Another weekend gone by and comes Monday and with it, the wait for Saturday. But this weekend was different with many tasks being done. The most important was getting Netlon fixed. Well, measurements of the windows and exhaust fans are taken and tomorrow we will have a lizard proof house. Or so I hope. On Saturday, the inverter guy also came to install the inverter. The whole day went by just like that with people coming all the time to do some or the other work.
In the mean time I managed to prepare pizza for lunch. I had the pizza base ready, prepared the pizza sauce and used baked beans, capsicum, onion and mozzarella cheese for the topping. I got ready made breakfast that day with Anurag preparing bread-omelets and tea. Couldn't have had a better start to the day. Got out of bed and voila! Breakfast is ready, courtesy hubby dearest. We also managed to watch a movie on DVD in the afternoon with a few breaks in between. In the evening I was too full to eat anything. We went for a long walk and after that I had ice-cream while Anurag had bhelpuri and sev puri.
On Sunday morning, I made an English breakfast of pancakes topped with honey/jam. My first attempt at it and it was really tasty. Might become our Sunday special breakfast. Watched some TV and had a leisurely bath. For lunch, I made chole, rice and pudina flavored curd. Slept in the afternoon, watched 'Pirates of the Caribbean' in the evening, had dinner and again a long walk.
On Friday night, I had prepared lauki-beetroot halva. Came out pretty well.
A satisfying weekend. Though it did not come without its share of ‘Sunday evening blues’. I think what was great about the weekend was that I and Anurag got to talk. Hey, I don’t mean we don’t talk but to have spare time and to talk about things in general is a luxury. Otherwise everyday talk is limited to ‘wake up’, ‘what’s for breakfast’, ‘don’t forget to take your mobile to work’, or any thing which needs to be discussed. During and after the long walk on Saturday, we talked about our childhood, about the people in our lives....I came to know about problems people have in their lives. Someone has a mentally-retarded grownup child, someone’s mother-in-law doesn’t like her and is giving her a tough time, someone’s wife has gone mad even after giving birth to four children leaving the children deprived of mother’s love. Also of illnesses and how the illnesses were taken care of with pure love. Might not have saved a dying person but sure must have made them feel better. It was like an eye-opener for me. I always felt I have a blessed life. I had never seen people suffering. Almost felt like Prince Siddhartha (Buddha) who was unaware of things outside his palace. Well, I definitely knew poverty, suffering, misery existed but never knew anyone who has suffered. Really scares me as to how would I ever deal with anything but a rosy life.
Now to get into my recipe guru ‘avtaar’. How to make pizza sauce and pancakes? Fret not , recipe guru to your rescue :) Here’s how I made them.
I have come up with a pizza sauce recipe which I really like and it never fails me. Here it is :
In a pan, heat some oil, add 5-6 peppercorns, 3 cloves, a bayleaf, half an inch dalchini stick, 1 medium onion chopped, 6 cloves of garlic, sauté till onions are transparent, add 3 medium tomatoes chopped. Add salt, sugar, chilli flakes. Cover and cook till tomatoes are done. Now blend it with a hand blender. I removed the bayleaf before that as I was not sure whether it would mix. Use it for pizza, sandwich. I even used it for making gravy for vegetable.
Do try the pancakes if you like egg. It has a unique texture and tastes yummy. I used 2 eggs beaten with 4 teaspoons of sugar. Added about 4 tablespoons of flour, pinch of salt, vanilla essence, about a tablespoon of milk and beat some more till completely blended. Then heat a pan. Spread a little bit of ghee on it and pour a bit of the batter. Pancakes are generally thick unlike dosas. Cover and cook till done on one side on slow flame. Turn and cook the other side. My pancakes didn’t need any prodding to separate from the pan. They came out on their own. That's one way of knowing whether its done. Once out of the pan, spread some honey or jam on it, fold and serve hot. Perfect to start a weekend.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Experiments in Cooking and Me - II
Another cooking experiment born out of boredom of eating cabbage the same old way. Anurag loves cabbage so I make it often though not as often as he would like :)
It is specially made after he is made a scapegoat for many of my experiments and I have to make up for it. I do not have any aversion to cabbage but making it the same old way with potatoes every time makes me run away from it.
Yesterday was one such day meant to make cabbage. Since I am back from my vacation, I hadn’t prepared a proper home cooked meal. So this was the way to start on a right note or was it?
I wanted some kick in my cabbage not the plain old cabbage with only few masalas for flavor. I had on impulse picked up some pudina, a raw mango on my vegetable shopping spree. Yes...I am going to add these to the cabbage.
