Lamb's lettuce dal.

We had a packet of lamb's lettuce lying since a few days. Neither of us is a salad's person. So I tried this lamb's lettuce dal and it came out very well to my surprise .Lamb's lettuce is a bit difference  from the normal lettuce. the leaves are slightly darker and smaller in size . Its also very slippery. You should be careful while chopping it .

Lamb's lettuce coarsly chopped - 2 cups .
Tuar dal                                      - 1/2 cup .
Green chillies                             - 2
Ginger /garlic paste  ( optional ) - 1/2 tsp.
Salt                                             - to taste.

For seasoning
Mustard seeds /  broken udad dal / one red chilly/ curry leaves /Sesame oil.

1. Boil and mash the tuar dal very smoothly and keep it aside .
2. In a heavy bottomed kadai, take  1 tbsp sesame oil and add the lamb's lettuce  chopped leaves.
3. close the lid and let it  fry for a few minutes on slow fire . Very quickly they will reduce to half their original quantity.
4 .AFter 5-10 minutes , once they are 'cooked' , add the boiled tuar dal .
5 . Add salt and close the lid again  to let it simmer.
6 .Finally take a smaller kadai.
7.Add 1 tbsp sesame oil ( or any oil of your choice) , add the ingredients for seasoning .
8 .Once they splutter, add the seasoning to the dal mixtue .
9. Garnish with lemon juice / coriander leaves as per your wish.  Tastes heavenly with hot rice .
10. If this is made a bit thick, then it can be had with chapati too.

Do try this and mail to me at suparcot@gmail.com .

Kal dosa

Renu's recepie.
Idli rice - 3 cups
Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Udad dal -3/4 cup
Soak udad dal and immediately keep in the fridge. Let it soak for  3-4 hours in the fridge.
Soak both the  types of rice together for 3-4 hours .
Grind udad dal first for 15 minutes
It will puff up and fill the entire  grinder .
Remove the udad dal paste and grind the rice for  30 minutes.
Now add the udad dal also and grind together for 10 minutes until smooth .
Let it ferment overnight and make fluffly dosas the next day.

Urundai Sambar -

This is a  proper Brahmin Triplicane recipe from my granny who used to live in Triplicane. She never used any mixer / grinder or fridge for her cooking. With her and my mum passing away a few years back, some of these recipes are slowly vanishing from our menus.  It used to be our Sunday special lunch during our Summer holidays at Chennai .
I caught hold of my Bangalore Lallu mausi and got this recipe from her . I have tried it and it came out well . Many people mistake urundai kolambu  for urundai sambar . A proper sambar will not have ground ginger / garlic in it ( like net  most recipes say ).
This recipe is for a family of 4 - 2 adults and 2 children.

For the Balls ( urundai )
Tuar Dal - 1 cup
Channa dal -1 cup
Red chillies - 2
Curry leaves - a few
Hing - A pinch
Salt - per taste .


For the sambar masala :
Freshly  grated coconut - 1 cup
Tamarind - A small lemon size .
Green chillies - 2
Jeera    - 1/2 table spoon
Channa dal - 2 Tablespoons
Jaggery - a pinch
Salt - per taste 

For seasoning :
Oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard - 1 table spoon
Methi seeds - 1/4 table spoon
Karepak leaves  - a few
Red chillies  - 1 

Soak the ingredients for the balls for an hour and  grind coarsely   .
Make into small lemon sized balls and keep aside .

Grind the ingredients for sambar  minus the tamarind and keep aside .

In a heavy bottomed pan , extract juice of the tamarind and boil . You can add 1/2 cup water to make it more watery .  Add the sambar masala and let it simmer for a few minutes .
Then  add the balls one by one .
If the balls immediatly spring up , then it means its getting cooked well.  If the ingredients for the balls are not proper or they are not ground properly , then the balls might start melting in the sambar.
In such a case , you can add some rice flour  to the balls  , mix it and start putting them in the sambar.
Alternatively , you can steam these balls for 5 minutes in the idli cooker.  For a richer taste you can deep fry them for a few minutes in oil.

Once all the balls are in the sambar sauce , you can switch off the gas .

The final step is seasoning .  Seasoning of any dish should be done in the end as it gives a crunchy taste while eating .

Urundai sambar with hot rice with a dollop of ghee on top makes such a slurpy dish.

L'Arpege

 It was in 2008 Nov.
Wow  I really feel privileged . I was not good at blog writing those days so just  jotted down a few lines  then .  pardon my haphazard writing .

