An Honour! A Snack, A Friend's 'Easy' Recipe & A Break.......

I'm THRILLED!!! Happiness and Sunshine Everywhere!!! So MANY Good ... nay... GREAT things have happened!!
First... Delhibelle has very generously passed on an award to me (making me DROOOOOOL over her dessert recipe.. how I wish I could have a portion of that....) !! Thank U so much Dear!

Secondly... my Ma-in-law sent me some stuff I (badly) wanted and shamelessly asked for!!! Why shamelessly? M was TOTALLY against 'expanding the kitchen to the size of a 5 star hotel kitchen' and it was an additional load for my parents to cart all the way from India from January to mid May... SO!
My first act,within 30 mins of my Parents arrival was to make them snap open their bags and show me 'my loot' which my in-laws sent me and the other stuff Mom- Dad got for me! I had asked for a Medu Wada Maker ( Anjali brand). I had seen this waaaay back in Apna Bazar Co-operative stores in Bombay. I wanted this, only because I am an occasional victim to deep fried wadas and have tried in vain to make round-wadas-with-a-hole-in-them (otherwise they are not medu wadas) and convinced myself that 'this' was the only way I would be successful. So a couple of evenings ago, I finally got around to making medu wadas!
I basically used my wada recipe with the addition of 1/2 cup Yellow Moong Daal soaked with the urid daal to make the batter. And yes, I added the Soy chunks as well! To the batter I also added 1/2 inch grated ginger, 2 finely minced green chilies, 2 crushed peppercorns and 2 finely chopped curry leaves.
Heat oil, not upto the smoking point, in a wok / kadhai. To test how hot the oil is, drop a very small amount of batter in the oil and if the batter rises to the top, you are set. Add the batter to the medu wada maker and press the knob on the top, directly into the kadhai. Deep fry the wadas to a nice golden brown. The first 4 wadas... not so round.. but DEFINITELY Medu wadas!! and VERY crisp!!!
Aaahhhh!! MUCH better!!! The trick was to make the batter thickish (but with a blender that one gets here, that is not possible)
Dunk the wadas in sambar and serve hot with chutney!!
Some Chutneys that go very well with medu wada smabar :
Coconut chutney- Sailu's blog
Nandita's - Coconut Chutney
And my all time fav!!
We now come to making a hearty dinner! Last night , I wanted to make something 'nice' for my parents.. and something not from my blog, I have been re-trying many dishes once again , now that I have more than 1 to cook for! and a while ago my friend Ashwini, who likes to cook, has 2 adorable boys (the younger is a few months old), but is a bit hard pressed for time had e-mailed me her super easy recipe for Daal Makhani. But I got round to trying that just about now! Thank You, Ashwini! this is an easy recipe and yummy too!
For the Daal Makhani:
1 cup Whole Black Urid daal
2-3 tbsp Rajma / Kidney beans
1 small Onion chopped
1 Tomato chopped
1 tsp each Ginger and Garlic paste
1/2 tsp Red Chili powder
1 Green Chili
Salt to Taste
1/2 tsp Garam masala
Butter for tempering
Cream / Butter

Soak the Urid daal and Rajma in water for a minimum of 4 hrs. ( overnight is also fine). Pressure cook these with salt and red chilli powder (depends on your pressure cooker, in my new Pressure cooker it took only 3 whistles and on sim for 4 mins.)
Heat oil / butter in a wok / kadhai. Add onions and saute till brown and tender. Add the ginger-garlic paste. Saute till it does not smell raw. Add the tomatoes and cook until mushy and oil starts leaving the sides.
At this point add the daal and mix well. Add Garam Masala ( I dislike the 'too strong' smell of garam masala so I use it a bit sparingly)stir and give it one good boil. Check for salt, add if required.
Add fresh cream and serve hot with rice or roti. I substituted butter for cream.

I served the Daal Makhani with this absolutely marvellous and fragrant Ghee Rice !!And FINALLY... announcing a small break! I will take a small hiatus from blogging... to WELCOME a new member into my family!

I am due in a week now and so it's time to take a break, enjoy these last few days with M ( who is biting his nails to bits) and my parents and though at a great distance, my in-laws who are very anxious for me! I've had a grand time these 9 months and once I got over my 'cry-baby' days I loved every minute! Thank God I had no nausea or any aversion to any type of smell or food! Sadly, what did affect me was high sugar levels in my last trimester ( and hence the protein diet posts!) and I was on a severe diet and could only fantasize about food, not eat anything I wanted (fret...fret...fume..)! But all is well and it has helped me and the baby is safe (touchwood) !

