Besan ka Cheela ..aka...Vegetarian Omelet...FFF#5

I have successfully entered 5th week of my 'Family Food Friday 'series and still few more exciting entries are already waiting for its turn in my drafts.If you have missed any of the previous posts in this series check them here.

This time I do not need to introduce the author of this recipe as you all know her now,this entry is sent by Chaitra who has sent Savory Cornmeal Muffins.Thanks a lot Chaitra for sending another entry for my event.

Besan ka Cheela is also called Puda or Vegetarian Omelet.Though I make egg omelet for my husband I do not prefer eating it and in fact the only way I eat eggs is in cakes.It is a great alternative for vegetarians for egg omelet as the texture,color and look of this is very much similar to egg omelet and of course there is a lot of difference in taste.It is very easy to prepare and it hardly takes anytime and can be prepared as a breakfast or evening snack.I also make it regularly and hence when she has sent this recipe to me I wanted to add few more photos to the recipe as she has sent just a couple of photos.More number of photos in the post makes it look more interesting right?I make it almost similar and also depends on the availability of ingredients at that time in my pantry.But this time I have exactly followed her recipe as I am featuring her recipe here.

Let us see what Chaitra says about this recipe in her own words.'During pregnancy days I was constantly looking for food with high protein content. Being a vegetarian I wanted to make sure to have a balanced diet and always tried to avoid high fat food. So I was stuck with tofu for the most part as I love tofu and believe me I have eaten Tofu in all forms. But during those days Tofu use to give me morning sickness,So, one of my friends taught me this and I am hooked on to it. It is a regular breakfast at our house now and especially for my daughter. It is very filling breakfast and my friend even serves up this in between bread like a regular omelet,it tastes good too. You can add all kinds of vegetables too to make a healthier version.I am big fan of ajwain so I add it,you can omit it if you don't like the flavor of ajwain.'

Ingredients:

1 cup Besan/chickpea flour

1 onion,finely chopped

1 tomato,finely chopped
2 tbsp cilantro chopped
1 tsp green chilli paste or 1 tsp finely chopped green chili
1/2 tsp ajwain/carom seeds
a pinch of hing
water as needed
Salt to taste

Method:

• Put the besan into a bowl,it is always to sift besan which avoid the formation of lumps while mixing with water and make into a smooth and thick batter.Use a wire whisk to do this process which eases the formation of smooth and even batter.The consistency should be slightly thinner than the regular dosa batter.
  
• Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
• Take a small omelet pan and add about a tsp of oil and pour the about half a cup of batter and turn the pan so that the batter covers the entire pan.If you do not have omelet pan you can do this on regular non stick tawa,just spread the batter lightly with the back of the ladle.Pour some oil around the edges.
  
• You can cover the pan or leave it as it is ,but I prefer it covered.
• Once it is fried you can see the golden color around the edges and flip them when they are ready and let it roast on the other side for a few seconds.It is very important to fry the besan omelet on both the sides as uncooked besan causes indigestion.

Serve them with green chutney/tamarind chutney/onion chutney/tomato sauce.

Other serving suggestions:

1. You can even make small besan omelets and stuff in between two slightly warmed bread slices and can eat as bread omelet sandwich.
2. You can make the batter bit thick and you can even dip the bread triangles and fry on tawa like how you do for french toast.It gives an eggless version of french toast.

Notes:

1. Addition of hing or ajwian is recommended to besan omelet as it helps in easy digestion.
2. It is very important to fry the besan omelet on both the sides as uncooked besan causes indigestion.
3. You can even add finely chopped bell peppers or grated vegetables of your choice to the batter to make it healthy.
4. You can avoid ajwain and add cumin seeds instead to the batter,it gives a different flavor.

Note:
Photos embedded in the recipe part are from my cousin chaitra,rest of them are added by me.

I am sending these two entries to Nayna's 'ONLY'-Coolers and Mocktails series which is originally started by Pari of Foodelicious.
1. Oats and Fruits Smoothie
2.Butterfruit/Avocado Milkshake

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Mosaru Kodubale/Curd Kodbale(Curd-Rice Flour Rings)....FFF #4

This is the fourth successful consecutive week of my 'Family Food Friday' series and I am really happy with the response I got from my family members as well as our blogger friends.If you have missed any of the previous posts in this series check them here.Still there are few more interesting posts coming up in this section,so stay tuned!!!

