Egg Dosa

I came across egg dosa for the first time in Rohini's blog. Since I'm an ardent egg fan, I tried it the same day and just loved it :-). The dosas came out to be very soft.

Ingredients (makes 3 - 4 dosas):

Eggs - 2
Dosa batter - 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Oil for making dosas
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Beat the eggs thoroughly in a bowl, mix in the dosa batter and adjust salt.
2. Make dosas the usual way and enjoy!

I had some left over potato masala and treated myself to awesome egg masala dosas :-).

If you are looking for a slight variation in dosas and if you are an egg lover, I strongly recommend this.

Simple Carrot Fry

Carrot fry/curry is of the easiest ways to make something totally yummy out of carrots. Normally, I add carrots to almost all the mixed vegetable dishes I make as they add a little sweetness to the dish, but don't make anything just out of carrots itself. But this curry has a great flavor that it makes me forget that I'm eating carrots :-).

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

Fresh carrots - 4 to 5 washed, peeled and chopped
Cooking oil - a couple of teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Dried red chillies - a couple of them broken by hand
Grated/powdered coconut (optional) - about 2 teaspoons
Red chilli powder (optional) - 1 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal, asafoetida and dried red chillies and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
2. Add the chopped carrots to step 1, mix well, cover and cook on low heat for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the carrots get cooked.
3. Add some red chilli powder and salt to step 2 and fry the carrots on medium heat for another 5 - 7 minutes and turn off the stove. You can add some grated/powdered coconut now, but otherwise the carrot fry is ready to go.

This goes great with rice and sambar or rasam.

A Backlog Of Awards Presented!

I've been intending to post this for a couple of weeks now, but never got to it. Blame it on my job!!! :-(. Even though I'm late, I wish to let all my blogger friends know that I have a whole new family here and I totally cherish this experience. Thank you for your constant encouragement and support :-).

Rohini has been kind enough to pass on these awards:

Babli has shared these awards:

Asha has showered me with these awards:

Sandhya has given me these awards:

The following blogger excellence award has been passed on to me by Aruna.

Thank you ladies for sharing the awards and keeping the spirits high in the blogosphere!

Now, it is my turn to share all of the awards from this post with Lata Raja, Mahimaa, Shanthi, Sanghi, Sangeetha, Pavithra and Parita. Please collect your awards and continue posting your mouthwatering recipes!

Simple Cauliflower Fry

This is one of the easiest dishes to make except for the time to clean and cut cauliflower.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Cauliflower - 1 big, washed and cut into small florets
Cooking oil - 1.5 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
2. To step 1, add the cut cauliflower florets, mix everything well and fry on medium high heat for about 3 - 4 minutes with constant stirring.
3. Once the cauliflower starts browning, add some red chilli powder and salt and fry until it gets cooked and turns nice and crispy. Turn off the stove.

A good variation would be to add about a handful of chopped onions to step 1 and fry them until golden brown before moving on to step 2. You can also add some chopped potatoes along with the cauliflower florets.

Tip:
I have noticed that separating the florets by hand instead of chopping them using a knife keeps them intact during the cooking process and that way I can cut them to the size I desire.

This goes a side dish with rice and sambar/rasam/plain yogurt. I even have it as a snack sometimes.

My Mom's Style Vegetable Pulao

When my sisters and I were little, vegetable pulao was always on our list of things to order at a restaurant. We would always ask our Mom to make it for us at home. Little did we know that she didn't know to make pulao type dishes. One fine day, she surprised us with this veggie pulao and we were really happy and pleased that she made such a tasty dish for us. Apparently, she learned it from one of her colleagues and also passed it on to my grand parents' family. Till date, whenever my grandma makes veggie pulao, she asks us if it tastes similar to my Mom's :-) as she thinks pulao type dishes are not her area of expertise. It is not that she cannot make it well but just that pulao was never in the list of things that she learned to cook from her mother (my grandma and Mom are experts in making traditional Brahmin style dishes though). And, having tried different types of pulaos myself, I have learned that this is not a very unique recipe, but definitely one that will bring back all those childhood memories that I cherish :-).

Ingredients (4 - 5 servings):

Basmati rice - 2 cups uncooked
Cooking oil - 3 to 4 teaspoons
Onions - 1/2 finely chopped
Tomatoes - 1/2 finely chopped
Veggies of your choice - about 2 cups (I always like using a lot of cauliflower and peas in my pulao and don't even bother with any other veggies)
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala (optional) - 1/2 teaspoon
Fresh cilantro - a few strands finely chopped

To grind into a fine paste:

Onions - 1 big
Tomatoes - 1 big
Ginger - 1 inch piece (roughly)
Garlic - about 3 to 4 cloves peeled
Fennel seeds - 1 teaspoon
Star anise - a couple (some blenders don't handle this well, so you might want to break it into pieces before putting them in your blender/mixer)
Cloves - 3 to 4
Cinnamon - 1 inch stick broken into small pieces
Bay leaves - 1 or 2
Green chillies - 5 to 6 (vary this to suit your taste)
Fresh cilantro (optional) - a few strands broken by hand
Grated/powdered coconut (optional) - 1 tablespoon

Procedure:

1. Grind the ingredients from the above mentioned list and set aside.
2. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil (you can be a little generous here actually), fry the chopped onions first, followed by the chopped tomatoes and once the onions have turned light golden brown in color and the tomatoes have cooked well, add the paste from step 1, mix in well along with some salt, red chilli powder and garam masala and cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat with constant stirring.
4. Now add the veggies to step 3 (I don't usually boil the veggies beforehand, but just let them cook in the gravy instead so that they don't end up mashed in the end), put the lid on and cook for about 15 more minutes on low heat.
5. You can take the lid off now and cook the rest of gravy for 15 more minutes or until the oil leaves the sides, on medium to high heat with constant stirring. Turn off the stove.
6. Wash and cook the rice and once it is done, spread it in a wide pan or a dish with a wide base, add a couple of teaspoons of cooking oil and the finely chopped cilantro to the rice, mix it in gently and set aside for about 15 minutes.
7. Mix the contents from step 5 with the rice gently, exercising caution not to break the rice. Serve with the favorite raita of your choice and/or potato chips.

It does take a little long to prepare this meal, but every bit is worth it :-). Some of my relatives prepare this by cooking the veggies, rice and spices together and that has a whole different taste to it.