Prologue

One day when I get famous and need fillers for my book, I might give this more thought ..... for now this will do. I claim to be no expert at either travelling or cooking or the random things I write about... But I would like to collate all my good memories (and efforts) into this space for reminiscing on those grey rainy days... What Blog its more of a 'Brag'!!

My Thank You Speech..........

I was introduced to cooking in the early years of my life by my Aayi while I sat at the kitchen dining table while she mixed spices and vegetables to create those sumptuous dishes. My brain took in what I did not intend to learn. My Aayi is a fantastic cook. Each day I woke up to a sit down breakfast of Idlis, Dosas, Upma, Dodak, Usli and the likes. A far cry compared to the ‘eat while you dress’ cereal we make do with these days. Any efforts Aayi made of training me in the kitchen went futile. It is hence ironic that Aayi, ‘my first teacher’ is still to taste anything cooked by my hand. My hard core cooking days started only when I moved to UK with my husband a few years ago. My husband, like a true martyr, suffered through my numerous cooking expeditions. His encouragement, fulsome praise where due and frank critical review drives me to try something new each week. It is to these two people that I owe whatever little cooking I know or strive to know today.

Lentil Pancakes (Daal Dosa)


My favouritest (if there is such a word) of all dosas is the dalli pole. My Mom made this from time to time and with the wet garlic chutney, it tastes amazing. The daals can be soaked overnight and the dosas can be made the next morning.

Here is what you will need:
1/2 cup Chana daal
1/2 cup urad daal
1/2 cup moong daal
1 inchg ginger
3 pods garlic
2 green chillies
1 finely chopped onion (optional)
oil (I use it only for the first dosa)
salt

Wash the lentil and soak it in sufficient water overnight. The next morning grind the lentil along with the ginger, garlic and chilly. Add salt and water to make it dosa consistency. Add onion.
Heat a non stick pan till really hot. Spread oil and spoon out the batter into the centre. Spread the batter around the pan with a rounded ladel starting from the centre in a circular motion. If you have a good non stick pan, you can make this as thin and crisp as possible if prefered (I dont mind it slightly thicker uthappam style).
When one side is golden, turn on its rear and heat until done. For the next dosa, sprinkle water on the hot pan and then spread the batter (no oil required). For butter dosa add butter just before turning the dosa on its rear.
Relish with any wet chutney.

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