Masala dosa Potato curry

Ingredients:
Potato - 3-4
Green chilli - 3-4
Turmeric powder (haldi)
Mustard seeds
Onion - 1 (cut into small pieces)
Oil
Salt

Method:
Boil and smash the potatoes. Take oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When it splutters add green chilli and onions. When the onion becomes translucent add turmeric powder. Add smashes potatoes, salt. Mix it well for 5 minutes. The filling for masala dosa is ready.

This will go well with puri also.

Sambhar

Ingredients

Towar dal 1/2 cup
Tamarind - small lemon size
Turmeric powder (Haldi) - 1
Asafoetida - 1/4 spoon
Onion (small whole onions taste good) - cut into slight big pieces
Tomato - 1 (cut into slight big cube)
Potato - 1
Cauliflower - few florets
Brinjal (egg plant) - 2 small
Carrot - 1 (cut in small length wise)
Capsicum - 1 (cut in small length wise)

For Paste
Coriander seeds - 1 spoon
Chana dal - 1/2 spoon
Methi seeds - 1/4 spoon
Fresh Coconut grated 1/2 cup
Red chillies whole - 2
Oil

For the seasoning
Cilantro (Coriander leaves) - chopped small
Curry leaves
Mustard seeds
Ghee (optional)

Method:

Paste:
Fry coriander seeds, chana dal, methi seeds, red chilli whole in oil. Grind all this along with fresh coconut till it is smooth paste by adding some water.

Pressure cook towar dal and potato. Cut the boiled potato into cubes. Prepare tamarind pulp by soaking it in hot water for 10 minutes. Take tamarind pulp in a vessel, add turmeric powder, salt, hing and vegetables and boil until cooked. Add potato, paste and cooked dal. Boil for few minutes till all is mixed well.
Take oil/ghee in a small vessel for seasoning, add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add curry leaves. Pour this seasoning in sambhar. Add chopped coriander leaves.

This goes well with plain rice or idli and dosa.

Variations
1. Sambhar without coconut:
Follow the same procedure above, instead of adding the paste, add MTR Sambhar masala (or any other brand) in the begining to the tamarind pulp and vegetables while cooking.
2. You can make sambhar with only drumstick (vegetable).

Coconut Green Chutney

Ingredients

Fresh/frozen fresh grated coconut – 1 cup

Green chillies – 3-4

Cilantro (Coriander leaves) – ½ cup

Ginger – ¼ inch

Yogurt (Curd) – 1 tsp

Salt (as per taste)

Sugar – 1 tsp (optional)

For seasoning

Oil – 1 table spoon

Mustard seeds

Red whole chillies 2 (optional)

Method:

Grind all the ingredients by adding little water (as per the consistency you like) to a smooth mix/paste. Take oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds and when it splutters add whole red chillies if desired. Pour the seasoning over the chutney. It is ready to seve.

Variations:

1. You can add few ground nuts

2. Instead of adding coriander and ginger you can add phutana dal (roasted chana dal)

Idli/Dosa batter

Uttampam

Mom's food beats everything in the world.My Mom makes wonderful dosas and idli. I grew up eating idli and dosa.The most important part of making fluffy idli and crispy dosas is the proportion of rice and dal. This is the secret of her recipe.

Ingredients

1 measure parboiled rice/idli rice (don't use idli rawa)

½ measure urad dal (white lentils/ split black lentils without the skin)

Salt as per taste

Soak dal and rice overnight or atleast 4 hours in water.

Method (For Idli):

First grind dal to smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water, transfer to a container. Now grind parboiled rice/idli rice to slight rough texture by adding minimal amount of water. Mix it will the grinded dal. Add salt as per taste and leave it overnight or whole day. Making idli once the batter is fermented, so that it becomes fluffy. Steam for 15 mins on medium flame while making idli.

Method (For Dosa):

First grind dal to smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water, transfer to a container. Now grind parboiled rice/idli rice to smooth paste by adding minimal amount of water. Mix it will the grinded dal. The batter should be semi-liquid so that it is easy to spread when you make dosas. Add salt as per taste and you can make dosas right away. If you leave it overnight or whole day to ferment, you can make crispy dosas. Take the batter into a flat bottomed round spoon, pour it in the center of the pan (tava) and evenly spread it into a thin layer. Add little oil and turn it when cooked. Cook on both side. Do not cover with a lid.

