We have found a very good Indian restaurant here in Kansas. We love the dosas there. They have a Spring roll masala dosa which has a spicy vegetable bhaji . I was told by a friend that, usually spring roll masala dosa has a stuffing which is like chinese spring rolls, but this was quite different. I love it. I just tried to recreate it at home. It came out a bit different but I liked it very much.
For stuffing: Ingredients: 1/2 cup cooked, peeled and slightly mashed potatoes 1/2 cup onion 1 tea spn ginger-garlic paste ( do not use store bought ) 3-4 green chilies 1/4 cup avrekaLu cooked 1/4 cup chopped capsicum 1/4 cup chopped green beans 2 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut 4-5 strands coriander leaves 1 tbl spn chana dal A pinch turmeric 4-5 curry leaves 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1 tbl spn chopped cashews Oil Salt
Method: Heat oil. Add cashews. When they are slightly brownish, add chana dal , mustard seeds, curry leaves, ginger-garlic paste, green chillies, turmeric. Fry for minute and then add onions. Fry till they turn translucent. Add potatoes, capsicum, green beans, avrekaLu , salt. Sprinkle some water and close the lid, let it cook till all vegetables are done. Add coconut, coriander leaves. Mix well.
Chutney: 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut A pinch asafoetida 2 tbl spn dalia 3-4 green chilies 3-4 strands coriander leaves 1/4 tea spn tamarind extract Salt
Method: Grind all together to a paste.
Serving : Use any normal dosa batter to make dosas (you can use urad dal dosa , benne dosa or any others). Stuff the stuffing and fold the dosa . Serve with chutney .
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 30mins
We didn’t realize when Navaratri went by. We didn’t celebrate it at all. Like always, though I had grand plans, I didn’t do anything for the festival. So I decided to cook a marathon for one of my favorite festivals – Diwali/Deepavali which is just round the corner. Instead of waiting till the big day, I thought of bringing the mood in both at home and this blog. So I started today.
It didn’t take much time to decide which sweet I wanted to make today. I love Rasgullas or Rosogullas , but I have never prepared them at home. I always thought they were very difficult to make. I am not saying this is the authentic version, but I can say they were very good. I din’t have rose water mentioned in many recipes, so I used cardamom powder.
I took help from this and this . Then I realized, I had only brown cane sugar. Still I went ahead and tried. They came out very good but they were brown because of brown sugar. So I decided to make one more batch with white sugar. I could not believe the quality of the Rasgullas, they were simply awesome. I wish I had tried these before, I didn’t know they were so easy to make.
Ingredients: For chenna/paneer 6 cups milk (I used whole milk) 1-2 tbl spns lemon juice
For syrup: 1 cup sugar 2 and 1/2 cups water 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder
Method: Heat milk in a heavy bottomed pan. When it is hot, add the lemon juice. Mix with a spoon and cook for a few minutes till the milk separates.
Sieve it through a clean cloth.
Tie the towel in a pouch and squeeze it to remove any extra water.
Hang the towel for about 30mins allowing all the water to fall down. Now the paneer/chenna is ready.
Take it on a plate and knead it very well to remove any chunks. This is very important to get good quality rasgullas . Now make small balls (of peda size), remember, when they are cooked, they increase in volume, so don’t make them too big. It is quite difficult to make these as they break very easily. So apply a bit of pressure to hold them together. Try to give them as smooth surface as possible.
In a big vessel, heat sugar and water. When the sugar is dissolved and syrup comes to boil, slowly add the balls. Remember they increase in size by 2-3 times. So make sure to use big enough vessel to hold them easily. Now, bring down the heat to medium and close the lid (I made up this step. I didn’t want to cook them in cooker as mentioned in some of the links I saw, I felt by this way, I could take them off heat once they are cooked). Let it cook for about 25mins or until they are cooked. They are cooked when they have considerably increased in size. Take one rasgulla out and slightly apply pressure, if it comes back to original shape, it is cooked. Add the cardamom powder and take off the heat. Serve them chilled.
Makes about 14 rasgullas Preparation time : 60mins
