Masala Vada: Perfect for chilled weather.

Cooking time: 20mins(exlcuding the dal soaking time of 30mins)

Ingredients:

1/4                 Chana dal(Bengal gram)
5                 Green chillis
1 inch piece  Ginger
1/2 cup          Dill leaves (finely chopped)
1/4 tsp          Baking Soda
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Soak dal in water for about 30mins. Grind green chillis, ginger first and then add the soaked chana dal and grind it to coarse. Take the mixture to a bowl, add salt, dill leaves, soda and salt to taste.

Mill well. Take the small ball of this mix and shape them to flat patties.

Deep fry these patties. Serve with lemon rice or as a side dish for lunch or dinner.

If you are having for evening tea, serve hot with coconut chutney. Perfect for chilled weather.

Tips:
1. Make small and flat vadas to get a crispy vada.
2. You can also dip it with spicy yogurt (more in malayalam,Perugu chaaru in telugu/majjige saaru in kannada/Kadi in hindi) and serve.
3. Dill leaves are optional, you can make vada without dill leaves also, but dill leaves gives an awesome taste and aroma to the vada. You will surely love it.
4. You can also add onions, coriander to the mix. This will give a different taste.

My Car Driving Experience

Audience: Women especially short ladies.

Driving is necessity and its thrilling:

Situation makes you do wonders. Don't believe, here you go. Exactly one year back, I didn't know driving. I was completely dependent on my cab/brothers if I had to go out. Either I was not interested or I didn't dare to.

I always have heard men saying girls cannot ride or drive, specially gear one. I believed it somehow. But now probably I wouldn't agree for it:-). Driving is very simple and I suggest go for gear one. Its a necessity and also its fun.

How to drive? Follow this

1. First thing, get into a car at the driver seat and understand the system. (Go to coaching if needed. Have a driver beside you.)
2. Adjust the seat accordingly for a proper leg room. You will find a liver below the seat which is used to adjust the distance of your seat from the pedals. You can also adjust your seat for proper seating position. This is similar to the seat adjustment in any push back seat buses you might have travelled. Few high end cars provide seat' height adjustment also, but low end cars it doesn't support, and its not really necessary as it hardly makes any difference and it depends on the car that you are driving. If you ask me its not so important.
3. Adjust the mirros, center mirror, side mirrors. You need to look into these mirrors only when you are changing your lane, else you can go your way looking forward. Understand how much wide you car is and go ahead.
4. The wheel is called the steering wheel, which is used to control the direction of the wheels. Try rotating it and see how the wheels move when you rotate the wheel. This will give you fair idea on how much you need to turn your steering wheel to move your car in particular direction. This is the first thing you should know to control.

4. At your legs, you see three pedals. Left pedal is the clutch, middle pedal is the brake and the right one is the accelerator. Adjust your seat in a way that you are able to press these three pedals to the floor.

5. Now understand the gear shift knob. The knob looks as below.

Neutral : By default the gear will be in neutral position. Test it by moving the gear knob around. You should be able to move it freely.

First Gear: Move the knob to left and then upwards. This gear is used to move the vehicle. Remember this gear is only to move your vehicle for short distance. Once the vehicle moves, change the gear to second.

Second Gear: Press the clutch to floor, pull the gear knob back from 1st gear, it will come to neutral. Now move the gear knob to left, then downwards and slowly release the clutch. This gear you need for driving as the first gear is only to move your vehicle. Rest everything can be controlled by second gear. Its safe and it goes in minimum and manageable speed. So if you are a learner, then always be in first and second gear. Once comfortable go for higher gears.

Third Gear: Press the clutch to floor,get the gear back to neutral from second. Push forward(straight), you will be in third gear.This gear should be used once the vehicle picks up the required speed in second gear.

Fourth Gear: Press the clutch to floor, pull the gear knob to neutral and then downwards(straight). Use this gear once you are used to speed.

Fifth Gear: Press the clutch to floor, get the gear knob back to neutral . Now move the knob to your right and then forward. Use this gear very strictly if you are comfortable handling the speed. .

Reverse gear: This gear is used to take your car in reverse direction. Move the knob to right and then downwards(straight)

You can see how to move the gear knob on knob itself, but you need some basic to understand that signs also.

