Happy Birthday Akka...

Here are birthday wishes swishing and sashaying all the way from Phoenix to Bangkok for a very special person. She has the the tough position of being in a foreign country (like a lot of us here but yet different because of the language barrier) having a teenage daughter ( Lord oh lord!!..remember the hormone driven fights with our own moms?? it only gets worse with each generation, i have heard :-) ) a cute little suppandi-jokes-reciter seven year old. Three Cheers to my sweet sister... HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU !!!

Lets see if you can all contribute something on this occasion. A memory that says "PRATIMA" to you.

To celebrate her birthday here is my post of Chana Dal vada and Coconut Chutney that I made for my friend's Baby Shower...

Chana Dal Vada and Coconut Chutney

For the Vada

Ingredients
Chana dal - 2 Cups
Green Chillies - 4 to 5 (depending on how spicy you like it)

A small red onion- chopped
Coriander leaves - a small handful
Curry Leaves - one or two stems
Grated Coconut - 2 tsps.
Salt, hing
Soak the Chana dal for 5- 6 hours. You could soak it for a shorter duration if you like but the longer you soak it, the easier it is to grind it without water. Grind the dal without any water if you can. Add the chopped onions,chillies, cilantro, coconut,curry leaves,salt and hing.

Here is how mine looked after it was mixed and ready to be fried.

And this is the final product... Voila!!!

And now for the chutney.

Grate cocunut, rasted ginfer and green chillies and hing. Blend them to gether and add salt and lemon. And then an open phanna (in Rmam's words) with mustard seeds, hing, red chillies and curry leaves.