South-India's famous breakfast : Sada dosa & chutney

Do you know anybody who doesn't like dosa?  Atleast I don't know.  I can eat N no. of dosas provided they are off the stove and in my plate.  I cannot eat a dosa once it is cold.  The same habit is in my both sons.  Here is my simple recipe of dosa.

Ingredients:

2 Cups short/long grain rice/sona masoori rice, I used zafrani, I got mine from Costco.

1 cup Urid dal/black gram dal

1/4 cup Chana Dal/Bengal gram dal

1/4 tsp Methi seeds/fenugreek seeds

Salt to taste

Oil

Method:

Soak rice, dals and methi seeds together for atleast 4-5 hours.

After 4-5 hours, grind it to coarse consistency.  Pour the batter in a bigger vessel.  Mix with hand.  No spoons please. 

You can add salt at this stage or later while making the dosas.

Let the batter ferment for 8-12 hours depending upon the temperature in your area.  At colder places even 18-20 hours.

Heat the dosa tawa/griddle and pour the batter in the center of the tawa and spread it from inside out.
Drizzle little oil around the corners.
After a minute, flip the dosa and remove from heat after half a minute.
Serve immediately with sambar/chutney/milagai Podi.
I served mine with onion chutney and coconut-coriander chutney.
Refrigerate the remaining batter in an airtight container.

Ras Malai for ICC and Akshaya Tritiya

First of all I want to say sorry to Srivalli for making this so late.  I made Ras Malai for ICC and for Akshaya Tritiya.  That's the reason I am posting it late.  Since I have already posted Rasmalai recipe in my way, I have pasted the same way it was given by Srivalli in Indian Cooking challenge.

Ingredients:

Milk - 3 litres (2 litres for making paneer and 1 litre for making Rasa/Milk syrup.)
Vinegar- 3 tbsps
Water-5 cup's
Sugar- 16 tbsp (8 for Sugar Syrup and 8 for Rasa/Milk Syrup)
Saffron- 8 pieces
Pista-10 finely chopped
Maida flour- 1 tsp
Cardamon-2 (crushed)

Method:
Preparation of Whey Water:
Boil Two Litres of milk and let it cool. Refrigerate the milk for 12 hours. The next day or after 12 hours, remove the thick layer of skin/ paal adai/meegada formed over the milk. Now boil the milk, when the milk boils, add vinegar. wait for a minute or two. the paneer will start floating on top and the whey water will stay on the bottom of the vessel. Now with a muslin or a cotton cloth, filter the paneer and pour 2 cups of water on it, to remove the sourness of vinegar and then tie it well and let it hang on for one hour, till the whey water drops out.
II. Preparation of Paneer:
As we have tied and hanged the paneer in muslin cloth to let out the whey water, wait for an hour and squeeze them well. remove from the cloth and shift to a broad vessel. Now just prepare the paneer, as we knead the dough for chapathi/roti, in the same way knead the paneer, for 5 minutes atleast, till you feel it dont have much moisture content in it. now add a spoon of maida flour to the paneer and make it as small small ball's remember the balls will become double in size after putting it and boiling it in sugar syrup. so make a medium size paneer ball's. with 2 litres of milk you can prepare 12 or 13 paneer ball's.
III. Preparation of Sugar Syrup:
In a wide-bottomed pressure cooker, add three cups of water and eight table spoons of sugar. let it boil. Now when it boils, add the paneer ball's one by one on to it. dont afraid of the ball's getting broken. if you have kneaded the paneer well, it wont get broked. let it get pressure cooked for 10 minutes in slow flame or for 2 whistles.
Now let the steam get out and open the cooker and see the double-sized paneer ball's. slightly press each and evry ball to emit the excess sugar syrup.
IV. Preparation of Milk Syrup/Rasa:
When you are starting to prepare sugar syrup. start making milk syrup/rasa side by side. Have one litre of milk in a wide bottomed vessel and let it boil and get reduced into half of the quantity. add eight table spoons of sugar and mix well. add saffron and crushe cardoman to it and mix well. put the paneer ball's into the rasa/milk syrup. cool it down and refregirate it.
Serve with chopped pistachios on top.

My Ras Malai was really melting in mouth.  The paneer disks were super soft. and breaking, may be I added little less maida.

Happy Mothers Day and Bottal gourd kofta in spinach gravy

Happy Mothers Day!!!!!!

I always buy bottle gourd to make halwa.  But till date I could never make it either it ends in dust bin or it goes into curry/sambar/dal.  But this time, I thought of using it differently.  I thought of making koftas in spinach gravy.  The koftas turn really melt in mouth, and both my sons and dear H enjoyed and ate them without any complain.

