Recipe: Eggs Over Tomatoes with Goa Sausages and Mushrooms

The heat is killing and after a week of traveling to and from work, I choose to hybernate over the weekend. I enter kitchen only twice, to make brunch and dinner. Yup, just one meal during the day because I can't take the heat more than that. Today's brunch was quick Eggs Over Tomatoes with Goa Sausages and Mushrooms. Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:
4 large tomatoes, roughly chopped
50 gms spinach, chopped
50 gms mushrooms, chopped
2 eggs
2 Goa sausages, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 tbsp grated cheese
1/2 tsp black pepper
Salt to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Method:

1. Place spinach in a colander and pour hot water over it. Keep aside. 
2. Heat oil in a pan and saute onions, throw in mushrooms and cook till the water evaporates. 
3. Add tomatoes, Goa sausages and spinach and season with salt and pepper. Let it cook for 8-10 minutes. 
4. Now make two depressions in the sauce and break the eggs in them. Sprinkle cheese over it, cover and let it cook for 5 minutes. Eat with bread or pav.

Recipe: Vegetable and Chicken Stir Fry with Buna Shimeji Mushrooms

This post was sitting in my drafts since a long time, about time I published it. I made this stir fry last year when the awesome folks at Godrej Nature's Basket sent me some fresh produce - beautiful buna shimeji mushrooms, pak choy, lemons and rosemary. I used the first two in this recipe.

Isn't it facinating that there are so many varieties of mushrooms. So far I have tried the button mushrooms, cremini, shitake, portobello, oyster, morels, truffles, porcini, and buna shimeji. From reportedly 10,000 variety of mushrooms, this is not even scratching the surface. You can read more about different types of mushrooms here.

This was my first time trying the shimeji mushrooms - native to East Asia - so I tried a simple recipe. These mushrooms are slightly bitter when raw and develop a crunchy texture and nutty flavour after cooking. Add them to stir fries, soups and stews. You can cook them whole with the stem, just remove the extreme end of the bunch.

Ingredients:

200 gms boneless chicken (sliced)

200 gms buna shimeji mushrooms

1/2 yellow and red bell pepper (cubed)

100 gms bean sprout

1 head of pak choy

100 gms baby corn (sliced lengthwise)

2 stalks of shallot (chopped)

200 gms rice noodles

2 tsp sesame seeds (toasted)

4 cloves of garlic

2 tsp soy sauce

3 tsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp vegetable oil

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and throw in chicken peices. Add 1 tsp soy suce and stir the chicken till cooked through. (you can also pre-cook chicken and keep it in the fridge a day before to speed the process)
2. Remove the chicken from pan and keep it aside.
3. Pour remaining oil in the pan and fry the garlic cloves on slow flame till they turn light brown, make sure you don't burn them.
4. Add bell peppers and cook. When the peppers are half cooked add shimeji mushrooms and cook for another five minutes. Add baby corn, pak choy and shallots and cook for another minute.
5. Mix in the sauces, chicken and bean sprouts and toss everything together. Taste it first and add salt if needed.
6. Place the noodles in a bowl, pour the stir fry over it, garnish with sesame seeds and serve.

Recipe - Makhane Ki Sabzi

You guys know how much I am influenced by my mom’s cooking. Her ability to consistently churn out the same recipe with same precision year after year is what blows me over. One of such recipes is this Makhane ki Sabzi. Makhana or Lotus Nut is one of the most beautiful yet underused ingredients according to me. Usually it’s fried and eaten as an evening snack or added in panjiri and kheer. While there are various regional recipes, I have rarely seen restaurant menus using it creatively. Coming back to the recipe, this sabzi was a hit among my parents’ friends and we’d host special dinners and lunches where she made makhane ki sabzi and naan. Trust me, no one even cared for chicken and mutton. Yup, it’s that good.

You can also check out this recipe on Local Banya's blog and if you intend to cook it go buy the ingredients from their aisle right away.

Ingredients:
100 gms makhana (chopped)
25 raisins (chopped)
10 cashew nuts (chopped)
10 almonds (chopped)
4 chuhara (chopped)
50 gms green peas
2 dry red chillies
2 green cardamom
1 clove
1/2 inch piece of cinnamon
2 tbsp ghee
1 cup milk
1/4 tsp pepper powder
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a heavy bottomed pan.
2. Throw in red chillies, clove, cinnamon and cardamom and fry for few seconds.
3. Add makhana, raisins, cashew nuts, almonds, chuhara and green peas. Fry them for two minutes.
4. Add milk and let it cook till the milk thickens.
5. Season with salt and pepper.
6. Serve with roti, paratha or best, with naan.

