Ade Dose/Adai

Ade Dose is a highly nutritious, protein rich dose. It has four kinds of dals in it. It is also a very good way of giving protein to your child. A great dish for their lunch box too.

This dose/dosa is very familiar in Bangalore, but unheard of in Kota region. So even though I grew up in Bangalore, I never heard about this dose until I came to US.

My cousin Chethana and a friend of mine had given this recipe to me long back. But somehow when I tried it, I found the taste of dals very overpowering and never really bothered to try it again. After I had my daughter, I was on a lookout for new ways of feeding her dal. I tried this dosa again, but she didn’t like it much either. So, I had basically given up on this dosa until my friend Prathibha served this to me at her house. The taste of it simply blew me away!! It was mind blowing-ly delicious! More importantly, my daughter liked it and asked for more! I asked Prathibha for the proportions, and to my surprise it was the same I had tried before. Then she gave me a secret - that the batter should be very coarse! 

I took her advice and voila! I too started making yummy dosa!! Coarse batter makes the dosa very crunchy. Crunchiness subdues the taste of the dal. 

You can add spices to this batter and eat it without any accompaniments. But it is not necessary. You can skip spices and eat it with chutney or chutney powder. My daughter likes to eat it with sugar. 
For her lunch box, I spread some ghee and then sprinkle some sugar and then roll it like a burritto. 

This is a great, healthy, nutritional lunch box recipe. 

Mixed Vegetable Kootu

Tomorrow is Mother’s day! What does or should this mean to a mother? neglecting oneself and being neglected by others whole year and then being celebrated for just one day for being just that? I mean why wait for one day, let everyday be mothers’s day, right? :) Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against celebrating Mother’s day. I like being appreciated and if a day is set aside for that, I’ll gladly accept the honor :) 

But, I’m talking about the way mothers neglect themselves so much more than needed. I am not even blaming them, I blame the society which puts sacrifices that comes with the motherhood on a pedestal and glorifies it to such an extent that mother’s feel guilty to do anything for themselves!

I think the biggest lesson I can teach my daughter is to learn to value her time, her health and her body, herself.. and I can only teach her that by being an example. I don’t want her to grow up seeing a mom who puts everyone else’s needs before hers all the time... 

If my daughter wants something from my plate, I give her a little and then tell her that it’s mommy’s share and then I eat it guilt free :)... If I have to read something, or browse something I tell her clearly that it’s mommy’s time and she should not disturb.. not that she listens, but still I am showing her that my time and my needs are also important... whenever I am taking a meal, if she interrupts, I tell her that she has to wait till amma finishes her food.. because food, tea/coffee is something I want to savor every bite/sip uninterrupted :) 

So, enjoy yourself, enjoy motherhood, learn to trust your husband to take care of your child(this part is difficult, I know:) ) and take a break, buy nice things for yourself, pamper yourself before mother’s day, on mother’s day, and after mother’s day :) 

Happy Mothers Day everyone!  

Coming to the recipe, this Kootu has got to be one of the easiest things to cook.. It is soo tasty that it’s hard to believe that it’s so healthy and easy.. you just need to put all the ingredients in a cooker and let it whistle - as simple as that!

AvarekaaLu Saaru/Surti Lilva Rasam

What is better than your Brother-in-law visiting? - having a BIL who loves to cook! what is better than having a BIL who loves to cook? - a BIL who drags your husband into the kitchen for helping and gives you a day off.. :)

My BIL, Praveen, is a wonderful cook and is an avid learner of South Canara cooking. He follows recipes authentically and what’s more, gives exact proportions of the ingredients; unlike my mother whose proportions are always half palmful, quarter palmful, small tamarind ball, one closed fist.... which I never get right most of the time :)

He cooked avareKaalu Saaru when he visited us last winter. It was so mouthwateringly delicious. And it so happened that, that day god blessed us with perfect weather - rainy and cloudy - to savor this rasam!

This spicy, garlicky rasam is a treat for any day.

Veg Noodles(Malaysian Veg Noodles)

I am a sucker for noodles. Especially Indo-chinese versions. It is a delight to eat hot spicy noodles on cold rainy days. My daughter loves them too(somehow, all kids do). So much so that she doesn’t mind eating vegetables in them!! I couldn’t believe my ears when she said “I love vegetables” while eating them! Which mother wouldn’t like to hear those words, right?!  how I wish all dishes were this kid friendly... 

It is called Malaysian Veg Noodles. I don't know what makes it Malaysian.. 

Simple Fried Rice

One of my cousins was asking me for some easy rice dishes that she could whip up in few minutes after coming home from work. I generally make only easy rice baths, but this recipe I got to say, beats the race for easiness. According to me, the only next easiest thing to cook is plain rice :)

It virtually has no masala, but yet is so unbelievably tasty. And it’s healthy too!! 

This recipe is for those days when you just want to chill and not bother much about cooking but still want to eat something healthy and tasty....

I got this recipe from my friend’s mother-in-law. 

Dal Makhani

Three things grasp my attention when I am browsing for recipes - 

1. it has to be easy
2. the taste should be(or claimed to be) close to restaurant style
3. I should really, really like the dish

If any one of these is true, then I make it a point to try the recipe. But, this recipe satisfied all the three; so, I had to try. The blogger apparently took this recipe from the Oberoi hotel chef himself. 

Even otherwise, I love dal. I wouldn’t let go of any excuse to make it. Dal with some plain rice and some ghee is my ultimate comfort food. Savored with some fried papad/sandige, it’s simply awesome!!

The recipe requires lot of butter and then some heavy cream. I used milk instead of cream and used less butter, but it still came out very creamy. The only thing I was not happy about was the cooking time. I cooked it directly on the stovetop, and it took me little more than an hour to just cook the dal. It didn’t need my intervention as much(hence, I call it easy); but still I hate the idea of wasting cooking gas. Next time I’ll try to pressure cook and update here as to how it turns out. 

Ennegayi - Stuffed eggplant curry

Most of my friends are thinking that I am passionate about cooking, since I started a food blog and all. But the truth is far from that. I don’t like spending a lot of time cooking at all! My tendency is to cook as quickly as possible, clean, and then get out of the kitchen. But mind you, I don’t want to compromise on the taste. Any dish that tastes good with the least amount of cooking time is my type of dish. If I spend more time in the kitchen, then I get really cranky :) 

My husband, on the other hand, thinks cooking is cathartic, even though he hardly cooks! But me, no. I am happy spending the least amount of time cooking. I am obsessed with getting the taste right though. It bothers me when I cannot make the perfect pulav, or perfect chapathi.. So I end up trying it many many times, till I am satisfied with the taste.

Ennegayi is one such dish on which I have worked very hard to get the taste right. It took me a lot of effort to perfect the skill. Even though making this dish takes a lot more time than I am willing to spend in the kitchen, the taste is very well worth the effort. 

Somehow whenever I made it before, it would burn invariably. But now, I must say, I am quite comfortable making it. Now if it burns, it's only because of my over confidence :)

I make two versions of this, one as taught by my cousin Chethana, and other from the link my friend Veena suggested. Both very different, yet equally tasty.

This is the latter version. I will also post the first version sometime.