Pongal

Ven Pongal and Gojju/Gotsu is my favourite Sunday breakfast. My room-mate, Ashwin and I made it this past Thursday for a "light" meal in the evening. Thanks Atha for the recipe! It turned out great.
















Ven pongal: posted by Shanthi venkat
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Ingredients:
1 cup rice
1 cup moong dal
5 cups watersalt
¼ inch Ginger
2 tsp. Ghee
1 tsp. Whole black pepper.
1 tsp. Cumin seeds
10 Cashew nuts
Curry leaves
Method:
1.Dry-Fry Pasiparuppu(moong dhal) in a pan.
2.Mix 1 cup rice and 1 cup moong dal .Add water (5 cups) +salt and cook until it is over cooked in a pressure cooker.
3.Take 4 tsp ghee in a frying pan and add 1 tsp whole black peppers, and 1 tsp cumin seeds. When the peppers burst add ginger pieces & curry leaves .
4.Add cashew nuts and remove the pan when the cashews are roasted .
5. Add this to the cooked dal-rice mix. Add some ghee while serving.

MIT feast

I was visiting friends in MIT a couple weekends ago. Niket and Tushar threw a soiree for many other local friends. It was truly a feast with masala potatoes, arbi (Taro), peas paneer, daal, and lassi!

Spicy South Indian meal in Brown University

I visited Brown University a couple weekends ago. Stayed at my cousin's^2 place. Had a spectacularly spicy South Indian meal. The rasam, sambar, and potato curry were just too good.
















The microwave-only potato curry was a pleasant surprise. The realization that something that delicious can be made in ~15 minutes with minimal human intervention made be positively excited about future dinners...

Put a little bit of oil in a microwaveable bowl. Add finely chopped onions. Microwave for 2 minutes. Then add finely chopped potatoes. Sprinkle some water. Microwave for 5 minutes. Add kara-podi. I have no idea what that is, except that it translates to hot-powder (hot as in spicy hot) and salt. If you don't have kara-podi or don't know what it is, add sambar-podi and some chilli powder. Turns out that potatoes are really good at absorbing these powders. So don't hesitate to add a lot :-) Add two spoonfuls of ghee. Mix well. Microwave for 5 minutes.

Frozen egg with shell removed

Spooky

Eggs- Indian style!

In a departure from vegetarianism, here's a post on eggs. Eating unfertilized eggs from free range hens falls within my ethical sphere...

Can make an omelette (eaten with toast) or bhurjee/scrambled eggs (eaten with rice, etc.)
The recipe is common for the most part.

STEP 1: Chop onions, tomatoes, green peppers, green chillies, and coriander finely as shown.
















STEP 2: Saute all of these items at medium heat in the following order- onions, green peppers, green chillies, tomatoes, and coriander. Add a little bit of salt. Add some chat masala. The chat masala is the "secret sauce" that gives the dish a tangy flavour.















STEP 3: Beat some eggs (3 for the amount of other things shown), add just a little bit of salt, mix, and pour the liquid into the pan.

STEP 4: If you want an omelette, then let one side cook. Flip at the appropriate time, and cook the other side. If you want egg bhurjee, then constantly scramble by bringing in the eggs from the sides of the pan until you think the eggs are cooked.

Here's what the omelette and toast look like. The omelette was split up into pieces.

Here's what the egg bhurjee looks like.