Recipe : Kala Channa Chaat - Black Chickpea Salad - Vegan

Ever since last Wednesday when the husband sent me photos of pani puri and other chaat that he had at Southampton at the match, I’ve been craving those flavours. Today’s salad was an attempt to capture the balance of sour, spicy, salty, crunchy without the sweetness.

I used kala channa - legumes like channa are not allowed on the keto diet because they do contain carbs - but we are on a slightly more flexible diet - for us no carb means avoiding grains, flour and high starch veggies.

Kala channa / Black chickpeas have a low glycemic index, and high fibre and protein so I will occasionally slip it in.

If you are following strict keto, avoid the black chickpeas. If you avoid the black chickpeas, this dish works for the raw food diet too.

The black chickpeas are more nutritious, but white chickpeas will also work in this recipe.

So, the salad is

1 bowl drained black chickpeas (you can use canned or soak overnight and cook the next day)

1 bowl chopped cucumber

1/2 bowl chopped tomato

1/2 bowl chopped onion,

2-3 sprigs coriander chopped

1-5 chopped green chillies (as per spice tolerance)

The dressing is

2 tbsp lemon juice,

1 tbsp chaat masala

1 tsp black salt (use regular salt if you don't have black salt)

Feel free to adjust the quantities to suit your taste.

I let the salad and dressing sit for awhile.

Just before serving, I tossed in a handful of groundnuts.

Kim's Tip : If the taste of raw onion is not a flavour you like, drop the onion completely or let the onion sit in the lemon juice / vinegar for 10-15 minutes which helps take the edge off.

The lamb kebabs were from @meatn16 that I picked up after a session of the @stokenewingtonliteraryfestival at their location.

The meat was fantastic. I just seared it on all sides and served it medium rare.

Recipe : Masala Fried Chicken

Back to no-carb, no-sugar since yesterday. Home made masala fried chicken - shallow fried in less than a teaspoon of oil.

The batter is a mix of spices, a pinch of gram flour and eggs.

Lots of chopped fresh coriander, fresh curry leaves and green chillies went into the batter too with ginger and garlic paste

This is a very light batter, gently caressing the chicken, so it doesn’t need flour, nor does it give you a very thick batter coating.

The batter is to flavour the chicken, not to encase it.

The egg makes it nice and crispy.

I used 3 eggs for 1 kg chicken.

Marinated for at least an hour.

Marinated chicken can be left in the fridge and fried the next day too, but in this case, add the egg just before frying. not before.

Shallow frying takes a lot more patience than deep frying, but the benefits make up for the effort.

This chicken works well as a snack and with drinks.

The more complex the spices, the more sated I feel. I don’t crave carbs, the way the husband does. I did give him a large glass of masala lassi to cool down the heat of the chicken and today he didn’t go searching for nuts or cheese to munch on immediately after dinner. So I think lassi is going to be a part of his daily dinners henceforth.

Salad was a mix of loads of juicy stuff in season - lettuce leaves, grated carrot, a little sweet corn, cherry tomatoes.

Dressing was the fantastic avocado oil that I bought from @hunterandgatheruk @freefromevents last weekend, a hint of cider vinegar and some dried chipotle chilli flakes.

Recipe : Carrot & Baby Radish Salad - Vegan

This was another of our no-carb dinners.

Carrot & Baby Radish Salad

4 carrots - cut into circles

1 small packet baby radish - 200 gms - quartered

1-5 green chillies chop in circles(depending on spice tolerance)

2 tsp lime juice.

1 tsp salad/olive/avocado/nut oil

2 sprigs fresh coriander chopped

salt to taste

Soak the chopped green chillies in lime juice for a few minutes.

Add salt, oil and chopped coriander.

This is your dressing.

Mix this into the chopped carrot and baby radish.

This I let sit for awhile, tossing occasionally as I was cooking the chicken.

The carrots and radish are crunchy.

So it sits well and the flavours blend together if left for a bit.

The Masala fried chicken is just chicken cooked with onion, tomato, ginger, garlic and some spices I had on hand.

