Masala Dosas and Sambar

I have been so swamped at school that cooking interesting things has been almost nonexistant. However this past week, I was fortunate to have a day off in the middle of the week because my clinical instructor thought she'd give us a free day to study for our upcoming exam. So I took advantage of my day off and made a nice dinner for a change (oh yeah, I did study a lot, too). I was still thinking about that wonderful South Indian food from the restaurant I went to earlier and decided to try my hand at making my own masala dosas and sambar. It turned out really good, especially my sambar! The dosas tasted good but, just like crepes, I still need to perfect art of making them nice and thin. But they were tasty! I did cheat though because traditional dosas take a long time, you have to soak rice and lentils, then grind them and let the batter ferment for a while. ...That can be a project for another day (maybe when I'm out of nursing school!). I bought a dosa mix, which can be found at any Indian market.

Masala Dosa
For Potato Masala (dosa filling)

• 3 medium potatoes, boiled, skinned and cut into small cubes
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 2 chopped green chilies
• 1 tsp mustard seeds
• 1tsp turmeric powder
• a handful of curry leaves
• a pinch of salt or more to taste
• 3 tsp oil

Heat oil in a pot. Add mustard seeds, green chilies, turmeric powder, curry leaves and onions and saute for about 5 minutes. Add potatoes and salt and mix gently until all the pototoes are mixed up with the onion mixture. Heat through and then set aside.

Making the Masala dosas:
Follow dosa mix up until the part where the batter is ready to be used. Heat your griddle to medium and spray it with cooking spray. Pour a ladle full of batter in the middle of the griddle and then, in a circular motion, spead it into a thin pancake.(For beautiful step-by-step photos, try this) Pour 1 tsp oil around the edges and cook for 2-3 minutes. Spread some potato masala in the center of the dosa. Fold the dosa edge over it.

Serve with mango chutney or coconut chutney.

Sambar

• 3/4 cup red lentils
• 2 1/2 cups veggies of choice, chopped (I used okra, zucchini, tomatoes and yellow squash)
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1tsp mustard seeds
• a handful of curry leaves
• 1 liter water
• 2-3 tbs sambar paste (I used the MTR brand)
• 2 tbs oil
• Cilantro as garnish

Cook red lentils with water in a pot until soft. In a large pot, heat oil and add mustard seeds. When seeds begin to crackle, add onions and curry leaves. Once the onions are transparent, add the rest of your veggies and saute until tender. Add water, cooked red lentils, sambar paste and bring to a boil. Boil for 3-4 minutes.
Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

Restaurant Review: Udupi Palace, Takoma Park, Maryland

My friend (& former nurse preceptor) Arati and I enjoyed the earlier part of the day scrub shopping and then lunch at an all-vegetarian South Indian restaurant near DC called, Udupi Palace.

According the the restaurant's website, "Udupi" is synonymous with southern Indian style vegetarian cooking in India. Typical South Indian food is made with rice and lentils (perfect for us wheat-free souls!!) When these ingredients are blended together with spices and herbs and spread on a skillet, a variety of different types of dosai (which are basically South Indian crepes) can be made. The restaurant is located in a very busy and cultural strip mall in Takoma Park, Maryland. It's elegantly decorated with Hindu god statues and crystal chandeliers, not the tacky Bollywood-style of a lot of Indian restaurants. The servers were very attentive and immediately sat us at a table. During the weekday, they have a wonderful and extensive lunch buffet for $7.99 which is a great bargain! You can find dishes like idli, sambar and rasam, as well as a delicious variety of unusual vegetarian curries and dals. It was such a treat to have different dishes than the typical tandoori chicken and palak paneer (which I LOVE, don't get me wrong, but variety is very nice!). There was also a nice, fresh salad with several different chutneys (including coconut chutney - yum!) and pickles. When my friend and I returned to our table with our first helping, we had two wonderfully warm masala dosas awaiting us! With the coconut chutney, those dosas were like heaven! As in the beauty of buffet style, my friend and I tried everything at the buffet! (Just little helpings of each!) Everything was soooo delicious I could have eaten all day long. As my mom says, I will now dream of that food!

For dessert (yes, we're piggies!), we had a warm and very orange halwa which was like a pudding with raisins and nuts. There were also an assortment of neon colored square type things which I tried a couple of but decided that, despite the different colors, they all tasted exactly the same - sweet.

As we sat with our plates finally empty and our bellies very full (but very happy), I contemplated ordering some chai but thought it might be overkill. We left through the other door, which was an Indian bakery where the friends of the neon wedges resided. I ended up getting two Gulab Jamun for my dear husband who loves them dearly but was hard at work. That should earn me some brownie points.

Udupi Palace had 2 other locations, besides the MD one so folks in the Chicago area can also partake in delicious South Indian cuisine. The website has all the details. And for anyone in the DC area, let me know if you're interested in going because I'd love to go back!!

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Udupi Palace
1329 University Blvd, East
Takoma Park, MD 20192
Phone: 301.434.1531

Easy meal - Crockpot Turkey Chili and Wheat-free Cornbread Muffins

School returned with avengence. Ugh. I feel like that fish from the Faith No More "Epic" video, flapping furiously out of water (ok, I probably just dated myself). So while trying to get the grips on my new life schedule which consists of classes, reading, clinicals, reading, studying, reading..., I've been bad and haven't been cooking much lately. Lots of take-out and fattening comfort food. Then I realized the other day, five minutes before I had to leave for my first exam, that I had all the makings for turkey chili so I ran around madly and threw it all together in those last few moments. That tells you how fast this dish can come together! I ended up not having time to chop any onions so I just left them out entirely (which is normally blasphemous in my book, but I was under a time crunch).

The corn muffins I baked up when I returned from my exam later that night. Oh, it was so exciting to come down the stairs to my apartment to smell spicy simmering chili awaiting me! I do love my crockpot!


Crockpot Turkey Chili

• 1 tablespoon canola or olive oil
• 1 pound ground turkey
• 1 can tomato soup
• 1 can chopped tomatoes with chili
  
• 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, drained
• 1 (15 ounce) can black beans, drained
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 dash ground black pepper
• 1 dash allspice
• salt to taste

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Place turkey in the skillet, and cook until evenly brown; drain.
Coat the inside of a slow cooker with cooking spray, and mix in turkey, tomato soup, tomatoes, kidney beans, black beans, and onion. Season with chili powder, red pepper flakes, garlic powder, cumin, black pepper, allspice, and salt.

Cover, and cook 8 hours on Low or 4 hours on High.

Wheat-free Corn Muffins

• 3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
• 3/4 cup spelt flour or rice flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs (or egg substitute)
• 1/4 - 1/2 cup water, milk or milk substitute
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vinegar
• 1 cup corn kernels, thawed if frozen

Pre-heat oven to 350. In a large bowl mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, sugar and salt. Add in egg or replacer, oil, vinegar, and cranberries. Mix and add in water or milk until desired consistancy is reached. You want it to be smooth not too runny. Spoon mixture into lightly oiled muffin tins. Bake for 15-20 mins until you can place a toothpick in the center and no goo comes off on your toothpick. Let cool for 5-10 minutes.