రవ ఇడ్లి/ Rava Idli/ Steamed Semolina cakes

(Makes 8 to 10 idlies)

INGREDIENTS:

Rava/sooji/semolina------1 cup (rice cooker measure)
Fresh curd/perugu/yogurt---1and 3/4 cup
Water----------------------1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Cashews ------------- 6
Cooking soda----------1/4 tsp



Seasoning:

Avalu/mustard seeds---------1/2 tsp
Bengalgram dal/sengapappu--1tbs
Split black gramdal------------1/2tbs
Curry leaves------------------few
Red chillies -------------------1 or 2 (cut in to pieces)
Oil----------------------------1 tbs.

METHOD:

1.Heat oil in a pan and add seasonings.
2.When it is done add curry leaves and rava.
3.Fry rava lightly and let it cool.
4.Take curd add rava, salt, water and cooking soda mix well(you can add more water until you get idli batter consistency) and keep aside for 10 minutes.
5.Grease idli moulds pour batter and steam for 10 minutes
6.Rava idli is ready to eat.

You can store fried rava mixture. You can add yogurt and water to the mixture when ever you want to make idlies.
Eat with chutney or chutney powder.

Variations: You can add grated carrots and tomato slices in it.

Ravva Dosa / Samolina Pan Cake

INGREDIENTS:

Ravva / Sujji / Semolina............1 cup.

Rice Flour.....................................1/2 cup.

Plain Flour / Maida.....................2 tbl sp.

Onion..............................................1

Green Chilly...................................4 or 5

Water...............................................4 cups.

Cilantro.

Salt.

Oil.

METHOD:

1.Mix ravva/semolina, plain flour and rice flour together with water. Keep aside for 1/2 hr.

2.Cut Onion into small pieces. Also cut green chilly and cilantro. Mix all tree together.

3.Now after the batter is soaked 20 minutes to 1/2 hr, add salt, mix well.

4.Keep frying pan on flame, heat it and smear with 2 t sp of oil. The pan must be oily and hot to get the dosas to be prepared easily.

5.Mix the batter well, and let the semolina settle at the bottom. Taking only from the top liquid form of the batter, using the ladle start pouring from out wards to in wards, making into form a round dosa. Do not spread it as we do for other dosas, where we pour batter in the center and spread it out wards.

6.Now sprinkle few of cut onion,chilly, cilantro on dasa. Let it cook and become little brown and crispy. You can check it lifting it from sides. Do not turn. Take out from fire into a plate.

7.As you are making these dosas, the liquid starts finishing. So, then you must add more water as per requirement and mix well. Now again taking the top liquid only prepare dosas again. If needed add little salt too.

8.Eat it hot with any chutney you like. They are simple to make. and no advanced preparation required.

9.This batter makes 10 to 12 dosas. Some times more, depending on the size you make.

రవ కేసరి/ Sooji Halwa/ Semolina Dessert

Ingredients:
Sooji/ Rava/ Semolina - 1/3 cup
Sugar - 1/3cup
Cashews/ Jeedipapu - 5to 6
Pinch of Orange/yellow Food color
Cardamom - 2 (powdered)
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Water - 3 times of Rava

Method:

Heat ghee in a wide Vessel and roast cashews first and then Sooji Rava. Remove them in to a plate.
In the same vessel, add sugar, food color to water and bring it to a boil.
Reduce the heat and add Sooji rava, Cashews and cardamom powder.
Simmer on slow heat for ten minutes.
Serve warm or cold, and enjoy.

సోజ్జప్పాలు: Sojjappaalu- Stuffed sweet pooris

To make 9 appalu

INGREDIENTS:

To prepare stuffing:

Rava/sooji/Semolina.......1/3 cup
Sugar.......1/3 cup
Cashew....10to 12 whole (cut in to small pieces
Elachi/Cardamom ...3 no.
Oil to deep fry

To prepare dough:

Maida/all purpose flour.......3/4 cup
Wheat flour.........................3/4 cup
Rava /sooji.........................2 tsp
Salt....................................pinch

METHOD:
1.prepare a soft dough with above ingredients and add little oil and keep it aside.
2.To make stuffing take 2/3 cup of water and heat it.
3.Add sugar and boil.
4.Now add rava and nicely cut cashews and cook.(prepare like upma)
5.When it is done let it cool, then make desired size balls.
6.Take small amount of dough and flatten it.
7.Put sooji ball in it and make round ball.
8.Grease a plastic paper put that ball and roll with rolling pin.(or use puri press)
9.Make thin puri and deep fry in oil.
10.Press them with two big spoons and take them in to a paper towel.



Eat them hot it is so tasty

కజ్జికాయలు: Kajjikayalu

Preparation time: 1 hour
Makes around 15 kajjikayalu



Ingredients

2 cups maida/all purpose flour
½ cup sugar / grated jaggery
½ cup sooji / bombay rava ( Or putnala pappu/ roasted chick peas powder Or gasagasalu/khus khus)
1 tsp cardamom/elaichi powder
¼ cup desiccated coconut powder / fresh grated coconut
2 tbsp Ghee
pinch of salt
Oil for frying


Method:

Mix all purpose flour, salt, 1 tbsp ghee and enough water to make smooth and soft dough (not too soft). Cover with a cloth and let it sit for at least 45 min.

Meanwhile, heat a pan, add ½ tbsp of ghee and roast the sooji till it changes color.
Keep aside and now roast coconut in ½ tbsp of ghee till it changes color. Fresh coconut needs more time than dry coconut.
Add it to the roasted sooji.
Add sugar and elaichi powder to this mixture and let it cool. The filling is ready.

