One for my mum.....

Last weekend (the day of the elusive dragon-horse adventure), my mother made some idlli with sambar and chutney for dinner. Idlli is a South Indian dish made from cooked rice which is left to ferment and then steamed. It's soft, fluffy and delicately flavored with curry leaves, mustard seeds, dried chilli and onions all sauteed in gingelly oil (Indian sesame oil). This is poured into the batter and then steamed. The sambar is just dahl boiled with some tumeric, green chilli, shallots, garlic and a pinch of asofedita until well cooked. Vegetables are then added to it - usually carrots, potatoes, brinjal. 

I started of this blog only wanting to post pictures of what I make, but then since the camera was out, I decided to take a pic of my dinner too... Please don't ask me for the recipe because I sure do not know how to make the idlli. I do make sambar but its instinctive so it will be hard to provide a quantity. 

However, my husband can't stomach fermented food, so as a dutiful wife (yeah rite!) I made him his standard fare of noodles. However, I didn't have much vegetables, so I actually used cauliflower with some yellow bell peppers to make the dish. Surprisingly, it was quite good, which made me come to the conclusion that you can use whatever vegetables you want to make noodles :) It's all a matter of creativity (or desperation!)