You can make it richer by adding mawa or khoa instead of milk. Decorate it with dry fruits and cinnamon stick for better presentation. 

Holi Recipe - Nutella Stuffed Coconut Laddoo

I am back with another Holi recipe and this time it's in association with Local Banya. I am the #BloggerBanya of the month on their blog and will create two recipes for them with the ingredients bought from their aisles. You can read more about me as #BloggerBanya here and can also checkout the recipe here.

There’s so much fun in making colourful food especially during Holi. My mom used to make these saffron, white and green coconut laddoos every year and even though I don’t like coconut sweets much, I would eat the laddoos happily. I’ve added a little twist to that recipe with a surprise ingredient - yup, It's Nutella. Imagine what would life be if Michel Ferrero wouldn't have created this magic spread. Yeah, yeah! We would've still been thinner but also so-so unhappy. So this recipe is revisiting my childhood Holi and a little tribute to the chocolate genius.

Ingredients:

250 gms dry coconut powder 
200 gms Nestle Milkmaid100 gms Nutella (you won't use it all)1 tsp each of saffron and green food colours (use natural colours if you're allergic to synthetic stuff)50 gms dry coconut powder (to coat the laddoos)

Method:

1. Divide the coconut powder into three equal parts. 
2. Add saffron colour in one, green in another and leave the third one plane. 
3. Mix Milkmaid in each of them to make firm and skightly sticky dough. 
4. Take a tennis ball size portion of the dough, make a bowl of it, fill 1/2 tsp Nutella in it and pack it like a laddoo. You can take a little more dough to pack it properly. 
5. Coat these laddoos with dry coconut powder.

Store this laddoos in the refrigerator for up to a week. Bring them to room temperature before eating so that you get that gooey Nutella inside. Eat well, play safe and have a Happy Holi.

Holi Recipes - Dahi ki Gujiya

Holi is almost here and the festival always reminds me of late night gujiya making sessions. We used to shift the gas stove in the living room where Mom would pack the gujiyas and Dad would fry them. I never cared for the sweet gujiyas much. My favourites were all the savoury things that Mom would make - mathri, papdi chaat, namakpare etc. Her speciality though was dahi ki gujiya also called dahi wade or dahi bhalle. Mom's version had a filling of green chillies, raisins and ginger in it which was like surprise packed inside the gujiya. Take a bite and you would suddenly get sweet and spicy taste. Today I am sharing the recipe of my mom's famous dahi ki gujiya. Try it and you'll forget the best of dahi wadas you'd have eaten.

Ingredients

For Gujiyas

500 gms white urad dal (soaked overnight)

1/4 cup chopped green chillies

1/4 cup chopped raisins

1/4 cup chopped ginger

1/4 tsp hing (asafoetida)

Oil for deep frying

For Chutney

1 cup jaggery

1/2 cup tamarind pulp

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

For Serving

500 gms thick curd
2 tsp sugar
Chopped green coriander
A mix of salt, red chilli powder and roasted cumin powder (1 tsp each)

Method

1. Drain the water from the soaked urad dal and grind it into thick paste.
2. Mix hing in this paste. We won't add salt so that you can store the gujiyas for longer.
3. Heat oil in a wok. Take some paste in your hand, keep some chopped chillies, raisins and ginger in the centre, close it to shape it like a gujiya and deep fry till it turns golden.
4. Remove the gujiyas from oil and instantly drop them in a bowl full of salted water which will discard excess oil and soften the gujiyas. But if you're planning to store them for later then don't do it right away. You can soak the gujiyas in salted warm water half an hour before serving.
5. Heat tamarind pulp in a pan, add jaggery and red chilli powder and heat it till it turns into a thick chutney. Let it cool down completely. Yu can store it in the fridge for later.
6. Add sugar to curd and whisk it.
7. Now squeeze out excess water from gujiyas and place them in a bowl. Tp them with whisked curd, chutney, season with spice mix, garnish with coriander and serve.

