This is so easy, it can't really be called a recipe.

But first, let me set the scene. The nearest decent Indian grocery store is about 40 miles from where we live. Oh, there are a few within a couple of miles of our house, but they are small, poorly stocked, and ridiculously expensive, so we use them only for emergencies.

So, when we tackle the 80 mile round trip to the decent grocery stores, we normally stock up for quite a while, getting some frozen Indian vegetables along with the dhals, spices, tea (dh drinks only Taj Mahal), rice etc. They have lovely fresh vegies as well, but we have to be careful to take only as much as we can eat before it will spoil. The other "fresh" indulgence we have is buying some of the fresh batters - Idli Mavu, Dosa Mavu etc., packed in containers the size and shape of yoghurt containers. (I don't have a wet grinder, and my texture is never quite the same as the "real" thing).

Anyway, on the weekend, people were clamoring for something different, and so I thought to use these fresh batters in a different way. I took three parts idli batter to one part dosa batter, mixed it together and called it uthappam batter.

Chopped half an onion, two small tomatoes, and defrosted half a cup up frozen peas.

I made some full-size uthappam, but then started making a few of the smaller ones. They were so cute, and it had the advantage that everyone could get a hot one at the same time, that I just continued this way. And of course, Angel Face loved the idea of "mini-uthappam."

Don't you just hate it when you're eating a dosa or uthappam that by the time you get to the last half it is already cold? This way you can finish the whole thing before it starts cooling down.

Note: One thing I do with my uthappam that is not quite the usual thing: before I take them out of the pan I flip them over for a few seconds. That makes sure that it really is cooked all the way through, and the extra heat on the tomato, onion and peas make a big difference to their taste.

I don't know where this recipe came from! Maa chellelu Nini found it online about six weeks ago, but she copied and pasted it, and now it doesn't have any URL information - or other distinguishing characteristics - anywhere. It could have come from a blog, or from an Indian recipe site like bawarchi.com, or a generic recipe site like cooks.com. I have no idea.

If you recognize this recipe - either as your own or from somewhere else - please let me know. First and foremost I would like to give due credit, but secondly: this recipe is fantastic! I would like to know where it came from so we can cook more of their recipes.

The biggest change we made to this recipe was to use butternut squash instead of pumpkin because that's what we had on hand. It turned out deliciously; the combination of the natural sweetness of the butternut combined with the distinctive tastes of the coconut and the curry leaves created a lot of happy people around the table; not to mention the richness added by the cashews.