Recipe : Bean Sprout Salad (Vegan)

This salad is bean sprouts.

2 minutes stir fried in a hot pan (any more and you will lose the liquid as they start to turn soggy and soft). I’m not a fan of their raw taste, so just about 2 minutes.

You can use them raw if you like.

Dressing

2 tsp lime juice,

1 tsp soya sauce,

1 tsp chipotle chilli flakes,

1/2 tsp Chinese all spice powder

1 tsp of hazelnut oil - I need to finish this bottle, any olive oil or salad oil will work too.

Toss gently.

I served it warm, because sprouts once heated can turn soggy quite quickly.

It barely takes 5 minutes to put it together.

So glad the weather is turning warmer and we can eat a lot more salads.

I served it with a Texan slammer - jalapeño poppers with cheddar cheese, encased in pork mince / sausage meat and rolled in bacon from @marksandspencer Lightly pan fried at home.

Fridge Cleanout : Bamboo Shoot & Mushroom Miso Soup with Thai herbs.

Another clean out the fridge recipe.

I had a frozen bouquet garni of thai herbs (lemon grass, galangal, kaffir lime & chillies) which I crushed & boiled in water.

Remove the herbs/ strain.

Then in went some chopped bamboo shoot from the back of the fridge.

Next, in went whatever was left in the miso paste jar.

The final stage was chopped chestnut mushrooms (that I’d retained from Sunday’s fryup, just for this soup) and emptied out some New Orleans’s hot sauce bottles.

Garnished with chopped coriander .

Voila! Fusion Asian Soup for a snowy evening in London.

Recipe : Chinese Chicken Sweet Corn Soup

Chicken, pork & sweet corn soup kind of day, today.

The basic recipe is from Gousto Cooking, but I added some chillies, extra ginger & garlic, lemon juice and leftover pork stock & some pork pate that was a little too chunky & gamey to use on toast.

The recipe below, builds on Gousto's recipe with the additions that I would use for myself.

For a vegan/vegetarian version, drop the chicken or substitute it with mushrooms/tofu and replace the chicken stock cube with a vegetarian stock cube.

The noodles make this a one pot meal. If you just want a plain light soup without the carbs, drop the noodles

This recipe makes 2 bowls of soup.

Ingredients:

1 large chicken breast or 2 thighs - boneless

4 cloves garlic - peel and finely chop (or grate)

15g or 2" ginger - peel and finely chop (or grate)

1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
1 tbsp soy sauce (2 sachets)
1 chicken stock cube
2 wheat noodle nests
2 tbsp cornflour
1 tin (150g) of sweetcorn or frozen

good squeeze of lemon juice

10g (3.5 tsp) sesame seeds toasted
2 spring onions finely sliced
10g (3-4 stalks + leaves) fresh coriander chopped

2 - 5 green chillies chopped fine

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil 

vegetable oil - sunflower/canola

salt to taste

a kettle on the boil

Method:

Dissolve the chicken stock cube in 600ml boiled water – this is your chicken stock

Put the cornflour in a bowl and gradually stir in 100ml boiled water, then whisk to a smooth paste
Tip: the cornflour and water paste will help thicken your soup!

Put the wheat noodle nests with a pinch of salt in a pot and cover them with boiled water until they're fully submerged
Bring to the boil over a high heat and cook for 5-7 min until tender with a slight bite
Once done, drain and return to the pot with a drizzle of vegetable oil (this stops them sticking together)

Heat a large, wide-based pan (preferably non-stick) with a matching lid, with a drizzle of vegetable oil over a high heat

Once hot, add the chicken breast and cook on both sides for 3 min or until lightly browned (don't worry it won't be fully cooked yet!)

