Adai - A nutritious multi lentil pancake

Adai is a dosa similar to pesarattu in andhra. Its a popular one in Kerala,Tamilnadu among Iyers.  My grandparents are from this place . So at our house most of the dishes my mom prepares have Tamil flavor .Dishes like Curries - veggies steamed and topped with coconut ,avial ,kulumbu ,sambhar ,rasam  were more regular at our house.  I learned other andhra recipes after my marriage. there is a huge difference between my mom's and my mil's cooking. I'm lucky to enjoy both delicacies .Adai is one of my mom's favorite ,this was more staple our house ,next to idli when we were kids.

This is very easy to prepare and  does not require much preparation time or fermentation time like other dosa's. It requires around 3 hours of soaking time and  Doesn't take much time to do the grinding and no wait period for fermentation. Whole black pepper and tiny bits of coconut is also added to it. 

I generally soak in night and grind it morning and prepare dosa's.

Ingredients

list-1
Raw rice - 1 cup
Chana dal - 1/2 cup
Urad dhal - 1/2 cup (whole urad/split with skin)

moongdal - 1/2 cup

toordal - 1/4 th cup

black pepper - 1 tsp ( less or more according to your pallets)
Red chillies - 3 nos

list2

mustered seeds - 1/2 tsp (optional)

coconut pieces - 2 tsp   (optional)

cumin/jeera - 1/2 tsp  (optional)

Green chilly - 2 nos
Ginger a small wedge
Curry leaves - handful
Salt to taste
Asfoetida - 1/2 tspn

1.Wash and soak ingredients listed under list-1 for 3 hours or over night. 

2.now heat 1 tsp oil and add all the ingredients under list two in same order. when mustered seeds splutter add asfoetida. keep this aside.

alternatively ,you can skip this step to and add ginger ,chillies ,curry leaves directly to batter while grinding.

3.Grind the soaked mix along with green chilly, red chilly, ginger, curry leaves and salt to a coarse batter. at the end add  above seasoning and grind.The batter should not be smooth.

4.Heat a cast iron griddle. Sprinkle few drops of oil. Take a ladle of batter and spread into thick dosa/pancake.  When one side is cooked, flip and cook the other side. Cook in medium flame, so that its well cooked , since it is made relatively thicker than ordinary dosa.

serve it with  pickle or chutney

Also Combination of adai and avial is very popular.in many hotels its served with avail. But for breakfast its too heavy i think.

Tips :

 I add chick peas, Soy some times blackeyed peas also .

you can add few spinach leaves also while grinding , this gives beautiful color

 finely chopped onions ,carrots can also be added on the top of adai