Adais - Lentil Crepes

This is a very popular south Indian tiffin item or an evening "palagaram" dish which substitutes a rice dinner. Palagaram as generally termed in Tamil parlance is in fact Phala-Agaram (which means a meal of fruits) as opposed to what we have understood in Tamil as "pala-agaram or many kinds of foods) - My cousin was kind enough to educate me on this and I thank him for it :)  I for one will say that Adai is a rather heavy dish considering it is made up of a medley of lentils - rich in protein and carbs, this dish is rather versatile and can be made in a number of different ways - The big thing is the inclusion of onions.

Clearly, in my home when we were growing up, there were two distinct preferences and I recall being a non-onion person - I cannot for the life of my fathom why based on how much i love that darned thing now. But there were the plain ones and the ones with caramelized onions. I did not make it for a long time since I was under the impression my kids when they were younger did not much care for it. And kids rule, as you well know. Now that they are older, I thought I'd give it another shot. Although I made 3 different variations with coconut, grated carrots and good old onions, I have a few more I wish to try out and blog about in the near future. but for now here is my recipe. These can be made as large and as crisp as you desire - But note that the moment you start adding veggies, the adai tends to get softer, esp caramelized onions - Those who prefer raw onions can go for that, but I have never been able to appreciate raw onions in any of these kind of dishes.

The other important thing to remember about these are, since this is protein heavy, sometimes digestion can be a pain (literally) hence adding veggies to it softens up the effect and actually eases

I cannot talk about this dish without talking about my brother and sister-in-law - they had their Saturday ritual of adai and avial - a most common combo with adai and I have enjoyed them plentifully at their home -

Here is proportions that work for me

Ingredients
1 cup channa dal
1/2 cup each of
Rice
Urad Dal
Thoor Dal
2 cups of warm water to soak

Spicing
4-6 green chilies
2-3 red chilies
1/4 inch piece of ginger
1 stem of curry leaves
2 tbsp of finely shopped cilantro (optional)
A pinch of asafetida

Add-ons
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup sauteed onions
1/2 cup grated carrots

Wash and soak the lentils for 2-4 hours
Soak also the spices that have been mentioned above
Grind into a course paste adding required amount of salt

Now divi up the batter and add your add-ons. Mix well, check for salt and start making. If size matters make smaller ones and have at least 1 of each kind.
Enjoy my friends - If you want to try this with avial, click here for the recipe :)

Much love and adios amigas and enjoy the pictorial :)

Two things My MOM served these with are 1) Jaggery and 2) Freshly churned butter (what we eat as sour cream) It tasted divine and also my mom insisted that the cream and sugar helped the stomach better  digest the lentils - so the possibilities are endless :))

There is also the mung dal or Pasiparuppu version of this called Pesarattu - check it out here