Thursday, December 30, 2010

Ending the year on a sweet note


The year 2010 has been a roller coaster ride for us. I had been very slow in terms of blogging and my personal life was racing ahead. We made new friends, shifted from Shanghai to my hometown for good, caught up with a lot of relatives and friends, welcomed a cute little boy into our lives.... There are so many reasons for which I have to be thankful to the year that will soon pass by. I am very much looking forward to the new year. Here is wishing everyone "A very happy and prosperous new year". Hope this brings a lot of joy, peace and happiness with good health and wealth to all of them. Ending this year on a sweet note with a sweet and simple dish.

This dish is usually made with ripe (over ripe) nenthrapazham banana. It goes well with puri's, chapathi etc. The recipe is similar to making Banana halwa which is a delicacy Mangalore is famous for. For banana halwa it needs to be cooked further until it reaches halwa stage.

Here is what's needed:

4 ripe nenthrapazham banana chopped
1/4 cup sugar increase if you like sweeter)
4 tbsp ghee
a pinch of cardamom powder

Procedure:

1) In a thick bottomed kadai add the banana pieces, ghee and sugar. Keep the flame on medium.
2) Cook the mixture by stirring until the banana turns soft and mushy. Let few pieces be still in shape as it gives a nice texture to the finished product.
3) Add cardamom powder, mix well and put off the flame.

Serve hot with fluffy puris, Chapathi or on its own. We like ours to be mildly sweet with few pieces to bite in between. Kids love to have this with dosa's too.

Friday, December 3, 2010

Plain Dosa/ Paper Dosa


Thank you dear friends for your wonderful wishes and blessings to the little boy. Time surely flies by and very soon li'l munchkin will be two months old. I am enjoying my time with the little one.
I have been trying to get back to cooking ( and blogging), but being at my mother's place there is hardly any need to do so. I have been enjoying her cooking and when time permits I experiment.
Here is one of my favourite breakfast item "Plain dosa or Paper dosa". I love crispy thin dosa's than the thick ones. This dosa must be relished hot and crispy as it loses its texture when cooled. I use my Futura Tawa for this dosa as I can spread them big and thin with little oil. I have been a big fan of this Tawa and have been using it for almost 2 years now. This is similar to the Urad-Rice dosa but the Urad propertion is less than normally used.

Here is what's needed:
4 cups rice
1 cup Urad dal
1/4 tsp Methi seeds
Salt and Sugar to taste

Procedure:
1) Soak rice, Urad Dal and methi seeds for 6-8 hours and grind to a smooth paste with suffecient water. Add salt and let it ferment overnight.
2) Next day mix it well and add sugar to taste. You may add little water if the batter is too thick.
3) Heat a tawa.
4) Spread a ladle full of batter in circular motion until it forms a uniform circle. Roast it with little oil/ghee in medium flame.
5) (Optional)When it turns to slightly golden colour flip it over and roast the other side for few seconds.
6) Repeat 4 and 5 until all batter is used up.
Note: Always sprinkle water over the tawa before spreading batter again to bring down the temperature of tawa. If the tawa is too hot you will not be able to spread it well as the batter gets cooked fast and will stick to ladle.

Serve hot with Chutney and sambar.

You may also fold it like you would do for masala dosa to make it paper dosa and serve it with a dollop of butter on top.