Savoury pancakes


I love pancakes. The Indian version of it. Called dhirdi in Marathi, chila in Hindi. It is similar to a dosa or uttappam, but not made with fermented batter. Actually for me, it is one of the quickest meals I can cook without much preparation.

The main ingredients for these dhirdi are rice flour+besan+rawa. You can decide the proportion, you can drop any of these and add some other flours - nachni/ragi, jowar, corn, wheat, even oats. Make a thick batter with water, add about two tablespoons of curd or half a cup of buttermilk. This should be Idli batter consistency.

Now, let your creativity take over, or whatever is leftover in the fridge!

I had half a cup of spinach sabji leftover from lunch. I put that in the mixer jar, added lots of fresh coriander leaves and some stems, ginger, garlic, green chilies. Made a paste and added to the batter. I tasted it for salt, as the sabji had some salt. Added salt and some turmeric for colour. Let it rest for an hour. (You can make the pancakes immediately too if you are pressed for time.) I had to add some water because the rawa had soaked some of the water. 

Heat a non stick pan, or a cast iron one if you are used to it, spread some oil and spread the batter evenly. Add some oil on top, and cover for about 2 minutes. Check and flip. Let it cook. 

If you are making these for the first time, be careful with water. If the batter becomes too watery, you may find it difficult to handle. On the other hand, watery batter makes crispy thin pancakes, but you need to know you batter and your tawa well for that.

Serve with sauce, chutney, pickles, curd, anything.

You can add leftover dal/amti to it too. 

Fresh vegetables take the pancakes to another level. You can try fresh fenugreek/spinach/coriander leaves, grated cabbage/carrot, finely chopped onion and tomatoes. Experiment and find the joy in that.

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