The Indian Veg Pancake - Uttapam

Uttapam Recipe no. 1

Ingredients: Sufficient for two people

1 Cup Rice
1/2 Urad Dal
2 Capsicum finely chopped
2-3 Green Chilies finely chopped
2-3 Tomato Finely chopped (without seeds)
2 tsp coriander leaves finely chopped
3 Medium sized onion finely chopped
Salt as per taste
Oil/Ghee to fry

Method:

Soak rice and dal overnight or 5-6 hours separately. Wash and drain the rice and grind it coarsely in a blender. Grind the daal into a smooth and forthy paste. Mix the grinded rice and daal together into a batter. Mix salt and keep aside in a warm place for 8-10 hours or overnight for fermenting.
Heat the nonstick tava up to medium heat, use a serving spoon to spread batter onto it. using circular motions with the ladle spread it in a thick circle. Spread a tsp of oil on sides and cover the pan for a while. Fire should not be between medium and low. Sprinkle cut vegetables on the upper side of uttapam and let it heat on the under side. When one side becomes a little brown in color than cook on the other side too.
Serve hot with green chutney

Green Chutney

Ingredients:
2 cup Min leaves chopped
1 cup coriander leave chopped
1 big size onion chopped
2 tsp lemon juice
1 green chilli (medium size)
1 tsp sugar
salt as per taste

Method:

Grind everything into a fine paste using a little water if needed. This chutney can be kept for 3-4 days in the fridge can be served with pakori, kabab's and at any time in food.

Coconut Chutney:

Ingredients:

1 cup coconut, grated
2 small green chillies, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
1 tablespoon roasted split gram (daria dal), optional
salt to taste
For the tempering
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 red chilli, broken into pieces
2 to 3 curry leaves
1 teaspoon oil

Method:

1. Put the coconut, green chillies, ginger, roasted split gram and salt in a blender with a little water and grind to make a fine paste. Keep aside.

2. Prepare the tempering by heating the oil and adding the mustard seeds, red chilli and curry leaves and stirring till the mustard seeds crackle. Pour this tempering over the chutney and mix well.

3. Refrigerate and use as required.

Uttapam Recipe no. 2

Ingredients:

1 cup raw rice
1/3 cup split black gram (urad dal)
2 tablespoons cooked rice
2 tablespoons beaten rice (poha)
5 to 7 fenugreek seeds (methi)
3 small onions, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup corn, boiled
1/4 cup capsicum, chopped
1/4 cup carrot, grated
3 teaspoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons oil
salt to taste
oil for cooking

Method:

Wash urad dal and rice separately. Soak in water for 3 hours in two bowls. Blend them separately to smooth paste using some water. Mix them and add the salt. Keep it for the whole night. Mix the batter well next morning till it is sufficiently thick. Mix the green chillies, onion, coriander leaves and ginger in a bowl. Heat a flat griddle and rub some oil on it. Pour some batter on it with a ladle and spread it to a thick circle. Cook it on the other side. Sprinkle some onion mixture on the top side and overturn the Uttapam. Cook in the same way on the other side. When it is roasted enough, put it down on a plate. Repeat the process.

Uttapam Recipe no. 3

Ingredients:

For the base
Rice flour
Urad flour
Salt to taste

For the toppings (qty varies on your liking)
Carrot (grated)
Onion (finely chopped)
chillies (finely chopped)
coriander (finely chopped)
tomatoes (finely chopped)

Method:

1. Prepare the batter
Take the rice flour and urad flour in the ratio of 2:1 by volume. So if you take 1 cup of urad flour, you need to take 2 cups of rice flour. Yes, we use flours instead of grinding rice/urad dal. It's the easy way out and makes no difference! Ok, now let's add some water to the mixture. Add enough water to make a batter. Add salt to taste. Hmm...now how to decide the consistency. Be on the conservative side because we can add water later after the batter has fermented. Once the batter is made, keep it for a night (or two) to ferment. Duration depends on the weather at that time. If it's warm then it would only need a night. If you don't know how to identify a fermented batter, note the texture of the batter when you set it to ferment. The next day if you see that the texture has changed then it means that fermentation has started. If the level of the batter has almost doubled, then the batter is definitely ready!

We now have the fermented batter. Let's do a consistency check. Take a serving spoonful of batter and drop it from a foot's height, it flows in one single strand then you're ready. Wait - we need to make sure it's not too thin. For that you can cross-check with the video here.

2. Pre-heat the griddle to a medium-high temperature then once you're ready reduce it to medium heat. I prefer non-stick griddles as it's easy to make and requires less oil.

3. Take a big serving spoonful of the batter and drop it on the griddle. Spread it a little to the size you want. Don't make it thin like dosa, it should be thick. Now spread the topping all over it. Spray/sprinkle some oil on the circumference of the uttapam and over it. If you're using non-stick then you need really small amounts. Let it cook on the bottom side, once done flip it to cook the other side.

This is how every step looks

1. Chopped Vegetables


2. Heat the non-stick pan and pour 1/4 cup of batter onto the pan


3. Add Vegetable toppings


4. Cook for about 2 minutes. Flip over and cook for another 4 -5 minutes.


It looks like this


Served with Coconut Chutney