Bollywood & Dosa Friend Night

Last week, two of my special friends came over for a quality night together. One of my pals just took off for two months in Europe, and I'll be gone for a bit too, so we wanted to revel in some serious QT together (quality time, folks) before being apart. 

Miss K had an idea to have a girls' night and watch a Bollywood movie together, and then Ms S and I decided that as long as we're watching a Bollywood movie, we may as well also be eating dosas and uttapams. What Fun!

thematic centerpiece!

We split up the work of cooking: I made a batch of dosa batter, some coconut cilantro chutney, and an unintentionally huge batch of sambar. My buddies made the dosa filling, some tamarind chutney, and a glorious batch of pistachio-cardamom ice cream. 

a little peek inside!

I really love dosas, and I really love uttapams... but usually if you go out to eat, the servings are so huge that I am forced to chose one or the other. With the joy of home cooking, we made small dosas and small uttapams so everyone got to try both.

Both dosas and uttapam are made with a fermented batter of rice and dal, and you can make a thin crepe with it (that's the dosa), or you can make a thicker pancake with it (and that's the uttapam)... it's cool because you get two pretty different culinary experiences out of one batter. We went for a pretty traditional potato-masala filling for the dosas (busted our frozen curry leaves out of the freezer!), and for tomato-onion uttapam. 

the whole spread of glorious yum

If you've ever gone out for South Indian food, you know that it's always served with lots of components: usually at least two chutneys and the sambar on the side. So, it can be a lot of work to do it right if you're doing all the cooking yourself! Sambar is one of my favorite foods, and this was the first time I've made some that I really loved. I used this recipe I found online, and it was just right for the spice and flavor profile that I prefer. The only thing I would change is adding still more tamarind, because I like my sambar with a good sour punch. 

I used another recipe from the same website for the coconut cilantro chutney and was equally delighted with the results! Again, my favorite chutney I've made to date. I gotta check out more recipes from that site, pronto. 

The tamarind chutney that Ms. S brought was a really perfect compliment to the one I made, and I was so glad she brought it. As you can see, I even busted out my special little metal bowls that I bought in India for our condiments! 

This night was The Best

We even got furry snugs.

After stuffing ourselves silly with deliciousness, we retired to the sofa and checked out a few different Bollywood trailers before settling on "Jab We Met." Ms. K had the genius request of a blanket for more snuggly goodness -- so we each got blankets, a hot drink, and cozied up. After a little digestive time had passed, we got the ice cream out of the freezer and busted into it. Wow. I don't know how she did it, but Ms S. made a truly wonderful and balanced Pistachio Cardamom Ice Cream - a strong cardamom flavor that wasn't overpowering, a super creamy texture, a beautiful pale green color... It was lovely, but I didn't photo-document it, so you'll just have to imagine it!

I asked for Bollywood movie suggestions on Facebook and got so many great ideas. I'd already seen quite a few of them, but I'll share the list here in case you're looking for a fun night with your friends!

3 Idiots

Hum Tum

Dhoom 2

Chennai Express

Om Shanti Om

Bride and Prejudice

Monsoon Wedding

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai

Kambakkht Ishq

Have fun!!