Recipe: Akuri or Egg Bhurji

Anda bhurji, ande ki bhujiya, akuri, khagina or masala scrambled eggs - there are so many different names and variations of this simple breakfast. The North Indians make it with onion-tomatoes and simply eat it with bread, it gets a delicate name Khagina in Lucknow and Hyderabad where it's made with added masala and eaten with crisp parathas. In Maharashtra it's bhurji and eaten with pav. I’ve eaten the bhurji in a South Indian colleague’s dabba and it was flavoured with curry leaves. Trust me, it was really good and I am not the person who loves curry leaves in everything. The egg loving Parsis have their own version called akuri. My recipe here is more on the lines of akuri. I’ve added a touch of spicyness with East Indian bottle masala - a mix of red chillies, kebabchini, cumin, coriander, cloves, cardamom and a number of other spices.

Ingredients:
4 Eggs
2 Medium sized onions
2 Tomatoes
3 Cloves Garlic
1/2 Inch piece of Ginger
1 Green Chilli
1/2 tsp East Indian bottle masala
1/2 tsp Cumin powder
1 tbsp Milk
1/2 Lime
Green Coriander for garnishing
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

Method:

1. Finely chop onions, tomatoes, chilli, ginger and garlic. 
2. Beat the eggs in a bowl. Add milk. 
3. Saute onions in a pan. 
4. Throw in tomatoes, chilli, ginger, garlic, cumin powder and East Indian bottle masala. 
5. Fry the masala for 5 mins.
6. Add eggs and salt and cook till the eggs are done but still a little moist. 
7. Spritz lime juice, garnish with coriander and eat with pav.

Breakfast Recipe - Baked Eggs

Weekends are so good; you don’t have to wake up early, get ready in a hurry to go somewhere. The best part is that you don’t have to cook two meals in the morning, a good brunch makes up for two. At least in my case it does. I usually cook one heavy meal on weekend mornings or noons. Usually I prefer eggs cause they fill you up for a good part of the day. Today, instead of going the regular bhurji or omlette way I tried these easy baked eggs. It’s basically breakfast in a bowl and very easy to make.

How to make a perfect Sabudana Khichdi

Sabudana khichdi (or tehri as we call it in Lucknow) is easily a unanimously favourite dish during fasts. Sabudana is not a grain or pulse and is full of carbohydrates which fills you up really fast. Top it with dahi and it makes for a complete meal. I still remember, when my mother used to fast she’d cook sbudana khichdi for all of us; even if we weren’t fasting. I always loved the way she made it, slightly sticky and spicy. When I came to Bombay I ate the less spicier version with curry leaves. I didn’t like it initially but then developed a taste for it. This khichdi becamr my go-to Sunday meal while I was living alone. Eventually I learnt the process of how to make the non-sticky khichdi. Here’s my mom’s recipe. Take note of the first two steps, they are the most important ones.

Tandoori Khumb (Mushroom)

Last weekend I received a bag of ingredients from Nature’s Basket. It had a pack of crunchy lettuce, fat asparagus spears, bright red vine tomatoes and two plump portobello mushrooms. Now, that last ingredient confuses me. I get a bit confused around mushrooms. What to do with these buggers? Add them to salad, make stir fry or a burger; is that all? This time I wanted to try something new. So I racked my brain, looked on the net and zeroed in on Tandoori mushrooms or khumb. It’s a pretty simple recipe and doesn’t need a lot of preparation.

A healthy, power packed smoothie - An ideal way to eat oats

I hate oats; any form, size, shape. Recently, I tried MTR's oats upma but couldn't make myself to buy it again. i feel really guilty when I see a bottle of oats sitting sealed in my kitchen. I know it's one of the healthiest breakfast options, good for heart, keeps away bad cholesterol etc etc. I was hoping that there'd be some way I can include oats in my breakfast. That's when Nikhil Merchant, blogger and food consultant, started posting a series of smoothie recipes that he makes everyday. Check them out here. I got the idea of adding oats to my smoothies from him. If you hate oats like I do try this smoothie, it's brilliant, filling and power packed. Or you can try these Genius Overnight Oats from Prachi Joshi's blog, Deliciously Directionless.

