Wheat Flour Dosa / Pancake

I am back after a long hiatus from blogging. Where was I? Well I had a baby boy. He is now 3 months old. We call him Vedorjith. I am enjoying every bit of being a mom. This is my bundle of joy.



I had gestational diabetes and my mom took care of my diet in the last month of pregnancy and one day she made me wheat flour dosa / pancake. Ever tried it or even knew it existed?







Here is how it is made.


Ingredients:

• Wheat flour - 2 cups
• Water for mixing the flour into a thin consistency fine enough for dosa / pancake.
• Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
  
• Red chilly powder - depends on how spicy you want it to be
• Salt - as per your taste
• Oil - half a teaspoon to apply on the borders of the dosa / pancake

Procedure:

• Mix the wheat flour with water after adding salt and chilly powder and cumin powder. Make it into a batter of thin consistency as you would make it for dosa or pancake.
• Heat the tawa / pan and once it is hot, spread the batter and wait till the underside of the dosa / pancake turns golden brown. apply oil at the borders for easy removal of the dosa and turn it. Let the other side too little brown and remove it.

Do try it and let me know if you liked it.

Bottle Gourd Gravy

Ingredients :

• Bottle Gourd - one long one, prick it all over the skin with a fork and then cut it into cubes without removing the skin.
• Onions - 2 medium-sized, cut into thin long pieces.
• Green chillies - 2-3 slit along the length, you can avoid the green chillies if you want to cut down on heat.
• Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon.
• Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon.
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tablespoon.
• Garam masala - half teaspoon.
• Turmeric powder, red chilly powder, salt - each 1 teaspoon. Add salt as per your taste.
• Yogurt - 3 tablespoons, beat the yogurt and mix water and make it into buttermilk.
• Spices like cardamom, clove, bay leaf and cinnamon - 2 each.
• Oil - 3 tablespoons.
• Coriander leaves for garnishing.
• Tamarind juice about half a cup of thin consistency.

Procedure :

• Heat oil in a pan and to it add the spices - cardamom, clove, bay leaf and cinnamom and once the spices turn colour, add chopped onions, green chillies and ginger garlic paste in that order and let the onions turn pink.
• Now add the bottle gourd cubes to it and stir it once.
• Now add turmeric, salt, chilly powder, coriander and cumin powder and also garam masala powder and mix all the ingredients and then add tamarind juice to it and let the whole mixture boil till the bottle gourd pieces are cooked soft.
• Add water if the water level comes down.
• Finally once the bottle gourd is cooked soft, add the buttermilk and again let the mixture cook for 5 more minutes and take it off the heat and garnish it with coriander leaves.

Tell me how you like the dish.

Take care....................Love

R

Candles & Celebrations

The 100th post definitely calls for celebration.......... and I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate this occasion than with a few candles. Today making candles and buying candles has become easy. Candles come in different shapes, sizes, fragrances, colours, etc. I love candles, simply because of the way they make me feel!! They inject romance and magic into the ambience. I am one of those people who do not need an occasion to light candles around the house......... What about you?????

My dining tabel always has candles on it............. whimsical and elegant..........

Now that you know how important candles are to me........it won't be a surprise if I told you that candle holders are an integral part of my household.

I hunt for anything that remotely looks like a candleholder... and then attempt at transforming it.... to make it look artistic or just simple gorgeous. This is a real simple experience for me..... Using lace, beads, ribbon or simply paint creates the magic in my home.....

Here are my champagne glasses.

Didn't I say........... anything converts into a candle holder.............

Here are my chutney or dip containers.......

Knowing my love for canldes and candle holders, my brother gifted me this book - Creative Candleholders by Deborah Morgenthal....I absolutely adore this book....and would like to share the following with you.......( the below four images are from this book ).

The book is magical..............A few vegetables in your kitchen turn into candle holders..........

A few apples with embedded tea lights, makes a cheerful centrepiece..............