It had to be completely different. I had started out with the idea of adding capsicum and peas instead of potato but what resulted finally was better cabbage sabzi than I had ever made before. At least that is what I thought.
I had left office early yesterday so I had time to cut the cabbage into neat thin strips. I don’t like using food processor for cabbage as it makes it too tiny. Do you too face the same problem?
Ok, so I cut about one small cabbage, I cut a capsicum into small pieces. I grated one medium carrot. I cut the raw mango into very small pieces. I could have grated it but I like cutting more than grating :)
I heated oil in a wok. Added jeera, ajwain, til, saunf to it. All on the spur of the moment. Some haldi, chilli powder goes in. Then the cabbage, capsicum and carrot. Sauté on high heat for about a minute and cover.
Now add little bit of cut raw mango. About 7-8 chopped pudina leaves, salt, sugar, dhaniya powder. Cover till done. A beautiful aroma fills the kitchen. Anurag arrives from office and asks "Pudina ki sabzi hai kya" :)
It looks as beautiful as it smells. Carrot adds nice color to it and cutting veggies neatly does make a difference in the beauty of the final dish.
The saunf added a good flavor. I could have left ajwain out I believe, maybe next time. I couldn't figure any difference in taste due to sesame seeds. Maybe it was too less to lend itself to the dish.
But overall, I really liked the taste. Slightly tangy with a hint of saunf. Best part is it cooks quickly. Only the preparation takes time.
Another good experiment. But I think I liked it more than Anurag did.
It is specially made after he is made a scapegoat for many of my experiments and I have to make up for it. I do not have any aversion to cabbage but making it the same old way with potatoes every time makes me run away from it.
Yesterday was one such day meant to make cabbage. Since I am back from my vacation, I hadn’t prepared a proper home cooked meal. So this was the way to start on a right note or was it?
I wanted some kick in my cabbage not the plain old cabbage with only few masalas for flavor. I had on impulse picked up some pudina, a raw mango on my vegetable shopping spree. Yes...I am going to add these to the cabbage.
It had to be completely different. I had started out with the idea of adding capsicum and peas instead of potato but what resulted finally was better cabbage sabzi than I had ever made before. At least that is what I thought.
I had left office early yesterday so I had time to cut the cabbage into neat thin strips. I don’t like using food processor for cabbage as it makes it too tiny. Do you too face the same problem?
Ok, so I cut about one small cabbage, I cut a capsicum into small pieces. I grated one medium carrot. I cut the raw mango into very small pieces. I could have grated it but I like cutting more than grating :)
I heated oil in a wok. Added jeera, ajwain, til, saunf to it. All on the spur of the moment. Some haldi, chilli powder goes in. Then the cabbage, capsicum and carrot. Sauté on high heat for about a minute and cover.
Now add little bit of cut raw mango. About 7-8 chopped pudina leaves, salt, sugar, dhaniya powder. Cover till done. A beautiful aroma fills the kitchen. Anurag arrives from office and asks "Pudina ki sabzi hai kya" :)
It looks as beautiful as it smells. Carrot adds nice color to it and cutting veggies neatly does make a difference in the beauty of the final dish.
The saunf added a good flavor. I could have left ajwain out I believe, maybe next time. I couldn't figure any difference in taste due to sesame seeds. Maybe it was too less to lend itself to the dish.
But overall, I really liked the taste. Slightly tangy with a hint of saunf. Best part is it cooks quickly. Only the preparation takes time.
Another good experiment. But I think I liked it more than Anurag did.
Sunday, May 6, 2007
My vacation and a Survery
I am writing a post after a long time. I had gone home for a week. I had a great time and ate all the good food and relaxed a lot. I hope life could always be like that...eat, sleep and make merry. I know it cannot be and it is fine because I don’t have any major regrets about the way life is right now.
On the flight home, an old man was sitting next to me. He had a bag full of papers. He was going through the papers and discarding some of them and putting some of them back...hopefully arranging it. He finished doing it about 15 mins before landing. But he was the most restless person I had seen, He couldn’t sit still for even the few minutes. He opened the tray table and started looking at the papers again and then writing something. The air hostess had to ask him to put up the table and sit straight. He looked really sad about sitting without doing anything. He must have been glad to get off the aircraft.
I also had a nice time shopping there in Gujarat. It was a great experience compared to the shopping experience here in Bangalore. You can bargain, you can choose from a huge variety. The shopkeepers there are really interested in selling their stuff and they try to make a personal connection and help you decide among a mountain of clothes. That's what makes shopping fun.The biggest problem with buying clothes in Bangalore is that in sometime everyone around you will be wearing similar dresses.
