French Toast

French toast or egg bread as David calls it, is a favorite breakfast dish in my house. This is one of the only two ways David eats eggs, the other being eggs fried sunny side up. He refuses to eat eggs made any other way and that is extremely frustrating. But reserach says children refuse any new food twenty times before they decide to try it. So I have a long journey ahead of me, I guess, before he tries other egg preparations. Phew! But that's just a mum's rant.

Coming back to today's post, French toast is a easy breakfast recipe and can be tweaked to suit individual tastes and preferences. Typically, french toast is sweet but I remember eating this snack in my office cafeteria, where the chef added green chillies to suit our palates and there was no hint of sweetness whatsoever. It was more like eating a masala omelette bread. :-) But it was a popular dish and I loved it for my evening snack.

It is a simple dish and can be cooked by novices too. Specially if you have to make breakfast for a large group, this is a good choice.

Ingredients:

1. Egg - 1 no
2. Milk - 1 tbsp
3. Sugar - 1 tsp (as per taste)
4. Salt & pepper
5. Bread slices - 2 nos
6. Oil - for shallow frying

Method:

1. In a bowl, break the egg, add the milk, sugar, salt and pepper. Beat it well.
2. Dip one slice of bread completely and let it soak in the egg mixture.
3. Immediately transfer to a hot pan that has been drizzled with oil, and shallow fry on each side for a minute or two.
4. Repeat the same process with second slice.

Serve with tomato sauce.

 

Masala Omelette

An egg is a very  versatile ingredient. Your imagination and creativity can create wonders when you have eggs to experiment with. One can cook different dishes with eggs - starters, finger snacks, main course and even deserts. I am an egg lover, I can eat eggs as often for a meal and not feel bored. In fact I love omelettes and can have them at any time of the day. An omelette is a quick fix meal and that's the beauty of it. It takes absolutely no time to make an omelette. Omelettes can be had for breakfast, lunch or dinner or as an in between snack. Omelettes are made by beating eggs and seasoning with salt and pepper. One may add different ingredients for making a delicious heavy meal. They are made differently across the world - folded or flat. And fillings could range from onions, mushrooms, cheese, ham et al. 

The recipe I have for you today is the one you'd find in a typical Indian home for breakfast or at road side eatery. Indian omelettes are flat and typically contain onion, green chillies and coriander leaves and this is called - Masala omelette. I prefer a masala omelette for breakfast or as a side dish for dinner with dal or vegetable curry and rice. However, I also add tomatoes to my omelette. It's easy to make and for hard core non-vegetarians, an easy substitute for meat. 

Ingredients:

1. Eggs - 3 nos 
2. Onion - 1 small 
3. Tomato - 1 small
4. Green chilly - 1 no. 
5. Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp 
6. Ginger - 1 tbsp (grated) Optional 
7. Salt - to taste 
8. Turmeric 
9. Oil - for shallow frying 

Method: 

1. Chop the onion, tomato, green chilly and coriander leaves finely. Make three portions of these ingredients, including grated ginger. 
2. In a big bowl, break one egg, add salt, turmeric and one third of all the chopped ingredients. 
3. Beat all the ingredients well for a minute. 
4. Heat a pan and pour oil as required for shallow frying. Pour the egg mixture on to the pan. 
5. Egg cooks real fast and will set in about two minutes. 
6. Check if the egg is cooked and flip it to the other side. Let it cook on the other side as well for 2 to 3 minutes. 
7. Remove from the pan and repeat for the remaining two eggs as well. 

Alternatively, all three eggs and all the ingredients can be beaten together and three to four portions can be made. 
  
Omelette tastes best with pau, or bread which is lightly roasted on the pan after the omelette is taken off the pan. A hot cup of tea (chai) with the meal or at the end of it makes the meal complete. 

