Dosa, Potato curry and Ridge gourd Peel chutney

In India many indian do not eat rice on Saturday nights. They only eat very light on Saturday...especially the Vegetarians. Breakfast items are supposed to be light (not really!!!) so DOSA is a favoured Saturday night dinner item. Here are the recipes for Dosa and its accompainments (1) Potato curry (2) Beerakaaya chutney

Dosa (Crepe made with peeled black gram and rice)

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup peeled black gram (Urad Dal)
2. 2 cups rice
3. 3/4 teaspoon salt
4. 2-3 cups water
5. oil for frying

Soak the black grams and rice separately in 3 cups of water over night. Grind them to a smooth paste and mix with salt and water to get a thin pancake batter consistency. Heat a griddle and add a laddle of batter in the center and spread the with the back of the laddle with a light hand. Add a teaspoon of oil around the edge of the dosa. Fry for 3-4 minutes until the edges turn golden. Turn it and fry for 1 more minute. Serve immediately with Potato Curry

Potato Curry (Simplest and delicious potato curry )

Aalo curry

Ingredients:

1. 2 large potatos peeled and sliced into quarters 1/8 inch thick
2. 1 medium onion sliced
3. 2 tablespoons oil divided
4. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, salt, turmeric
5. 2dried  red chillies
6. Few curry leaves

In a pressure cooker heat a tablespoon of oil and fry the onions they they become tender. Add the potatoes, salt and turmeric and cover and cook for 2 whistle with a cup of water. Once the steam escapes open the cooker. In a pan heat the remaining oil and fry the cumin and mustard seeds, dried chillies and curry leaves till they begin to splatter. Add the boiled potatoes and simmer for 5 minutes. garnish with cilantro and serve with Dosa

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Beera kaaya is also known as chinese okra or ridge gourd and cooks very quickly and has lots of water content.  There are lots of dishes in India which are made using it. I will be posting some of them here
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Beerakaaya Tokku Chutney (Turai/Ridge gourd cooked and ground)

Ridge Gourd Peel

Ingredients:

1. 1 large ridge gourd
2. lime sized tamarind** soaked in1/3 cup of warm water
3. 1/2 each of  teaspoon salt, turmeric, cumin, mustard seeds
4. 2 dried red chillies
5. few curry leaves
6. 1 big green chilly
7. 2 tablespoons oil divided

Peel only the ridges of the ridge gourd and wash it. Cut it into chunks and fry it in a tablespoon of oil. Cover and cook for 15 minutes along with salt, turmeric and the soaked tamarind (Water and all). Let it cool and grind to a paste. In a pan heat the remaining oil and  fry the cumin and mustard seeds, dried chillies and curry leavesand chopped greeen chilly till they begin to splatter. Add the ground paste and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve

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**If you don't have tamarind or don't know tamarind you can use either citric acid or lemon juice to give a little bit of sourness to the chutney