Rava Dosa

Ingredients

Rava flour -- 7 portions
Wheat flour -- 2 portions
Rice flour and All purpose flour together -- 1 portion
Sugar a pinch
Salt
Curd - 0.5 to 1 portion or less
Jeera
Hing
Pepper Powder
Little cut Coriander leaves
Little cut Kadi patta


Add all the ingredients and prepare the batter with water. The consistency should be something like buttermilk.

Pour a small portion of it on hot tava.

Pour a little oil on the sides of the dosa

Flip it over and cook the other side too until nice golden color.

Enjoy your dish.


Tip from B – to 75% oil add in 25% ghee and use this mixture to pour on the dosa and it would give you a nice taste.

Tit-bits - Semolina can be used as an alternative to corn meal. Add a little roasted semolina while preparing the batter for samosas and they would turn out nice crispy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semolina

Coconut Chutney

Ingredients
---------------

Onion
Channa dal
Urad dal
Hing
Mustard seeds
Coriander leaves
Kadi patta
Coconut
Salt to taste
Jeera
Green chillies
Tamarid
Ground nuts
Oil


Steps

1. Dry roast 10 to 15 ground nuts and remove the skin.
2. Heat the oil add some hing, mustard, urad dal, channa dal, kadi patta, green chilies, little tamarid , Garlic (not paste)
3. Fry the onion well and add coriander leaves after you switch off the gas but the pan is still hot.
4. Let it cool a little and then add shredded coconut and peeled off ground nuts (Or Pottukadalai)
5. Grind it well it with some water and add salt to taste
6. Heat some oil, add in Hing, some kadi patta, mustard seeds and add it to the chutey . Can add Urad dal too if you like.
7. Enjoy it with some Dosas, idilies.

Did you know - Virtually every part of the coconut palm has some human uses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut

Impromptu Dosa party

B has come into my life like a breath of fresh air. It has been just few days that I have been with her but it is amazing, I am enjoying my lunch all over again, amazing and much needed coffee breaks and my only female company in office. It makes me sad to even think that she is here only for 3 weeks.

Today AD called up in the evening and told me that he is stuck in a meeting and I need to pick up SD. On a regular day I would have had to take a cab but B told me that she could drop me and pick up SD. On our way back home we decided to have tea and once she was at my place I offered to make some instant dosa :) I am big dosa fan and always find some or the other reason to have them but later we decided to make some fresh Rava (sooji, Cream of wheat) dosas and she told me while you run behind SD I can prepare the batter and coconut chutney and I was more than happy about the offer. It was like cherry on the icing :) So while I was doing my chores with SD she was preparing some awesome chutney and Dosas for us (my next recipe)

It reminded me of Chennai Saravana Bhavan Rava dosas. A wonderful impromptu dosa party.

In between she got a call and it was from her good friend 'N' who happens to be my senior.The world is sure a small place. Thanks a ton ‘B’ for an amazing evening and lovely dosas with awesome chutney.

Spur of the moment

SD (my 2 yr old) yesterday referred to the Rongi as baby rajama and I could not help laughing and think about my brother. I and my Bro have always been very fond of Rajama too and we would address rongi as Rajma ka bachha which translates to Baby Rajma. I wanted to call home right away but then for some reason I don’t know why, I waited till today morning. As usual Ma picked it up and I told her about it and her immediate reaction was to laugh and say you both used to call it like that too. Moms don’t forget do they :)

Well I wanted to start my recipe blog with something special and have been wondering what it could be. Today while at work my colleague ‘B’ asked me “what did you get for lunch today?” Black-eyed bean curry I mentioned and she was like wow how do you cook that so I told her the recipe and she said she would try it out and I got my first recipe for the blog. So what if it is simple and easy and a normal Punju dish it is still special and may be someone who reads my blog does not know about it :) so here I go with the recipe.

She also mentioned an interesting fact about black-eyed-bean it seems it is a widely used ingredient in soul food and on New Year day the American families cook this to bring in good luck and good prospects for their family and thanks to her for the photo too. Sometimes a spur of the moment decisions can make you so feel so good.

Black-eyed bean

Ingredients
--------------

Onion
Tomatoes
Ginger
Garlic
Green chilies
Salt to taste
Turmeric just a pinch
Amchur a pinch
Dhaniya powder
Jeera powder
Garam masala
Oil

Steps

1. Soak the black-eyed bean in hot water while you do the below steps
2. Puree the onion, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, green chilies.
3. In the pressure cooker pour oil and add in the puree
4. Once the masala is fried well, generally oil leaves the puree.
5. Add in salt, turmeric, dhaniya powder, Jeera powder and Amchur
6. Fry for a while on low flame.
7. Wash the soaked black-eyed bean and add them to the masala
8. Pour the water and close the lid
9. After one whistle lower the flame and 2-3 whistles later close the gas
10. Wait for sometime and open the lid add in some Garam masala and keep it for few min on low flame
11. Viola it is ready to be served with Rice, roti, parata.


Trivia - Black-eyed peas are traditionally eaten on New Year's Day in the American South and in some other parts of the U.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-eyed_peas

- Special thanks to 'B' for the pic, this is from her camera. Thank you 'B'

Blogging

A friend, I think I can take the liberty of calling her a friend though I have known her for quite sometime now because of common friends and of course work but I actually know her through her blogs and she told me "don't worry about how you write or what you write, the blog is just a medium to express ourselves. So long as you get the point across that's all that matters :)" and here I am all excited to share my recipes and stories with the big world of blogs.

Not that I am a great cook but I know I have matured as a cook and someday would be a chef. The difference between a cook and chef in my dictionary is someone who takes care of everything all the nitty-gritty details of food and also how the food is presented but for me it is more of making the food tasty and not goofing up :) so that my 2 year old eats yes the looks of the food do matter to me but presenting it is an art and I have not yet mastered it nor do I have the patience for standing long hours in the kitchen so I would rather call myself as a cook and not a chef.

Gone are the days when cooking something was a family secret passed on by the mother to the daughter or the mother-in-law to the daughter-in-law now if you need tips, tricks, recipes from around the world you just log on to the world wide web and search for it. Guess sometimes technology does help. I still remember as a kid I would sit on the slab of the kitchen chatting to mom and watching what she is doing and she would add something and look at me with a proud grin and say this is homemade "masala” not everyone knows about it and this is what adds a zing but this is a secret between us so don’t share it :) well mom for once nahhhhh one of those countless times I am not listening to you and planning to share all your secrets here with all the people who would read this.

Well with this let me start my soul food and I hope to add some soul to it and hopefully this is one of the hobbies that I continue.