Beetroot chops recipe

Do you know how I love making bread rolls, aloo tikkis and chhole bhature on Sundays? Deep fried Indian snacks are my guilty pleasures hence I try adding healthy ingredients in my recipes. The lowers the guilt factor to a certain extent. I stuff bread samosas with seasonal vegetables or make aloo tikkis stuffed with peas. In one of the issues of BBC's Good Food India, I saw this recipe of beetroot or chukandar chops. I liked the idea and thought of trying it. The original recipe is sourced from the magazine to which I added some dry mint powder and mixed roasted seeds. I've recently grown fond of seeds (flaxseed, melon seeds, pumpkin seeds, cucumber seeds) and try consuming them on a daily basis. While I like to eat them plain, straight from the bottle, the husband throws a fit. So I sneak them in tikkis, salads etc (please don't tell him). In this recipe I used the roasted mixed seeds from Godrej Nature's Basket's Healthy Alternatives section

Litti Chokha - The Bihari staple

In winters, strolling on the streets of a small town in Bihar or eastern UP, you'll find a bunch of people huddled around fire roasting littis. The staple from Bihar, litti chokha is one of the most rustic dishes of India. Traditionally the sattu (whole Bengal gram flour) stuffed littis (dough balls) are roasted on dried cow-dung cakes (gobar ke uple) and are eaten with chokha - mashed roasted brinjal mixed with spices. In some homes chana dal and yogurt topped with jaggery is also served along. Another favourite accompaniment with litti is spicy mutton curry cooked in a handi (earthen pot). Sadly, the dish never made to the menu of a main stream restaurant serving Indian food. While we have places serving dal-bati-choorma litti-chokha has mostly gone unnoticed. However, I won't delve into that issue here and will give you the recipe which is really close to my heart. I learnt it from my mom who started making it on cow dung cakes (gobar ke uple) and slowly moved on to gas oven for more practical reasons.

Fried Rohu in Mustard and Ajwain

Given that I am such a big fish eater it only makes sense to start the blog year with a fish recipe. Rohu is a river water fish and it's taste in itself is so sweet that you don't need too many spices to prepare it. This one is a very Bengali/UP preparation with just mustard and ajwain seeds. Cooking in mustard oil creates some magic in the kitchen and I for one cannot resist the aroma. The recipe is simple. Try it and thank me later.

Nature's goodness from Godrej Nature's Basket + Gazpacho Recipe

The most important question first; have you checked out Foodchants' Kitchen? What? No? Do it NOW NOW NOW! http://www.foodchants.in/p/foodchants-kitchen.html

Second question; Do you know what happiness is? Happiness is to have loads of awesome ingredients in your kitchen to play with, plenty of crazy ideas and insane amount of good food at the end of the day. This Monday when I reached home from work I was jumping like a happy bunny. The reason was a hamper from Godrej Nature's Basket which had some fresh mulberries, bok choy and edible flowers from Trikaya. I had some strawberries and oranges with me and I just couldn't stop myself from taking this picture. The colours look pretty, don't they?

It has been a long time since I ate fresh mulberries. Used to eat them as a kid at my Nana-Nani's house in Uttarakhand. 

Thai salad with Maggi noodles - One bowl meal

Do you know what I love the most about Japanese and Thai food? The one bowl meals. The dishes are fuss free to prepare, there's no headache of plating and they are full of nutrition - a good balance of protein, vitamins and carbohydrates. So tonight I thought of throwing together a one bowl meal. I took the Thai salad recipe from Good Food Magazine's November issue and added my own twist to it. There weren't any noodles at home except for Maggi so I used them without the masala. It tasted pretty awesome. I am sure you're going to love it too.

Ingredients
French beans (chopped diagonally) - 1 cup
Shallots (chopped) - 2
Boneless chicken breast (boiled and shredded) - 1 cup
Lemongrass - 1 tsp
Red chilli (sliced) - 1
Ginger (grated) - 1 tsp
Mint leaves (chopped) - 1 tbsp
Thai basil (chopped) - 1 tbsp
Maggi noodles - 1 packet
Soy sauce - 1 tsp

For dressing
Coconut milk - 2 tbsp (you can use 1 tbsp coconut powder if you're out of coconut milk)
Oyster sauce - 1 tbsp
Sweet chilli sauce - 2 tbsp
Garlic (crushed) - 1 clove
Juice of half lemon
Salt to taste.

Method

1. Simmer French beans in salted water for about four minutes. Make sure they are partially cooked and the bright green colour is intact.
2. Throw beans, shallots, ginger, chilli, lemon grass, mint leaves, Thai basil and chicken together in a bowl.
3. Boil Maggi noodles in 11/2 cup water. Throw out excess water and add soy sauce to the noodles. You can keep the water if you want your dish a bit soupy. Mix noodles with the salad.
4. Now mix all the ingredients for dressing together and add it to the above mix.
5. The one bowl meal is ready. Eat away!
6. You can replace chicken with fish, prawns, eggs or tofu.