Add both the chopped garlic and chopped ginger to the pan, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 1 min

Add the Shaoxing wine, soy sauce and chicken stock, cover with a lid, and cook for 12-15 min until the chicken is cooked

Once done, transfer the cooked chicken from the broth to a clean board and shred it apart, using two forks – this technique is known as ‘pulling’

Drain the sweetcorn

Keep the pan of broth over a high heat and gradually whisk the cornflour paste into the broth until it's silky smooth and thickened

Add the shredded chicken back to the broth along with the sweetcorn and cook for 2 min or until hot – this is your chicken & sweetcorn soup

Divide the drained noodles among large bowls and ladle over the chicken & sweetcorn soup

Give a good squeeze of lemon juice over each bowl

Garnish with the toasted sesame seeds, sliced spring onion, chopped green chillies, coriander leaves and a drizzle of toasted sesame oil

Recipe : Salmon Gochujang

Gochujang is a savory, sweet, and spicy fermented condiment made from chili powder, glutinous rice, meju powder, yeotgireum, and salt from Korea. It is easily available in Asian Grocery stores in London.

However, Gochujang is also quite a thick paste, so it needs to be thinned out a bit before using it as a marinade.

In this dish, I used an Italian wine vinegar and since this batch of Gochujang didn't have much sweetness, I also added a bit of honey which helped with caramelisation.

This is not a traditional Korean dish, I have just used a well known Korean ingredient in the marinade.

Ingredients :

4 slices salmon cleaned (skin on or off is your chocie)

2 tbsp gochujang

1/2 tsp honey

1 tbsp Italian wine vinegar (use any non synthetic vinegar of your choice)

Salt

Oil

Mix together the gochujang, honey and  Italian wine vinegar to form a marinade.

Add salt if and only if needed.

Marinate the fish in this paste for 20 minutes - 1 hour

Pan fry the marinated fish on medium flame for a few minutes turning once half way through.

Transfer to a plate.

Add the marinade juices to the pan and thicken, use this to top the fish.

I also added charred padron peppers to this dish and they paired well together.

If you want to do that, rub a little oil on the washed and dried padron peppers and char them in the pan, before you start to fry the fish. Keep aside when done.

Layer the fish, the thickened marinade sauce and the padron peppers.

Sprinkle a little salt on top of the peppers. Personally, I'm loving the Maldon smoked salt.

Recipe : Tandoori Salmon with Indian Spiced Salad & Almonds

Tandoori Salmon with Indian Spiced Salad & Almonds is not a dish you would find on a restaurant menu per se, its something I've been fiddling with for awhile and I'm finally really happy with the results, so I'm sharing it with you.

You can make this in small portions as an appetiser (with or without the salad) or turn it into a main course. It does not need any carb on the side, so this works well for anyone on a no-carb / low-carb / keto diet too

Salmon or trout works best for this recipe, the masalas are too strong for delicate fish.

Tandoori Salmon

4 boneless slices of salmon (see picture for reference)

1-2 pinch of salt

2 tbsp lemon juice

2-3 tbsp tandoori masala

red chilli powder to taste (optional, if your tandoori masala isn't spicy enough)

2 tbsp ginger garlic paste

4 tbsp yoghurt/thick curd

Method:

Clean fish well and descale.

Coat in lemon juice and salt for at least 15 minutes and throw away all the water that comes out.

Marinate in a mix of tandoori masala, red chilli powder, ginger garlic paste and yoghurt/curd.

Keep in fridge as long as you need. I left it marinating for 3 days I think.

Preheat oven to 220C (200C for fan)

I like to line the pan with foil when making fish, so the fishy smell doesn't remain in the pan - I use the same pan for baking biscuits and scones.

Lightly coat the pan or foil with oil and place the fish skin side down.

You need 4-6 minutes of baking time per half inch thickness of your fish slice on the middle rack.

Keep an eye on it. You don't want it overcooked.

If you keep it on the top rack and turn the grill on for the last few minutes, you will get a nice brownish crust.

Kim's Tip:

If you can't be bothered with turning on the oven, or you don't have an oven, just pan fry it in a little oil.

Salad:

The salad here is a simple mix of rocket, watercress and baby spinach leaves with very thinly sliced onions.