Coming to today's post it is sent by my cousin's wife 'Savitha'.Though we met only a couple of times we are in touch regularly over the phone or mail.We had a blast last year during their visit to Mumbai,both of them enjoyed their visit and they just fell in love with the food and shopping in Mumbai. Savitha-Thanks a lot for sending my most favorite breakfast item for this series and you have done a wonderful job with the photography.

Coming to today's recipe,Mosaru kodubale is our community special and is one of the most favorite breakfast item by all age groups in our family.Me,my husband and my brother are big fans of these kodubale and we just finish a plate of them with in no time.These kodubale looks similar to the regular kodubale snack variety what we get in shops(in karnataka).One needs a bit of practice to make perfect kodubale as the process is bit elaborate for a beginner in kitchen.These are mainly done in Karnataka and I am sure all kannadigas would be aware of regular kodubale,but only few might be knowing about this variety of mosaru kodubale as it is done only in our community.
'Mosaru' in kannada means 'curd' and these kodubale are made with curd and hence they cannot be stored for long.They are generally made for breakfast or evening tiffin at our place and these are crispy outside and soft inside.These should be eaten hot and can be stored just for a day unlike those kodubale snack which stays for a couple of weeks,they taste best when hot.

These kodubale are nicely spiced and tastes slightly sour which tickle your taste buds in each and every bite of it.Many of my friends and family members are bowled by its taste for the first time itself when they tasted these awesome kodubale and mind you!!! These are just addictive!!.Do not blame me later if you have liked it so much and make it often to consume these yummy kodubale.If you ask me to rate this breakfast I would say that this is one of my top 3 list in breakfast,I just love it very much.

I remember when I served them to one of my friends for the first time,guess what theye thought seeing them?....they thought that these were 'Onion rings',but after tasting it they were just flattered with it and said they taste better than onion rings.I know,looks wise they are same but they are not comparable in taste with each other as according to me both of them belongs to different category and both tastes nice in its own way.

(Makes about 15 kodubale)
Ingredients:
1 cup slightly sour curds(slightly thin,not very thick)
1 cup Rice flour
1 tsp green chilli paste(coarsely grind–mirapa thokku)
1/4 cup grated fresh coconut
3/4th fistful moong dal
1/2 bunch finely chopped coriander(approx 1/2 cup)
a sprig of curry Leaves,finely chopped
Salt to taste
Oil,for deep frying

Method:

• Add the curds(slightly watery), coconut, moong dal, coarsely ground green chilli paste and a little salt into a vessel. Mix these ingredients well and boil them in a vessel over a medium flame.
• After it comes to a boil reduce the flame and add rice flour,finely chopped cilantro, curry leaves and mix it well with a ladle(chapati roller works best here).
• Divide the mixture into two parts and knead the mixture into a smooth dough on a silicon baking mat or on a clean plastic sheet.Be careful the dough would be very hot,so wet your hands while doing this process.You can even place the dough in a clean plastic bag and knead well,this is very easy and risk free process.This should take at least 4-5 minutes.It is always better to do in small portions.
• This will make it into a smooth thick dough(like how we knead chapati dough).
• Now pinch in the dough and make into small equally sized balls and roll the balls into thin long (pipe like) of about an inch in diameter using hand. Press the ends of the dough to form a circle.
• Deep fry them in oil over medium heat until it turns golden brown.

Serve it hot with green coconut chutney and enjoy!They taste best when they are hot but can be eaten at room temperature.

Note:

1. Remember this is the breakfast/tiffin variety of kodubale and not the snack variety of kodubale.They should be eaten hot and cannot be stored.
2. Double or triple the measurements to get the required number of kodubale taking care of salt portion.

I am sending these Mosaru kodubale to srivalli's 'Breakfast Mela' event.