There is one more purpose to this post as the title suggests - a survey :) If you have read the blog, you have a fair idea on what I feel about babies. I want to know from you - married, or unmarried, with children or without children, men or women, boys or girls :)
Do you want to have babies? Why?
Please leave your comments with your views on why would you want to be a parent/why would you not want to be a parent.
I just want to know the thoughts in general. Because I am not able to figure out reasons for having children. I really feel people with children are not able to live the way they would like to. Also, there is already enough stress in our lives, why add the stress of raising children. I know most of you would not agree, that is why I want to know why you think I am wrong. And those of you who agree with me, please leave those comments also. I would be glad to know we share similar views.
On the flight home, an old man was sitting next to me. He had a bag full of papers. He was going through the papers and discarding some of them and putting some of them back...hopefully arranging it. He finished doing it about 15 mins before landing. But he was the most restless person I had seen, He couldn’t sit still for even the few minutes. He opened the tray table and started looking at the papers again and then writing something. The air hostess had to ask him to put up the table and sit straight. He looked really sad about sitting without doing anything. He must have been glad to get off the aircraft.
I also had a nice time shopping there in Gujarat. It was a great experience compared to the shopping experience here in Bangalore. You can bargain, you can choose from a huge variety. The shopkeepers there are really interested in selling their stuff and they try to make a personal connection and help you decide among a mountain of clothes. That's what makes shopping fun.The biggest problem with buying clothes in Bangalore is that in sometime everyone around you will be wearing similar dresses.
There is one more purpose to this post as the title suggests - a survey :) If you have read the blog, you have a fair idea on what I feel about babies. I want to know from you - married, or unmarried, with children or without children, men or women, boys or girls :)
Do you want to have babies? Why?
Please leave your comments with your views on why would you want to be a parent/why would you not want to be a parent.
I just want to know the thoughts in general. Because I am not able to figure out reasons for having children. I really feel people with children are not able to live the way they would like to. Also, there is already enough stress in our lives, why add the stress of raising children. I know most of you would not agree, that is why I want to know why you think I am wrong. And those of you who agree with me, please leave those comments also. I would be glad to know we share similar views.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Dreaming Big?!!
Yesterday I was watching KBC while waiting for my husband to return from office. I am not a regular viewer of the show. But, yesterday, I missed my swimming classes. I am planning to miss it today too. Well, I have a reason which I am stretching to bunk 2 days of swimming. I haven’t learnt much of swimming yet. But day before yesterday, after finishing my swimming class, I felt feverish with huge amount of body pain and for the first time, I was not able to point out which part of my body was giving me the most pain. ;) Also, by the time I reached home, I was shivering and had to take 3 blankets in the summer month. But now I am as healthy as I can get with 2 tablets down my throat.
Coming back to KBC, a young guy was a contestant and he said 2 crores are not enough to fulfill his dream which was to topple the government of Swaziland and be the king of the land. What a dream! May I say...weird dream! It got me thinking that only young people can dream of becoming kings/queens. I haven't come across an older person with such dreams. They have more realistic dreams like owning a flat/bungalow or a small/big car depending on the state and 'thinking big' capacity of the person. Again, people get 'older'(mature is a better word I guess) once they start earning their own money or at least after the initial high of earning money gives way to 'I need more than this' race.
Weird dreams are replaced by realistic dreams, adventure is replaced by boring routine, and enthusiasm for life is replaced by the race for all things material.
I can't imagine myself wanting to be a queen. I would say, let me own a small apartment first. But then, who wants a small apartment? How about a duplex flat, a penthouse, a bungalow with at least 2 cars parked in its compound? Better not go so far. So, I guess I am left with no dreams.
One of my friend says (He has taken it from a book) "Dream, and the whole universe conspires to help you realize your dream". But if you are one of those lazy kinds (like me), the universe might not help you!
By the way, heard of Swaziland before? I hadn’t. It is an African country. Coming to it, maybe the contestant could have dreamt bigger and wanted to be king of Switzerland instead. ;)
Coming back to KBC, a young guy was a contestant and he said 2 crores are not enough to fulfill his dream which was to topple the government of Swaziland and be the king of the land. What a dream! May I say...weird dream! It got me thinking that only young people can dream of becoming kings/queens. I haven't come across an older person with such dreams. They have more realistic dreams like owning a flat/bungalow or a small/big car depending on the state and 'thinking big' capacity of the person. Again, people get 'older'(mature is a better word I guess) once they start earning their own money or at least after the initial high of earning money gives way to 'I need more than this' race.
