South India is a mecca for breakfast lovers. Housewives across the country play a major role serving the best meal for the day and this all starts right from procuring the right rice for breakfast.
The special variety of rice used to prepare Idli or Dosas are par boiled rice,also known as Kusabalakki in all major supermarkets. Apart from Kusubalakki, a very common rice used to prepare the breakfast dishes are Salem rice or ir8 quality rice.
All the southern states in our country grow different varieties of rice and every region has their own variation or specialties of Dosa or Idli. Today we are featuring only 5 varieties of breakfast dishes which are famous at many restaurants across Bengaluru. And this is all part of our walk too.
Rice Idli: This is a traditional breakfast in South Indian households. Idli is a savory cake that is popular throughout India. It all starts with soaking the par boiled rice and black gram dal for 5 hours before grinding to a paste. Once the paste is ground the batter is fermented and poured into an Idli contraption to create fluffy Idli’s.
Idli is normally served with many different chutneys like coconut, onion or tomato, sometimes it is also served with hot sambar. This breakfast dish can never go wrong.
idli
Dosa: This is a fermented crepe made from rice batter. It is a staple in South Indian states of Tamil nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana. Dosa contains no sugar or saturated fats as its ingredients consist of rice and urad dal. Once the batter is fermented it is then ladled onto a hot tava (griddle) greased with oil or ghee (clarified butter).
It is spread out evenly with the base of a ladle or bowl to form a pancake. A dosa is served hot, either folded in half or rolled like a wrap filled with spicy potato or served plain with chutney and sambar.
dosa
Medu Vadai: Morning’s can never go wrong when hot vada is enjoyed with some filter kappi. We refer these vadas as Indian doughnuts. There are many different types of vadas which is prepared with split pigeon peas or green gram dal. Medu vadas are crispy, fluffy…medu meaning soft. These vadas are prepared with black gram dal. The dal is soaked and created into a paste then batter is deep fried and served hot.
Upma: There are many types of Upma. People of South are experts in preparing upma. We prepare upma from puffed rice(poha), bread, left over idllis, rice rava and semolina. Arisi (rice upma) and semolina upma ,both types of upma are classic dishes of the South. Cream of rice (rice rava) or semolina is tempered with onions and mixed vegetables to form a porridge consistency and served for breakfast. This dish is not only filling but also feels light. Normally rice or semolina upma is also served as an after school snack.
Rava Idli: The creation of rava idli started at MTR, a famous restaurant located in Bengaluru during world war II. It was difficult to procure rice from other states and rice was short in supply. According to MTR they came up with rava idli and ever since then have been serving it to the customers. MTR does serve awesome rava idli. This is made with simple semolina and yogurt tempered and steam cooked and served with a masala curry and chutney.
For detailed recipes for all the breakfast dishes mentioned above do visit vidyascooking.blogspot.in.
Vidyalakshmi
Unhurried Tales 