Now you are all set to drive. Ask someone to accompany you till the play ground in car, where you have ample space to experiment your driving skills, and start with first gear and then second. Practice it, you will get confidence in 3 days only.  First understand your steering wheel, and then switching your gears and moving your legs on right pedals.

Want some inspiration?Here is my story
I am not tall and I never felt confident enough for anything as people always referred to me as short girl even if I wasnt that short, but cant we change the way we look or we are, right ? To feel good I started using sandals whose heel size is  3 and half inches. But somewhere this didn't help, and  I always had inferiority complex for the fact that I couldn't drive or ride a bike and be independent.

My problem was I didn't have time. May be it was just a reason. When time came to rely on self, I went ahead and started driving. Believe me I hardly attended 12 driving classes out of 25 and that too at 8pm, 20mins class. For sure it didn't make me an expert.I took my car out once, to small distance accompanying my brother, then alone, then to main road and then whole Bangalore, nothing stops me now.

Want to see my car, here it is:)

Mistakes :
I wont say I didn't commit mistakes while driving, but as far as you and others on road are safe, nothing should bother you:). My mantra is whatever happens to car, don't worry your safety and others safety is highly important on road.  What mistakes I did

1. I was about to hit a divider once. This was because of my lack of concentration on road. Luckily escaped.
2. I was taking left  while coming out from a gate and unknowingly I took the cars front wheel on footpath near a bus stop and luckily got the car down without any dents. I realised what had happened only after noticing that people standing at the bus stop were staring at my vehicle and my cousin brother was in shock sitting beside me and explained on what I did :D. This was because of my incorrect calculation while taking a turn.
3. I was overtaking a lorry without knowing to calculate the speed of the vehicle I was overtaking. As a result there was a miraculous escape from being hit by a heavy lorry on a flyover. Always calculate the speed of the vehicle you are overtaking because when you have to get back to the same lane after overtaking, you should make sure that there is enough distance between your car and the moving vehicle which you overtook, to avoid collision.
4. Escaped from a roll-over while driving on flyover at 80speed on 5th gear and suddenly moved the gear to 2nd instead of 4th . A drastic slowdown of the speed which gave a scary jerk and vehicle stopped. I was lucky in this case also. This happened because I only knew how to use 5th gear without knowing how to come down from 5th gear.
5. I was trying to move a vehicle with my handbrakes applied. It took me few minutes to realise till my friend told me I had to release the handbrake. Silly mistake happened because of absence of mind.

This was my learning experience and this didn't stop me from driving. I am mentioning it here, not to scare you but to help you learn from my mistakes. Learning is never ending, so I will update if I learn something new.

Tips:
1. Never ever panic. Very important. Practice and this panicking and fear will go away.
2. Keep using half clucth while applying brakes unless you are comfortable with brakes. This will not stop your vehicle but it will surely use all your petrol. Its okay loosing few bucks while practicing:)
3. Half clutch is big problem if you don't practice. Its needed to move your vehicle upwards if the road is not even. And always switch to first gear when  you have to drive uphill. These days even roads are like uphills in Bangalore.
4. If you feel your vehicle going backwards anytime and your brakes are not working, please use handbrake. It will stop your vehicle. This is important to avoid hitting objects behind your car.
5.If you feel you are not able to manage on road, just stop the vehicle and take your time to go ahead Don't care who honks or who shouts. Specially if someone is coming from front and you are scared to face that vehicle, stop for a while , once the vehicle passes , you start again. Nothing is going to change in 5mins unless its emergency.
6. Observe the driver when you are not driving. See how he moves the wheel, his legs and how he switches the gears. This is very helpful. Ask doubts. Few tips I also got from my cab driver.
7. Anytime if you feel your vehicle is speeding just lower the gear, the speed will automatically come down.
8.Not all people are good on roads. You will find people commenting cheap, or make fun, block your way, unnecessarily honk to panic you, and also bang your vehicle sometimes if they know you are single women driving. It happens mainly with autowalas, truck drivers, lorry and any other public transport drivers. Not sure if its male ego, but remember never get down the car. If you are in public also see if you can really fight because when you get down, no one will come to support. Public will just have fun watching as they feel women are always wrong on roads. Welcome to the realworld.
9. Avoid isolated areas, if you take also make sure you don't stop your vehicle anywhere for anyone. Don't give lift to strangers you never know what kind of persons they are.

