I am seriously obsessed with baking and cant wait to try out new recipes. But when it comes to the usual, normal, everyday cooking i cringe. I dread the cleaning, the cutting, the stirring and everything about it. I crib about it to Ro every night before we fall asleep and he is now fed up of trying to get me to enjoy it. To prove that its fun, he took over cooking for whole of last weekend and i just sat back and cribbed about life in general. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a sneak peak at my other blog, and you'll know ;)
Now I'm back on my feet and have decided to make proper meals again (the not-enjoying cooking bit is still in tact). Since there was a sudden burst of cakes and bakes on the blog, i decided to post a dal recipe passed on by my best friend R. She was with me in India a couple of months back and made this dal with hot kulchas and they were so so tasty. She 's an amazing cook and made it look incredibly easy. So i bugged her on chat the other day and got the recipe. Unfortunately for me, the impatient one, it didn't taste as awesome as hers, but did taste different from the previous ones i have tried (Dal Fry, Spinach Dal and the Mallu Parippu Curry).
Moong Dal- 1 cup, cooked with water in a pressure cooker. Not mashed.
Dry red chillies- 4
Shallots- 2
Tomato- 2, chopped fine
Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
Turmeric pwd- a pinch
Salt- to taste
Coconut oil- 2 tbs
Coriander leaves- a handful
Cumin seeds- 1/4 tsp to temper
Grind dry red chillies and shallots to make a fine paste.
In a kadai, heat 1 tbs coconut oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add the ground chilli-shallot paste and cook till the raw smell goes.
Add tomatoes and cook till the water evaporates and the oil is visible. (Add green peas at this stage if you want)
Add turmeric, jeera pwd, salt and the cooked dal. Mix well. Add water at this stage if its too thick. Simmer on medium heat.
Add the coriander leaves, give it a final stir and take it off the heat.
Just before you serve, add a dash of cream, butter or ghee (optional)
I however did a tadka with the remaining oil and cumin seeds and avoided the cream/ butter bit.
Chicken Fry
I also tried out an easy chicken recipe from this blog and it turned out just great. I followed the recipe dot to dot, except instead of settling for a dry version, i masala-fied it with a lot of onion and curry leaves and one tomato. The pic however was taken before the masal-fied version since that was a complete after-thought.
8 comments:
Just need some hot rice to Complete a great dinner for me...Both looks fabulously yumy!!!
Edi I notice you did not use GGP in your tadka - I do, maybe it makes a difference, I dunno? I also use asofetida cubes/powder. Apart from fighting the gassy effects of dal it also has a nice flavour.
Fried chicken looks yummy!!!
Hi Sarah..you are absolutely right about the rice bit. I could live on that combo forever.
jane..yeah, this is riya's recipe and she didnt want me to put them..i specifically asked her..thn she said u cud put just garlic if u want. I was too lazy to chop it up separate and so i avoided it. It prob wud have amd ea huge diff. The other dal preps i did, i added hing to it and it did bring out a nice flavour.
Fabulously fresh recipes for every season.
Chicken looks yummy!!! Thanx for visiting my blog...Ur's is quite interesting with awesome clicks...happy 2 follow...
I really and truly admire people who can make food taste good without GGP. My mezhukuperraties always suck and then I resort to using GGP. May be it is time i actually looked at others' recipes instead of doing my own thing.
Jane..the GGp u get here is so horrible and i have decided to use ginger separate and garlic separate if i need it desperately. I realized it also makes a world of a difference. Yet, for marinades etc, i miss GGP.
er, i have never used GGp in mezhukkupuraties ...is tht right?
Like the thoran, thts the first time i did it right..i always used 2 make it in a totally diff way di.
Yeah I use them separate too, just refer to it as GGP :D Some dishes require more of one than the other so I find it is easier to buy em separately. And yeah some brands of GGP really suck here too. My MIL made me buy the fresh stuff and grind em cos she was a little worried about preservatives etc. - so when I am not lazy I try that.
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