Masala dosa

One of my relative once told me that the best way to impress your guests at dinner is to prepare some exotic food. That's not exactly why I usually prepare indian food, but he was right. I tried to do dosas at home, a typical south indian dish and everyone that's ever been in India knows that the picture below doesn't look like a real dosa. Yeah, even my experiments aren't always successful, but on the other hand the taste was good, so I'm sharing the recipe anyway! 

Ingredients: 

Dosa batter: 

240 gr parboiled rice

75 gr lentils

salt as required 

water as required

Masala filling:

2 large potatoes

1 small onion

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chili powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1tsp masala powder

oil

Wash and soak both rice and lentils 5-6 hour separately. Drain the water and grind the lentils adding needed water until smooth and fluffy. Do the same with the rice. Mix them together and add salt. Leave it for 7-8 hours in a large container.

Masala potatoes: 

Cook the potatoes with the skin in cold water. When the water start boiling, cook for 15 minutes. 

Heat some oil and fry the finely chopped onion. Peel the potatoes and cut them into small cubes. Add them to the onion with the spices. Stir well and cook a few minutes. 

Heat a non stick flat pan (tawa) and add some oil. Take some batter and pour it on the pan from the centre towards the edges in a circular motion. When cooked on one side, flip it over. 

When it's ready put it on a plate, add the masala potatoes and fold it. Serve with some red chutney or with the chutney you prefer. 

Zucchini and zucchini flower lasagna

 Ingredients:
15 zucchini flowers
3 zucchini
0,5 l besciamella sauce
3 tblsp parmesan cheese

for the thin pancakes:
eggs (2)
flour (3 cups)
milk (1/2 l)
salt
oil (for frying)



First of all, you need to make the thin pancakes. I prefer to use these instead of the buyed lasagna sheets, because home-made pancakes are much more soft.
After that put the first layer: a pancake and on it some zucchini flowers (that you've carefully washed and eliminated the inside of the flower) and zucchini (that you've previously cut in the shape you prefer). Put some besciamella sauce on the top. Lay another pancake, flowers and zucchini and besciamella on the top. I used a small baking pan, so that was enough for 2 persons. When you've reached the top, cover with another pancake, put some besciamella sauce and the parmesan cheese on the top.
Bake it in a preheated oven on 180°C for around 30 minutes.

Wholewheat farfalle with home-made pesto

Do you love pesto? I adore it! It's very easy to do at home and there are tons of different ways to do it. The important is to have basil, any kind of nuts and some kind of cheese that is similar to pecorino cheese.
The recipe I'm showing is with the ingredients I had at home, so it's not the original one, but still very tasty! 

Ingredients: 

60-70 basil leaf

40 gr parmesan cheese 

65 gr walnuts

1-2 cloves of garlic

salt

5 tblsp of olive oil

wholewheat pasta (approximately 90 gr per person)

 Wash the basil leafs and put them in the blender (it's better to do it manually, but if you don't have a lot of time, the blender should also work fine), add parmesan cheese, garlic and walnuts and start blending. When you have a thick paste, add salt and olive oil until you have a smooth paste. Your pesto is now ready! (You can also put it in the freezer: put it in a jar, cover with some olive oil and freeze. When you'll need it, it will take only 5 minutes to have it ready to use.)

Cook the pasta according to your taste (I prefer pasta al dente). Mix the pasta and 1 or 2 spoons of pesto well and serve still hot!

Another idea to serve pesto is as an appetizer. Use small bread slices and spread a teaspoon of pesto on the top. You can also scratch a clove of garlic on the bread before adding pesto, it will make it so much tastier.

Lentil & zucchini soup

Ingredients:
2 red capsicums
1 zucchini
1 leek
250 gr lentils
1 l water
mix of spices for soups
salt
pepper
thyme
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tblsp vinegar

Wash the vegetables and cut them in thin slices. Wash the lentils and cook them in the water with the spices for 30 minutes (or 15 in pressure cooker). When the lentils are cooked, add the rest of the vegetables and cook 10 more minutes on low flame. Add salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar before serving and decorate with some thyme.

Parmigiana

Ingredients:
3 eggplants
5 big tomatoes
1/2 onion
1 clove of garlic
250 gr scamorza smoked cheese
salt
oregano
basil
olive oil






Cut the eggplants in thin slices, put some salt on the top and leave them on a plate for an hour, afterwards dry them with a paper tissue. Grill them in a non-stick pan, if you want it very light, don't use oil.
Chop the onion and garlic and fry them in a little bit of olive oil until golden. Add the tomatoes cut in small pieces. Cook for some time, until you have a tomato sauce.

In a casserole put some of the tomato sauce first, then make a layer out of eggplants and cover them with scamorza cheese. Add again some tomato sauce, eggplants and scamorza cheese and cover the top with a little bit of tomato sauce.

Put the casserole in a preheated oven on 180°C for about 25 minutes and serve still hot with some fresh vegetables.

Fried zucchini flowers

Summer is the perfect season for zucchini at my home and besides the vegetables, also the flowers are edible and very tasty! Here is a very simple recipe for deep fried zucchini flowers. 

 Ingredients:

zucchini flowers (12-15)
150 gr flour
250 ml water
pinch of salt
1 tsp turmeric powder (optional)
1 tsp sweet chili powder (optional)
oil for deep frying





Put the flour and the salt with the spices in a bowl. Slowly add the water and stir until you have a smooth dough. Heat the oil in a pan and when it's hot enough put the flowers, you've put in the mixture before. Fry until ready and let them cool a little bit.
You can serve them with some fresh vegetables and it will make a perfect summer dinner.

Huge soft chapati filled with zucchini&onion

When your boyfriend's grandparents grow too much zucchini, this is what you can do: eat them! :) Unfortunately it's very difficult to take pictures when you're sooooo hungry, so this is what I've got... it was soooo tasty!!

Ingredients:

Chapati:
80 gr wholewheat flour
80 gr white flour type 400
125 ml natural yogurt
pinch of salt
1 tbspn olive oil

Filling:
Zucchini (depends on the size and how much you're hungry)
Onion (depends on taste)
1 hot chili
salt
olive oil

Mix the ingredients for the dough and leave aside for about 30 minutes.
Cut the vegetables and fry them in a pan until they're tender.
Take the dough and roll 2 big chapatis. Cook them in a large flat pan.
Put the vegetables into the chapati and roll it.

The simple thing you can do, when you don't know what to cook for dinner!
Simple, ah? And soo tasty! :)

Tasty salad

Ingredients:
lettuce - 10 big leafs
rocket - 10 leafs
mozzarella - 1
cherry tomatoes - 6
pumpkin seeds - 1 tbsp
apple - 1/2
salt
olive oil
vinegar

Wash the lettuce, the rocket and the tomatoes carefully, then cut them in small pieces and put them in a jar. Cut the mozzarella and the apple. Add them to the lettuce and the sunflower seeds. Put salt, olive oil and vinegar according to your taste.
You can serve with some roasted wholewheat bread and it's a perfect dinner for this season, waiting for the summer to show up.