White chutney for dosa

This chutney used to be prepared by my mum quite regularly, however I never bothered writing it down. Once I moved to Cebu, and started making dosas, I wanted to make this chutney. Based on my memory of the taste, I re-created it. And what can I say I nailed it. :-)

So last week I posted the recipe of dosas, and after that I posted the recipe of the potato bhaji that goes so well with it and today I am posting the recipe for a chutney that accompanies the dosa and bhaji and completes it.

Click Pole/Dosa for the recipe.

Click Masala dosa bhaji for the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Coconut - 1/2 cup
2. Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
3. Green chilies - 2 nos
4. Tamarind - 2 to 3 small bits or 1/2 tbsp paste
5. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Onion - 1/2 of a small one
7. Salt

Tempering:

1. Oil
2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Curry leaves - a few

Method:

1. Grind all the ingredients mentioned with very little water to a coarse paste.
2. In a pan, heat oil and temper mustard seeds, when they stop crackling add the curry leaves.
3. Then add the ground paste and mix well. Let it cook on the flame for two minutes. 
4. Serve with hot dosas.

Dosa bhaji (Potato bhaji)

Last week I had posted the recipe for dosas and this week I am posting two recipes that go well with it. Today's recipe is credited to my mum-in-law. She used to make this lovely potato bhaji with dosas every Friday, since Fridays are no meat days in their home. It is extremely simple to make this recipe and tastes heavenly with the dosas and some chutney.

Ingredients:

1. Boiled potatoes - 4 medium sized
2. Onions - 2 large sized, sliced thinly
3. Ginger - half inch piece, grated
4. Green chilly - 3 -4 nos, finely chopped
5. Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
6. Salt

Tempering:

1. Urad daal - 1/4 tsp
2. Chana daal - 1/4 tsp
3. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
4. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. Curry leaves - a few 
6. Oil

Method:

1. Heat oil in a pan, add all the ingredients mentioned in - Tempering, in that order.
2. Add the onions, salt and chilies. Fry till the onions turn translucent.
3. Add the grated ginger and turmeric. Mix well.
4. Roughly mash the potatoes and add them to the pan, and mixing the contents of the pan well.
5. Sprinkle water if needed so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Don't pour water, if required keep sprinkling till all the contents are well mixed.
6. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves. This is optional.

Recipe for dosas is here. You may also find it under the label of bread and breakfast.

Pole (poh-lay) or dosas

We love variety in our plates, and Alex and I gulp down dosas, as though they are going out of fashion. That may be because I never made them, and the only opportunity we got to eat this awesome treat was either when Alex's mum or my mum prepared it. Both my mums encouraged me many times to try this as it was sooooooo simple. And yet I never gave in. Even after I moved to Manila and now Cebu, I never gave this preparation a second thought. Then one day, I had a Tamil- Telugu family move into my neighborhood. I was over-joyed at the thought of having Indian neighbors. And one evening as David and I were sitting at Sudha's (my neighbor) house, she asked him if he was hungry. And David said he was, so she quickly went to the kitchen and got him a dosa within five to six minutes. David ate that and then asked for more. You can imagine my awe, that was inspired by this simple and humble dosa. The fact that it took so little time to make something so lovely was the big draw for me.

That is when I started making dosas with a enthusiasm that is bordering psychotic. This episode happened in mid-December 2014. Since then, I have dosa batter in my fridge on any given day. For many days, David ate nothing but dosas for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and just like that he has decided to give dosas a break.

However, Alex and I have gotten used to eating dosas for breakfast. They are quick to make and an healthy option and go so well with chutney and sambhar or potato bhaji.

This is the simplest thing to cook besides rice and yet it took me so long to start making them. But better late than never I guess.