250 gms salad leaves

1/2 medium onion sliced and marinated in a tsp of lemon juice. (while you are getting the other ingredients ready)

Dressing:

The dressing is hazelnut (you can use olive) oil, lemon juice, salt, freshly crushed black pepper and 1-2 drops of balsamic vinegar - because I like the sweetness it gives.

1 tbsp oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp freshly crushed black pepper

1-2 drops of balsamic vinegar

You can add chaat masala or black salt to the dressing if you want a stronger Indian flavour in the dressing, but remember to adjust for salt.

Assembly :

Mix the salad leaves and onions in a bowl.

Shake or whip the dressing till it emulsifies and mix into the leaves.

Portion out into individual plates.

Lay the hot salmon on top.

Sprinkle with sliced almonds

This is another version of the same dish, plated in a large bowl rather than individually. the dressing here was an onion raita and I used roasted pine nuts in the garnish

Recipe : Stovetop Chicken and Mushrooms (Bonus : Sausage Pulao from leftovers)

I marinated the chicken for this dish, the night before and cooked it for lunch the following day. I used a lot of ingredients I had lying around like the pickled peppers and Kolahs sugarcane vinegar, you can substitute with fresh black pepper and any Italian herbs of your choice. The marinade is quite yummy, so you can even pop the marinated chicken on the grill/BBQ if you want a drier dish and omit the mushrooms.

I used skinless chicken, so it was very low in fat too.

Ingredients:
1 kg chicken
1 packet (400gms) button mushrooms (washed and sliced in half)
a few grams of sliced dried Shitake mushrooms (optional)
a few grams of dried oyster mushrooms (optional)

Marinade:
10 garlic cloves
3-4 strands of pickled green peppers (or 1 tsp black pepper)
a pinch of oregano
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp Kolah's sugarcane vinegar (substitute with balsamic vinegar to taste)
salt to taste

Method:
Roughly pound the garlic cloves and the pepper.
Add the herbs of choice and roughly pound a bit more.
Remove the strands holding the green peppers together, if you like, I removed them after cooking.
Add olive oil, salt and vinegar and mix well.

Marinate the chicken in this marinade for a couple of hours or overnight.

Take a large pan, pour out a bit of oil from the marinated chicken onto the pan.
Brown the chicken on both sides.

Then add the remaining marinade to the pan.
Now add whichever dried mushrooms you are using (if any) and cover the chicken with a tight lid.
Since you haven't re-hydrated the mushrooms, make sure they are sitting in some of the liquid marinade when you close the pan. (I find this gives much stronger flavours than rehydrating the mushrooms and then adding them to the pan)

After, the chicken is half cooked, add the fresh mushrooms.

(I initially don't let the mushrooms touch the pan surface directly, instead they steam on top of the chicken pieces, only when the chicken is cooked do I give it a stir and let the mushrooms come in contact with the pan.)

Cover and cook till done.
Once cooked, open the lid and serve immediately if you like some gravy, else cook without a cover until it thickens / dries up to your choice.

Serve hot with foccacia or on its own.

Bonus Recipe with Leftovers:

When we were done with the chicken, there was some oil left in the pan and it had great flavour, that I didn't want to wash out. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can try this recipe.

Add a piece of cinnamon to the hot oil, then add a bit of chopped garlic and onions and fry till browned.
Add some sliced sausages and saute till cooked.
Now add the cooked rice (I used brown rice), salt and some green peas.
Saute until peas are cooked and serve hot.

Twinings Green Tea - Lemon & Honey

Ever since my sister got me started on Green Tea as a way to increase my metabolism, I have finally been converted to a tea drinker. Prior to this, I would only have a hot coffee in the peak of winter when I needed to warm myself from the inside, otherwise I never drank hot tea or coffee.

Initially it was tough to drink green tea in the summers, but I now end up having my 3 cups in the night after 11pm. I'm a night bird, who is normally up till 2am or later, so it works for me.

In the mornings, I have one cup of hot water with lemon and ginger with honey, so I was quite excited when Twinings sent me a gift pack of their latest - Lemon & Honey Green Tea, that I was hoping I could have in the mornings.

