Saturday breakfast...

Usually Saturday mornings I struggle to  decide what to make for breakfast. Luckily on Friday evening I had a plan and soaked some kadala(kabuli chana, chickpea) for making Jee's favorite breakfast puttu and kadala. 

Puttu is a breakfast dish that is popular in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu as well as in areas of Sri Lanka. It consists of firm cylinders of steamed ground rice with layers of coconut. It is served with other side dishes such as chickpea curry or banana. (courtesy Wiki). Kadala curry is a traditional spicy Kerala dish made with the native Indian dark peas with coconut curry.  

Norm is to make puttu with the nadan kadala (native Indian pea, dark small ones) curry, but Jee likes kabuli chana curry (chickpea) with puttu. As soon as I woke up Saturday morning, I came to the family room and switched on TV to check the match status. The 2nd test match between India and England is ongoing and we have it live in a cricket live channel. Before I forget I pressure cooked the kadala and rushed back to the comfy sofa to check the scores.

This is the part where a regular blog will add the ingredients list and the steps to make kadala curry but not me. I hate writing the ingredient list and steps. I guess I don't see myself writing food blogs. I never follow a recipe step by step anyways...

Dravid 'the wall'

After our morning tea, I cooked kadala(chickpea) curry as Dravid 'The wall' kept his cool and saved India again with an amazing century. The elliptical we have in our study is squeaking. Jee is exercising while watching CNN news. I hate it when he is so punctual and manages to find time and energy for the fitness regime. I mean good for him but it reminds me that I am not doing anything about my health. On top of that he keeps nagging me about my laziness and  lack of exercise. blah blah blah. I hate myself for not doing any exercise and considering that 'brisk walk break' I take at work as "exercise". Back to breakfast preparation puttu was ready in no time.

By the time Jee was back from his workout I had already plated puttu and kadala in a plate for him to take a picture to add in the blog. Indian tail order is falling apart in the 1st session as usual. Saale gore log... Bhajji was clearly not out. Like Gabbar Singh would have said bahut naainsaafi hai. Clearly Indians asked for it, they didn't want the Decision Review System (DRS). From having a firm grip in the match after a great 1st day looks like we are back to balance with England.

Saturday Brunch

Chirrata puttu

The other day we went to a friend, Helen's place and she made us puttu in a completely new gadget (atleast for us) from kerala, it didn't look like the conventional long cylindrical one that we have. Instead it looked like a coconut shell half aptly called chirratta(coconut shell half in mallu). I loved it and it is in my shopping list when we visit Kerala this time. I accidentally deleted the picture that I took that day so heres one from the  web. Long back we were travelling from Chicago to LA and had this long cylindrical puttu maker in my baggage. As it was post 9/11 time I remember we were asked a lot of questions about this funny looking gadget we had in our baggage. 

Puttu maker

The breakfast was served with a smile and decree that its a brunch so no more cooking in the afternoon.