal, the rice grains would look seperate. But still they would have a sticky texture.

5. Add the jaggery, powdered cardamom and milk and simmer it for few minutes until all the ingredients binds together.

6. Take a small pan, add ghee and fry the cashews and add it to the Black Rice Pongal. 

7. That's it.. Yummy Karuppu Kavuni Arisi pongal is ready to be tasted.

Veg Atta Pizza - Pizza in Kadai - How to make Atta Pizza in Kadai - No Maida - No Yeast - No Oven

Its been more than 5 years since I baked anything. From the time we returned back to India from US, I hadn't baked anything. My son had tonsillitis and from then on I stopped giving him cakes (except during birthday parties), particularly the icing or the cream and cream biscuits. This quarantine period tempted me to bake a pizza.

Even though Pizza is our favorite, we eat it only once in a year or so; just for the reason that they are not healthy. Still, they are so tempting and we use to crave for it at times :)

Maida is one ingredient which I totally avoid in my kitchen. After having known the health hazards of this white flour, we started avoiding it in all ways. We stopped consuming Parottas for the same reason. I don't remember when was the last time I bought Maida. My mom used to make pooris using Maida, the taste used to be awesome. Only after marriage I learnt that Pooris can also be made with Wheat Flour.When I was looking for a Pizza recipe using Wheat Flour, I came across this recipe from Cooking Shooking. If we have the Pizza Sauce and Chilli Flakes handy, baking a pizza is super easy. So if you can prepare them well ahead and store, baking a pizza doesn't require much of time. To bake a pizza in Kadai, we need a heavy bottom, wide and deep kadai.

Ingredients


Wheat Flour - 1 cup
Curd - 4 tbsp or as needed to kneed the dough
Baking Soda - 1/8 tsp
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt - as needed
Oil - 1 tbsp


Salt - 200g (to spread in the kadai, for baking)
A wire rack or bowl - to act as a stand on top of which we can keep the pizza tray
Butter - as needed, for greasing the baking tray/plate and to apply on crust
Red Chilli Sauce - 1 tbsp
Pizza Sauce - 1 tbsp
Cheese - as per preference
Black pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Herbs of choice
Toppings of choice - I used Onion, Tomato, Capsicum and Paneer

Method

1. In a wide vessel take the flour, add salt, sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Mix well.
2. Then add the curd and bring all the dry ingredients together into a dough. The dough will be very sticky.
3. Wash and dry your hands or take of the sticky dough from hands by adding a little bit of dry flour. Then add one tbsp of oil to the dough, knead for few minutes to get a very very soft dough.
4. Split the dough into two. Take two trays or plates. Grease one with butter, make sure to grease well, else the dough will stick to the base.
5. Roll one dough using rolling pin or use hands to spread the dough into circular discs of desired size. Sprinkle dry flour if needed. Carefully place the rolled dough into the greased plate. 
6. Poke it with fork here and there, leaving some space in the corners. So the corners alone will puff and the center dough will not puff up like it does for a chapati.
7. Take 1 tbsp of pizza sauce and red chilli sauce and spread it evenly on the base. Spread cheese, vegetables of your choice, pepper powder, chilli flakes and herbs. Brush with some more butter on top of the filling.
8. Meanwhile heat a kadai in high flame for around 5 minutes, add the salt and the wire rack/bowl. Close with a lid and pre-heat for 10 mins on high flame.
9. Now keep the pizza tray on top of the wire rack/bowl, cover the lid and bake for 10 to 12 minutes on high flame. Once it gets cooked you can see the corners getting browned and turning crisp. (Meanwhile, you can prepare the second pizza dough and arrange the toppings)
10. Remove the first pizza carefully from the kadai and immediately keep the second tray and cover the lid. Cook similarly for 10 to 12 minutes.
11. Sprinkle more herbs and chilli flakes if you wish and enjoy with tomato ketchup

Notes

• Instead of Kadai you can also bake this in a pan (non-stick pan). Just directly keep the rolled dough in the pan/tawa. Spread the sauces, arrange cheese, vegetables and herbs. Cover with lid and cook on low flame for 8 to 10 minutes.
• Roll the dough thin, else it will take a long time for the dough to get cooked.
• Keep all the ingredients ready to avoid messing up at the moment.

OPOS Pizza Sauce Recipe

After preparing chilli flakes for the pizza, I quickly made this flavory pizza sauce with zero additives. Making homemade pizza sauce isn’t difficult and it doesn’t have to be time-consuming either. Pizza Sauce is a tomato based sauce, cooked along with garlic and some herbs which is used as a spread on Pizza Bread. The regular method would do blanch the tomatoes, take the pulp and cook them along with some garlic, onion, red capsicum and the herbs until it thickens. It's super easy with the OPOS method. With the below measure we can get pizza sauce which can be used for 4 pizzas, depending upon your sauce preference.

Ingredients

Oil - 2 or 3 tsp 
Garlic cloves - 3 nos (I used the bigger variety), minced
Onion - 1, medium sized, chopped
Tomato -  3, medium sized, deseeded and chopped 
Red Bell Pepper- half, chopped
Salt - as per taste
Sugar - 1 tsp
Red Chilli powder - as per taste or spice level
Tomato Ketchup - 1 tbsp
Fresh basil leaves - 1 tbsp, chopped
Fresh Oregano or dry oregano - 1 tsp
Chilli Flakes - 1/4 tsp

Method

1. Add the ingredients in the same order as mentioned below

Layer 1 - 2 tbsp water
Layer 2 - Oil
Layer 3 - Minced Garlic
Layer 4 - Chopped Onion
Layer 5 - Chopped and deseeded Tomatoes
Layer 6 - Chopped red bell pepper
Layer 7 - Herbs, salt, sugar, chilli powder, chilli flakes and tomato ketchup

1. Turn on the flame, cook on high for 2 whistles.
2. Release pressure manually.
3. Allow to cool off and grind to a coarse texture.
4. Pizza Sauce is ready to be used with Pizza Bread or with Pastas. Can be stored in refrigerator and used

Note : 

Pizza sauce has to be in thicker consistency. If you find yours to be a bit watery, heat a pan and add the ground sauce and allow it to thicken for a while

How to make chilli flakes at home for Pizza

When I wanted to prepare pizza at home I was running out of all the necessary store brought ingredients. As a first step I had to prepare this chilli flakes. I used 10 red chillies (cayenne pepper)

Steps

1. Heat a pan or kadai, add the chillies and dry roast them until they turn crisp. You should be able to break it when you try pressing them with your fingers. Before roasting they would bend, that's how you can find if it's well roasted.
2. Allow them to cool down completely
3. In a dry mixer jar, add the roasted chillies and grind them coarsely. If you are doing this with more number of chillies, make sure to use the pulse option, else it might turn out to a chilli powder.
4. Store in an airtight jar or container

How to standardise a Pressure Cooker for One Pot One Shot (OPOS) Cooking

Before you start OPOS method of cooking, it is  mandatory to standardize your Pressure Cooker(PC)

Things needed

2L Pressure cooker
Measuring cup
Water
Timer

In a 2L pressure cooker, add 60 ml or 1/4 cup of water. Cover the lid, put the weight and turn on the flame to high. Note the time taken for the first whistle. If your whistle comes between 1 and 2 minutes, your PC is good to use for the OPOS recipes. Follow the lessons and understand the technique before trying advanced recipes.

What is HIGH?

• In a gas stove, the flame should cover the bottom of the cooker, without coming up the sides.

• In an induction, its around 1200W

Standardizing Timing is Less or More?

• If less than a minute, try increasing the flame

• If more than 2 minutes, try decreasing the flame