 

The White Box, that you see in the picture, had a really lovely note written on it:

"Not everybody has a discerning taste for tea.
Not everybody has the detailed knowledge about the finest and the oldest tea makers.
And you being the select few with admirable knowledge on fine tea drinking, make us want to celebrate that classic taste.
Since you are now a true Twinings Connoisseur, we would love to honour you with an exclusive Twinings gift pack.
For that refined taste you share with us and your fine disposition as a tea drinker, you are truly valued and admired.
We would be delighted to bring to you more such surprises..
Stay connected with us through our facebook page.
Enjoy your tea time."

Yes, as you may have guessed by these words, I had won a quiz on tea, held on their facebook page, but don't you just love the wording?

The package arrived in the evening and I couldn't wait until morning to taste it, so we opened it up immediately to try this new flavour.

I have to mention, that I am a huge fan of Twinings black tea in Lemon and Lady Grey Flavours and their green tea in Mint and Jasmine Flavours. The Lemon and Honey was a bit of a disappointment though. While I could taste the lemon, the honey was just the fragrance of honey without any flavour or sweetness, that feels quite weird.

Fabindia's Organic Tea has a sweet flavour in their Tulsi - Sweet Rose tea, that is lovely. This honey tea, did not have any of that sweetness. So this flavour ended up tasting like the regular Twinings Green Tea Lemon, with an aroma of honey thrown in. I'll stick to the Jasmine and mint options for now and have Fabindia's Organic Tulsi Ginger Green Tea in the mornings when I want some tea in the cold weather.

Recipe : Beetroot and Raw Mango Clear Soup (Vegan)

Very often when cooking beetroot, we normally just throw away the water in which the beetroots have been boiled.

Given that I have been looking up Ayurvedic (where water that vegetables are boiled in, is also nutritious) and Bengali recipes (which rarely throw away anything as waste), I decided to make a soup with the water this time. It tasted pretty good. The picture is ordinary, but it belies the taste of this nutritious soup.

Ingredients:
1 kg beetroots - cleaned
1 raw mango - roughly chopped (or juice of a lemon - to taste)
1 large onion - quartered
2-4 green chillies to taste - roughly chopped
1 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp chaat masala powder (optional, but it ups the flavours if used)
pinch of chilli powder
salt to taste

Method :
Wash the beetroots thoroughly and cover with enough water in a pressure cooker.
Cook for 3 whistles and let the pressure release on its own.
Remove the beetroots and use in salads or any other recipe of your choice.
If you had washed the beetroots well, there should not be any need to strain the liquid.

To the beetroot liquid in the pressure cooker, add the roughly chopped onions, green chillies and green mangoes.
Also add the salt, pepper powder, chaat masala powder, chilli powder and salt.
Close and pressure cook for 3 whistles.
Let the pressure release and then open the pan.

If you didn't have raw mango to start with, add the lemon juice to taste at this point.

Strain and serve hot.

You can garnish it with coriander leaves if you like, but I personally prefer my soups completely clear.

Kim's Notes:
I cooked the beetroots with the skin on after washing them thoroughly. If you aren't sure how clean your beets are, then you can skin them before you cook them, or just the skin where it seems encrusted in dirt.

Green mangoes are in season and I had a mango left over from pickling that didn't make the cut, as it wasn't crunchy enough. If you don't have raw mangoes on hand, just add lime juice at the end (after pressure cooking the other ingredients)

 If you want to make it a chunky soup. Add a bit of chopped beetroot, after the second round of pressure cooking.

Recipe : Spicy Ginger Lemon Soup (Vegan Option too)

This is a lovely, very easy to make Soup from Jigyasa & Pratibha's "Sukham Ayu - Cooking at Home with Ayurvedic Insights"

Its perfect for Winter or the Monsoons, or anytime you just want a quick easy to digest soup for dinner. It doesn't need any stock or pre-preparation, and is is ready in 30 minutes or so.

