Milagu Jeeraga Adai/Karthigai Adai

Adai is a one of the favorite tiffin items at home. Especially with a combination of either Moru Kootan/Kuzhambu or Aviyal, though personally I prefer to have with Aavakkai pickle. Ususally adai is made with a combination of lentils like tuar dal, channa dal and urad dal along with rice and red chillies. Every household has its own proportions for adai.

For Karthigai, my mother prepares a special adai using only whole skinned urad dal (black urad dal), rice black pepper, cumin seeds and coconut pieces. The flavor of pepper, cumin and curry leaves and the bite of the coconut pieces gives this adai a wonderful flavor.  Also for Neivedyam only pacha arisi is used, so if making for neivedyam use pacha arisi but on other days you could substitute with boiled rice/idly rice.

What you’ll need

1. Pacha Arisi/Raw Rice – 2 cup
2. Black Urad Dal – ¾ cup
3. Coconut, cut into small pieces – ½ cup
4. Black Pepper – 1.5 tbsp
5. Cumin Seeds – 1 tbsp
6. Curry Leaves – 5 to 6 sprigs
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil for preparing adai

Method

1. Wash and soak the rice for 2 to 3 hours. No need to soak the urad dal. Wash dal and keep aside.
2. Add the rice and dal in a mixie jar in batches along with black pepper and cumin seeds by adding water and salt as required. Grind coarsely. You can grind in the grinder also.
3. Rest the batter for couple of hours. This is not compulsory, but I prefer to rest the batter.
4. Before preparing the adai, add finely chopped fresh curry leaves and chopped coconut bits to the batter. Add more water to the batter if required.
5. Heat an iron tava, pour a ladle full of batter and spread it from center outwards like a dosa, but slightly thicker, make a small hole with the back of the spatula in the center of adai.
6. Drizzle oil along the sides and in the middle of the adai. Cook on medium heat until the sides start turn brown, flip and cook the other side. Drizzle some more oil. Cook according to your liking, if you want it crisp cook for longer time on medium heat.

Serve hot with butter and jaggery or moru kootan/aviyal/sambar.

Notes:

1. Usually we don't soak the urad dal for this adai, but if you are not comfortable in grinding without soaking, soak the dal for about 10 to 15 mins.
2. Since we use pacha arisi, this will turn hard if gets cold, so eat hot.
3. If not making for neivedyam, you can substitute pacha arisi with idly/rice.
4. The main flavor is from pepper and cumin, so I don’t use asafetida for this adai, but you can add if you like.