Onemore thing, not all are lucky to get access to cars if you have husband or brother who owns the car . They are generally not keen in giving it to a lady for experimenting atleast. I was lucky that my bro left the car  at my home and left to Germany  for three months and I got access to the car. I suggest use the opportunity when the guys are not around and you have access to car. Just take it and go for a drive. What atmost  will happen ?Dents and scratches, nothing else right, chill. Tell same to your men and tell them thats  how we ladies feel when they mess up our kitchen:).

I also got few scratches and dents and that was fine. BUT ITS ALL FAIR YOU KNOW. FACT IS I AM DRIVING A CAR.

I hope this post will inspire you as I was also inspired by other ladies who drove on roads confidently. I used to admire them, now when I drive I don't feel anything, but others admire. Good Luck ladies. Go out , live your life. Drive and enjoy the feeling.

Garlic chilli paste for dosa

Bored of plain dosa ? Here you go, a very simple and easy paste to spread on your dosa for a funny and yummy taste.

Ingredients:

5                              Green chillies

1 small cup           Coriander leaves

8                              Garlic cloves

Salt to taste

Grind all the ingredients together to a fine paste.

 Now add little water to make it a little dilute to spread over dosa.

When you pour and spread dosa batter on dosa pan, spread the garlic chilli paste also on dosa and leave till the dosa is done. 

Serve this dosa with coconut chutney.

For better taste you can use ghee instead of oil for dosa.

Tips:

1. Add more garlic in the paste for better taste.
2. This chutney will soften your dosa. If you want to have crispy dosa, use little paste, and serve it hot. If you keep for the dosa with this paste for long time, it will soften the dosa.

Evening snack: Mangalore bajji/ Goli Bajji

Mangalore bajji/ Goli Bajji:

Ingredients:

½kg                        Maida(all grains) flour

1cup                      Curds/butter milk

3nos.                     Finely chopped green Chillies

¼of coconut       Fresh Coconut   sliced into small pieces.

1/4tsp                   Baking Soda

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Mix maida, curds,green chillies, coconut, salt, soda and mix well.

Keep it for 3hrs. Heat oil in kadai. Make small balls of the dough and deep fry in oil.

Serve hot with coconut chutney.

Tips:

For better taste, mix the dough 6hrs before cooking.

Breakfast Idea: Egg Toast

Worried what to prepare on Sunday for breakfast? Don’t wry we have something interesting. Its egg toast. It’s very well-known dish, but I got to know recently from my colleague. So got a chance to experiment it today.

Preparation time: 10mins

Serves:                 3people

Ingredients:

1pound                Bread

6                          Eggs      

2                          Onions  (finely chopped)

6                          Green chillies (finely chopped)

4                          Curry leaves (chopped)

2tbsp                    Milk

1/2tsp                   Red chilli powder

2tbsp                    Chopped coriander leaves.

Salt to taste

Oil to fry (shallow)

Beat eggs and add onion, chillies, chilli powder, curry leaves, milk, coriander and salt. Beat the mixture to mix well.

Heat oil in a frying pan.

Dip bread slice in the mixture and place it on frying pan. Fry it over medium flame.

Fry on both sides till its done.

Serve hot with hot Thai sauce/tomato sauce.

It will taste good when its hot, never serve it cold, it would be a disasterJ

Tips:
1.       Wondering if the mixture will stick to bread or not, don’t worry it will. If you want thick egg mixture coat on the slice, dip the slice and quickly place it on the frying pan. If needed spread the mixture on toast after placing it on pan.

2.       The process is same as eating omlette and bread. If you get bored of dipping and frying, just use the mixture to make omlette and have it with bread. You can use oven or sandwich maker to make the toast if needed.

3.       If only mixture is left out, then use paddu maker pan, pour some oil and use the mixture to make egg paddu(same way as we make paddus). Allow it to cook on both sides. Once done, serve with sauce.

4.       If you are a vegan and won’t take egg, then replace egg with besan ka atta(gram flour). You can also make omlette by replacing eggs with besan ka atta, its known as veg. omlette.

