Carnival decorations are up! Jars full of beads, beads, more beads, doubloons, a plaque and the almighty Krewe du Vieux flag. Now to work on the costumes of Krewe du Vieux and “regular season.” Await more pictures.
Adai is a savory South Indian crepe closely related to the dosai, but with more dal (lentils) than just urad. Two more dals, to be precise: toor and chana. The end result is a heavier and more nutritious, protein-rich dish that can be eaten with the usual accompaniments of sambar, chutney and/or molahai podi (chili powder mixture).
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Ponni parboiled rice
- 1/2 cup Urad dal
- 1/2 cup Toor dal
- 1/2 cup Chana dal
- 1 or 2 dried red chilis
- Curry leaves
- Heeng (Asafoetida powder)
- Salt
Rinse and then soak the rice in water in one bin or bowl. Rinse and soak the dals together in another bowl. Soak the dal for around 5 hours and the rice for an hour longer.
Grind the rice separately first until very fine. Next, grind the dal along with the red chili(s) until it’s a coarse paste. Mix the batter with a shake of heeng and salt to taste. Place the mixed batter in a large bin and in a warm place for overnight fermentation. The batter should rise a good inch before it’s ready to go.
[Incidentally, I use an ULTRA Pride+ wet grinder, which is available here. Aaah, technology! My shoulders hurt simply thinking of my grandmother and all the ladies before her grinding rice and dal almost everyday for a family of 20 using a gigantic mortar and pestle made of granite or gabbro. I'd give it a shot for the experience. Once.]
Mix the risen batter thoroughly and add fresh, washed and coarsely-chopped curry leaves to taste.
Heat a shallow, flat, seasoned and non-stick pan until water sizzles when dripped on its surface. Pour some vegetable or sesame oil in a bowl and have it at the ready along with a teaspoon. Instead of writing out an uncommon task that uses unconventional tools, I made the following video on how a dosai is made. The same technique is used for adai. Observe the consistency of the dosai batter; adai batter can be and is slightly thicker because of the coarseness of the dals.
Following this recipe, you will be able to make between 12 and 16 adais depending on the diameter of your griddle. Make some chutney and sambar or enjoy with a nice molahai podi in sesame oil!
This was a bachelorette gag gift for dear friend Julie who is a paleontologist/geologist, hates all things girly and pink, loves the Badgers and the Packers, drinks Guinness and married another geologist in September.
A slideshow of the hardhat’s evolution:
Pin ItMy husband D’s ingenuity cracks me up. In order to wash my soiled dupatta (long, north Indian scarf/sash) and not have its brass wire fringe snag and rip the nylon fabric, D gathered and covered the ends with ziploc bags and ziptied them as tightly as possible before tossing it in the Delicates cycle. Not a drop of water got on the fringe.
When not geologizing and blogging, I find myself making. A lot. I make costumes, masks, jewelry, food, cocktails, decorations and plans. Now that I am finally in a single physical space which houses my library, electronics, tools, desk and work bench, I can produce more and efficiently with documentation. Thus, MaitriLAB (TM) was born, along with this site in which to document and share my creations online.
How better to inaugurate the lab than with a dress form? Fitted tops, skirts and bustiers, here I come! After a lot of research and reading, I settled on a Singer D150 Adjustable Dress Form for its ease of setup and long life. Here are pictures of the form wearing my DIVAs 2008 bustier, which needs repair after a couple of cross-country moves.
Take it from me that dropping $250 ON SUPER SALE FOR $99 on an ergonomic dress form fitted to your height, bust, waist, hips and torso measurements is a lot better than fashioning the Ghetto-quin (see below) each year.
I hope to share not just what I make but also instructions, recipes and pictures in the coming weeks and months. For instance, the form above requires a standard, el cheapo tshirt torso and three or four thick beach towels wrapped in cellophane. One of my projects requires the use of a soldering iron along with fine motor skills, so there may be some pictures from the ER (Just kidding. Or not).
Off to clean my trusty hot glue gun and heat milk for yogurt.
Welcome to the machine!
