Baris- dried lentil dumplings - ICC July Challenge

The Sun God, tested my patience a lot today!!!! Phew!!!! Partly my Laziness too. Attempted to do the Baris only day before yesterday!!! :) :). So, all these tests were on my Invitation!!!! :) But anyways, the Baris were worth these sothanai's!!! They tasted damn yummy as raw batter (sure, all of you wud have tasted it!!!), now when all dried, i m waiting to taste them in some curry!!!
My Mother feels that this Baris are same like the Karuvadam, we make minus the fermenting and other extra spices we add. We just Grind the batter, add Ash-gourd and salt. Both are Sun-dried, so it is normally made during those Extra-Sun Months Mar-Apr-May!!!! Though we have good sun even now, but this isnt enough for the baris to bone-dry, these comments are also from my Amma Darling!!!!
Now Coming to the recipe, I have followed a mix of Mamta' recipe and Sharmila's Recipe!!!
Lentil Grinding and Soaking was done according to Mamta's Recipe, wheras the spice mix i took it from Sharmila's.
I m giving you the measurements, which i followed.

Ingredients
1/2 cup Urad dal
1/2 cup grated Ash-gourd
1/2 tsp Methi seeds
2 Green Chillies
1 red Chilli
1 tsp Pepper
1 tsp Cumin
2 sprigs Curry leaves
A small piece of ginger
Hing a pinch
Salt to taste

Method

I Grinded the urad dal coaresely, then soaked in enough water for the dal to immerse, 1/2 inch above the dal. Added hing and left the dal overnight to ferment. Next day morning, grind Chillies, Pepper, Cumin, Curry Leaves and ginger all together and mix with the Dal mixture. Squeeze out the extra water from ash-gourd add it to the dal mixture. Mix Well. It has to be stiff, dropping consistency. If you drop a blob of mixture in a bowl of water, it should float. 

Grease Two Flat plates with little oil and Place small blobs on the plate. Pray Sun God for his Mercy and Sun-dry them. Mine is 90% Done, But need to dry some more tomorrow morning with the mercy of Mr.Sun.
I didnt want to miss this Month'a ICC, so i sun-dried yesterday and air-dried today :( (since it was cloudy) and took the pics jus now @ 11:30 PM and posting it!!!! Sorry Valli, Amma veedu, Sorgam + Somberithanam, Aug 27th reaching my place, so will come be inline for next challenge!!!! :)

It was a Good Experience making these baris, now i know how much pain both my appa and amma take to make Vadam  of all sorts for us!!! Even now i have Dabba full of these yummies!!!

Energy Audit Video

This is a great adjunct to my previous post Comments on Green (Kitchen) Remodeling.

We are seeing and experiencing more and more weather related disasters around the world and here in the U.S. The people of Haiti, or Pakistan, or Russia, would not dispute that we are in a climate crisis. We are also seeing problems with weather related disaster here at home: Flooding in Iowa; Hurricane Katrina. This is not going to get easier unless we all do something to help our planet.

Our homes here in the U.S. use 20% of our total energy consumption. TWICE as much as cars (10%). 40% of the energy we use to heat and cool our homes is wasted, by leaky ductwork, poor insulation, all kinds of small leaks that add up to a lot of $$$ and carbon dioxide going into our atmosphere.

By doing an audit and sealing last year on our home, before buying a new furnace and ductwork, we achieved a 48% reduction in our heating energy use. That's pretty amazing considering that we opted to do only part of the prescriptive measures advised. We were also able to buy a smaller furnace than we had been told by other companies that we needed. Even better is the savings month in and month out in windy, foggy, South San Francisco. Best of all is that we are truly comfortable in our home that was once drafty and cold.

Getting a home energy audit BEFORE you plan any remodeling is just good sense. It's easy to incorporate the prescriptive changes into your remodeling plans when you have a roadmap, and a home energy audit gives you the roadmap.

Watch the following video to learn how it works. You'll save lots of energy dollars and help save our planet in the bargain.

Peggy


Green Footprint: Home Performance 101 from Foster City TV on Vimeo.

Cracked Wheat Masala Idli

Today I really wanted to eat something healthy. So I kept thinking about eating some vegeterian for my dinner which is simple, easy and tasty. Thats how I came up wtih this recipe with a healthy twist...
It was very delicious and didn't need any sides like chutney or sambar...

Ingredients:

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1cup Cracked Wheat/Wheat Rawa

1cup Yogurt/Buttermilk (Note: If using yogurt need to add 1/2cup Water)

Salt to taste

1/4tsp Baking Soda

1tbsp Cilantro & Curry leaves chopped finely

Seasoning:

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1tbsp Oil

1tsp Mustard seeds

1/4tsp Cumin seeds

1/4tsp Asafoetida

1/2 tsp Grated Ginger

3 Green Chillies chopped finely

1small Potato chopped into small pieces

1/2cup frozen veggies like Peas and Carrot

1/4tsp Garama masala powder

Variations: You can add oinions, Green chilli paste, cashews, raisins etc.,

Method:

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1. Mix wheat, buttermilk/yogurt, salt and keep it aside.

2. In small kadai add heat oil, add mustard seeds, when the splutter add rest of the seasiong ingredients and fry for about 2 mins, add garam masala powder then off the flame and add this mixture to the wheat batter mix well. Set if aside for about 1 or 2 hours for better resuts.

3. Now in Idli cooker grease the idli plates and pour the batter and steam the idlis for about 15 mins.

4. Now serve these Idlis with chutney powder or your choice of chutneys.