Remember, Dosai

This is still a number one snack and mealtime delight.

Eaten sweet and stuffed. Fresh Jersey blueberries and some syrup, oh yes!

Do a search in the upper left hand corner and you will see all the different ways I have used this batter, savory and sweet. Plan and simple, we like it the traditional way; stuffed with curried potatoes, tomatoes, and often with spinach. But there is no pan or home stove big enough to make the giant Indian restaurant style, so we make this version. It is also served with sambar- a vegetable lentil spicy soup.

Dosa or Dosé or Dosai is a fermented crepe or pancake made from rice batter and black lentils. It is indigenous to and is a staple dish in the southern Indian. 

You can make it at home, but you have to get the consistency thin enough to spread. Otherwise it will begin cooking once it hits the pan and puffs up like a chefs ego. Only use distilled water to thin it out if the batter thickens, and it will. You can think out a small batch if you are cooking it right away; adding regular tap water messes with the fermentation, which makes it a live food (raw food eaters). 

This is a gluten free food as well. 

Okay, now I'm hungry and there is a great Dosai restaurant near my destination for the evening of reading my poetry to a live audience. Go and try it for yourself...

Wild Garlic-Tindi Curry

I love discovery. Especially in the market place. Although I was in the local Indian store, not a regular market. I saw a few things they have not carried before.

Has anyone tried this melon-squash before? I was not sure what it was. No one in the store really could tell me. So helpful, but I discovered the sign was in Pakastani, no sign said 'Tindi', or this would have been an easy meal.

Searching the internet I found what appeared to be the squash, but it described it 'the size of a granny smith apple, with a thinner melon flesh- you could roast the seeds, pickle or cook the meat only'. So I assumed it was not good raw. Up against this chayote you can tell it had to be what I found, The site also mentioned the color varied from light green to dark green, and over night it was beginning to ripen and turn yellow.

I cut it open and this beautiful cucumber smell came to my nose. I dug the seeds out, and peeled the fruit/squash. Cutting one into pieces for my curry, and the other one for pickling. There were already okra sitting in pickling pan, what was a few more pieces of this lovely fruit?

Wild Garlic is very pungent, and looks somewhat like green onions 'Scallion's. There is no picture of the bunch of wild garlic, but you can see it in the pan above. You can chop it up either in a food processor or by hand, then freeze bags of it, and use it as needed. I added fresh chopped plum tomatoes, 1 mango I had left over, chopped red onion. First however I toasted mustard seed, coriander seeds, and some chilies in oil; then added the rest along with 2 cups of chicken stock and cooked it down. Just add veggie broth to make it vegetarian. Serve with rice.

We also got into my rice wine vinegar seasoned pickled okra and 'Tindi' squash (tasted like a beefed up pickle with a crunch). This was like eating chutney with my fresh Dosa/Dosai (in a former post) south Indian bread/crepes I made with the meal.

I am not sure why I wait so long to cook like this, since I love the flavors, and cooking it myself- low salt, low carb, low fat, portion control.