Congratulations Abhinav Bindra!!!!, you made every Indian proud today.

Usually on week days our breakfast is restricted to some cereals and fruits. Its only during week-ends we have elaborate breakfast which can be better called as ‘Brunch’ i.e, ‘Breakfast+Lunch’ ‘cos we get up late on weekends and by the time i prepare breakfast its already lunch time

Today was one such day and as soon as we got up from our deep slumber, I and my hubby started wondering about what to eat for the brunch. Following is the conversation we had before settling on actual menu for breakfast.

I and my hubby: wondering what to eat for brunch

I: Lemme make mangalore buns (the recipe for which i had taken from my mom on the previous day itself)

Hubby: I don’ want to eat any oily stuff early in the morning (My dear hubby forgets that its already afternoon :P)

Hubby : Make egg parathas then.

I: Today is friday and i don’ eat eggs on friday

Hubby: loud sigh!!!

I: Okie..i’ll make aloo paratha

Hubby: okie..fine

I: ohhh..I just forgot..there is no potatoes at home

Hubby: then make poha at least (literally begging)

I: There is no poha either

Hubby: (it occurs to my hubby that there is a big pack of puffed rice / mamra /mandakki which we bought from the Indian store few days back). Make Soosla / puffed rice upma.

I : I don’t know its recipe

Hubby: No problemo!!! i’ll search the recipe online

(Both search for its recipe online. But none of the recipe appeal to us. Loud sigh follows)

Hubby: Eureka!!! i’ll just call up my mom and ask for the recipe

So finally we got the recipe, and am sharing the same with you

The ingredients required for Puffed rice/Mamra upma / Mandakki Soosla are:

Medium sized onion (Finely chopped) - 1

Medium sized tomato (Finely chopped) - 1

Green chillies (Finely chopped) - about 3 to 4

Curry leaves - about 4 leaves

Cilantro / coriander leaves(finely chopped) - few strands

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida / Hing - 1 pinch

Puffed rice / mamra / mandakki - 3 cups

Roasted gram/ Dalya / puttana - 1/2 cup

Vegetable oil - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

The method of preparation:

Take the puffed rice in a strainer and run through water so that the puffed rice gets soaked and keep it aside.

Meanwhile take oil in a wok and keep it on medium high heat.

Now add mustard seeds. As soon as the seeds start spluttering add the cumin seeds and stir for few seconds.

Add the curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida and stir for few seconds

Add the chopped onions and the chillies and fry till the onion turns transparent.

Next add the tomatoes and cook till the tomatoes turn soft.

Now add the puffed rice, turmeric powder and salt.

Next add the powdered dalya / puttana and mix it thoroughly.

Garnish with chopped coriander.

The menu did not end here. Since i was feeling like having something sweet, I thought of making Banana shira too

The ingredients required for Banana Shira are:

Suji - 1 cup

Whole milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Banana (cut into small pieces) - 1

Ghee - 4 tbsp

Cardamom(crushed) - 4 pods

Kesar (optional) - few strands

For garnishing

Cashew - 5 to 6

Raisins - 5 to 6

The method of preparation:

Take one tbsp of ghee in a wok and keep it on medium heat. Now add suji and roast till the suji turns light brown in colour and a nice aroma starts coming. (you need to keep stirring so that the suji does not get burned).Now take the suji off the heat and keep it aside.

Next take the milk in a wok, add the banana pieces and sugar and allow the mixture to boil.

When the milk starts boiling, add kesar which adds nice colour and flavour to the dish (Make sure that kesar’s flavour doesn’t mask that of banana. So add only few strands).

Stir it for few seconds so that the colour spreads evenly.

Next add the roasted suji and mix it till all the milk gets absorbed into the suji.

Now add cardamom powder and the remaining ghee and mix it well.

Garnish it with cashews and raisins.

So this was the menu for our brunch today. Before we start gorging on our plate

‘A Very Happy Independence Day to all the people in US of A’. Enjoy

Here comes my third recipe ‘Dal Shorba’ meaning Dal soup. It is just coincidence that all my earlier recipies (its only 2 till date :P) were dal based. Nevertheless it did not deter me from posting this one, which i (my hubby included) would sum it up as nutritious yet very very tasty soup.

