Vintage Indian utensils

When my sister was down visiting from Texas, we took a quick trip to a quaint little town in southern Virginia to visit my uncle and his family. It's a college town, but they are also famous for some of the state's best bed & breakfasts. I was poking around my aunts pantry and almost screamed in delight when I saw these. The first one is used to make gathiya, an Indian breakfast street food. It is made using besan (chickpea flour or gram flour). It is mixed with water, oil, baking soda, salt and Tellicherry peppercorns. The batter is then slid across by hand through the holes and dropped into hot oil. The result is slightly puffy savory delight. If I had to compare them to something, I would say they are like a savory Indian churro. Instead of serving them with hot chocolate, you would offer up some hot masala chai. The second utensil is a hand held grater that once belonged to my grandmother. My aunt told me I could take it if I wanted to. And I REALLY wanted to, but I left it with her, undeniably in good hands.

Masala dosas

Due to my Indian holiday, it has been a long time since I've actually cooked a full meal. I really missed my teeny tiny green kitchen and moreover, missed wiping counters and peering into my pantry every 5 seconds. Does anyone else feel just a bit useless when not able to cook in your own kingdom? I have been dying to cook, however because of jet lag I can't muster up the energy past a one pot meal.

I've been waking up at 4am everyday since I've been back which is pretty cool because I get so much time in the mornings to do a lot of prep work for the evening.
Yes, you can call me a morning person.

So yesterday at 4am, with all this time on my hands, I soaked 2 different types of lentils along with parboiled rice and fenugreek seeds for something like dosa. I say this, because traditionally, dosa has around a 1:3 ratio of lentils to rice. In my case, however, the ratio was almost 1:1 with an extra cup of rice thrown in because I felt like it. Does anyone know the proper name for this? I wanted to say peserattu, but I believe that is made only of dal/lentils. And also different in the fact that this dosa I made requires no fermenting time. Just grind up the soaked dal and rice and get goin'.

When I got home from work I ground up the lentils (dal) and rice mixture in the blender with a little bit of the soaking liquid to make a thin batter and kept aside while I made the potato masala filling.

I heated up some oil and added a few cloves, some mustard seeds, asafeotida (hing), and a sprig of curry leaves and a little urad dal.

I then added 3 chopped red potatoes, a huge jalapeno, and half a red onion and salt. Cover and cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes and stir in between. Towards the end, add a little turmeric. Don't let it get mushy, the vegetables should retain their shape.

These dosas need to be made on low-medium heat because of the even ratio of the dal to rice. Traditional dosas should generally be made on medium to high heat. Oil your pan well and pour a ladleful or two and swirl it around like a crepe or pancake batter. Add a few drops of oil around the edges and let cook for 2-3 minutes until lightly brown and then flip and cook for another minute more. Add a little filling in the middle and fold over. Serve hot. Pictures to come soon...

A sidenote to all the Indian restaurant owners/chefs out there - why do so many restaurants turn their dosa filling into mush? I am not a baby and I am sure most of your customer base isn't either. We don't want our masala potatoes turned into bland, tasteless, Gerber crap in a bottle.

Back home

Dear Readers,
Here is hoping that all of you had wonderful holidays! Just browsing through a few blogs, I'm already saddened by what I missed until I find time to go back 2 months worth of everyone's wonderful posts. I was so warmed by all your wishes for a delightful journey, so a big warm thank you to all.

My vacation was wonderful, beautiful, hectic and exhausting as I'm sure anyone who has traveled to India will tell you. It's one of the most complicated places you will ever visit as well as one of the most endearing and spiritual.

Visiting India is like having a personal time turner like Hermione's. You will see places and people who haven't the slighest clue as to any modern conveniences. What you see may shock you or enlighten you.

The first snap is of a modern Mumbai dwelling sadhu, the following is of a "ghanti" or a manual grain mill I found in an old home in the small village town of Ontharia in Gujarat. The third is a vegetable vendor in Mahableshwar and the final picture is of a homeless community who reside at a temple which I used to pass by everyday in Mumbai. They were so surprised and at the same time ecstatic that I wanted to take their pictures.