Vegan Writer: Wandering Solo, Writing with Heart, One Story at a Time
Whoever thought of making a dough, filling it with cooked chana dal and jaggery, rolling it out, cooking it on a tawa, and then eating it piping hot, was a genius.
Because I don’t know any other dish like puranpoli that’s as filling and fulfilling at the same time.
The first time I tasted Indrayani rice, it felt like a childhood memory, warm and slightly sticky. It clung to my fingers and to my heart.
We had stopped at a dhaba on our way from Nasik to Mumbai, the kind mostly visited by travellers on route on the highway. I ordered a simple meal of rice, dal, and a sabzi. When it arrived, I frowned at the sticky-looking rice, unlike the semi-cooked basmati rice which is usually served. But my hungry hand ignored it and quickly mixed it with dal, took a bite, and then what I experienced, I can only call it rice nirvana.
Modak, which is made in Maharashtra, is the same as Kozhukatta, which is made in Kerala. For the unversed it is a steamed rice dumpling with the filling of coconut, jaggery with a hint of cardamom. When you take a bite of this piping hot Kozhukatta, you first taste the soft mildly salty taste of the steamed rice covering and then tumbles out of it the moistened juicy coconut and jaggery mixture slowly revealing its richness.
Do you wonder how to make the dosa batter? Have you attempted and failed to get that beautiful looking tasty dosa? Then read further to know more about my journey of learning to make the dosa batter.
I had just completed a project which had taken me out of the country for a month and I was landing in Bombay close to around midnight. I got into the taxi with my luggage and after telling the taxi driver in which direction to head, I told him that he will have to first stop at any vada pav stall that would be open on the way. He turned and looked at me and gave me a smile and without any questions, he took me to one. I packed two hot vada pav and relished it in the back seat. I felt happy and content.