Chana Dal-Dill Fritters with spicy Dal Dip, Vegan Tofu Pad Thai, Green Tea Cooler with Lemon,Ginger and Honey, Mango Frozen Yogurt

Hope you all had a wonderful long relaxing weekend, Vishu and New Year's celebrations yesterday as well! :)

We had sunny days last weekend and some rain too here at NC. We decided to drive to Chapel Hill U, walked around the campus and the the dormitory just to get feel of the college my girl is going to move in at the end of August. Campus was serene, lush green and quiet, loved it. Then we went to a Indian restaurant called "Kandas", (name of a God (Skanda/Muruga?) in Tamilnadu as the waiter told me, when I asked him how to pronounce it and the meaning of Kandas as I never heard of that name before, food was authentic and very tasty!) for lunch buffet and caught up with the new "Fast and Furious" movie.
Since we were there, we visited "little India" in a nearby city and shopped a lot for, YES, Indian snacks and Mangoes!! We stopped for dinner at a Udupi restaurant (What else but for Mysore Masale dose!!:D) and drove back to reality again! ;D

Menu this week:
Chana dal fritters with dal dip for starter/appetizer, Vegan Tofu Pad Thai for main course served with Green Tea (Hara Masala Chai? :D) cooler and Mango frozen Yogurt for dessert. Sounds good, huh? Let's get on with it without chatting too much, shall we? :)

Chana dal and Dill Vadas with spicy Dal dip/Rasam:
Chana dal is called Bengal gram in English, they look similar to yellow split peas but different. Chana dal is split peas of Garbanzo or chick peas, usually from the smaller and reddish chickpeas. You can see the picture of Chana dal here.
Spicy Chana dal vadas mixed with aromatic Dill leaves are a classic Karnataka fritters, made often during Monsoon season and festival days or for evening snack with coffee in South India. They make a great starter/appetizer for any lunch or dinner party or cocktail parties. I have already posted the recipe but these new photos are taken when I made these again recently. Enjoy.

Recipe for Chana dal and Dill vadas or Fritters is here in this post.
Recipe for spicy dal dip in the vadas is here in this post,
or serve vadas soaked in the thinner version of dal, Masoor dal Rasam/Red lentils dip.
or you can also serve these Vadas with green Coconut and Mint Chutney.
or make these vadas into round bite sized small balls, fry and stick few colorful toothpicks to serve as cocktail party appetizers with Ketchup like the Hush Puppies you see in this post.

Closer look at Dal and Dill vadas:

Hope you try.......

Vegan Tofu Pad Thai:
Pad Thai is probably the most popular of all the dishes from Thailand, cooked often with Shrimps or Seafood. Sweet, spicy and tangy taste with Fish sauce is typical of Thai cooking. Tamarind sauce gives this a authentic flavor of Thai.
Since this dish is supposed to Vegan for the event, I have added Tofu, skipped all the Fish sauce, eggs etc but have given you the option of adding in the (parenthesis), so you can add them and make it more authentic. This Pad Thai recipe is mostly adapted from this video with my own changes to make it Vegan. My kids LOVED the taste even without Shrimps, Fish sauce and Eggs!

Sweet and spicy Tamarind Sauce:

To make the sauce:
Boil 2 cups water mixed with 2 tbsp thick Tamarind paste,(I used Laxmi brand "Concentrated Natural Tam paste" which has a reddish color) 1/4 cup Jaggery (or brown sugar), 1/2 tsp or more red Chilli flakes, (add 2 tsp fish sauce now if you want), 1/4 tsp salt until thick/pourable sauce consistency and adjust the spices.
You can also Microwave this mixture for about 10mins. Be careful not to burn the sauce. Once it reduces to 1/3rd from the original 2 cups, MW for 1 min at a time, stir often and check for the pouring consistency and keep aside to use in the noodles and use as much as you need with the noodles.

To make Pad Thai:

Noodles first: Heat 1/4th pan of water until very hot, add 1 pack of Asian flat rice noodles about 2-3 cups dry Noodles and soak for 6-10 mins and drain and keep aside. You can add some Sesame oil and mix well to keep the noodles from sticking to each other.
Pad thai:
1. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a Wok, fry 3 tbsp minced onion, 2 minced garlic, stir for 2 mins.
2. Add 1 cup Tofu, diced to 1"cubes, fry until slightly golden on the edges. (Optional to add 2 eggs, stir fry, then add 1/4 cup grated Turnips, 10-15 shrimps to this now)
3. Add Noodles, 2 tbsp of water, pinch of salt, mix well. Add 6 tbsp Tamarind sauce, mix 1 cup bean sprouts, 1 cup Garlic chives or green onions, , 2 tsp Sesame oil, 2 tbsp minced Cilantro, cook for a min. When done, sprinkle 4tbsp roasted and crushed Peanuts on top, mix.
4. Serve delicious Pad Thai with thinly sliced lettuce, Tomato, Chives or green onion, grated carrots, cucumber and a lemon slice on the side.