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Davanagere Benne Dosa(DBD) from Karnataka!!!...Family Food Friday#3

In my last week's post I had asked you all to guess about my next post with the clues that I have given and many of you guessed that DBD would be a dosa.Though some of you were partially correct but the credit goes to two of our fellow bloggers who guessed it correctly; Vani being the first one to guess followed by Suma Gandlur.I intentionally did not publish their comments until today as I wanted to give others a chance to guess.Lubna pinged me in the morning and said that it flashed her mind last night suddenly what DBD stands for and yups she was also correct.I thank you all for responding to the guessing game I am overwhelmed with your response .

This post is very precious to me because it was sent to me by my sweet brother ''PRASHI''.I have already mentioned about his culinary skills in my earlier post here and if you have not checked it lemme tell you more about him again. He is a very good friend, advisor and a mentor to me from childhood.Though there are days we used to quarrel and not speak to each other for a few hours and with some fights lasting even a couple of days,ah! those days remain as sweet memories for me now.
Coming to his culinary skills, he started cooking only after he shifted to US on work and learnt everything on his own.At our house he boasts that he is a super chef . In-fact some of his dishes got appreciation even from his in-laws and the upma he prepares has a huge fan following in our family.One thing I hate about his cooking is the mess he creates while cooking and it takes more time for us to clean the kitchen than the time he takes for cooking.He behaves like a boss in kitchen and orders us to chop the vegetables and do all other things for him while he finishes off the main cooking part and takes the final credit of making that dish.Even while preparing this dish his job was to measure the ingredients and make the dosas, rest all things like cleaning,washing and grinding process was taken care by my S-I-L. You all know that I am a big fan of dosa and so is the case with my brother and niece.We three can 'Eat Dosa,Drink Dosa,Sleep Dosa' and can survive on dosa.My brother keeps experimenting in kitchen and that is how even this DBD was created. Once when my S-I-L was soaking the ingredients for Set dosa batter he interfered and wanted to give a try to recreate DBD and they were really happy and satisfied with the first attempt itself and from then they followed the same recipe for DBD.

During one of my usual chat with a friend,I was surprised to know that she had never tasted this famous dosa in Bangalore though she is from the same place.I always have a list of joints which I dont miss visiting when I go to Bangalore and this DBD is one of them.I absolutely love the breakfast delicacies in Bangalore and probably I can say that Bangalore breakfast Rocks!!!,it is just best in my opinion.If you are in Bengaluru or you visit Bangalore do try these famous breakfast joints in the city-have a look at this article which clearly mentions about the famous joints in the city and give a try -I am sure you will fall in love with the food.

Davanagere Benne Dosa in short form DBD is quite famous variety of dosa in Davanagere district located in the northern part of Karnataka. I have never tried the original dosa from Davanagere but I have tried it N number of times in Bangalore in a Davanagere Benne Dosa outlet which is famous in that area for its traditional taste of Davanagere food. Though there are many outlets of DBD in Bangalore, we love the taste of this famous DBD only in this particular outlet and we always stick to it. Along with DBD,there are many other famous items like kali dose,open masala dose, paddu, girmitt, mandakki masala,nargees which tastes superb.

DBD is quite different in taste when compared to any other dosa,though it is served with potato masala the combination is no where compared to the regular masala dosa.These dosas are not spread into large ones,they are of medium size,thick and crispy ones.The proportions used for the batter is quite different for this dosa which makes the dosa quite thick,soft and extremely crispy.The potato masala served with DBD is of pale yellow color unlike the deep yellow potato palya of masala dosa and is quite plain but very flavorful.The chutney is made extremely spicy to go well with the no spice potato masala and crispy buttery Davanagere Benne Dosa.

What makes DBD quite different from other dosas is the liberal usage of fresh and good quality white butter which makes the dosa extremely tasty and crispy.It is fun to see the way they place the blobs of butter here and there on dosa while they are frying it.In those DBD outlets they roast these dosas on thick iron tawas on the wood fire using a special variety of wood sticks which makes this DBD authentic in its taste.But at home as we do not make fresh butter it is easy to replace it with store bought one and anyways we cant think of making this on wood fired stove and so we should be happy with our regular stove.This is an attempt to recreate the famous Davanagere Benne Dosa and we claim that it might not be the most authentic one but we are happy with the taste which we were looking in DBD.