Divide the dough into lemon sized balls.
Now, roll each ball into a thin puri ( use flour to roll out).
Spread a tablespoon( or less) of filling mixture in the center, wet the edges of the puri and close the filling with the puri to form a semi circled shape as shown.
Press the ends firmly with finger tips.



Use kajjikaya moulds to shape it into a kajjikaya.
If you don’t have it, use the edges of a fork and press it gently across the semi circled edges to give it a kajjikaya shape as shown (I use this procedure).




Heat enough oil in a pan for frying. Gently take each rolled kajjikaya without disturbing the edges and slide it into the oil. Oil should be hot enough. Try to fry 3-4 once and deep fry till they are golden brown.

Let the kajikayalu cool and then store in an air-tight container. Can be stored up to 2 weeks.


Note: Instead of 2 cups of maida, you can also use 1 cup of atta and 1 cup of maida. If putnla pappu is used instead of sooji, use jaggery instead of sugar.

రవ లడ్డు: Rava laddu- Sweet semolina balls

Preparation time : 15 mins
Makes around 10 medium sized laddus.
Ingredients

2 cups Rava/ Sooji
2 cups Sugar/ panchadara
5 Elachi/ Elakkayalu
10 cashews/ jeedipappu
2 tbsp Ghee / Neyyi
4-5 tbsp Milk / paalu
How to prepare / Thayarucheyatam

1. Heat ghee in a pan.
2. Add cashews first and then add sooji fry them till light brown.
3. After frying remove from the fire.
4. Add sugar and elachi powder to rava and mix well.
5. Add warm milk to the mixture and mix well.
6. Now make round balls as per desired size.
7. Keep aside for 10 mins and serve.

రవ ఉప్మా- Upma (Rava)

Serves two as a light snack. Preparation time: 15 minutes including preparation of ingredients to final cooking. Vegetable upma may take longer.

Ingredients:

1 cup Upma rava (coarse sooji, also called Bombay Rava)

3.25 cups water

For tempering:
1 tsp Black gram seeds (Minappappu)

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1 tsp Cumin seeds
2 chopped green chillies
5 slivers of ginger
1 medium sized onion, finely chopped
Peanuts to taste
2 pinches Turmeric
2 Pinches Asafoetida
A few curry leaves
1 Tsp Salt or to taste
1 tablespoon oil

Method:
1. Heat oil in a pan. Add Minappappu first, once it’s light brown, add peanuts. Add Mustard. When the seeds crackle, add Cumin, Turmeric, Asafoetida, ginger, curry leaves and onions. Add salt (Salt draws out the moisture from the onions and helps them become crisp sooner. However, traditional cooks believe in not adding salt first as it slows the cooking process. So please use your discretion, I noticed that adding salt really makes it cook faster actually since the vegetables shrivel & become crisp). Cook until the onions are browned.
2. Pour the water into the cooked onions and let this tempering-in-water heat until it is rapidly boiling on a high flame.
3. Add the upma rava gradually to this rapidly boiling water while stirring. The rava will rapidly absorb the water and the granules of rava will turn translucent.
4. Keep stirring until it solidifies to required consistency.
5. Reduce the flame to low and cover the pan. Cook for a minute and switch off the flame. If you like the upma to be roasted brown, wait until you see its bottom browning, then switch off the flame.

Squeeze a few drops of lemon juice onto the Upma just before serving. Serve with any Pacchadi/ Podi/ Pulusu as accompaniment.

Variations:
My mother was always obsessed about providing us with a balanced nutritious diet. The following can be added in upma tempering to make it more colourful, nutritious, tasty:
1. A small quantity of pesara pappu (Dhuli moong daal, dehusked split green gram) to add protein. The quantity shouldn't be material enough to alter taste, nevertheless, it's there in it!
2. A fistful of green peas add colour and protein.
3. Half a teaspoon of Sesame seeds add nutrition without altering the taste, they vanish into the dish.
4. Chopped vegetables such as tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, potatoes, green peas add taste, colour and nutrition. Add them in step 1 along with the onions and proceed as per normal recipe.
5. Nuts such as Cashwenuts.

Vegetable upma looks very appetizing along with being tasty and nutritious! (Vegetables give off moisture so boil a little less water for every cup of rava if you use lot of moist vegetable, or fry the vegetables crisp before adding water.)

Suggestions/Precautions:

1. The amount of water to be added varies with the quality of upma rava & water temperature. I realized that I sometimes needed to add more water than specified in the recipe (upto 3.5 cups), so keep a small glass of water ready by your side.

2. Upma rava tends to lump together when dropped into the water, so make sure the water is rapidly boiling and stir it as you pour the rava. Also, to prevent rava from lumping, it is first roasted to a light brown. I didn’t need to roast my rava since I was making a very small manageable quantity. But if making larger quantities, it may be advisable to roast it first.

3. If the peanuts were fresh, add them initially so that they have time to get fried. If they were pre-roasted, you can add them later in the tempering.

4. Turmeric is an optional ingredient, so is asafoetida, not everyone adds them to Upma.

5. If you want to save more time: While the onions/vegetables are cooking in step 1, you can boil the water simultaneously in another saucepan & add the ready-boiled water into the browned vegetables of step 2. This way, the tempering-in-water will reach a rapid boil within a few seconds.

Culture: 

This item is paired with "Pesarattu" and eaten as "Pesarattu-Upma" in Andhra. 

Trivia:
Of course vegetable upma is my nutritionist mommy's recipe, but mom is a disaster when it comes to noting down the proportions scientifically, so Parakka (my cousin) provided the technical details :-)
Since this recipe is intended as a gift for Kaavya, Kaavya, see I cooked without cilantro, please add cilantro to it in my name! ;-)