Tips:

1. I usually grind the rice to very slight rough texture so that I can use the same batter for both idli and dosa
2. Grinding the dal first and then rice makes it easier to clean the food-mixer/blender. The dal gets stuck, but if u grind rice later then the dal comes out easily.
3. You can also make uttapam      with the same batter by adding some chopped onions + tomatoes + green chillies + coriander leaves
4. You can make masala dosa with potato/paneer filling/left over sabzi
   
5. If you don't have idli stand, you can make idli in microwave small bowl and keeping it for 1 minute.
   

Dal ke paronthe

Ever wondered how to finish the left over dal? This is the best way to utilize the left over dal and yet enjoy it. My mother in law (MIL) makes delicious parontha’s. Dal parontha’s are one amongst my husband’s favorites. It is very easy and quick to make and quite filling. You can have it for breakfast or it serves as lunch or dinner too.

Ingredients:

Left over dal
Wheat flour
Onion – 1 small (chop into small cubes)
Green chillies - 2-3 (as per taste) (chopped into small pieces)
Ajwain (Carom seeds) 1 tsp
Coriander leaves (chopped)
Ghee/butter/smart butter (optional)

Method:
Take the left over dal and add all the above ingredients except wheat flour. Now add wheat flour gradually so that you are able to knead it into dough. Basically dal is the replacement for water. Make small balls and roll it into thick roti. Apply ghee/butter/smart butter on both side. Serve hot with yogurt and pickle.

Tips:
Ajwain (Carom seeds) is very good for digestion.
Parontha tastes good with Amul butter too. I love it.

Mummy ka kada (Kada for cold)

My mother in law (MIL) believes in homemade remedies a lot. She makes kada whenever somebody has cold and it has got tremendous effect.

Ingredients:

Cloves – 2-3

Cinamon stick or cinamon – 1/4 inch

Saunf (Fennel seeds) – 1 tsp

Cardomon (Elaichi) – 2

BADI-ELAICHI (Cardomon –brown)(optional) – 1

Ginger – ¼ inch

Jaggery (Gud) – 1 tsp

Pepper powder ¼ tsp

Water 3-4 cups

Method:

Make a Powder of the above ingredients and add it to water and boil it. It is more effective when you have it warm or hot.

Vada Pav

On a rainy day, in a dull weather, you cannot go out and are stuck at home. One of the hot snacks, that comes to your mind is vada pav. I still remember those college days when we used to go to Joshi vade wale in front of Balgandharva, Pune, India. The mouth watering hot vada pavs was one of my favorites. In Atlanta, we miss all those small tapari's and the fun of going out and eating Indian food. My husband one day came home and said, feel like eating vada pav. So I thought why not give it a try. So with all my enthu started to search the net for the perfect recipe and ended up taking a mix of recipes on all the websites. It turned out to be yummy. I was successful in tangling his taste buds and he said "very close to what we used to have in Pune".

Ingredients
Potaotes - 4
Ginger - 1/2 inch
Garlic - 2-3 flakes
Green chilli - 5
Curry leaves - 10
Mustard seeds - 1/2 spoon
Turmeric powder (haldi) - 1 spoon
Salt
Besan (Gram flour) - 5 table spoon
Red chilli powder - 1/2 spoon
Chat masala - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Oil for frying
Pav or bread


Method:
1. Grind ginger, garlic and green chillies together into a paste.
2. Peel and mash boiled potatoes.
3. Add ginger-garlic-green chilies paste, coriander leaves, and salt to it.
4. Then take 1 teaspoon of oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds. As soon as they start spluttering, add turmeric powder & curry leaves. Add the mashed potatoes & mix it properly.
5. Make small flat balls of this potato mixture by pressing in your palm.
6. Now add some salt & turmeric powder to the gram flour . Mix it together. Add some water to make a thick batter without any lumps.

7. Heat some oil in a pan. Dip the balls in gram flour and deep fry till golden brown. Fry some green chillies
8. Slit the Pav keeping the base intact & spread Garlic Chutney. Place the vada into it. Eat it with the fried green chillies mixed with salt.



Tips:
Garlic chutney or groundnut chutney is readily available in Indian stores. It can also be made at home. Add some sweet tamarind chutney to give it the sweet and spicy taste.