Weird dreams are replaced by realistic dreams, adventure is replaced by boring routine, and enthusiasm for life is replaced by the race for all things material.
I can't imagine myself wanting to be a queen. I would say, let me own a small apartment first. But then, who wants a small apartment? How about a duplex flat, a penthouse, a bungalow with at least 2 cars parked in its compound? Better not go so far. So, I guess I am left with no dreams.
One of my friend says (He has taken it from a book) "Dream, and the whole universe conspires to help you realize your dream". But if you are one of those lazy kinds (like me), the universe might not help you!
By the way, heard of Swaziland before? I hadn’t. It is an African country. Coming to it, maybe the contestant could have dreamt bigger and wanted to be king of Switzerland instead. ;)
Monday, April 2, 2007
Never try Gujarati thali in Bangalore
Yesterday I went to ‘Zaika’ restaurant in Raheja Arcade in Koramangala in hope of eating Gujarati thali. There was a mention of this restaurant and that it serves Gujarati thali, in Bangalore Times on Friday.
And as you know, I have been praising Gujarati food; I thought we can try it out. But now, after eating it, I can understand why people wouldn't like Gujarati thali.
It was bad. They tried but the result was far from the real Gujarati food. Yes, they made it sweet. People should understand that sugar is an ingredient in Gujarati food, but it is not the only ingredient. There has to be a good proportion of spicy taste in it and sweet is just to offset the spices. Anyway, what made it worse was the price. Priced at 125 per thali, and limited food, it made matters worse. The katoris in which they provided the vegetables were so small, they could be meant for infants. Me being used to the unlimited Gujarati thali with lots of dishes, it was a major disappointment.
I guess everybody read the Friday article and came to eat the thali. So there was a waiting time of 20 mins outside the restaurant. Then once we were seated at the table,
10 mins later a waiter comes to clean it and put fresh table mats (paper ones) and get us glasses of water. After another long wait come something which could pass of as cold milk and some papads which we thought came to our table instead of the neighboring table. But the papads were good. Another long long wait for the thali and when it came, it was like a needle to prick my excitement. They tried to make undhiyo which was ok.
They tried the potato curry (gujju style). Major disappointment. Didn't finish even the infant size portion of it. Then there was kadhi which was the only thing which was close to the real taste. Also a piece of khaman/dhokla with sweet chutney (sweet being the key word :) ) They give 3 chapattis and a bowl of jeera rice. It is quite enough to fill your stomach but does not leave you satisfied.
The owners have an idea but they haven't planned the execution well (in fact not at all planned). Nothing compared to the execution style of neighboring ‘Gramin’ restaurant. It does leave you impressed and satisfied even if you have to wait for your turn at the table.
Let me leave Gramin to another blog. All in all, go there if you are really craving Gujarati thali and have no other option. Never go there if you want to see what a Gujarati thali is...
And as you know, I have been praising Gujarati food; I thought we can try it out. But now, after eating it, I can understand why people wouldn't like Gujarati thali.
It was bad. They tried but the result was far from the real Gujarati food. Yes, they made it sweet. People should understand that sugar is an ingredient in Gujarati food, but it is not the only ingredient. There has to be a good proportion of spicy taste in it and sweet is just to offset the spices. Anyway, what made it worse was the price. Priced at 125 per thali, and limited food, it made matters worse. The katoris in which they provided the vegetables were so small, they could be meant for infants. Me being used to the unlimited Gujarati thali with lots of dishes, it was a major disappointment.
I guess everybody read the Friday article and came to eat the thali. So there was a waiting time of 20 mins outside the restaurant. Then once we were seated at the table,
10 mins later a waiter comes to clean it and put fresh table mats (paper ones) and get us glasses of water. After another long wait come something which could pass of as cold milk and some papads which we thought came to our table instead of the neighboring table. But the papads were good. Another long long wait for the thali and when it came, it was like a needle to prick my excitement. They tried to make undhiyo which was ok.
They tried the potato curry (gujju style). Major disappointment. Didn't finish even the infant size portion of it. Then there was kadhi which was the only thing which was close to the real taste. Also a piece of khaman/dhokla with sweet chutney (sweet being the key word :) ) They give 3 chapattis and a bowl of jeera rice. It is quite enough to fill your stomach but does not leave you satisfied.
The owners have an idea but they haven't planned the execution well (in fact not at all planned). Nothing compared to the execution style of neighboring ‘Gramin’ restaurant. It does leave you impressed and satisfied even if you have to wait for your turn at the table.
Let me leave Gramin to another blog. All in all, go there if you are really craving Gujarati thali and have no other option. Never go there if you want to see what a Gujarati thali is...