Suhaal with boiled potatoes - A snack from Uttar Pradesh

If you've ever wandered in the bylanes of Lucknow, Banaras or any other city in Uttar Pradesh you must have found people snacking on something beyond kachori and samosas. These crispy, savoury pastries called suhaal. Since its eaten with spicy boiled potatoes you can also call it a disentegrated samosa. Now, we don't have enough places that make decent UP style samosas or kachoris in Mumbai so finding suhaal is out of question. So this Diwali when I was craving for some I thought of making it for brunch. Sharing the recipe was the obvious next step after we gobbled down all the suhaals with the yummy potatoes. By the way they can also be eaten with pickle or boiled, spiced white peas (also know as ragda in Mumbai). But trust me, potatoes are the best. So go ahead, try the recipe and let me know how they turned out.

Ingredients

Maida or all purpose flour -  250 gms

Oil - 4 tbsp for flour and 500 ml for frying

Ajwain - 2 tsp

Salt 2 tsp

For potatoes

Potatoes (boiled) - 3 medium sized

Spring onion - 1

Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp

Roasted cumin powder - 1/2 tsp

Lemon juice - 1/2 tsp

Fresh coriander (chopped) - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Method

1. Mix maida and oil till all of it is soaked in oil.
2. Add ajwain, salt and water and knead it in a tight dough.
3. Make small balls and roll each one into thin disks.
4. Prick them with a fork. This is to avoid them from puffing up while frying.
5. Now cut each disk into halves, fold every half to form a triangle. Use a little water to stick the corners together.
6. Heat oil in a wok and fry the triangles till they turn crisp and brown. Don't fry more than 5-6 at a time.
7. Remove and keep aside. Let them cool down.
8. Peel and mash the potatoes, add all the ingredients and mix.
9. Serve the crispy suhaal with spiced, boiled potatoes.

Potato and spinach salad with yogurt dressing

Salads; they are healthy, fresh and yum and I can live on them forever. This new salad that I tried was inspired from a recipe on sanjeevkapoor.com. It's a jhatpat recipe and makes for a great lunch and what's not to love about a salad which has potatoes and spinach in it? Don't believe me? Ask the minions....

Or Popeye...

Or just try this recipe...

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 20 mins
Serves: 2

Ingredients
Potatoes - 3 medium
Spinach (blanched and chopped) - 1 cup
Macaroni (cooked al dante) - 1 cup
Red and yellow bell peppers (chopped) - 1 cup
Shallots (finely chopped) - 1 sprig
Olive oil - 2 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

For dressing
Yogurt - 1 cup
Garlic (chopped) - 2 cloves
Roasted cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Method

• Pre-heat oven at 200 degree Celcius.
• Peel and cut potatoes into big cubes.
• Grease the baking dish, place the potatoes on it, drizzle 1 tsp olive oil, salt and pepper on them and let them roast for 20 minutes. Prepare rest of the stuff (blanching spinach, cooking pasta, preparing the dressing etc.) while the potatoes are cooking.
• Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a pan and saute the shallots. Keep the aside.
• Mix all the ingredients of the dressing with the yogurt and whisk it.
• Once the potatoes are crispy and brown mix them with spinach, macaroni, bell peppers and shallots. Add the lime juice and mix in the dressing.
• A glass of white wine will go well with it.

My Doodle recipe is a part of Easy Doodle Recipe contest at BlogAdda.com in association with TastyKhana.com

Mom's special bread samosas - A mix of fried and healthy

Sometimes I love indulging in some seriously unhealthy breakfasts. Most of them are my Mom's recipes. These bread rolls or like Mom calls them, bread samosas are one of them. The dish tastes the best during winters when there are a lot of fresh vegetables in the market. The digestive system also works better in winters so it's best to make it then.