Ingredients:
For Koftas:
1 cup bottle gourd peeled and grated
1 cup paneer crumbled/grated
3 tbsp Besan/bengal gram flour
2-3 green chillies
2 tsp coriander leaves
salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

For gravy:
2 bunch Spinach leaves
1 medium onion(Chopped)
1/2 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
1/2 cup Tomato Puree
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
2 tsp Chili powder
1/2 tsp Kitchen king masala
1 tbsp Butter
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oil

Method:
Wash the bottle guard and pill it.
After peeling it, grate the bottle guard, and squeeze it to remove the water.  Add the curmbled paneer.
Put gram flour in bottle guard along with salt, green chilies and coriander leaves. Mix it well .The mixture should be appropriate for making kofte.  Make golf-ball sized ball and fry the koftas on low flame.
You can adjust the thickness by adding or reducing the gram flour.  Remember not to burn the koftas.

Wash the spinach leaves properly.
In a kadhai, add 1/2 tsp oil, add the spinach leaves and a little salt, stir, and close the lid of the pan.
Remove the wilted spinach on a plate and allow it cool down. Then grind it with ½ spoon of sugar.
Now in a pan heat butter and remaining oil, add ginger garlic paste into it. Fry it for 2 minutes.
Then add onion in this and fry till it turn golden brown color.
Once onion turned brown in color add tomato puree and turmeric powder, chilli powder, Kitchen King masala and salt.  Fry it well till the masala starts leaving oil on the sides.  Now add spinach puree in this.
Keep stirring it properly so it should not get burned.
In a serving plate place the koftas and pour the gravy on top of it.
Serve hot with steamed rice/roti/parathas.

Stuffed brinjal curry

The other day, when I went to indian grocery store, I saw those green small brinjals.  In last few years, this was the first time I saw the green brinjals in USA.  Immediately I purchased them, because I love them a lot.  This is my aunt's recipe.  For this curry, use small green brinjals as far as possible.  If you can't find the green brinjals you can use the other variety, but it tastes great with the green brinjals.

Ingredients:
8-10 Green small brinjals.
2 Med sized onions
8-10 garlic cloves
1 cup peanuts powder
1 inch ginger
1/2 cup grated coconut
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp Goda Masala (Recipe some time later)
1 tsp Red chilli powder
2 tsp Coriander Powder
2 tsp cuminJeera Powder
A key lime sized jaggery or according to your taste(Optional)
Salt
1 tsp Coriander Leaves chopped
Oil
1/4 tsp Mustard Seeds
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
4-5 curry leaves

Method:
Trim the stems of the brinjals but don't remove them.  Make a deep +-shaped cut without cutting all the way.  Take care not to cut the brinjal in 4 pieces.  Keep the slitted brinjals in salt water.
Chop oniions finely.  Add peanut's powder, grated coconut, Goda masala, Chilli powder, Coriander and Cumin powder, jaggery and lemon juice.  Now grate the ginger and garlic and mix everything.  Add coriander leaves and salt.  Add a tbsp of oil and mix everything together.
Stuff this mixture in the brinjals.
In a small pressure cooker or in a kadhai, heat oil.  When the oil is hot eanough, add mustard and cumin seeds.  Add the curry leaves and all the brinjals one by one carefully.  Sprinkle some salt on the brinjals.
Now this is a most important and crucial stage.  Only experts can do this.  Hold both the handles and shake the brinjals.  In this process, you should lift the cooker/kadhai off your gas and.  Ideally all the brinjals should get turned up side down.
If you have any stuffing left out add now.  If using pressure cooker add 3/4 cup water and close the lid of the cooker.  Switch off the gas after two whistles.  If using kadhai, close the lid and when cooked enough switch off the gas.
Serve hot with steamed rice/chapati/roti/bhakari.

Note: 
1.  If  you do not have goda masala you can use MTR Multipurpose Curry Powder.
2.  If you have Kanda Lasun masala use that and omit the chilli powder.

Baigan with beetroot

This is a very easy and fast recipe.  We all love it very much.

Ingredients:
1 small italian eggplant/2 chinese eggplants chopped into little bigger pieces
1 med beetroot cut into bite size pieces
1 onion chopped roughly
1 small tomato
1 drumstick cut in 1 inch pieces(Optional)
1 green chilli slitted through
1/2 tsp Red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp Coriander seeds powder
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Jeera/Cumin Seeds
Few curry leaves
salt

Method:
In a kadhai, heat oil. Add mustard & cumin seeds.  When they crackle, add curry leaves and onion and
green chilli.  Add the chopped beetroot, drumsticks and mix together.  Add all the spice powders and the eggplant pieces.
Place the whole tomato in the center and sprinkle the salt.  Put a lid on the kadhai. Let the tomato and the veggie cook.  The veggies should cook in the juice of tomato.  After 5 minutes, give a big stir and close again.  Repeat till the veggies are cooked.
Once done, sprinkle the chopped cilantro leaves and serve.