"मूग धिरडे" (Green Bengal Gram Pancake)

American Pancakes & Crepes are often eggy.Its a little difficult for those who are pure veggies to enjoy them whole heartedly.Personally,I love "I Hop's" pancakes but can understand the problems of vegetarians. "Ruchira" is truly a wonder book for all vegetarians.It has vegetarian pancakes , much nutritious and non-greasy. "मूग धिरडे" (Moon Dal Pancake) is a wonderful brunch snack (similar to dosa or uttapam) or hi-tea appetizer (when made into small pattie sized pancakes). I thought of making it on a lazy Sunday for brunch. Surprisingly , Rohan (my husband who works as a developer at SUN Microsystems ,Menlo Park,USA) gave up his lap-top and decided to dedicate his Sunday into artistic (not creative,since he says Coding & development are most creative) activities like making a meal .He took over the task of today’s blog post and accepted to become the Guest Chef for today while I became his SOUS-CHEF!

Ingredients

green moong-2 muffin-full bowls,soaked for 2 hours (or until they sprout) in lukewarm water with a pinch of soda or Eno-fruit salt (in case you don't have the eating soda)

• 1muffin-full bowl of finely chopped onion
• 1/2 muffin-full bowl of green peas
• 1/2 muffin-full bowl of cilantro or coriander
• 3-4 finely chopped green chilies
• salt to taste
• roasted coriander seed + cumin seed + mustard seed (my addition, crushed with tongs)
• 2-3 cloves of finely chopped garlic (my addition)
• 1 tsp of finely chopped ginger (my addition)
• 1 tsp amchur powder (my addition,dried mango powder)
• 1 tsp dried mint
• 1 tsp kasuri methi (my addition,dried fenugreek leaves)
• 2-3 curry leaves (my addition)
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• 1 tsp kala masala /goda masala
• 1 tbsp of vegetable oil or cooking spray

The Making of Pancakes

After a wonderful tea in the late hours of morning,I soaked in 2 muffin-full bowls of green moong into lukewarm water , adding little soda to accelerate sprouting process.Rohan blended the moong and green chilies ,into one fine mixture.The mixture was just so thick that my Magic Bullet stopped exhibiting its magic until some water was poured into it.

Don't add too much water though since it has to be spread on the pan evenly like Uttappam or pancakes.

The book suggested sprinkling the chopped onions and cilantro over the pancake,but it was a little too tricky for naive cook like moi.Instead I asked Rohan to whip the onions ,green peas along with the moong batter and added salt, roasted CCM (cumin seed +coriander seed +mustard seed) powder to it.

Rohan added the salt and sugar after the batter was ready.

We used a non-stick flat pan (tawa) to lay the pancake.The consistency of the batter must be good enough to spread easily on the pan (add water accordingly). The non-stick is not quite true to its name and there is always a fear of getting the pancake stuck on to it badly,so better use some cooking oil spray on sides.Flip the sides to evenly cook the धिरडे.

As wisely suggested by Kamala Aji (authoress of the book) to retain the green colour of green moong,no time must be wasted after the moong is minced.

These pancakes could be served with Yogurt and Pecante Medium Sauce (Costco).

And,the beautiful,lush green coloured Pancakes made by Ranadez were all set to serve “a healthy gourmands (glutton/हावरा) appetite”!

Vous avez un bon dimanche!