Davanagere Benne Dosa(DBD):

Ingredients:

To soak and grind:
4 cups Long grain rice/regular rice
2 cups Idli rice
1/2 cup poha/pressed rice
1/4 cup urad dal
1 cup murmur/puffed rice
1 tsp fenugreek Seeds
6 green chillies
Salt to taste

To add before making dosa:
1 tbsp maida
1 tsp sugar
A pinch of soda

loads of fresh white butter for roasting the dosas

Method :

• Soak Long grain rice, idli rice, poha, urad dal, murmur, fenugreek seeds for 6 hours and grind it into uniform smooth mixture.
• Now add chopped green chillies and salt and grind again.
• Ferment it overnight or at least for 9-10 hrs.
• Just before making the dosa add maida, sugar and soda and mix well.
• Pour the batter on a hot tawa and quickly make a dosa of 6" diameter.
• Pour ghee or melted butter over the edges and do not pour butter on the top of dosa initially.Close it with a lid and roast on medium flame,after a minute open the lid and add the blobs of butter and let it roast until you get to see the edges turning deep red in color.
• If you add the butter initially it will make dosa soft and with white patches on it instead of beautiful brown crisp crust.This step is very important and crucial to get a thick brown crust.Increase the flame in the end and roast the dosa for few seconds.Reduce the flame,sprinkle some water and proceed making the remaining dosas.
  
• Fold it into half and place a dollop of fresh white butter

Serve it hot right off from the pan onto a plate with aloo palya and white coconut chutney on the side which made specially for DBD.

Important Notes to make DBD:

• Use a cast Iron tawa or heavy aluminium tawa instead of non-stick for better results.If you do not have them then go for the non-stick one.
• Pour melted butter(ghee or oil can also be used here) over the edges and do not pour butter on the top of dosa initially.Close it with a lid and roast on medium flame,after a minute open the lid and add the blobs of butter and let it roast until you get to see the edges turning deep red in color.If you add the butter initially it will make dosa soft and with white patches on it instead of beautiful brown crisp crust.This step is very important and crucial to get a thick brown crust.Increase the flame in the end and roast the dosa for few seconds.
• Reduce the flame,sprinkle some water and proceed making the remaining dosas.
• Be generous in adding the butter to the dosas forgetting the calorie intake for a day and these are real benne dosas.Even we need a treat once in a while right??

Aloo Palya:

Ingredients :
2 medium potatoes (skin peeled)
4 green chillies
1 medium onion (chopped lengthwise)
Salt to taste
1 Tsp oil

Method :

• Pressure cook potatoes with green chillies for 2 whistles.
• Once the cooker is cooled, mash green chillies with aloo and mix well. And keep the mixture aside.
• In a kadai heat oil and fry onions till translucent.
• Add salt to taste and mix well.
• Now add the mashed aloo mixture and mix it well.

Notes:
The addition of green chillies to the palya is optional,if you want it spicy then pressure cook the green chillies along with potatoes which helps the green chillies loose its color and not affecting the color of the potato palya.Do not add green chillies while frying onions otherwise the authentic look and color of the palya would be lost.

White Coconut chutney:

Ingredients :
1 cup freshly grated coconut
1/4 cup fried gram
1/4 tsp tamarind pulp (I used ready pulp)
6-8 green chillies
1/4 tsp sugar
Salt to taste

for tadka:
1 tsp ghee
1/2 tsp mustard

Method :

• Grind fried gram into a course powder.
• Add the rest of the ingredients and grind into a course mixture again.
• Heat ghee in a small tadka pan and crackle mustard seeds in it and add this to the coconut chutney and mix well.

I have been in search of good DBD for a very long time and tried many recipes and kept happy myself with them though I was not very satisfied.So when the recipe is from a trusted source how can I stop myself from trying it.As soon as I got the recipe for the post I headed to my kitchen to soak the ingredients and here is the outcome from my kitchen.Just loved the taste of it and it was a perfect treat for my taste buds which salivating for a good Benne Dosa.