Michelin is a Tyre company which comes out with good places to eat in their travel book every year . Around the world they travel to good hotels and go incognito  as reviewers and rate the food and ambiance . 3 star Michelin is THE ultimate honor any chef can get . Every year this rating is done . If the number  of star falls ,  ( insiders have told us ) most restaurants close down or some chefs commit suicide they cant withstand the insult.
One of the first  and fine dining experiences of France is described underneath.
L'Arpege is one such 3 star restaurant in the heart of Paris. Many people come from Japan or New york here  only for lunch and then fly back. Such is their reputation . We left our kids at 12:00  at the creche and ran to the hotel as our appt was at 2 pm . The waiter there was kind enough and he said he will decide the dishes and wine for us . Both of us were ill at ease as we  were  still not used to the French  dining .  We were hardly 1 year old in Paris .  
The chef Alain PASSARD  apparently realised that the French dont eat much vegetables. He  is known for vegetarian cooking .  We have heard that he grows his own vegetables.  
We started with a good wine from Navarre. It makes the best wine in France . We had a 9 course meal . Starting with potato gratin ( potato, cheese , cream topped with Malaysian pepper ) , salad , beetroot gnocchi , potato gnocchi , eggs ) I don't know how they manage to do it , inside the original egg shell they add egg whites, yellow , creams and other spices ) , sweet onion gratin , dessert ( hazelnut sauce with crapes and choc sauce ) , a cheese trolley , sweets trolley ( all home made , no chocolate  was shop bought ) and finally coffee. Did I miss out any course . whew !!! it was a full 9 course dinner and by the time i finished 6 courses I could go no more . I was full but managed to take a few bites.
It was just wow . I managed to click some pics of the dishes we bought . Next to us were some Japanese youth who were clicking pics like mad . They clicked pics of the knives, forks and what not ... by the time we finished it was well past 4 30 pm . whew took us more than 2.5 hrs for lunch . I was soo full that I could not walk properly and tired and sleepy from all that heavy food .The bill per head would have come to more than 200 euros . I don't think i will get any such chance to dine at such a fine restaurant again . Only one Indian restaurant has 1 Michelin star in London ZAIKA . The rest are French, American or Japanese. Wow its just wow . I can only thank my luck I got this chance.  
L'Arpege is  definitely worth  more than one visit . 

Vegetable /Curry dishes

• Ennagai palya

Ingredients:

• Brinjal: 1 kg
• Onion Chopped: 200 gms
• Tomato Chopped: 200 gms
• Coriander: 25 gms
• Garlic: 30 gms
• Huchelu: 25 gms
• Channa Dhal: 25 gms
• Salt to taste
• Groundnuts: 100 gms
• Curry leaves: 5 gms
• Turmeric: 5 gms
• Tamarind: 25 gms
• Oil: 250 gms

Method Take the brinjal cut half as 4 pieces, grind these coriander, garlic, huchelu, channa dhal, groundnuts, curry leaves, turmeric, tamarind, then pour this brinjal and fry in the oil then pour grinded paste with brinjal and add items onion, tomato fry it. And serve it.




Vegetable Khurma .

Ingredients :
Onion	2 nos ( Medium )
Green chili	3 nos
Ginger garlic paste	1/2 tsp
Mixed vegetables	1 cup ( Carrot, Beans, etc )
Curd	2 tbsp
Milk	1/4 cup
Coriander powder	2 tsp
Salt	to taste
Bay leaf	2 nos
Black stone flower	2 nos
Cumin seed	1/4 tsp
Fennel seeds	1/4 tsp
Curry leaves	8 nos
Coriander leaves	2 tbsp
Oil	3 tsp
Ghee	1 tsp
To Grind: :
Cloves	2 nos
Cinnamon stick	2 ( small )
Cardamom	1 no
Cashew	2 nos
Poppy seeds	2tsp
Roasted Channa dhal	2 tsp
Green chili	1 no
Coconut	5 tbsp ( grated )

Directions:

1. Step 1
   Grind the “To Grind” Section in to fine paste.Cut the vegetables into the same size or the desired size. Chop the Onion finely. Split open the green chili. Beat the curd into a creamy paste. Chop the Coriander Leaves finely.
2. Step 2
   In a non-stick pan heat oil and ghee together. When hot, add bay leaf, curry leaves, black stone flower, cumin and fennel seeds. Immediately add the chopped onions, green chilies and saute the onion till it turns golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry this well till the raw smell leaves. Add the vegetables, coriander powder and 1 cup water and allow the vegetables to cook in medium flame for sometime.
3. Step 3
   Add Curd, ground paste , salt and allow it to boil for 3 min.Add the milk, coriander leaves and turn off the the stove.

Snack Dishes

Cashew nut Pakoda

Ingredients:

• 100 gms rice powder
• 150 gms besan
• 1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
• 1 tsp red chilly powder
• 5 green chillies
• A few shredded curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp jeera
• 1/4 tsp ajwain
• 1/2 a cup chopped cashew nuts
• 4-5 tsps ghee or oil
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep-frying

Method:

• Mix the rice powder, besan, salt, chilly powder, jeera, ajwain and coarse pepper.
• Add finely shredded curry leaves and sliced green chillies and mix once more.
• Combine soda and oil/ghee in a separate bowl to make a paste.
• Add paste to powder-leaves mix; use a little water to turn it all into a dough.
• Knead into round bite-size balls and deep-fry.
• Cool a little and serve.

Cabbage Kootu.

There are several ways of  making Kootu  which is a healthy mix of lentils and vegetables with very little spices . My sister in law Jaysri Prasad has given me this recepie .

Tual Dal      -1/2 cup .
 Shreaded cabbage - 1/2 cup .  
  Methi seeds - 1/2 tsp
 Hing  powder- a pinch  
 Green chilles - 5  
 Tamarind   -
Lemon size .

 Boil Tuar dal with turmeric  till very soft .  Squeeze juice out of tamarind . Add 1 cup of water to that tamarind juice and boil the shredded cabbage in that till soft. Take a heavy bottomed pan , heat 2 tsp of sunflower oil in it . Add a spoon of mustard seeds , curry leaves , the pinch of hing , the methi seeds and let it splutter . In the end add the slit green chillies .  Then add the boiled cabbage and finally add the  boiled tuar dal . Add salt as required .
As the last step you can add a fistful of coriander leaves .  Cabbage kootu is ready .U can have it hot with rotis or rice . Many vegetables in place of cabbage can be used like carrots, spinach leaves , capsicum or onions .