Odisha Mo Odisha

Its almost end of summer and the farmers market are still in full swing in the Bay Area. The farmers market here are very restricted to certain fruits and vegetables only unless we are real lucky and we get something extra ordinarily unique in the markets. No matter what, we visit the market every week and get our week worth of green leafy vegetables & some local vegetables... " Laau " or Lauki or Bottle gourd being one of them. The trick to buy a nice "Laau" was taught by my F-I-L. The stem should be intact and should have small shiny fibre hairs on them. Thats when we know they are young and fresh. Like I ever cared whether a "Laau" is young but  mind you.. my F-I-L is very particular about his vegetables so off we go and look for "Laau" with small shiny fibre hairs. Ingredients for making my M-I-Ls famous " Laau-Mooga Dalma " 1 medium sized laau (Lauki or Bottle gourd) skinned & cut into cubes 1/2 cup of yellow

California weather is really weird. It rains in the winter... shines the very day after.. and then again becomes cloudy the next day.. It is weird.. I think this happened last winter.... I got up hearing the pitter-patter of rain drops on my window pane and I was happily shocked that it was already 9:30 in the morning. Good lord, did not wake me up thinking that it is a Sunday and everyone needs the rest. But then, I had to think of a brunch which will be quick and have proteins as well (a must add ingredient these days in my household). I had some left over dosa batter, but to make some curry with it was out of the question. Have you ever felt that, when you wake up late you feel very very hungry and need to eat something right away (well a 10 min break is fine)? The same feeling went running in my stomach... So I thought up to combine dosa and eggs with a glass of milk and of course our very own Apple for the brunch. Healthy-check; Proteins-check;Fruits-check;Tasty-Lets see !!!

Whenever there is a potluck, the most lazy person picks the yoghurt accompaniment called Raita. :) At least thats what my friends think. So I decided to make a better yoghurt dish and prove that bringing Raita to a potluck does not mean you are lazy. Just means, there are more things that can be done with Yoghurt ..... and Egg Plant. LOL. Dahi Baigana , is a favorite Odiya dish. Its always made at weddings and summer lunches where there is fried rice and mutton curry. Yoghurt is very cooling, so having this dish with rich food is good for the food-intaker (thats you..silly !!). Here is what we use... Egg-Plant (the longer ones taste the best.. according to me) cut into long pieces 1/2 small red onion sliced thin Few curry leaves {8 - 10} 1 cup plain yoghurt 2 tea spoons sugar {adjust with the sourness of the yoghurt} 3-4 green chillies slit through length salt to taste Cumin-Red Chili powder {Home Made -- Dry roast cumin seeds + red chillies on a open pan