Monday, July 28, 2008

To err is Human

How much time does one take to be successful at a dish?
A week's try, or may be a month or few. I have gone way beyond this benchmark and took almost 2 1/2 years to get one of my favorite breakfast right. Mix Veggie Oothapams that my Mom made always topped my list. I was never into cooking until 3 years back, and cooking was the activity I did only when my Mom was out of station.

It was when I moved out of my house to take up a job, cooking caught up with me. Initially, to save myself from getting ready day after day, walking to the nearby restaurant and eating, the almost same tasting food, irrespective of what you ordered. Expectedly, cooking started off as a bit of cumbersome job; to fill my and my roomies (She didn't know to cook much) stomach and eventually it started relaxing me after the day's work. Now it is something I look forward to. Anyways I think I got a little sidetracked, back to the Oothapams. I made several attempts to make Oothapams, but they Never seemed to turn out fine. I never gave up however, until my husband started avoiding them :)

So this time when I was visiting my mom I asked her to show me how she made them, and I realized I was making too many mistakes in the proportion of the ingredients. I have learnt my lesson the hard way (Though my husband feels he has had it the hardest, eating up those unsuccessful Oothapams).

Mix Veg Oothapams are fast to make, very healthy and you can always experiment with the vegetables depending on your choice or even availability.

Mix Veggie Oothapam

Ingredients:
1/2 Capsicum finely diced
1 Tomato finely diced
1 Green Chilli finely chopped
10 Coriander leaves chopped
10 T Rava
1 1/2 T Curd
1 tsp Red Chilli powder
1/2 tsp Baking soda
200 ml Water
Salt to Taste

Mix the capsicums, tomatoes, green chillies, coriander, red chilli powder and salt.


Add the Curd, Rava and Water to this and let this mix stand for 10 mins. Heat the tawa. When the tawa is ready, add the baking soda to the rava mix. Just mix it a little. Put a portion of the mix on the tawa and flatten it using your fingers, depending on how thick you like it, 1/2 cm thick should be good.


Put some oil and roast. Take care while flipping the Oothapam, it can be very tricky. I still land up breaking them while flipping.


Enjoy it with Green chutney or Tomato Ketchup.


Incase you don't have capsicum, try it with cucumber. I have never done this personally, but my mom makes this combination as well.

I am sending this to Weekend Breakfast Blogging, WBB July'08 which is being hosted this month by Sia of Monsoon Spice.

Photobucket


In her own words, this event was started by Nandita from Saffron Trail to popularise breakfast among food bloggers.

Isn't the logo by Sia wonderful?

6 comments:

Sia said...

nidhi,
many of us never stepped into kitchen until we had to leave home and stay away in hostel or someother countries:) story of many girls in india and everywhere i guess:)
the uttappam u have here is different from what we make at home as u have used rava/sooji and we usually use rice+urad dal combi. thanks for this colourful entry. do check my blog as i am hosting Aug edidtion of JFI. i hope u get time to participate in that event too:)

Nidhi said...

~Sia
Rava Oothapam is more of a North Indian twist to a South Indian speciality :)
Sure gal, will take part in JFI. Cheers to you for hosting so many of these events!

Mallika said...

I think it looks lovely. And very healthy, but I am sure I will manage to break it while flipping!

Nidhi said...

~Mallika
Thanks dear. Definitely a very healthy option, I can actually survive on them.
Flipping can be tricky, try it out. If you face difficulty I will try and a pass a small trick :)

rankrish1985 said...

hi Nidhi,
Ranjani here..(Prettie's friend)..I tried out your recipe and it came out very well..except that the first few broke:(
It was too tasty and of course very healthy:)
Looking fwd to more such interesting recipies..
:)

Nidhi said...

~rankrish1985
Ranjani!!! I m glad you tried it and liked it as well.
Yes flipping them can be a little tricky...But they turn out so tasty it doesn't really bother me even if they break :)