Yes, I make Adai for our breakfast at home ;-p. I don't want to say that this is the original Adai since I knew this food only after I moved to Cochin. Well actually, I never found Adai in Cochin home for breakfast. Don't know why. The most common daily breakfast here are puttu, idli, dosa and appam.

The first time I taste this was when I stayed a couple of days in my brother-in-law's house in Madras. His wife made this delicious breakfast one morning, and we (me and my husband) enjoy it very much. Guess what, Adai is even new for my husband..!!!

We called it simply as Dosa. After we had our breakfast, my sister-in-law show me how to make it. She showed me the 4 different dals she use to prepare it. And I found it very easy to make and it doesn't need a fermentation at all. It's a perfect dish for breakfast...!

Soak the grains and pulses for 4 hours or more. Later wash and grind them together by adding a little water. No need to ferment the batter. Add salt and Muringakka leaves. Mix well.

To make adai: heat a pan and pour little oil and then pour a ladle of the batter and with a spatula make it to a round shape. Cook only one side. Seve with coconut chutney.

Finally, I got the mood to write down the recipe of Bubur Sumsum, one of all-times favorite appetizer of many Indonesians. Well, actually I'm not quite sure this bubur is an appetizer. We usually don't eat appetizer, just straight to the Main Dish... !

Bubur is a term we use for 'Porridge'. The most common ingredient for making porridge in Indonesia is rice. Bubur sumsum is porridge made from combination of white rice powder and coconut milk, served with jaggery sauce. It has a very soft texture. Most children love to have it for their breakfast. I like it too ;-p. But believe it or not, even though it is not hard to prepare this dish, I never made my own Bubur Sumsum before. Don't blame me. Why should I spent time in kitchen to make this while I can buy it easily... hehehehe. Yes, we have an old lady who will bring the bubur in her basket and sell it door to door every evening.

Making this bubur is not diffcult thing to do in Kerala. We have all the ingredient here. However, Indonesia and Kerala share commons of food together. Rice powder and coconut milk is the main ingredients for both Idonesia and Kerala. So I think the taste will not be that strange for Kerala people. Lets start with the recipes....

100 grams white rice powder

750 cc coconut milk

1 tsp salt

2 sheets of pandan leaves

250 gram jagerry

1 cup of water

2 sheets of Pandan leaves.

In a Pan, mix together white rice powder, salt and coconut milk to form a very smooth batter. Tear the Pandan leaves then add to the batter. Cook the batter along with coconut leaves in medium hot flame. Stir continousely until it became thick and cooked.

For the sauce: Mix all the ingredients in a pan then bring them to boil and let the jaggery dissolved. Strain it and the sauce is ready to serve.

I like Uthappam better than dosa. For me, the taste of the fried onions give a good combination to the sour taste of the batter.

Earlier, we can eat uthappam only when we had breakfast in hotel (breakfast in hotel..!!?? ;-p). But since I knew that uthappam is made using the same batter as idli and dosa, I'll make my own uthappam whenever I have left-over idli/dosa batter.

Enjoy hot Onion Uthappam with Coconut Chutney

Mix together all the ingredients except the batter in a bowl, set aside.

Add a little salt to the batter, mix well.

Heat a dosa pan and spead a little oil over the pan. When it becomes hot enough, place a laddle of the batter and spread it (it should be thick than a normal dosa). Sprinkle onion mixture on top of the batter evently and cook for about 1 minute.

When it is cokked on one side, turn over, add a tsp of oil all over its edge and remove when fully cooked.

Ingredients
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Quaker® Oats (quick or old fashioned, uncooked)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 small)
1/2 cup fat-free milk
5 tablespoons margarine or butter, melted
2 egg whites or 1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar (optional)

Heat oven to 400°F. Line thirty-six miniature muffin cups with paper baking cups or spray bottoms only with cooking spray.
In large bowl, combine flour, oats, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder and baking soda; mix well. In medium bowl, combine bananas, milk, margarine, egg whites and vanilla; blend well. Add to dry ingredients all at once; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. (Do not overmix.)
Fill muffin cups almost full. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool muffins in pan on wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool completely.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired. Store tightly covered.

Since I live in India, preparing breakfast become a new routine. When I was in Indonesia, we (and I think most of Indonesians) didn't cook breakfast. We bought it. There's some reasons for that. One of them is because school (and also office) hour begin so early there. Most schools in Indonesia will start at 07.00 AM... It makes most of Moms don't have enough time to prepare during hectic hours in the morning. And another reason is because there are so many people sell food for breakfast... with so many options.

But things are going different here in India.... And now I'm getting used to make breakfast with the local taste... Idli, Dosa, Poori and Appam are the most common food for breakfast. But one day, we tried this recipe for breakfast... ;-p Like what western people eat for breakfast.. hehehe. But we are asian though..... Even the muffins taste so great, we still prefer dosa or idli. So I think next time I will make it for some other purpose.. maybe for tea time snacks...

I got this tasty muffin recipe from one of my favorite baking blog: Vania's Recipes

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter or margarine melted
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
2 eggsgrated rind of 1 orange

• Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt, and blend well.
• Melt butter. Take off heat and stir in orange juice, eggs and orange rind. Beat.
• Stir liquid into dry mixture and blend just until moistened.
• Spoon into greased muffin cups and soak 1 sugar cube in orange juice and place on top of batter.
• Bake 375 F for 15-20 minutes or until done.
  A handful of coconut or raisins added to this batter would also be delicious.

Recipe Source: 'Muffin Mania' by Cathy Prange & Joan Pauli.