Onion Uttappa with Stir-fried Potatoes

It’s been far too long since I’ve put my thoughts into words and at times I think my pressures at work harass me so much that my creative side is fast dying out, a fear I live by because my blog survives a lot on this passion to write and share. And to blow that creative whistle out of me and bring my best here, I am of the sorts who needs to sit down, compose myself, cut off from all the chaos, and bring in positive verve that facilitates my artistic freedom. Least to say, I can never bring a good write up out here if my mind is stressed or has hazaar things running on it, which is how chaotic the past couple of weeks have been.

Work pressures aside, the dear husband has been away for another extended business trip. Well, his 3rd one in the past 6 months. Okay, it was meant to be a short quick one with a promise that he’ll be back soon and I bid him a happy bye. But as destined, things never get easy my way, and, to my dismay it has ended in a month long business tryst. In his absence, life as usual is never the same. I am living life of a super duper woman balancing several tasks over my shoulders. Or at least I like to think that way. Like, I dangerously tread on the 2 wheeler, zooming against time (the least I would want is not to miss my office bus and end up taking local over crowded buses at 3 stop-overs to reach my workplace) in high traffic zones and cross roads balancing the little 2 year old between my thighs to pick and drop her daily. Hardly do I realize that I could have just missed a near possible accident, a fatal one that too. The little one too thinks it’s fun to take her hands off the bike holders and wave in full swing to strangers on road or turn her head around by 120 degrees to watch a stray dog pass by! Kind of masochism yeah? Indeed.

The last week, the awry me broke a few basic rules too. The evening was pretty hectic, besides the fact that I was late from work. Adding the woes of traffic, my never ending rant on that, I was racing against time to pick my toddler. With an empty kitchen at home, a heavy headed mind, and a couple of constant calls from work, I thought skipping long queues at groceries should be okay once a while. After all living by rules isn’t always fun, right? So I crossed lines, avoided the folks ahead of me and headed straight to the billing counter. What followed was a series of heated uproar and mayhem. Worst, the embarrassment of getting annoyed looks and derogatory comments from folks around, especially if you are not the one used to it. A lesson learnt, don't break rules once a while if you've never done in the past. It makes the battered you feel battered further!

As if there was not enough on my plate already, the last week I had been pacing really fast trying to sort out things in my head and out. Every time I cleared the disarrayed state of interiors, put things back to where they belonged to, my toddler brought them back to square one from where I had started. Mayhem! Though that's an everyday story to say, when you are juggling through a hundred things, even the tiniest disruption is good to cause distress. In nutshell, for real, my frenzied current state of life seems like a fast reel action movie. For one, I am glad I wrapped up the most important to-do tasks on my list, even if that meant getting albeit a little stressed. With so many things going around, I haven’t really been able to sit down and compose or collectively bring myself to a humdrum. I missed blogging every bit. Every draft I put down ended as another draft. Next week, I’ll make a trip to the passport office, yet another ardent task I’ll cross my fingers at. Honestly, cooking has been my last priority between this commotion, since the little time or energy leaves me with hardly any gusto to bake or cook fancy. Thumbs up to those baby meals, quick fixes, one pot meals and odd indulgences in store-bought ice creams for a treat that we’ve been surviving on.

This week though I see things settling for better. The husband will be back too. Today, I made time for cleaning job, swapping bed sheet covers and paying off bills. I took my little one out to collect the laundry and do grocery shopping that didn’t seem too intimidating. This morning, I made a complete breakfast of this Onion Uttappa with Potato subzi. And more importantly, I finally got down to writing this post that will hopefully not end in another draft. Indeed that’s a good sign.

Onion Uttappa with Stir-fried Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

For the Dosa batter:

1 cup Urad dal
2 cups rice
½ tsp. Fenugreek seeds
Water, as required
Salt, to taste

For the Onion Uttappa:

2 large Onions, finely chopped
2 green chillies, chopped
Handful of coriander leaves, chopped
A sprig of curry leaves, chopped

DIRECTIONS

Soak the dal, rice and fenugreek seeds in sufficient water to ensure they are submerged for atleast 6 hours. Grind them to a fine paste with water that is sufficient to make it a thick flowing batter. Allow them to ferment for atleast 8-10 hours. For the Uttappa, mix all the said ingredients and set aside separately.

Heat a non-stick pan or a greased iron pan by smearing little oil. Drop a dollop of dosa batter in the center of the pan and swirl it in circular directions using the spatula to spread the batter uniformly. Spread the onion mixture on top of this batter. Grease the edges and cover the pan, allowing it to cook on the bottom till golden brown. Flip over and cook on the other side as well. Serve hot with potato stir-fry and chutney of your choice.

South Indian Stir-fried Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

4 large potatoes, boiled and skinned
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. mustard seeds
A sprig of curry leaves
1 large onion chopped fine
1 tsp. grated ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 green chillies finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 tsp. lemon juice, optional

DIRECTIONS

Mash the potatoes roughly between your fingers. Heat the vegetable oil in a pan /kadhi on a medium flame. Add the mustard seeds and curry leaves and fry till the seeds splutter. Next fry the ginger and onions till translucent. Add the boiled, mashed potatoes, green chillies and turmeric powder. Add salt to taste and stir well till all is combined. Cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the flame and add lemon juice to taste. Serve hot with dosa or uttappa.

To make homemade peanut powder, refer the recipe here.