Quick Sambhar for a quick breakfast

Something came to sharp focus the last few days, the fact that I and pretty much a lot of people are slave to the Internet. It has fast moved from being a communication tool to a essential utility just like electricity, water and gas.
If you say I am late in my realization then that's what it is.

Sometime last week we started having problems with connecting to secure web sites which means practically everything these days - banking, email, investing, credit card bill all of it and most importantly logging on to blogger. You must know how traumatic that must be for someone who has blogging addiction, worse was not being able to log on to my google reader! It took exactly 5 days to resolve the issue. Verizon who is our provider would not accept it was their problem to begin with "must be something with your computer". Lucky for us we have 3 Operating Systems, 2 version of IE and Firefox to test it out. We thought it was our router but a quick call to a neighbor revealed it was not that either, he was having the exact same problem. But by magic the issue got resolved by the afternoon but the relief did not last long, the issue came back Sunday afternoon. More weird as for a few of the other neighbors it was just fine depending on how their connection is routed I guess. Googling DH found a forum online and thereby a few others in the same geographic having the same problem. Finally after much frustration the problem was finally resolved this afternoon. Hopefully I have not spoken too soon!!

But the whole episode underscored a deeper problem for which I don't have a solution. I was going through my Bank statement and I noticed a check written for a big amount and no recollection of why or who it was made out to. Normally I would login to my bank and that would be that. I am glad we have not made the switch to VOIP yet. Imagine if I were a day trader calling an agent to do a stock trade is going to cost twice as much as doing it online and the munutes I spend holding for a rep is going to be bad. I am not sure how to deal with this problem but I am going to try and see if my dialup works still :)

Now on to more pleasant things like this Sambhar. Cooked the old fashioned way with old fashioned ingredients but with quick instant result. If you consider Pressure Cooker low tech that is. My mom makes these for breakfast usually and it is a perfect accompaniment for dosais or idlis. Absent tamarind or any strong spices this is the perfect start to the day. Listed are 2 different ways to cook the sambhar. I like to saute the onions so usually follow Method 1, my mom generally follows Method 2. Can't tell the difference between the two in terms of taste.

Wheat Dosai with Sambhar

Serves: 3-4

1. 1/2 cup Split Moong dal slightly roasted
2. 1 juicy ripe tomato
3. Pearl onions or shallots 8-10 peeled and sliced
4. 3-4 green chilies
5. 1 tsp sambhar powder (purely optional)
6. handful coriander leaves
7. seasonings: mustard, curry leaves
8. 1 tsp oil
9. Salt to taste

Method1:
1. Pressure cook the moong dal till soft and mushy.
2. In a pan heat the oil, add the seasonings, saute the onions slightly, add the tomatoes and green chillies and saute till tomatoes are mushy
3. Pour over the cooked moong dal, mix
4. Add the chopped coriander leaves on top, sambhar powder if adding and salt to taste
5. Cover and pressure cook for 1 more sound.

Method2
1. Add all the ingredients 1-6 and pressure cook for 2 sounds
2. Now in a small pan heat the oil add the seasonings and when the mustard pops pour over the cooked dal. Add salt and mix

Ready to serve in a jiffy.