Easy Breakfast

In almost all health magazines and internet sites, we read – Breakfast is the most vital meal of a day. My grandmother used to tell - Have breakfast like a King, Lunch like a Prince and Dinner like a Pauper.

Very few onsite coordinators in IT industry have proper breakfast. Sorry friends…. No hard feelings… I don’t have any experience, but that’s something I’ve heard from my hubby as well as my friends. With the late night offshore calls, the day usually begins only by 8.30 am or later. And in the hurry to reach office by a decent time, the easy one to skip is the breakfast.

Though I don't have late night offshore calls or have to rush to office, my day also starts late morning and ends late night. Even if I keep saying that am giving a company to my hubby for night outs, the truth is I find my friends online at that time. That’s when I collect all the updates from my friends in India.

So now coming back to our topic – breakfast; Easy breakfast should be easy to prepare and easy to eat. The first thing that comes to our mind when we think of an easy breakfast is either Bread-Butter-Jam or Corn Flakes. But as I prefer more of the authentic Kerala dishes than the English breakfast items; my weekday menu includes idly, dosa and vellappam. These can be made on the fly with the ready made batter in the fridge. Of course puttu is easy to prepare, but my hubby don’t find it easy to eat J.  So, that would come under our dinner menu J

With all these.... does it sound like we have a grand breakfast during weekends? If yes, sorry friends…. Weekends are even worse… We directly jump onto lunch or we can call it as Br-unch on weekends.

Now let me just tell you how I prepare these…

Idly / Dosa:

Ingredients:

Raw Rice                               --   2 cups

Urad dhal                              --   1 cup

Cooked Rice                          --   ½ cup

Methi seeds                           --    2 tsp

Salt                                         --    to taste

Preparation of the batter:

Wash and Soak the rice and urad dhal with methi seeds separately for about 6 hrs. Grind the urad dal with methi seeds until it becomes fine. Then grind the rice to slightly rough consistency. Add a little salt and mix both the batter together. During winter season, preheat the oven to 215F and switch off and then place the batter and leave it over night for fermentation.

Prepare idlis by steaming it for 10-15 minutes in an idly cooker. For dosas, add water to the batter to make it thinner and then prepare them on the pan.

Vellappam:

Ingredients:

Raw Rice                               --   2 cups

Cooked boiled Rice              --   ½ cup

Shredded Coconut (optional)     --   ½ cup

Yeast                                      --    ½ tsp

Sugar                                     --   2 tbsp

Salt                                         --    to taste

Preparation of the batter:

Soak raw rice in water for almost 2-3 hours. Put the soaked raw rice, cooked boiled rice, shredded coconut, water and sugar in the mixer and grind, till smooth. Pour this in a large bowl and add yeast and mix well. Leave this for around 4 - 5 hours or till the mixture rises. Add salt to this mixture and mix well.

Heat a tawa or nonstick vellappam chatty and make yummy vellappams.

The same batter can be used for Vattayappam or Kallappam (that’s how we call it at home).  Just before preparing, check for the sweetness and add sugar if required. Grease a flat pan or idly mould with little oil and pour in the fermented batter. Top it with cashews and raisins. If you wish to have it with curry, you can reduce the amount of sugar and add required amount of salt.

Steam it for 15 min in a medium heat or until it is done. Allow it to cool in the pan for 15 min and gently take it out.

I prepare the batter for all these once a week and keep it in fridge once it is fermented. So that makes an easy breakfast.

Recipe Courtesy: Amma