Note:
Photos embedded in the recipe part are from my brother,rest of them from yours truly,ME.I could not stop myself from posting those pics,the recipe deserved more pictures.

This breakfast is going to participate in srivalli's 'Breakfast Mela' event

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Thin Crust Pesto Pizza

Pizzas are quite popular among all the age groups because of its rich cheesy taste and of course how can someone say no to this cheesy treat until and unless they are diet conscious.Even in India in recent years it has become quite common in the menu for birthday parties, marriages, functions and it is also included in the road side food category as well, though the pizzas we get there are no where compared in taste to the ones we get in Domino's or pizza hut/corner or pizzeria etc.But I definitely enjoyed those road side/fast food joint pizzas during my school and college days when I really did not know much about the most authentic ones.When I got introduced to the real taste of pizzas I was hooked to the taste of it and I never looked back to eat those fast food joint pizzas.

Now with the introduction of various International Chains like California Pizza Kitchen,Indigo etc in India people are very much hooked to the International style and taste of Pizzas.We definitely love all these different varieties of pizzas either from Pizza hut/Domino's,etc or the ones from CPK/Indigo,etc.Even these big pizza joints have come up with lots of new flavors to satisfy our Indian taste buds with the special toppings of paneer along with the mexican style, salad style and the regular Italian style(and of course many more variations) with the option of our preferences for toppings and various types of cheese.Along with various choice of toppings,now even different variations of crusts are available like thin,thick,cheese burst,wheat according to our preference and thin crust is always we prefer among all.

I thoroughly enjoy all the toppings but hubby dear has a special liking for paneer and hence we always look for pizzas with paneer topping while ordering a pizza.I even mentioned about his love for pesto in many of my previous posts and you all must be knowing about it.So with all these personal preferences I can say a basic thin crust pizza with pesto sauce and paneer being one of the toppings would definitely be a perfect treat for my husband.I generally marinate the paneer in pesto sauce to enhance the flavor of it though it is optional,but it will definitely make those paneer pieces extra flavorful.If I make regular marinara sauce for pizza then I go for marinated tandoori paneer as a topping which really enhances the taste of pizza.

Ingredients:
for thin crust pizza base:
1 1/2 all purpose flour(I used 3/4 cup flour and 3/4 cup whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup(125ml) water
1 1/2 tsp instant active dried yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp honey
1 tbsp Olive oil(EVOO)
salt to taste(approx 1 tsp)

for basil pesto sauce:(refer my earlier post or below)
100gms,roughly 2-3 cups loosely packed fresh basil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil(EVOO)
1/4 cup pine nuts or walnuts
3 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
3-4 garlic pods
1/2 tsp roughly ground pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt to taste

toppings I have used:
1/2 cup fresh paneer cubes (marinated in a tbsp of basil pesto sauce for 1hr)
3-4 baby corns,slit into lengthy
1 onion,cubed
1/4 cup mixed bell peppers,cubed
10-12 black olives,pickled
10-12 green olives,pickled
15-20 cherry tomatoes,halved
mozzarella cheese

other toppings suggestions:
zucchini
asparagus,tinned
mushrooms,sliced

to serve:
few basil leaves,sliced thin
dried oregano
red chili flakes
Tabasco sauce


Method:

for basil pesto:

• In a mixer add washed and drained basil leaves,pine nuts/walnuts,garlic pods,pepper,add half the quantity of olive oil,lemon juice,Parmesan cheese,salt and ground to a medium coarse paste.Add the remaining olive oil in stages in between to ease the process of grinding.Do not add water to grind it,the EVOO and lemon juice them selves are enough to grind into a uniform paste.
• Now check for the taste and adjust the salt for the pesto.

for pizza dough:

• Take water in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds until luke warm.Stir in sugar,honey,EVOO(oil) and yeast until it is dissolved well properly and let it proof for 10 mins.Keep it in a warm place.
• Sieve the flour(if using whole wheat flour sieve even that) along with salt and place this in a wide bowl.Make a well in between and pour in the yeast mixture and mix with a whisk or a spoon until you get a lump of dough.
• Knead the dough until you get a smooth,elastic dough.It takes nearly 3-4 mins.
• Place this in a bowl coated with oil and cover with cling wrap and place it in a warm place for 2 hrs.It would have doubled in size by then.
• Punch in and knead again for a minute and take a big orange sized ball.You will generally get two medium size pizzas.