A few wires and simple use of wires can make your work of art from silly to sophisticated.........

Just about any container can transform into a candleholder..........

This is how you trasnform ordinary objects into extraordinary candleholders.......

Do leave your comments and let me know what you think or if you have any other amazing candleholder ideas.........

P.S: This is a post by my dear friend Patricia Torres from Colours Dekor............ I apologise to her for not posting this for so long........... She kept her word and gave me the honor of having this post in my blog as my 100th post............... Thank you for this wonderful post Pat. Nothing could have been more perfect than this for the 100th post in my blog...............

Mixed Vegatable Curry

Time to post one more recipe, one I made last week.

I had these vegetables left over. Didn't wanna waste them. My mom always made this curry and I loved it.

Time to share it with you guys.

So here goes................

Ingredients:

• Vegetables : I used Tomatoes, Country Cucumber, Brinjal (Aubergine), Country Beans.
• Onions : 2 medium-sized onions, chopped length-wise.
• Green chillies : 2-3, slit along the lenth.
• Curry leaves : 4-5 ( optional, but I wouls suggest using it, gives out such good aroma ).
• Oil : for seasoning, about 2 tablespoons.
• Asafoetida, Urad dal, Chana dal, Cumin and Mustard seeds : one teaspoon each for the seasoning.
• Salt : for taste.
• Turmeric powder : One teaspoon.
• Red chilly powder : 1-2 teaspoons depending on how hot you want it to be. You could also avoid this in case your chillies are very hot. Better eat green chillies fried in oil than eat red chilly powder.
• Coriander.

Procedure:

• Heat oil in a kadai or pan and it to add asafoetida, urad dal, chana dal, cumin and mustard seeds in that order and once the dals turn golden brown, add onions, green chillies and curry leaves.
• Once the onions turn pink, add country beans and aubergines/brinjals, tomatoes and country cucumber.
• Add turmeric powder and salt and stir well. Now add about 1/4 cup of water to this and cook it covered with a lid.
• Your dish is done once the vegetables are cooked soft. You can add more water and cook till the vegetables are soft. Now add coriander to it about 2 minutes before removing from the flame, mix it well and cover it.

You dish it ready. Have a healthy meal.

P.S : Country cucumber and country tomatoes are usually sour and whenever there is a sour ingredient being added to a dish, make sure it is done after the other ingredients are cooked soft or make sure you add water when you mix everything at a time. Otherwise, the other ingredients in the dish would be half-cooked. You wouldn't wanna eat a half-cooked dish, would you??????????

Love

R

Paintings

Going through the old pictures taken in the last trip, I came across these pictures of paintings. We stayed at The Viceroy Hotel in Mysore. They had these beautiful paintings hanging at every corner in the hotel and each bedroom had one of these beautiful paintings.




The above painting was hanging in the main lobby behind the reception. People in Mysore are so proud of their heritage.

This was the painting in our bedroom. It was like a woman sitting there ready to play music any minute. It was as if she was waiting for us to settle down so that we could hear some nice melodies.

These two paintings, above and below, were again in the lobby right next to the lift. There are not many views from the hotel. These paintings made up for those missing views.



The hotel is right in front of the Mysore Maharaja Palace and rooms at the top have a great view of the palace especially at night when the lights are turned on in the Palace.


If you plan on staying in this hotel or for that matter any hotel in Mysore during the Dassera festival, make sure you make reservations atleast 2-3 months in advance.


We visited in July and many of the rooms were occupied. They have an off season from July through August, at which time you might be offered a room for lesser price.


The location of the hotel is perfect. It is not just in front of the Palace but also is quite near to the Chamundi Hill and also St. Phelomena Church which are few must see locations in Mysore.


Oh, and by the way, there is one more Palace in Mysore, Sri Jayachamarajendra Palace which houses the Art Gallery and we missed this.


You make sure to visit this and I'm pretty sure you'll love it if you are an art lover.


R