The Breakfast menu in a cosmopolitan home going through a Dussera induced, pious, South Indian Vegetarian phase is normally limited to idli, dosa, vada, upma, utappam, pongal etc. Very rarely do we at home get a choice. The wife takes a decision, perhaps even the previous day, and we eat what we are served.

So when my query about what was for breakfast yesterday resulted in an answer that sounded like Idli-Dosa, I thought I was hearing double. I repeated the question and was shocked to hear the echo…Idli-Dosa was what she was saying, no doubt about that.

On investigation, and after a certain amount of cajoling, the truth came ‘out’…due to a slight mix up in communication in the wife-daughters-cook-maids chain we were sitting on a shortage of batter. We had a bit of the dosa batter left…and a bit of the idli stuff. Neither was enough to feed the family, but together they stood a fair chance.

So the idea that the soldier ants got was to first serve us a couple of idlis each, and then perhaps serve a dosa or two. Nothing wrong with that idea I suppose, but it sounded boring.

What could I do to spruce up the meal?

I thought a lot about it…I ran through the various dosa options that could be tried…from Ram’s to Laxman’s to Govind’s recipes…but I knew I would face the family’s wrath if I even suggested a buttery alternative like the bandi dosas…being a festival day no egg or meat was allowed into the kitchen so I couldn’t even venture into keema dosa or muttay dosa territory. I suggested a upma filling in a dosa like I had seen at Shanbagh Restaurant the other day but the idea was shot down and it went down in flames.

That’s when I had the brainwave.

So I took a deepish frying pan and proceeded to do the very popular ‘Tadka’ dance. For reasons beyond my ken, the tadka is referred to as ‘popoo’ in telugu. A few condiments and a few green leaves were added to the simmering tadka and then a sprinkling of salt and red chilli powder.

Into this concoction was squeezed a pair of idlis…crumbled mercilessly…and stir fried into the…yeah, you guessed it…the tadka.

Then I started off on a dosa.

A dosa on one pan. Crumbled idlis on the other. The dosa cooked to a softness. The crumbs fried into a crispy scramble. Once the dosa was ready, I took the minced idlis and spread them in the middle of the dosa…like how we put the masala in the masala dosa. Sprinkled some powder and added a bit of tomato chutney to the mix up. Wrapped up the dosa. And we were good to go.

None of the others were impressed so I you’ll have to take my word for it. It was good, real good. Try it