assembling and baking pizza:

• Preheat the oven at 220 deg for 8-10 mins.
• Pinch in a big orange size dough and make a nice ball out of it.
• Sprinkle flour over the surface and roll the pizza into thin medium round size using a rolling pin.I generally keep the edges slightly thicker than in the center.You can even roll it into oval or square or rectangle and use the baking pan accordingly
  
• Place this carefully on a baking mat/ pizza stone/ pizza mesh.
  
• Prick it with a fork in a couple of places.At this stage you can bake it for a couple of minutes or you can avoid it and proceed further with layering the vegetables.I personally feel if we bake it before the center portion will not turn soggy and as it is thin crust this problem would not be there.
• Spread the pesto sauce over it leaving a quarter inch from the corners.
• If you want you can add a thin layer of grated mozzarella cheese,anyways it is absolutely optional to add at this stage.
• Arrange the toppings how ever you want and add grated cheese over the top and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 mins until the base is crisp and the cheese is melted and slightly browned.
• Remove it from the oven using a spatula preferably a metal one and slice it using a pizza cutter and serve it hot.

Garnish with your favorite seasonings like red chili flakes, oregano,thinly sliced basil and Tabasco sauce.Needless to say that serve these hot pizzas with ice cold aerated drinks like coke/Pepsi/lemonade/flavored soda as they go very well with each other.
I do not prefer serving pesto pizzas with tomato sauce and I always prefer Tabasco sauce with it,but if you are serving this for kids they might enjoy with tomato sauce.

Notes:

• The toppings are left to your preference completely,you can add more or you can remove few in those mentioned toppings.Add according to your preference and taste.
• If you have people in the house who are particular about few toppings,you can add the desired toppings on equal halves of the pizza and eat your respective portions.
• As I did not have mozzarella at that time,I used another local pizza cheese variety for this.

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Savory Breakfast Cornmeal Muffins....Family Food-Friday#2

First let me thank you all for the tremendous response with all your encouraging words for my family members,this definitely boosts them up to send a couple of few more delicious entries.If you have missed out the action and the last week's recipe,check it out here,the first entry for this series from my S-I-L.

Coming to the second entry for my CWF series and this week's entry for 'Family Food -Friday' is Savory Cornmeal Muffins from my cousin,"Chaitra".And coming to the introduction part, Chaitra is my cousin with whom I am pretty close when compared to others as we both are of the same age group.We had a special bonding right from the childhood and we both have wonderful memories with our childhood adventures.Though we stayed in different cities we were in touch regularly and used to send each other letters(those were the days we did not have this e-mail system) and greetings regularly with out missing to wish any important occasion being it a birthday or new year or exams or in general.We always looked forward for our holidays and we planned the things well in advance.We used to go together everywhere and share everything with each other whether it could be a single kulfi or a single plate pani poori or a ride in the giant wheel or a dress or whatever.We used to make sure that we enjoy our holidays with all our cousins and used to get involved in several activities.Though she is a big foodie she never loved to cook and not even entered the kitchen before her marriage and now look at her,she cooks each and every meal interesting and also experiments with various cuisines.

Let us see what she says about this entry in her own words,'This is the basic recipe I got off the Albers cornmeal Box. I have made some changes to it to make them savory so that I can make them for breakfast. These are filling muffins apt for breakfast or even as a snack. You can use whole wheat flour to make them. These store well in an air tight box. If you have added cheese I would suggest you refrigerate them and microwave to warm them. Slather with butter and serve them.'

