My must-try list- An ongoing project in cooking

I have been following many of your blogs and sure enough I am learning a lot from you. But strangely, until now, I copy them to my 'must-try document' and forget about the great recipes. But no more of that- I have decided to add a must-try list here. It is my weekly list, of lovely things to eat. My must-try list is longer than the few recipes here, but this is what I can get done in a week. I am doing a sort of cooking project scheduling since I have been sticking to very routine, repetitive meals after my move to CA. To break from my lethargy, I hope my must-try list will be a constant encouragement and reminder.

So as for this list that has been hanging out in my blog- I am very happy to be eating delicious things this week. I did stumble with the recipe for jowar roti. As Deccanheffalump had warned, my store-bought jowar flour was not fresh enough and it started cracking. This is one project that would require an expert's presence, I guess.

I made Indira's brinjal-ginger curry this sunday. This way of combining brinjal and ginger was very new to me and again, I am very much interested in cooking from other Indian states. It was delightfully gingery and the sweetness of the cooked eggplant was perfect. I used the small, Indian round eggplants. Thanks Indira for a great, unique recipe.

Last night, our dinner consisted of Nupur's usal/misal. I made half the quantity of kolhapuri chutney and substituted moong sprouts for moth bean sprouts. Boy, the spiciness of the juicy usal, went very well with toasted bread. I also added some sweet chutney and boondi on top. There were some leftovers that was enjoyed by us today. We have had this dish at Chaat Paradise, MV but we were disappointed because I think they had added pav bhaji masala for the kolhapuri chutney. Nupur, you are doing a great job spreading your region's cooking and hope you will start another series to showcase Marathi recipes.

Today our dinner would be, idli and Shilpa's Konkani sambar. I usually use some tamarind in my sambar and so added extracted tamarind juice to the vegetables and cooked them all together. The sambar tastes so much like the Pittsburgh SV temple's sambar (mixed with rice). This is really a wonderful treat for us since we have been missing Pitt for the last two weeks. For fans of SV temple's food, this is a must-try.

Thanks all for your recipes and great pics. So this list did give me a boost and my sleeping palate has awakened to new flavors.