Before I go however, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to Nupur who when I disclosed to about my pregnancy, sent me a parcel of chikki and this awesome candy! I felt pampered when I ate these.. trust me, those first trimester days when hormones play havoc with the system, and no Mommy and Daddy to hold your hand and say 'there, there' and a confused, bewildered and 'lost' husband looking at you with sad eyes , just because the volcano of emotions erupted (yet again)... something like this is a life line and even if it is splashed with a few salty tears, it tastes like heaven!!
And Cynthia .. do I even need to say anything about this warm hearted person? She immediately sent me her recipe for cook up rice (with vegetarian options) which would help me in my protein intake, sadly, I could not try it out.. my Doctor banned rice TOTALLY! But, it is bookmarked and I will try it out the first opportunity I get!!

So see you all soon.... I will not be able to post for a while and may not be able to peep into your blogs.. but I will catch up as and when I can. Have a lovely weekend!!

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Dahi Wadas with a small twist!

I continue my quest of finding recipes or making up some with protein as the main focus or even means of making BLAH! tasting stuff YUMMY!

I prowl around blogs (and end up drooling at all the super recipes completely forgetting the quest!) pick up bits and pieces of recipes, sigh when I find a particular recipe SO tempting yet FAR from my 'must -try' list as of now.. remind myself... just a bit more.... a bit more time, then you go right back to the sinful and satisfying carbs ( in moderation whispers the Husband in my ear) POP goes my delectable dream of biting into these and digging my fork into a slice of heaven or even making a hearty meal of Good Ol' Rice!

M sniggers behind me as I type this and says.. "interesting ... how you go from desserts to main course on your wish list and not a mention of protein in there!"

I arch an eyebrow and coolly say.." as it happens, I have a recipe in mind...loaded with protein... and I was just going to make and blog about it.. and when u eat it, I'd like to serve it to you with a generous helping of your words.. compliments of the chef"...Now having said that, I HAD to work on a recipe! This recipe ( which Nupur of One Hot Stove has also tried and liked!) has been on my list for a very long time and the more I thought of it, the craving just kept growing!

I also had a packet of Ruchi Soy Chunks lying (unopened) in the pantry.. now these, I find particularly boring ( not as nauseating as Tofu though) and plain ugly and so the unopened box lay there awaiting nirvana. Well, today's your lucky day I mumbled.
So I carefully measured out:
1 Cup Urid Daal
1/2 tsp methi / Fenugreek seeds
Soak these in Water for at least 4 hrs.

Prepare the yougurt (dahi) sauce. To a bowl of plain yogurt (use any yogurt you have, regular, no fat) add water to thin it out a bit, salt to taste, crushed ginger and green chili paste and sugar (depends on how sweet you like it) and finely chop cilantro for garnishing. Keep this refrigerated. Shook out approximately 20-25 Soy chunks and cooked them as per directions on the box ( with a pinch of salt) drained and squeezed out excess water and let them sit.

Grind Together the soaked Urid Daal + Fenugreek seeds along with the moist Soy chunks to a smooth batter and adding salt. Heat the appey pan and add a few drops of oil. Gently spoon the batter and let it cook to a golden brown , flip and cook thoroughly on the other side. Once done, remove on to a tissue ( not that there is any extra oil on it, but it's a habit with me now)

Soak these wada in the yougurt sauce. It is entirely optional if you want to dunk the wada in water to soften them and then (after squeezing out the water) adding them to the yougurt. I did not go thru all that. Soaking them in the yogurt sauce was, in my humble opinion, enough. Given a bit more time, the wadas soaked up the flavor from the yogurt and became very soft. garnish with a dash of black pepper powder, a sprinkling of red chilli powder (optional) and the chopped cilantro. Enjoy! * Notes:

• The yogurt sauce was not very thick keeping in mind that the wadas were not pre-soaked, I kept it on a 'flowing but thick' side
  
• To one batch of the wadas I also added a pinch of baking soda, to make them crisp. In the end (after adding them to the yogurt) there was no noticeable difference. but if you just want to eat a couple wadas as they are, tastes better.
  
• This is just one of my whims, but I stir the batter in one direction only and gently.

Verdict: Not the perfect dahi wada, but overall VERY satisfying and so much healthier ! I am sure I cannot get over my dislike for Soy chunks, but this is a great way to disguise them and enjoy them too! Specially since I am rather partial to dahi wadas and also given to snacking, a habit, I'm afraid I will never get over.

I also realise, no matter what, I must be careful of what I eat, M is right (sigh, he almost always is, where my eating habits are concerned) I am a slave to carbs and shy away from protein. And though I cook good food, I MUST consciously consume more protein and go slow on carbs. And so my quest will continue!

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A Year, A Century and a MeMe with a simple recipe!

Yaaaaaaaaaaay!!! Today is my 100th. post and it's been a Year since I started this Blog!!!! (ok, I admit, I was waiting so I could combine these 2 'events'!)

