Moong Ke Mangode

Rain Gods have smiled over Chennai and its raining, raining hard. A li'l rain itself can flood many parts of Chennai, and this is heavy rains I am speaking of. The main road in front of my office was below knee length water and getting out of the place seemed like a herculean task. The Times of India symbolized this beautifully in their next day’s edition:


One thing Chennai's rain always does, even if it rains for a couple of hours, confine you to the place you are at, coz of the flooding that happens. To make the most of it, I normally setup the chairs in the balcony and plant myself with a plate of something fried and a hot cup of tea. It was Mangode made with Green moong we relished this time with some green chutney.

Mangode

Ingredients:
150 gm Whole Green Moong
3 Potatoes
2 Green chillies
2 tsp Red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Oil to deep fry

Soak the Moong for 4-5 hours and grind to a thick paste along with a green chilli. Add salt, red chili powder and finely chopped green chilli to it. Mix well. Peel and dice the potatoes separately into cubes.


In a wok heat the oil. Add the potatoes to the Moong paste and mix well. When the oil is hot enough for frying, with your hands or with a spoon, drop little by little of this mix into the oil. Fry till brown. Enjoy this with green chutney.


They are a good combination between bread slices with some chutney and salted curd sprinkled on them.



I am sending this to FIC: BROWN event hosted by SunshineMom of Tongue Ticklers



Looking out for something more to relish in monsoons:
Onion Pakodas
Paneer Tikka Sandwich
Bread Upma

Leftover Bread Dilemma

One thing always concerns me after relishing dahi idli ...what to do of all the edges that are cut off from the bread while making it?

Most often than not I roast the bread with tomato gravy which we at home call 'Bhuni Bread'. Occasionally I grind it after drying it in Sun to use as bread crumbs or bake it to use in Tomato Soup.
How do you use up your leftover bread?

Bhuni Bread

Ingredients:

5 Bread slices / Leftover bread from Dahi Idli
1 Tomato
1 T Oil
Pinch of Asafetida
½ tsp Mustard
1 Green chilly Chopped
1 tsp Chilli Powder
½ tsp Turmeric
Salt to taste
Coriander to Garnish

Break the bread into several pieces. Heat the oil in a wok and add mustard to it. Let it splutter and add hing and green chillies. To it add the Chilli, turmeric, salt and mix. Add the Tomatoes and sauté till the oil just starts to separate. Add the bread and mix well till it is coated with the tomato mix. Cook till it is a little roasted. Mix the finely chopped coriander.


Bread edges or leftover Bread used adds a crispness to the dish. While the soft portion of the bread turns soggy when used here.

I am sure Onion and Garlic paste would enhance the taste of this dish...However I still don't use it. Reason being I don't wish to change any dish, that I have learnt from my Mom, a bit. At my home back in Goa...My mom doesn't use Onion and Garlic in any preparation. That at times comes as a surprise to some. But thats the way we make all our dishes. However I do use Onion and garlic at my home but not for my Mom's recipe :)

Last week we chose Drona over Kidnap after much confusion as our Weekend watch. I indeed was happy after the not-so-good reviews Kidnap received, while it was a mixed bag for Drona.
DRONA primarily is a mythological film, set in today's time. For a mythological film to work it needs to involve you in, from the very beginning which drona fails miserably. Reason being several things left unexplained in the film, as a viewer you don’t feel excited about anything related to Drona being unfolded on screen. Without sounding too harsh I can say that there are high chances of one enjoying the mythological soaps telecast on TV than this movie.

The film borrows a lot from Harry potter but fails miserably. The animation is bad...something Hollywood did several years ago we are still struggling with.

As for the actors...Abhishek disappointed the most with Drona...You see him moving around with an angry face. He for once never looks the part for me. Kay kay came across as a very scary in his first scene...I had my eyes covered. But then on he disappoints.Priyanka is plain average. I wonder why she would be running around with her long flowing dresses when her job is to protect the savior of the world.

This is supposed to be a movie about a man with superpowers... But you never, even for a second can believe that the guy on the screen possesses any super powers what so ever.

Now something that never bothered me so much than in this movie, were the props used. Drona’s costume looked borrowed from some cheap theatre group with some motif work on it. One important prop used was a conch shell which when blown will open the doors to the place where the Amrit lies...Can u imagine that was painted in bright Purple and decorated all over with the sequin bindi stickers. Ditto was with the box hidden in the desert that stored this conch shell, so was the case with the hidden city of secret..decorated all over with sequins... I wonder if they bought the sequins in dozens.

Is Drona good for anything? Yes, it is. Its a good place to catch up with your old friend and chit chat for a couple of hours.

Director Goldie Behl has left the film well open for a sequel...and has in his recent interview confirmed that he indeed would go ahead with the sequel.


I had to share this with you'll...During a supposedly intense scene in the desert between Abhishek and Priyanka there was 'Tujhe dekha to yeh jana sanam' in the background...it leaves you with shock only to realize later that it was some body's ring tone in the theater and induces a huge laughter in the background. That was seriously funny.

Playing the guessing game

In my last post I had asked you'll to play a guessing game with me. A few of you did come close. I will come to that a li'l later.

Serving your guest with something they, in most probability, must have not had before, are going to love it and is still so simple to make...clicks with me. Works well even as an evening snack or when served in breakfast.

It is one snack whenever made for any of the guests, they have almost instantly asked for the recipe, men included! The men have always said that they would go back and try it at their home. How much of that really happened...I don't know :)

The dish looks like Idli...is called Idli..but definitely is not one.

This recipe is called DAHI IDLI / BREAD IDLI.

Ingredients:
10 Sandwich slices
2 Potatoes Boiled
8 T Curd
1 T Oil
1 t Mustard seeds
½ t Red Chilly powder
Salt to taste
Coriander finely chopped to Garnish

Add the chilli powder and salt to the boiled potatoes and mash it.

Add salt to the curd and mix well.

Heat oil in a pan (or a smaller utensil used for Tadka) and add the mustard seeds. Let it splutter and take off the stove.


To cut a slice into round you would require something circular which when placed over a slice will cover only the soft of the slice and not the edges. I normally use a glass or a sharp bowl for it.

On a cutting board place a slice of the bread and cut into circular using a glass, making sure edges are left behind. Similarly cut all the other slices


Apply a layer of potato mix on one side of the slice.


Heat the tawa and sprinkle few drops of oil. Place 2 potato covered slices at the center of the tawa, with their potato side down. Apply a generous coat of the Curd, making sure it doesn’t drip around.


This now needs to be covered with a lid making sure the lid doesn’t touch the bread. I use my pan lid for it.

After approx a min take off the lid and sprinkle ½ tsp of mustard oil mix over each bread and cover again. Cook till the potato layer is lightly roasted. Take it of the tawa and sprinkle some coriander leaves on it.


Serve hot with green chutney or tomato ketchup.

Now for the guessing part...there were a couple who guessed the ingredient, Curd, correct and the others guessed it as Idli. While Sripriya came closest with her Bread Idli guess!