Ingredients
Potatoes - 4 medium
Carrot - 1 medium (grated)
Cabbage - 1 cup (grated)
Capsicum - 1 medium (chopped)
Green chilies - 2 (chopped)
Green coriander - 1/4 cup (chopped)
Dry mango powder (amchoor powder) - 1 tbsp
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Bread - 8 slices
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method

1. Boil, peel and mash the potatoes.
2. Add carrot, cabbage, capsicum, green chilies, green coriander, amchoor powder, red chili powder and salt to potatoes and mix well.
3. lightly soak a bread slice in abowl of water. Squeeze out the excess water, take a little potato filling and place it in the centre of the bread slice.
4. Carefully wrap the bread around the potato mix to make a round ball.
5. Repeat the process with rest of the bread slices.
6. Heat oil in a wok and fry the samosas till they turn brown.
7. Serve with sauce, green chutney or any other dip of your choice.

Baby potato and bacon salad + Happy Birthday blog

The blog turns two today, it has been a very delicious ride so far. I started this food blog in 2011 after I started food writing for burrp's features section Know Your City. Initially, the idea was to write restaurant reviews but the blog kept growing and I started posting recipes that I was trying at home. The blog inspired me to bake more often and try out ingredients that I had never used before. Thanks blog and Happy Birthday.

To celebrate the blog's birthday I thought of making something with bacon, my new found love :). I decided to go with this simple Roasted baby potatoes and bacon salad topped with caramelized onions. The dish tastes wonderful with different sort of flavours and textures; the crunchy bacon, sweet onions and pepper roasted potatoes, what's not to like about it. I got the inspiration for the recipe from thecozyapron.com. Here's the recipe with a slight twist.

Prep Time: 15 mins
Cooking Time: 30 mins
Serves: 2

Ingredients:
Baby potatoes - 250 gms
Onion - 1 large
Bacon - 3-4 strips (depends on how much bacon heavu you want it to be)
Black pepper - 8 (lightly crushed)
Maple syrup - 1 tbsp
Parsley - 1 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Kosher Salt - 1 tsp
Olive oil - 2 tsp for potatoes, 2 tsp for caramelizing onions, 1 tsp for frying bacon

Method:

• Preheat the oven at 180 degree celcius.
• Peel and half the potatoes. Take them in baking dish, add salt, pepper, olive oil and lemon juice. Mix well.
• Roast the potatoes in oven for about 30 minutes or till they are brown and crisp.
• Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a pan for caramelized onions, throw in onions and sugar and fry till they turn brown. Remove from the pan and keep aside.
• Heat 1 tsp olive oil in a pan, chop the bacon strips and fry them in the oil. Add maple syrup. Remove from pan and keep aside.
• Once potatoes are roasted move them in the serving bowl. Top them with maple bacon, caramelized onions and chopped parsley. Serve.

Grab a chilled beer too.

My Doodle recipe is a part of Easy Doodle Recipe contest at BlogAdda.com in association with TastyKhana.com

Dad, dosa and the hunt for the perfect tawa

As a kid making idli - dosa at our home was a monthly ritual. The preparations that went behind it would've easily made us look like a South Indian family. Mom would soak the dal and rice overnight for dosa batter and would grind it into a paste, sil-batta being her weapons of choice till dad gifted her a food processor. Her proportions for the batter were always accurate, consistency always right.

The sambhar that she makes still has the same taste as it had some 20 years ago and I still prefer it over all the Cafe Madras and Cafe Mysores. Her simple chutney made of chana dal, coconut and dahi was the star of the meal, I've not eaten similar chutney anywhere else.

While mom cooked her perfect sambhar, chutney and aloo sabzi for masala dosa, it was dad who donned the Chef's hat to make dosas. His practiced hands poured a bowl of batter on the hot pan, spread it quickly making thin, crisp and even colored dosas while my sisters and I gobbled one after another. Dad's interest in the art and technique of making dosas started in his college days in Lucknow when he and his friends used to go out to eat dosas. He always stood next to the cook observing him, watching his every move keenly.

After starting to make dosa at home dad used the non stick tawa for a very long time. One fine day he went to the market and got a special flat iron tawa made for himself. The tawa that he has is a lot bigger than the one in the video, and heavier too. His dosas got bigger and crispier on the iron tawa eventually, spoiling him for life. Now every time he comes to stay with my sister in Bombay he cribs at the lack of good tawa. Last year he searched the Kharghar market and bought one that sort of fulfilled his need, only for the time being though. He is in town again and planning on getting a heavy iron one for my sis this time. Meanwhile I took a video of him making dosa in his signature style. I don't know how much time it'll take me to make dosas like this but I am in no hurry since the husband is learning.

Sorry for the bad quality and too much noise in the video. I didn't get enough time to edit it.