Unlike many of you, I was not as confident about how, if at all, I could manage to blog, post recipes and over all, keep it going! I was also not aware of blogs.. it's only when we came to California, that I had the leisure to surf without restraint and explore new avenues. It has been such an enriching experience. Though I liked to cook, I had never experimented before and never dreamt of a blog!

There were times when I was doubtful about being able to blog with office , chores , but I guess, when I love blogging as much as I do, it comes naturally! (not to sound nasty and b****y, but ... this did not make some people happy, who think this is a ridiculous idea, and have made snide remarks and maybe even hoped that my job would put a stopper to my blogging!!)

This year has also been a humbling experience. So many AWESOME bloggers! So many recipes and themes! Talk about creativity! My blogger friends, I owe you all a lot!! all the encouraging comments have worked wonders on my confidence.. THANK U ALL!!!! It is because of all of you that I will step into the second year of blogging with renewed enthusiasm. I wanted to make something fancy -shmancy today.. but that can wait, I have some maintainence work happening in the apartment and it is a bit difficult to manage a simple meal in all that mess.. I keep reminding myself that I have miles to go before I can be like my fellow bloggers who can whip up amazing dishes ! But I'm gettin' there!!
In the mean time, as summer temperatures soar, we look at something that looks cool!! Dahi wada comes to my mind (with a lot of other options!!) .. This is one of my favourites!!!

If you are familiar with the geography of Mumbai, you would know what I am talking now... I was born and brought up in Wadala, and Dadar was a stone's throw from my house.. so any shopping (school uniform, bags, shoes..... school books ~shudder~) we went to Dadar West. Now, shopping in Dadar is not like making a beeline and getting the items on the list... it usually takes about 4 hours to do a half an hour shopping! And 4 hours is a very long time to go without food in an area which has restaurants at practically every step!!

My sole aim in accompanying my Mother for shopping was to eat out.. I knew that along with my books she would want to buy some fresh vegetables and fruit, some matching blouse piece and we were also bound to meet one of her friends in the streets and spend time with her... after a couple of such sessions I had gleaned as much that if I start making a nuisance of myself after the book buying and before the matching blouse piece, she would take me to one of my favourite joints and stuff me well enough not to make any noise for at least the next 3 hours and spoil her bliss! This arrangement suited both of us!! She would take me to fixed restaurants, 'Natraj' or 'Visava', whichever was closer. The waiters there knew me and knew what I wanted, so Mom would place her order and just nod in my direction, the waiter knew... sada dosa and later dahi wada and GlodSpot, to wash it down. The salt, pepper and red chilly powder shakers would be placed on the table. With a gleam in my eyes I would attack the food in front of me and my Mother would look on.. thinking.." that has given me 3 hours to finish off till the next round.. wonder if she will ever grow up liking shopping for shopping purpose or just for the food.." Well, I have grown up and grown up with a passion or both food and shopping.. and she still isn't happy with me!!!

I often wonder how these wonderful dishes were created in the first place... who was 'that one person' who added the wadas to yogurt with a bit of garnish .. well, whoever he / she was, they were brilliant!!

YOGURT( DAHI) WADA

1 cup Urad Daal

5-6 Methi/ Fenugreek seeds

Salt to taste

Oil to deep fry

Water to soak the wadas
1/4th. Ltr. Yogurt (should not be sour)
Sugar to taste

1 inch Ginger

3 Green chillies (+/- to taste)

Red chilly powder, pepper, cilantro, chaat masala (for garnish)

Soak the Urad daal and methi / fenugreek seeds in water for 4 hours.

Grind the daal. Add salt. *Tip to make soft and light wada: mix the batter in one direction only and with a light hand. Heat Oil. Make wadas and deep fry them to a golden colour.Transfer the fried wadas in water and let them soak for 3-4 minutes.Lightly squeeze the water out .

Beat the yogurt and make it smooth.Grind together the ginger and chilly. Add this to the yogurt. Add salt and sugar. Dip the wadas in the yogurt, garnish and serve chilled!I would like to send this to Nupur for the A-Z of Vegetable series... if, she will accept this entry (no vegetables u see .. :(( )!!

And now for this MeMe!!
I was tagged byTee and Valerie Adams for this MeMe!!

Fact 1: My Sunsign ...

Fact 2: I believe...

Fact : 3

Fact 4: (with reference to Fact 3)

Now don't go getting the wrong idea about me.. I am fairly good at a few things... like??

Fact 5 :

and may I also mention.....
(mind you ... never had any training!!!!)

Another talent......

So all in all I am....(Fact 6)

Fact 7 : CONCLUSION:

I would like any blogger friend to take up this MeMe... I sure had fun doing it!!!!

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