Adai -Savory Lentil Pancakes

This is not everyday food. I will start by saying that if your hand is shy of dropping oil on the tava, please do not try this. Not that it cant be made with less oil, but the taste is certainly different.  This uses less rice and more lentils, so might be a good change for people looking out for dishes with more protein than carbohydrates. My mother makes the best adai in town and this is her recipe. I just cut down the number of  red chillies that go in.

Serves 4

Preparation time - 10 minutes
Soaking time - 4-6 hrs
Cooking time - 4 minutes each

Ingredients:
TO SOAK
Rice - 3/4 cup
Channa Dal - 1/2 cup
Toor Dal - 1/4+1/8 cup
Moong Dal - handful (optional)
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Red chili - 4 (to taste)

Curry leaf - few
Oil - 1 Tbsp each
Salt to taste

- Wash and soak the ingredients under TO SOAK list for minimum 4 hours to overnight.
- Grind the soaked ingredients with little water to a coarse paste. The mixture should be coarse, a smooth adai loses points.
- Add salt and chopped curry leaves to the mixture. Let it sit for minimum 10 minutes before proceeding. There is no necessity for fermentation here.
- Heat a tava, iron tava works best as high heat is needed. Spray the tava with oil. (I have a cheesecloth tied to a potato masher, and I wet the cloth with oil and rub the cloth over the hot tava.
- Take a ladle full of the adai mixture and pour it on the hot tava. Now spread it as much as you can. Make a hole in the center with your ladle. Pour 1 tsp oil in the centre. Pour 1 tsp oil all around the edges. Let it cook for a minute in high heat. Reduce the flame to medium and cook for another minute. Turn over the adai and let it cook for 2 minutes more
- Take it out of the tava on to the plate. Have it hot with sambar / tomato sambar / coconut chutney / Ghee / Jaggery