Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes 'N Vegetarian Gravy

Even though thanksgiving is a few days away, we had already had a few "advance" thanksgiving get-togethers from this weekend. Mashed potatoes with gravy is part and parcel of a typical thanksgiving meal. Whenever I gets invited to a traditional thanksgiving meal (even  the advance thanksgiving dinners), I typically offer to make the vegetarian gravy so that the hostess would have one less dish to take care of. For yesterday's get together, I made the mashed potatoes as well. One thing I noticed about this gravy  is that its equally loved by both vegetarians and non vegetarians,so I always make it a point to make enough to meet the demand.  It feels great that something you have made is in so much of demand. After all, the proof of the pudding is in eating!
Usually I make the plain mashed potatoes. But this time around, when I came across this recipe, I thought of trying this out as it sounded different and delicious. And it turned out to be such a crowd pleaser.
Recipe source:Foodnetwork and Food.com
Ingredients
3 1/2 pounds russet potatoes
2 tablespoons kosher salt
16 fluid ounces (2 cups) half-and-half
6 cloves garlic, crushed
6 ounces grated Parmesan
Method:
Peel and dice potatoes, making sure all are relatively the same size. Place in a large saucepan, add the salt, and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce heat to maintain a rolling boil. Cook until potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork.
Heat the half-and-half and the garlic in a medium saucepan over medium heat until simmering. Remove from heat and set aside.
Remove the potatoes from the heat and drain off the water. Mash and add the garlic-cream mixture and Parmesan; stir to combine. Let stand for 5 minutes so that mixture thickens and then serve.

Vegetarian Gravy

Ingredients:
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, diced
2 tbs flour
4 cloves of garlic
1 tsp to 2 tbs cornstarch( as required for your desired thickness)
1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
2 tbsp soy sauce
Method:
Heat the butter over medium heat in a large skillet and saute the onion for 2 minutes along with the garlic. Add the flour  and saute for 5 more minutes.
Add the vegetable broth and cornstarch, stirring to mix the cornstarch well. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, stirring frequently to make sure no clumps are formed.
Add  soy sauce and reduce heat. Cook for one more minute, stirring.

Mysore Masala Dosa

Foodelious has a wonderful collection of recipes but as I am still so busy with Aishwarya I tried this recipe which is not so new to me and altered it to suit me.  This was so much enjoyed by my little girl that she ended up having one full Dosa (She does have a poor appetite now) and I was one happy mom.

Recipe adapted from Foodelicious
Ingredients for the Coconut chutney
To Grind-
1 cup freshly scraped coconut
4-5 green chilies
1/4 inch piece ginger
1/2 cup yougurt
salt to taste
1 sprig curry leaves
For the tempering
2 tsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 dry red chilies
Method:
Grind together all the ingredients . For the tempering, heat the oil, add the mustard followed by red chilli and curry leaves pour it over the chutney.

Ingredients for the Red chutney
2 onions,quartered
3-4 garlic pods(optional)
1 tsp red chili powder or 4-5 red chillies
1/2 tsp tamarind pulp
salt to taste
Method:
Saute onion and garlic pods in 1/4 tsp oil .Grind together onion and garlic, 1tsp red chili pwd, salt to taste,1/2 tsp tamarind extract.Add enough salt.

Ingredients for Potato Filling
6-7 boiled potatoes (medium sized)
2-3 onions chopped/sliced
5-6 green chilies finely chopped
1" of ginger finely chopped
chopped coriander
oil to cook
a spoon of mustard seeds
2 tbsp of chana-urad dal mix
2 sprigs of curry leaves
1/2 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
Method :
Heat oil , add mustard followed by the dals, when the dals are golden brown add green chilies, ginger,onion and curry leaves. Add the salt and turmeric, followed by  roughly mashed peeled potatoes. Pour 1/4 cup of water to make it a little mushy. Garnish with cilantro/coriander.

For The Dosa batter:
3 cups rice
1 cup urad dal
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
Method:
Soak the rice, fenugreek and the dal separately for 4-5 hrs.
Grind together the rice and fenugreek to a fine paste. Also grind the dal  to a fine paste adding enough water. Mix the rice and the dal and let it ferment over night.
Before making the Dosa, add water to the batter to bring it to a pouring consistency. Add salt and mix.

Final Preparation:

Heat the Non Stick Pan and take a laddle full of batter and spread it in circles, this has to be done quickly. It is a skill which comes with practice. spread little butter or ghee or oil around the edges. Roast the dosa on medium flame and then reduce the heat.When dosa  turn golden brown in color spread the red chutney on the top and then  fill with several tablespoons of the potato filling  roll up and serve immediately with sambhar and chutney.

Rosti

Rösti  is a Swiss dish consisting mainly of potatoes. It was originally a common breakfast eaten by farmers.It is almost like Hash browns.It is an easy dish to put together for breakfast and requires very less ingredients.
Ingredients:
Potatoes -3
Butter-3 tbs
Pepper-1/2 tsp
Salt-1/2 tsp
Method:
Microwave the potatoes along with the skin for 8 minutes.Peel of the skin from potatoes and grate them using a vegetable grater.Heat a non stick pan with 1 tablespoon of butter and gently add the potatoes to it add the seasoning  and gently give it a stir then pat down the potatoes to form a circular shape and cook at medium heat for 3 minute.Put a plate on top of the pan and turn it over. Then add the remaining butter to the pan and slide the röstis back to the pan, to cook the other side.Cook for another 3 to 4 minutes and remove it by placing a plate over the pan and turning over.Serve hot with some spicy ketchup.
Sending this over to AWED Swiss may at Sweet artichoke

Bitter Gourd - Potato Fry

This is a variation of the recipe I got from a North Indian friend. My husband and me both like almost any of the preparations of bitter gourd (karella), and when I tried out this one, it was predictably a big hit with both of us. This goes well with rice and Moong dal curry (posted earlier).

Ingredients:
Bitter gourd - 4 nos, grate or make shavings of the skin and the fleshy part
Potato - 4 medium sliced
Onion -1 chopped
Green chilli -1
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder - 3/4 tsp
Asafoetida- 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 8 cloves chopped
Curry leaves
Oil - 4 tbs

Method:
Heat oil in a flat bottom pan, add the onion, green chilli, chilli powder, asfotida, cumin powder and saute. Now add the potato to this and when the potato is done, add the bitter-gourd shavings and garlic to this. Stir fry till it is well-done, adding more oil as necessary.