Savoury Poda Pithe

Breakfast is one thing that I never get around to posting on my blog.
While I do make a lot of different things for breakfast, there is hardly enough time to arrange and shoot them.
Earlier I used to make a lot of egg based things like omelettes with vegetables, French toasts ... both sweet and the savoury ones, egg bhurji, pancakes, etc.

However things changed after I was found to be allergic to eggs. It was a sudden discovery ... and life changed for me after that.

First ... I love eggs. And it broke my heart when I was told, rather warned, to stay away from them ... a warning I do ignore at times, when greed overrules common sense.
And little white figure on the my right of my head just sighs and turns away from the grinning one on my left.

Second ... it created a huge problem concerning breakfast.
I had to turn to the Poha, which incidentally I am not too fond of.
And bread ... but had to come up with ideas for sandwiches stuffing.
And every morning, or even the night before, breakfast was a big question mark.

Until I started making idlis and dosas. It was a Eureka moment for me when I realised I could do a whole lot more stuff than those two time taking things.
That batter was a life saver.
I started to make big batches of the batter and store it in the fridge.
It was a huge help.
Breakfast, a different kind of lunch, evening snacks, dinner .... I could do a whole lot of different things.

Slowly I started to make a batter from mixed dals .... it all started when I had some leftover soaked dals after I had used the desired amount for my Dal Panchmela .... and made pancakes and dosas from it.
Later came to know it is very common among South Indians.

I now almost regularly make pithes, handvo, vegetable idlis, quick uttapams and of course the dosa with this  dal and rice batter.
Among them, the regular is the Poda Pithe.
Quick to make, needs no baby sitting, great with a hot cup of tea.
Very light, yet very filling.
Healthy too.

I usually make the slight sweetish one.
But this time I made the savoury one. And thought of clicking some quick pictures ... just so I will be able to share it here.


How to make the batter :

Soak 1 cup of urad dal + 2 cups of rice for around 4 to 5 hours.
Grind it into a paste. Add a pinch of salt, cover and keep overnight to ferment.
You can use this batter to make everything mentioned above.


Need :

Rice + Urad dal batter - 2 cups
Jeera / Cumin seeds - ¼ tsp
Ginger - 1", chopped
Green chillies - 2, chopped
Coconut - chopped, around 5 tbsp
Fresh Curry leaves - chopped, 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Ghee - just enough to smear the kadahi

How to :

Take a heavy bottomed kadahi ... preferable a cast iron one.

Mix all the above ingredients except the ghee.

Smear the ghee well on the kadahi. Do not heat the kadahi first.

Pour the mixture and set the kadahi on low heat.

Put on a tight cover.

Check after 10 minutes. Flip it over, cover and cook for another 10 minutes.

Remove and let it cool.


The outer crust will be very very crisp. But it will be very soft inside.
Great as a breakfast or as a snack, anytime of the day.
You can also eat it with a chutney or achar on the side too.
In Orissa, it is eaten with a potato curry that has a very thin gravy ... to soak it up with.

You can try it with this aloo ki sabzi or this one too.

I clicked this quick picture to show the insides in detail, before settling down with the day's paper and my hot cup of the very spicy ginger tea.

Enjoy!!


PS: This post of mine has been selected as one of the top 12 food posts of February 2015 by Baggout.
Yeh! :-)