Dal Kachori (Blackgram / Urad Dhal)

   Holi – Festival of colours celebrated during spring in India. There are many traditional sweets and snacks . I choose to make this Dal kachori for the Holi theme of Sssshhhh secretly cooking. I was paired with Annam senthilkumar. We can make traditional or Fusion dishes.

    Kachori is a spicy snack from Indian subcontinent. Alternative names for snack include Kachauri , Kachodi and Katchuri.

  Kachori must have originated in the Uttar Pradesh or Rajasthan . It is usually a round flattened ball made of flour filled with a stuffing of mixture of moong dhal or urad dhal or besan with black pepper , red chilli powder , salt and other spices.

  In Rajasthan , Pyaas Kachori ( Onion stuffing ) is famous while Mawa Kachori is famous in Jodhpur.

Requirements :

Black gram ( Husked ) – 1 cup

All purpose flour – 3 cup

Clarified butter ( Ghee ) – 4 tbs

Asafoetida – a pinch

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Green chillies – 2

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala – 1 tsp

Amchur powder – 1 tsp

Ginger – 1’’ piece

Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 1 tsp

Salt

Oil for frying

Method :

 Wash and soak the black gram for half an hour.

  Strain the water and Grind coarsely.

 Heat two spoon of oil in a pan , add the cumin and let it fry.

Add asafetida , chopped green chillies and ginger. Fry for a minute.

Add in the garam masala, chilli powder , turmeric powder ,  coriander powder , amchur powder and salt.

 To this add the ground black gram and sauté well . After five minutes , the mixture will become dry and can be rolled together .

Take off flame and let it cool. Divide into equal portions.

In a bowl , add the flour , salt and ghee , mix well. Add the required water and knead into a soft smooth dough. Divide the dough into equal portions.

Take a dough ball , flatten to make into a cup shape place a portion / spoon of the stuffing and seal the edges. Flatten a little to make round discs.

 Shape the remaining kachoris.

Heat the oil , fry the kachoris in medium heat till they turn into golden brown.

Serve the kachoris warm with mint chutney and sweet chutney.

Makes around 15 kachoris…

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Open – Eyed Meditation #Book Review

  Open Eyed Meditation by Shubha Vilas . Open eyed meditation – practical wisdom for everyday life.

                                         

  Shubha Vilas was the author of this book. I had read his previous two books on Ramayana- The Game of Life. I liked his narration style and came to know many new details about Ramayana. 

  The front cover with a colourful picture with the colours of Rainbow was wonderful.

   Meditation has been originated in India and now many forms of meditations has been formulated. Meditation was the secret for the power and health of rishis and sadhus.

 Meditation essentially means perceiving deeper truths from within. Open eyed meditation is a collection of thoughts about various aspects of life that is purely inspired by observing the world through the lenses of the Vedic epics.

The word yoga means wholesome connection. Yoga is synonymous with health. Yoga of interaction involves pulling the mind away from self while empathetically 

    A complex mind analyses every small detail with a magnifying glass.
  Face is the mirror of the mind . We can see a Tejus on the face of those meditate , it was from their clear state of mind which reflects on their face. 

  The author had talked about scenes from Ramayana and Mahabarata to explain each concept of open Eyed Meditation.
  People with weak self Image look for constant approval from others to improve their self image. 

  Sharing Keeps knowledge fresh and fragrant whereas stored knowledge becomes stagnant and stale - Excellent saying.

The work - in for the mind is to push against the weight of thinking ''I don't need anyone " and pull in positive love . This is achieved by meditation alone.

   Perfect people are unpopular and boastful . Perfection is just a mask to hide the underlying fear of being inferior.

  Enjoy success privately and celebrate failure publically.

Horrors of Horoscope - Horoscope gives us control over our fears - fears about future or failure. Horoscope predictions can never be accurate or final like weather forecast. 

Diwali Meditations 
    six Sparklers in your life

Determination

Illuminate

Winning Up

Accommodate

Let Go

Indebtedness

  Diwali essentially means being determined to illuminate our lives by understanding that you win by accomadating others and by letting go of their lapses while being indebted to the contributions of many.

  Jealousy eats away one's peace of mind. The counter-  balance for jealousy is self - acceptance. The need is to become aware that real success is in accepting the weakness and not getting disturbed.

  Peace and joy cannot be purchased by forcing others to love us more but by hating our self less.

  Forgiveness is the sign of being concerned about the future and hatred is the sign of being stuck to the past.

  The book has many reviews by great authors and spritual persons. There are about 64 chapters covered in 279 pages . The book is truely a practical wisdom for everyday life. 