South Indian Breakfast: Paddu

Ingredients:

3cups    Uncooked rice

1cup      Urad dal(black gram)-(optional)

1/4cup  Chana dal(Bengal gram) -(optional)

1/4cup  Moong dal(split green gram)- (optional)

4-5          Methi seeds

1cup      cooked rice/flattened rice

2pinch’ Baking soda

Salt to taste

For seasoning

2              finely chopped onions

5              finely chopped green chillies

1/4tsp   Mustard seeds

1/4tsp   cumin seeds

1/4tsp   chana dal

1/4tsp   urad dal

5              curry leaves

1tbsp     Cooking Oil.

Soak raw rice in a bowl, and also soak urad dal, chana dal, moong dal, methi seeds in a bowl for about 3hrs minimum.

 After soaking, grind dal and rice for smooth consistency by adding water. Mix well. Grind cooked rice or soaked flattened rice and add to the batter. Add salt and soda(optional). Keep it overnight for fermentation.

Next morning, check if the batter is fermented. Add seasoning to this batter. For seasoning, heat oil in pan, add mustard seeds, cumin. Wait till the mustards seeds sputter. Add chana dal, urad dal, chopped onions, chillies, curry leaves. Wait till onions turn to brown. Turn off the flame and add this seasoning to the fermented batter and mix well.

Now heat paddu pan, and add little oil. Pour the batter in paddu pan and close the lid for about 2-3mins. 

Check if the paddu is fried at one side. When it is fried from one side, turn & cook on other side. 

Now take out the paddus and serve hot with coconut chutney/chutney powder.

 Tips:

• Buy a non-stick paddu tava for best results.
• If you don’t have much time to soak the rice and dal, use warm water to soak the ingredients and soak for 1hr.
• If the batter is not fermented, add sour buttermilk(1/4 cup) and keep it for 30mins. This will give same taste as the fermented one.
• The paddus will taste better if the batter is more fermented.

Domestic Violence:Who is responsible?When will it end?

I have lot of respect and belief in Indian arranged marriages. In my family a girl has to go for arrange marriage, we are not supposed to even think of considering a guy for marriage by ourselves whatever might be the reason. There is nothing like, if the girl likes a boy, parents never say, lets meet the boy and then decide. Thats how all girls are pushed to this so called arranged marriage and they are allowed to talk to him/her only after engagement and roam with, only after marriage. Quiet understandable if you are an Indian.

I have seen happy marriages be it my parents or our uncles and aunts, whatever happens, they adjust and live together. I wondered why? I think its because women just bear all the pains and humiliations and its so common in Indian society that girls parents will just say to their girl "Its common, you should adjust. he is afterall husband" Seriously?. One of my cousin recently called up her parents,little upset, saying her mother-in-law was abusing her physically and torturing mentally. Small issues,she will project it as huge and will complain to her son. eg. Eating before husband or Mother in law eats, taking a small nap in afternoons its all considered to be insulting for them. Taunts would be like, my son would have got a better bride, he ended up with you, you didnt get enough dowry, you didnt give a kid to this house, remember kid means BOY, you should not even think of Girl. Which generation are we living in?

One more case I heard the girl got a govt job and she is earning well in a small town, good enough to live luxurily in a town. There were people who were behind her,she was just 22yrs, (right for marriage but still) and she got married. Now not even a year, she is carying and her husband is having another women in his life far from the town and he visits her frequently. Girls parents know this and they are hiding it from their girl, because at this stage its not good to tell this to her.Can you believe the guys mother knowingly spoilt the daughter in law's life. You question them, they say "He is a guy, you should know how to keep him in wraps. If he is visiting other women, there should be some problem with the girl".Wow..Unbelievable. I think she would have stayed single with her own earning rather than fall for wrong person in her life.

Parents might tell hundred times to "Adjust" when their girl child complaints this. But is it really what they mean ? Anyone can feel the pain what a mother goes when her daughter is suffering and why cant the mother-in-law see this? All they want is a girl to be like a maid, cook and a lady to keep her son happy? Why dont people come out and speak up their problems?

If all these issues are very common, why do we still go for arranged marriage? For a girl, arranged marriage is like a security where they feel their parents have certified the family they can live happily with the man they choose. Is it really so? When will people come out of this belief and start raising their voice against these issues and speak up openely about the domestic violence they face, fearlessly. Is there any end for this ?If so how many light years a women has to wait for this to happen??

Disclaimer: Guys! No offense please.