The Recipe calls for 2 green chillies, but I used 5, because we like our food spicy.

Ingredients :
1/4 cup Split red or green gram (masoor or moong dhal)
2 inch ginger crushed (try and keep it whole, so you can remove the whole piece, rather than straining it)
5 green chillies slit (adjust to spice tolerance)
pinch of turmeric powder (haldi)
powdered rock salt to taste (rock salt is recommended in Ayurveda, but you can use regular salt, if you don't have rock salt)

1 tsp coriander leaves chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice or to taste (I used half a lemon)

To Temper :
1 tsp Cows Ghee (Cow's Ghee is Ayurvedic, to make it vegan, use any neutral oil of your choice)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
pinch of asafoetida (hing)
7-8 curry leaves

Method :
Wash and pressure cook the gram to a soft consistency. The trick is to use just enough water to cook it, so that the gram can get completely disintegrated (about 4-5 whistles?)

Add ginger, chillies, turmeric powder, salt and 2 cups of water and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Strain and return to flame to simmer . (I just removed the ginger, but let the chillies remain)

In your tempering pan, heat the ghee, pop the mustard. Reduce the flame and add jeera, hing and curry leaves. Pour the tempering over the simmering soup.

Switch off the flame and add lemon juice and coriander leaves. Serve hot.

Optional:
My husband wanted more substance in his soup, so before adding the tempering, I added a 1/2 cup of quartered cabbage leaves and let it simmer for about a minute before adding the seasoning.

Recipe : Rasam / Mulligatawny Soup - Vegetarian / Vegan

Rasam is a dish that is commonly believed to be a part of every South Indian's diet along with curd rice, sambhar and idli-dosa. Surprise, surprise! Neither my mum nor my grandmum ever made this soup for us!

I learnt to appreciate it much later in life with the influence of Tamilian friends whose mums served up some awesome variants.

I love to have this soup on cold winter evenings, on rainy days and when I have a cold coming on.

If you prefer, you can season the soup with curry leaves and mustard seeds in the end and serve it with rice. You can garnish it with coriander leaves if you like. My husband prefers this soup with all the mashed up tomatoes and onions. My sister and I prefer to have it completely strained through with no bits and bobs in it.

I use a lot of spices in this which have medicinal qualities in them and I love a lot of pepper + chilli in my rasam. You can tone it down if you prefer a milder version. Rasam is great as an appetiser or even as a digestive, that's why it features so prominently in so many menus in the South.

Ingredients:
1-2 tbsp black pepper
a pinch of methi (fenugreek) seeds
1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp rasam powder or paste (optional - it just adds )
1 sprig curry leaves
1 inch ginger slightly crushed
2-3 cloves garlic slightly crushed
2-6 green chillies slit down the center
2 onions finely sliced
4 tomatoes finely sliced.
1 litre water

Method:
Semi crush the pepper, methi and jeera.
Heat the oil, add the crushed spices to the hot oil, when they sputter add the curry leaves.
Then add the green chillies, onions, tomatoes, ginger and garlic.
Fry on a low flame until they are all soft and mushy.

Once mushy, add the water and increase the heat.
Let it bubble and roil until the water reduces to 3/4th original consistency.

You can now either serve it hot by
1. straining it and drinking it out of a cup/glass.
2. garnish with chopped coriander leaves and drink it straight or eat with rice.
3. season with mustard seeds and curry leaves and eat hot with rice.

Recipe : Sprout Salad (Raw / Vegan)

I've made this one before, but we just have it so often these days, that I decided to repost it since  got some lovely colorful pictures this time.

Ingredients:
1 bowl of mixed sprouts
2 medium cucumbers chopped
1 medium tomato chopped
1 medium onion chopped fine (you can reduce this quantity if you don't like onions)
2 green chillies
6-8 stalks of corriander leaves chopped fine.
salt to taste
juice of half lemon

Method:
Take the finely chopped cucumber, tomato, chilies, corriander and onions, toss it with the sprouts.
Sprinkle salt and squeeze the lemon juice over the salad.
Toss again.