Green Tea cooler with Ginger, Honey and Lemon:
I love Green tea. Unlike our Indian masala Chai, we don't need to add milk at all to green tea, made just with water. I made southern style Iced Tea with Green tea with Indian style fresh ginger and added fresh Lemon juice, Honey, Mint to taste. Not only it tastes and feels like a cool breeze hits you on the face a hot day and Green Tea is good for you too!!

You need: Serves two.

1. Boil 3 cups of water with 1/2" crushed fresh Ginger for 2 mins, take off the heat and add 3 bags of Green Tea leaves. Let it seep for 5 mins or so to get as much dark tea as you like. Take out the tea bags, strain the liquid to take out the ginger solids and cool the Green tea.
2. Stir in 1 tbsp or more freshly squeezed Lemon juice, 1-2 tbsp of honey and taste to adjust the sweet and Tang of the Tea and serve in tall glasses with ice cubes and crushed Mint leaves to garnish. Ahhh....! Refreshing!!

Mango Frozen Yogurt:
Who doesn't like Mangoes? Specially frozen Yogurt made with fresh mangoes is fabulous. I had 2 Spanish Mangoes which are not as sweet as Indian Mangoes. If you have canned Indian Mango pulp, you can use 2 cups of that here, color will be darker and tastes yummier than you see here in the photo. Making frozen Yogurt is very easy, like eating frozen Mango Lassi with more sugar added than Lassi of course. I did have a nice peak of frozen Mango on top the frozen Yogurt in there but it melted out by the time I took this photo in a warm room! :P

To make Mango Frozen Yogurt:

1. Add 3 cups chopped fresh Mango cubes or 2 cups canned Mango pulp, 1/4 cup (or more or less to your taste) sugar or use powdered sugar to make it faster and easier to blend, 1 tsp Lemon juice and 1 cup plain Yogurt (make sure it's very thick and creamy) to a blender and blend until you get a very smooth mix without any lumps.
2. Strain this if you are using fresh Mangoes. Then pour this in to Gallon size freezer bag and freeze this for about 3 hours. If it's very solidly frozen, you can't squeeze out or scoop the Yogurt. Let it thaw a bit ti serve.
3. Take it out, press the Mango yogurt to see if it's semi solid and smooth, not very hard and icy. Cut a small hole in the corner of bag or put a "star" icing nozzle even before filling the bag with Mango mix and squeeze out the frozen Yogurt into a bowl or scoop with Ice cream scooper and serve immediately with a slice of Mango to garnish.
4. You can sprinkle some crushed pistachios on top before serving if you wish for little crunch. Enjoy! :)

Logos, hosts and the events list:

Chana Dal-Dill Fritters with spicy dal dip, goes to Cococooks who is guest hosting "MLLA-10th helping", an event which is started by Susan.
Vegan Tofu Pad Thai, goes to Priya's "It's a Vegan World-Thai", an event started by Vaishali.
Green Tea with Ginger, Honey and Lemon, goes to AnuSriram's event "Refreshing drinks for Summer".
Mango Frozen Yogurt, goes to Aquadaze who is guest hosting "My favorite things-Frozen desserts" an event started by Bindiya.
Green Tea cooler and Mango Frozen Yogurt, both go to Mahimaa's "15 Minute cooking" event.

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Movies I watched and liked:

Doubt:

I LOVE Meryl Streep! I don't care which film she is in, I just love that woman's talent. She is such a fabulous actress, so convincing in every role she plays. She didn't disappoint me in this film either.
She plays a nun who runs a Catholic school and suspects that one of the male teachers is getting too close to a student and even without any concrete proof, she tries to prevent the "ultimate sin" believing that Father Flynn is taking advantage of a troubled boy's circumstances. He protests and says he is innocent. When she finally succeeds in getting that teacher out of that school, she is in turmoil because she doubts herself that may be she made a mistake! Loved the film personally, may not appeal to everybody.

Fast and Furious: (New)
Non-stop action and I bet every husband and son on this Earth would flip for this film! :D

We had some time to kill last weekend between lunch and dinner, so we decided to go and watch this movie, loved it. Although usually, I don't go to movie theater to watch Fast and Furiuos movies, I am glad we watched this on the big screen. Great thriller and action movie.

Mary, Queen of Scots:
After I saw the movie "The other Boleyn Girl" about Anne Boleyn and her daughter Elizabeth I, I got interested in reading about the history of England. Mary, Queen of Scotland is the grand daughter of Henry VIII who ends up imprisoned and beheaded in the end for plotting against(falsely accused) her cousin Elizabeth I, Queen of England.
I borrowed this DVD from the library and watched both of them, loved them. I adore costume dramas and historic theatrical movies like these! Beautiful and talented Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Mary won an Oscar for this movie!
If you want read the books about English history, best books are written by Alison Weir. I have few and ordered a few more to read when we are on vacation in June.

That's all this week, see you all later! :)