   The above quotes are from the book which were so meaningful and has to be followed. 

  Before pointing others about their mistake , we must look into our self image and has to realise how we have been till now..........

  
  Self Realisation is the key in all  the meditations . 

  A great book for everyday life's practical wisdom. I give five out of five stars for this book. 

  The author has narrated the book well with examples from the historical epics of India - Ramayana and Mahabaratha for each chapter. The language used was simple and easily understandable to everyone.

This review is a part of the biggest http://blog.blogadda.com/2011/05/04/indian-bloggers-book-reviews" target="_blank"> Book Review Program

for http://www.blogadda.com" target="_blank">Indian Bloggers. Participate now to get free books!

Alagar Kovil Dosai / Black Gram Pancakes#BreadBakers

   Alagar Kovil Dosai is the important Prasadam ( Offering ) to Lord Kalalagar  , a form of Lord Krishna in the Alagarkovil , a place in the Temple city Madurai of Southern part of  India.

      

    Dosai is  a type of  pancake made from fermented batter. The batter is made from parboiled rice and blackgram. Dosa is a popular dish from the Soutern India , now has become a well known dish to the world.

  For this month’s bread bakers the theme was Pancake , I thought of posting a traditional recipe from my country. This is a healthy pancake and delicious to indulge.

For normal dosa , we use for every part of black gram four part of parboiled rice is used. In this dosa ,for a part of black gram with skin two part of raw rice is used.  As parboiled rice is not used in offering to god.

   

 Black gram is considered to be good for teenage girls and nursing mothers. In my place , teenage girls are provided with recipes made from black gram during their Menarche.

Requirements :

Raw Rice – 2 cup

Whole Black Gram with skin – 1 cup

whole Pepper corn  – 1 tsp

Cumin – 1 tsp

Fresh / Dry Ginger - 2'' piece

Curry leaves – 20 leaves

Salt – 1 tbs

Sesame oil

Method :

Wash and soak the rice for 3 hour.

Soak the Bengal gram for one hour.

Grind the Bengal gram to soft and fluffy batter for 20 – 30 minutes.

 Grind the rice with little water to a coarse batter. You can grind to a fine batter.

Coarse grind the pepper and cumin and add the batter. 

  Pound the ginger and add to the batter . 

Mix the rice and black gram batter together. Add in salt and mix well. Let the batter ferment.

  This batter ferments within 3 hour and easy to make.

In the temple kitchen , they will fry the dosa with lot of ghee ( clarified butter ).

 I made it as a dosa with less oil .

Heat the tawa / griddle , pour two ladle full of batter and spread little to make thick dosa.

Sprinkle a spoon of oil and cook for a minute then flip over and cook the other side.

Repeat with the remaining batter.

Instead of oil , you can sprinkle ghee for the dosa.

If we fry the dosa in ghee like the temple kitchen we can store the dosa for a week.

We had the dosa with sambar and coconut chutney.

 Alagar Kovil Dosai are ready to be served.

Alagar Kovil Dosai from Sara’s Tasty Buds

Blueberry Dutch Baby from Hostess At Heart

Brown Rice Dosa (Indian Savory Crepes) from Spiceroots

Buckwheat, Blackberry and Saffron Drop Scones from A Shaggy Dough Story

Chinese Scallion Pancakes from Karen’s Kitchen Stories

Corn Pancakes from Kids and Chic

Crepes from A Baker’s House

Dutch Baby from Herbivore Cucina

Galettes de Sarrasin from The Bread She Bakes

Greek Tiganites from Gayathri’s Cook Spot

Hotteok (Korean Pancakes) from Cook’s Hideout

Hotteok (Korean Stuffed Pancakes) from Passion Kneaded

Kabalagala (Ugandan Pancakes) from Mayuri’s Jikoni

Keralan Yeast Appam from Food Lust People Love

Malpua (Sweet Indian Crepes) from SimplyVeggies

Oven Baked Tropical Pancakes from A Day in the Life on the Farm

Pannukkau (Finish Pancakes) from Cindy’s Recipes and Writings

Potato Latkes (Jewish Pancakes) from Sneha’s Recipes

Savory Finnish Baked Pancakes(Pannukakku) with Smoked Salmon from The Wimpy Vegetarian

Srilankan Hoppers from I camp in my Kitchen

Strawberry Nutella Crepes from Spill the Spices

Swedish Pancakes from Palatable Pastime

Sweet Potato Pancakes with Brown Sugar and Pecan Sauce from A Salad For All Seasons

Wholegrain Yeast Pancakes from Ambrosia

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely bread by following our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated after each event on the #BreadBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.