Easy Pesaraddu - a light breakfast

This is another dish, Priya, one of my very good friends, introduced to me. It was a time, when both of us were very busy with our respective careers and didn't have much time to cook. So, easy recipes were given a special welcome. One fine day, she calls up - 'hey, I have an easy recipe from a friend - Want to try?' I say 'Ofcourse!'. So, I gave it a try and it was so easy (and very tasty), so it stayed as a staple in Kay's kitchen. We call it paruppu dosa or as my friend R says, 'that' easy dosa (as in 'Will you please, please, please make 'that' easy dosa for me?).

I've been reading that Andra's famous Pesaraddu is typically made of Whole green mung dal. This recipe has yellow mung dal (paasi paruppu), so it is very quick to cook and also very light. The whole breakfast (the pesaraddu + chutney) takes 30 minutes or lesser time (that includes the prep time, ofcourse) to make. Here's how I do.

Easy Pesaraddu
1 cup of yellow mung dal
a handful of uncooked rice grains
a small piece of ginger, say 1/2 inch
a pinch of asafoetida
one red chilli(mine is srilankan red chilli, very spicy-you can add/reduce according to your taste)
salt

Wash and soak the dal and rice in some water for 20 mins. While the dal is soaking, prepare the chutney. Red chutney (onion and tomato chutney, recipe below) or green chutney (coriander chutney) goes very well with this dosa. Now that the chutney is done and the dal has been well soaked, it's dosa time now! Grind all of the above ingredients, with the water that the dal has been soaked. It takes only a few mins. The consistency of the batter is slightly thinner than the typical dosas.

Make very thin dosas. Now, keep in mind that this dosa will not redden like the typical dosas made with rice+urad dal batter and it takes very less time, even less than a minute to cook... Pour a ladleful of batter on a hot dosa tava and spread it like a dosa/crepe. Wait for a minute. If you can flip it, then the first side is done. Again wait for another minute and flip it. If you leave it in the tava for longer time, then you will get a rubbery dosa - if that's what you want! :) Serve hot. These pesaraddus are best when they are eaten hot.

Red chutney aka Onion+Tomato chutney: Chop one big onion and a tomato (optional). Heat a tbsp of oil in the cast iron pan (any kadai will do) and roast the onions. Add the chopped tomatoes when the onions are done. Add a red chilli, a teeny tiny piece of ginger (optional) and a tiny piece of tamarind. Stir once and remove from the stove. Let it cool and then grind this chutney with some salt. Add water while grinding, if it's necessary.

This chutney is very versatile... You can increase/decrease the amount of onions, tomatoes, add ginger if you like or leave it, add some coriander leaves, if you like... Use green chillies instead of red. Any variation will take the chutney to new dimensions. The only thing to remember here is to get the onions well roasted, so that the chutney doesn't taste raw. Say, suppose you haven't roasted it enough and the chutney is tasting pungent, no problem! Put it back on the same kadai. Add a tsp of oil and keep stirring till the chutney gets done. Sometimes I grind the whole thing first and then put it on the kadai to roast the chutney. It tastes great either way.