Note:
Toss it gently so the sprouts dont break.
You can use chaat powder instead of salt for a different taste.

I make mine without tomatoes.

Recipe: Dosas & Idlis

This recipe is for dosas and idlis made from store bought batter. Will give a recipe for batter once I am confident of the proportions.

Empty the store bought batter into a bowl at least 2 hours before intending to use it. Add salt to taste.

Keep it overnight if you want to make this for breakfast. Leave the bowl in a warm place in your kitchen, so it can ferment. (with the pilot light on in your oven, if the weather is cold.

 Add a teaspoon of Eno before using, if you feel that the batter hasn't risen enough.

To make idlis, grease the idli moulds (so it will be easy to remove the idlis when done).
Pour batter in the moulds, leaving enough space in the mould, for the idli to expand when cooking.
Arrange moulds in such a way that the moulds are not exactly one on top of the other.

I steamed the idlis in the microwave for 5 minutes.
Serve hot with chutney & sambhar.

For dosas, lightly grease a pan
Pour a spoonful of batter in the pan and spread evenly (in spirals from center to outside) and slightly thinner in some places.

If you want your dosas really crispy, you will need to dot a few drops of oil or ghee on the dosa.

When done on one side, slip and lightly cook on the other side

Serve hot with chutney and sambhar.

With the leftover batter, I will make utthapams in the morning.
I will follow the same method for making dosas, but immediately after spreading the batter in the pan, I will sprinkle a combination of finely chopped onions+tomatoes+chillies+corriander. and fry on both sides.

For onion utthappam, add only onion
For tomato utthappam or tomato omlette as it is called in Mangalore. Mix the fnely chopped tomato into the batter with a hint of tureric powder.

Items in the plate are coconut chutney, sambhar,idlis, dosas and chutney made from chutney pudi

Recipe : Sprout Salad

I'd been out this evening and came home about the same time as the husband, so dinner wasn't ready but he was quite hungry. Instead of just opening a packet of something for him to snack on, I now have to think of quick and easy snacks to put together that are also healthy and not fried/bought from a store.(Doctor's orders)

I had some grams sprouting in a bowl. So I just quickly tossed this salad together. Didn't even need to make a dressing. So its a one bowl dish too and if you have sprouts handy, its really fast. This dish is completely raw and suitable for those on a raw diet too.

Ingredients:
1 katori sprouts
1 katori finely chopped cucumber (you can mix this with tomatoes too, but total volume should remain the same)
1 small onion chopped fine (you can reduce this quantity if you don't like onions)
salt to taste
juice of half lemon

Method:
Take the finely chopped cucumber and onions, toss it with the sprouts.
Sprinkle salt and squeeze the lemon juice over the salad.
Toss again.

Note:
Toss it gently so the sprouts dont break.
If this was for me, I'd break in a finely sliced green chilli too

Michael Phelps' Amazing Diet

The BBC reported on Michael Phelps' Amazing and unusual diet

It comprises of
For breakfast: three fried egg sandwiches, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed by three chocolate-chip pancakes; a five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge), washed down with two cups of coffee.

For lunch: half a kilogram (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread smothered with mayonnaise, washed down by energy drinks.

For dinner: Another half-kilogram of pasta, perhaps with a carbonara sauce, followed by a large pizza and more energy drinks.

That combination may not sound very healthy, and at a staggering 10,000 calories, would feed five average men for a day.

Read the Entire article here

Combine this with Usain Bolt's diet. So unique is Bolt that he does all this on a diet they've banned from school menus as unhealthy.

After getting out of bed at midday, he got his masseur to bring him some chicken nuggets for breakfast.

"Then I came straight to the track, and my massuers brought me some more nuggets," he said. "I just ate two though because my coach said I shouldn't eat so many nuggets."

Are these diets healthy? Most dietitians would disagree. But this brings me back to my theory that : what you eat is not as important as your lifestyle and exercise. My theories may be all right, but I have trouble putting them into practice for myself :)