Ingredients:
1 cup white or yellow corn meal
1 cup all-purpose flour/whole wheat pastry flour
2 oz grated Cheddar cheese(I used pepper jack)
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 large egg,lightly beaten
1 tbsp granulated sugar

1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp red chili flakes
2 tbsp fresh/dried parsley
1 tsp salt,to taste

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 400 deg F.Line the muffin tray with the liners and grease them with oil.
• Combine all the dry ingredients cornmeal,all purpose flour,grated cheese,baking powder,salt,red chili flakes,sugar and fresh/dried parsley in a bowl.
• Beat the egg lightly in another bowl and add oil and milk and whisk well.
• Pour the whisked wet ingredients into the dry ingredients mixture and mix well.
• Spoon batter into greased muffin molds,filling 2/3rds full.
• Bake in preheated oven at 400 deg F for 15 mins or until the skewer comes out clean.

Serve them warm.

Note:

1. If you want make this in a bread pan,pour the batter into a 8 inch greased square pan and bake at 400 deg F for 20-25 mins until the skewer comes out clean.
2. You can double the recipe and make in 13x9 inch baking pan.Bake as above.

My Variations:

For a variation,you can add finely chopped colored bell peppers,paneer,onion,olives or sweet corn to the batter and mix well.Bake as above.

This is the breakfast platter for you from chaitra with savory cornmeal muffins,fresh strawberries and muesli with a cup of milk.This breakfast is going to participate in srivalli's 'Breakfast Mela' event

Now the time for a small guessing game regarding the next week's post.I am giving you two clues regarding it,let us see how many of you will get the answer correct and just have fun.

(Img Source:Google)

clue no:1 As you all know that my CWF-series for Family Food-Friday is Breakfast,so it is as simple as that it is a Breakfast item.
clue no: 2 I am giving the short form of the next entry as DBD.

Just leave a comment about your guess for my next breakfast entry in the Family Food-Friday series with those two clues and let us see how many can guess it correctly.

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Tindora Fry/Dondakaya Fry

I don't think that I had to post this as this is a very simple and common south Indian stir fry.Then the next question would be as to why am I posting it then?The answer is simple,this recipe is completely meant for all the newbies or bachelors or for people who are not familiar with south Indian cuisine.
On any day if I am served with just a simple fry,rasam and papad for lunch I would be more than any happy person to enjoy my meal heartily.Especially after a long holiday after eating lot of junk food I would be dying to have simple south Indian meal like this.Not only that,this kind of decent meal with a stir-fry,rasam and rice can be made under 30 minutes which is just perfect on lazy weekends or when short of time.During my school and college days,most of my lunch boxes had few breakfast items or mixed rice and pulav varieties.So during the weekends or on holidays I used to insist my mom to make just stir-fry and rasam as I thoroughly enjoy it.She used to start her cooking only around 12.30 in the noon as 1 o' clock was my usual lunch time and she used to serve everything right off from the pan,piping hot rasam and crispy stir-fry with steaming rice which is a match made in heaven for me.Why am I boasting about a simple stir-fry and rasam so much??Well if you are a south Indian you will understand why am I saying so much about simple stir fry and rasam.

Ingredients:
250 gms Tindora/Tendli/Dondakaya
2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp mustard seeds(optional)
2 tbsp oil
salt to taste
a sprig of curry leaves

Method:

• Cut tindora into thin round discs or lengthy thin strips and keep them aside.
• Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadai or non-stick pan and crackle mustard seeds and add curry leaves and let them get slightly crisp.
• Add sliced tindora and keep it in low to medium flame.Keep stirring it once in a while to let it fry until crispy.It might take 25-30 mins depends on the flame and tawa you use.
• Once it becomes crispy add required amount of salt and chili powder and mix well and fry for another couple of minutes.
• Once the fry is done do not cover it as it will loose its crunch and becomes slightly soggy.So its better to do it fresh and serve immediately rather than making it a couple of hours earlier.

Serve it hot with piping hot white rice and rasam/sambar/dal and papad.I served it with brown rice,tangy raw mango dal and papad.

Notes:

Follow the same method to make any fry with the vegetables like ladies finger, brinjal, potato, raw banana, arbi(but you need to boil it before).You need to fry them according to the cooking time required to make it.

Variations:

• I sometimes add garlic chilly powder instead of regular chilly powder which gives nice garlic flavor to the fry.You can even add slightly mashed whole garlic pods to the fry while you are frying it.
• You can even add sambar powder or goda masala instead of red chilly powder for a different flavor to the fry.
  

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