My liking for Dal Shorba dates back to my honeymoon days…ahhhh what wonderful days those were. The word honeymoon makes me to dream :D..well coming to the point, we had been to Maldives for our honeymoon and stayed in a Thai resort which served almost nil Indian food. I being brought up in smaller cities of India (since my Dad worked for a bank he got transferres every 3 yrs) was not exposed to any other global cuisine except for Chinese (Indo-Chinese not the authentic one) and Italian (it was only restricted to pizzas). And because of that i mostly survived on french fries and ice creams. But luckily one day the resort had organised Indian special at the restaurant and Dal Shorba was one of the dishes on the the menu. It was at this place i tasted the soup for the first time and believe me guys when i did put a spoonful of soup in my mouth it just felt so heavenly :). From that day whenever I and my hubby go to a Indian restaurant we compulsorily search for this soup on the menu

Today when i was browsing the net, i stumbled on its recipe and here it goes

The ingredients required are:

Masoor dal/Red lentils - 1 cup

Medium sized onions (finely chopped) - 2 to 3

Medium sized tomatoes (finely chopped)- 2

Cilantro / Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup

Mint leaves - 1/2 cup

Finely chopped ginger - 3 tbsp

Finely chopped garlic - 3 tbsp

Finely chopped green chillies - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Madras curry powder - 1 tsp

Vegetable oil - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Method of preparation:

Take 2 tsp of oil in a large kadai and fry the onion till golden brown on medium heat.

Next put ginger, garlic and green chillies and fry for another 2 mins.

To this add the chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, chilly powder and the madras curry powder and fry for 3-4 minutes till the spices nicely blend.

Add 4 cups of water and allow the mixture to boil

Now add the masoor dal (cleaned and washed), cilantro and mint leaves.

Turn the heat to low and allow the soup to simmer for about 20 minutes till the dal turns tender.

After this, grind the soup mixture to a smooth paste and sieve the paste using a fine sieve.

Put salt and add water if required.

Garnish with coriander and finely chopped onions (this tip was given by my hubby).

Serve hot along with papad to munch on

Preparation time: 30 mins

Serves: 4 ppl

The Ingredients are

Toor daal/Togari bele 1 cup

Medium sized tomato 1 cut into cubes

Green chilly 3 slit length wise

Ginger 1”piece finely chopped

Coriander leaves/Cilantro Few strands finely chopped

Cumin seeds/Jeera 1tsp

Turmeric powder/Arishina 1/4 tsp

Lemon juice 1 tbsp

Water 2 cups

Salt to taste

For seasoning we need

Oil/Ghee 1tbsp

Mustard seeds/Saasive 1tsp

Hing 1pinch

Red chillies 2 Cut into pieces

Method of preparation

The first step in the preparation of Dal Tadka is, to cook Toor Dal.

So take toor dal in a cooker, wash it cleanly and drain the extra water.

Add to this , chopped tomatoes, green chillies, ginger together with cumin seeds and turmeric powder.

Now add enough water (so that all the contents are sufficiently covered in water).

Close the lid and keep the cooker on medium heat (About 5 whistles is enough for dal to cook)

After the last whistle, switch off the gas and allow the cooker to cool.

Now take out the lid, mash the dal to form a smooth paste and transfer the contents into another clean vessel.

Add 2 cups of water to dal paste and allow it to boil on medium heat.

Now add salt , lemon juice and coriander leaves. Allow the dal to simmer for few minutes before taking off the gas.

For the seasoning, take a small wok and put oil/ghee in it. When the oil is sufficiently hot add the mustard seeds.

When the seeds start spluttering, add hing , red chillies and stir for few seconds.

Now take out the wok off the gas and pour the seasoning directly into dal, immediatelt close the vessel with a lid (This helps in preserving the aroma).

Serve hot with rice.

Preparation time: 25 mins

Serves: 4

This is one of my hubby’s favorite evening snack. His love for this vada is such that he asks me to make it at least once a week :). And this dish being very easy, i always end up making it.

The ingredients required are

Moong Dal/Peeled broken green gram - 1 cup

Chana Dal/Black gram - 1 cup

Medium sized onion - 1

Ginger - 1″ piece

Green Chilly - 2

Coriander leaves - 5 strands

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1tsp

Ajwain - 1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Method of preparation

Soak the moong dal and chana dal for about 3 hrs.

Finely chop the onion, ginger, chillies and the coriander

Grind the soaked dal (by adding no water) to make a paste. Do not make it too fine, let it be a bit coarse

Now add all the ingredients to the ground dal

Take the oil in a frying pan and keep it on medium heat

Now take a small ball of the dal mixture into the palm, flatten it using your fingers and drop into the oil slowly

Fry the vadas on medium heat till golden brown.

Take out the vadas onto a tissue paper to remove excess oil.

Serve the hot vadas with tomato sauce and mint chutney.

Preparation time: 20 mins

Serves: 4 ppl