Urulaikilangu masala / Potato masala/ aloo bhaji for poori and dosa

Sometimes we tend to forget an episode in our life until someone around  reminds us about it. I know i am being too philosophical but that's what defines me as a person. The point is that I recently  had been to my friend's son's first birthday party where i got to meet few of my old pals who we meet only at such occasions.  We often talk about inviting a lot of people home but alas, we always end up in our usual house chores, kids, sickness, job, school and the list goes on. I got to meet one of such nice friends  at the birthday party.  So this guy talked about my forgotten past. All of a sudden, His simple question made me drift into my own little world. And yet i had no answers for his question. No one rekindles my past except for my dad. And  this guy sounded much like my dad for a moment. His Billion dollar question was simply this " What happened to your blog?".

 I could see my mind swirling behind with the signature tune of doordarshan channel (taa..da dada dei). I was so curious to open my phone right there and search for my blog if it still existed in the space or just sucked up in the black hole. And yes, Hurray! I found it intact with so many cobwebs and spiders. It took almost a day to dust it and give a new look. I was very pleased that people are being nice and encouraging. They do remember good things about a person. I was worried if i would be the most outdated person when another friend asked me oh! nice, so do you have a vlog? LOL. The whole world is traveling at a speed faster than the speed of light. What on earth am i doing? Nevermind! I convinced myself saying that i do learn things in my own pace.

 I should definitely mention my friend's son's birthday party.  She had put in a lot of efforts to make her son's first  birthday party very special. The party had a jungle theme  and  she had rented a cotton candy making machine and made yummy cotton candies for the kids. There were some initial struggles to figure out the candy making but then i believe they grabbed the knack to make fluffy cotton candies. The highlight of the party was that she took polaroid pictures of  each families at the party and made a cool memory book. I liked the idea. It will be a treasured album for the kids to revisit their unforgettable occasions in their future.

We had few guests over the weekend, so my husband as usual had the menu plan. I suggested few dishes and he was not happy with the combo. So i awaited him to give his own list of menu. I actually wanted to find fault with his list and pick up a fight but as usual he played safe ha ha.. Smart guy! So we  planned for a tiffin menu for the dinner like idly sambar, poori and bhaji. Poori and chole are always on our menu for dinner party. But this time we both agreed on potato bhaji. I somehow find poori and bhaji goes the best then  the choles, PBM or any other North Indian subzis.  My husband used to say that Poori is served with sambar in chennai and a lot of places in Tamilnadu. I have never tried it. But sorry, I somehow dislike the poori sambar combination. So here is the Bhaji recipe which you can eat it  with poori or as masala dosa.

Cooking Essentials

Potatoes                  2 big, boiled, peeled  and mashed
big onion               1 thinly sliced
green chillies         2 -3
curry leaves            few
oil                           1tbsp
mustards                 1tsp
urad dal                  1tsp
Chana dal               1tsp
ginger                      1tsp
turmeric powder      1tsp


How to make?

•  Boil potatoes with turmeric powder and little salt. peel and mash it with tiny solid lumps of potatoes. do not mash it in to paste.
• Heat oil in a pan and temper with mustards, urad dal, chana dal, curry leaves.

• Saute onions in the oil  until it turns transparent along with green chillies, ginger and turmeric powder. Adjust salt to taste.
• Add cooked mashed potatoes and salt and a  cup of water to make it into semi gravy consistency for pooris, cook it for about 5 minutes and can be served with piping hot pooris.
• If you want to stuff in dosas, add half cup of water and make it thicker. You can stuff the bhaji in dosas and serve it  with sambar and chutney.