Ingredients:

1. Rice - 3 measures
2. Urad daal - 1 measure
3. Methi seeds (fenugreek) - few seeds.
4. Salt - to taste
5. Oil - for pan frying

Method:

1. Wash and soak rice and fenugreek seeds together in a bowl with enough water to cover the rice.
2. In another bowl, wash and soak urad daal. Soak for 2 - 3 hours.
3. Grind the rice and daal separately in a mixer to a smooth fine paste using little water. The consistency should be thick and creamy.  
4. Empty the batter into a vessel, where the batter occupies half of the vessel, leaving room for it to rise. It will increase in quantity by at least half so use a large enough vessel. 
5. Do not add salt at this stage.
6. Leave it over-night or at least eight to nine hours to ferment.
7. When the wait time is over. Mix the batter well and adjust consistency by adding water if required. Add salt.
8. Heat a flat pan, pour a little oil and then laddle the batter onto the pan, just like a pancake. Cook on simmer till the edges start to loosen and leave the pan. You may add oil on the top of the dosa and turn it over so it cooks on the other side too. This should take about thirty seconds.
9. You can make as many dosas as you want and then store the remaining batter in the fridge. It stays upto a week.
10. Once done, serve it hot with your choice of chutney and sambhar.

Click the following links for recipes that go well with Pole pronounced poh-lay, in konkani or Dosa

• Tomato coconut chutney
• White chutney for dosa
• Dosa bhaji (Potato bhaji)

Tomato Coconut Chutney

I have been off the blog radar for over a month. I should be crowned the queen of procrastination. I can't think of one plausible reason to explain my laziness. I plan to plan better so that my blog posts are regular and lets say Amen to that. Once a week every Wednesday.

Let's get started on today's recipe. Mangaloreans can make chutneys with anything. Seriously ! The sheer creativity in this particular area of food amazes me. The plan is to share all those different chutney recipes right here.Chutneys typically are served as an accompaniment to different dishes.They enhance the taste of the meal and are mostly bursting with a lot of flavor and aroma. I borrowed this recipe from my sister who in turn borrowed it from a colleague.In the family circle we call this recipe "Malti's chutney" as that was how it was written in my sister's recipe book. A chance discussion at a family get together got this innocent chutney name some serious embarrassing comments. But not as embarrassing as Lancy's lollipops :-)

Anyway, the recipe I share with you today is something that I love putting on the table with Dosas. Dosas as they are popularly known are rice pancakes, from South India and there is a variety of them. They popular for a being healthy, nutritious and hassle free to make and eat. You can pair enjoy the Dosas with, Potato bhaji (Dosa bhaji) and white chutney.

Recipe credit : Obviously Malti, from Anita's school.

Ingredients:

1. Onion - 1 large
2. Tomato - 2 medium
3. Garlic - 5 flakes
4. Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
5. Kashmiri chillies - 4 nos
6. Coconut - 1/2 (medium sized)
7. Oil & Salt as required

Method:

1. In a pan, pour 1 tsp of oil and fry individually ingredients 1 to 5.
2. After the last ingredient is removed from the pan and while the pan is still hot, place the scraped coconut for a couple of minutes.
3. Grind the ingredients with some water and don't forget to add salt to suit your taste.
4. Serve with hot dosas and see the magic work

Lapsi Khichdi (Dahlia)

Lapsi or dahlia (broken wheat) is extremely nutritious. Many of us may be aware that lapsi sweets are made, specially in Gujarat, Maharashtra and the North. But the recipe I am sharing here is savory and ideal for breakfast or lunch and makes for a wholesome meal. You can add as many veggies as you like to make it colorful and healthy. One bowl of lapsi can fill you up and your all set begin a healthy day.

 

Ingredients:

1. Lapsi (Broken wheat) - 1 cup
2. Onion - 1 no. medium
3. Mixed vegetables  - 1/2 cup ( You can use peas, carrots, french beans)
4. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Curry leaves - a few
7. Oil - As required
8. Salt to taste 

Method:

1. Soak lapsi in 1 cup of water before you start chopping/slicing your veggies.
2. In a cooker, heat oil, crackle cumin, add curry leaves, add onions, fry well. The onions should turn translucent. Add the turmeric.
3. Add the veggies. Fry well for about a minute.
4. Add the lapsi along with the water. Check the quantity of water and adjust as you need in the cooker.
5. Add salt and shut the cooker and give it three whistles.

Your healthy meal is ready :-)