Friday, March 30, 2007
Memory Lane down Gujarati Food
Two posts about food in a day!! That means at least two things:
1. I have food on my mind.
2. I don’t have anything else to do. :)
Well, let me leave it at that. Now to get on with what inspired me to write this post. It was this blog http://thespicewholovedme.blogspot.com
This blog has some mouth watering, mind boggling.... gujju recipes. I am a great fan of gujju food. I was literally going mad looking at all those pictures and recipes. Although, I am not a Gujarati, I spend my entire childhood there and I was the one in our house to love any kind of Gujarati food. Well, rest of my family isn't too keen on food. That explains the size difference between me and them. ;)
Thinking of the Gujarati food does make me nostalgic. You might wonder what is so special about it or you might think its all sweet. But that is far from being true.
To taste real Gujarati food, you need to come to Gujarat. How can someone not like the food? I find that hard to imagine.
The khakaras are quite famous, so is dhokla. Dhokla does make me weak. These days in Bangalore we get dhoklas at food courts in the malls. I can’t pass by a stall featuring dhokla without eating it.
The dhebras...hmmmm....fried puri like but so much yummier than puris. And then there is chundo, the grated mango sweet, spicy all at once. I can eat it with anything or when I eat something I did not like, I refresh my taste buds by eating a spoonful of chundo.
Then there is handvo. You can eat it any time of the day. And the undhiyo...how can I forget that? I spent my childhood days waiting for undhiyo party to happen.
And the day it happened, I was one excited kid. We used to go to a farm and there they give 'matla undhiyo' (translated to pot undhiyo). They bake the beans, the sweet potatoes, potatoes etc in earthen pots with their mouths covered with dried grass or something. Then serve these baked veggies with spicy green chutney, also the sweet chutney, sev, oil
We had to take the beans out of their covering, mash the potatoes and them mix all chutneys and eat it. I will remember the taste all my life. Nothing can beat it. Then you have jalebi with it. It is the yellow, crisp jalebi unlike the orange, softer version which I saw in Maharashtra. I love the yellow jalebi. Haven’t eaten it since I left Gujarat :(
The other version of undhiyo which is more cooked vegetable kind is also great.
Then there is this fulvadi with mattho. Fulvadi is fried vadi...not sure of details but extremely spicy and when you have it with curd based mattha, it tastes just perfect.
Oh yes, then there is ‘papdi no lot’ (translated to papdi dough). You wouldn’t have heard of people eating dough but once you taste this you will wonder how the dough can be left to be turned into papdi (similar to papad). The steamed dough is eaten with oil drizzled over it. I am pretty sure, women in Gujarat would hide some ‘papdi no lot’ from family
members otherwise they can never prepare papdi. The oil is poured to reduce the spiciness of the dough.
I can not get enough of Gujarati food. Though the real fact is that I have had it only few times till now. I am not talking of the gujarati thali. That I have everytime I go there but the other things that make the Gujarati food so much more fun. We didn't prepare this at home so I had it only when friends and neighbors used to send them to us. I am thankful to all the people who introduced me to the delightful tastes of Gujarati food. I hope everyone gets to taste it. It will remain with you forever.
1. I have food on my mind.
2. I don’t have anything else to do. :)
Well, let me leave it at that. Now to get on with what inspired me to write this post. It was this blog http://thespicewholovedme.blogspot.com
This blog has some mouth watering, mind boggling.... gujju recipes. I am a great fan of gujju food. I was literally going mad looking at all those pictures and recipes. Although, I am not a Gujarati, I spend my entire childhood there and I was the one in our house to love any kind of Gujarati food. Well, rest of my family isn't too keen on food. That explains the size difference between me and them. ;)
Thinking of the Gujarati food does make me nostalgic. You might wonder what is so special about it or you might think its all sweet. But that is far from being true.
To taste real Gujarati food, you need to come to Gujarat. How can someone not like the food? I find that hard to imagine.
The khakaras are quite famous, so is dhokla. Dhokla does make me weak. These days in Bangalore we get dhoklas at food courts in the malls. I can’t pass by a stall featuring dhokla without eating it.
The dhebras...hmmmm....fried puri like but so much yummier than puris. And then there is chundo, the grated mango sweet, spicy all at once. I can eat it with anything or when I eat something I did not like, I refresh my taste buds by eating a spoonful of chundo.
Then there is handvo. You can eat it any time of the day. And the undhiyo...how can I forget that? I spent my childhood days waiting for undhiyo party to happen.
And the day it happened, I was one excited kid. We used to go to a farm and there they give 'matla undhiyo' (translated to pot undhiyo). They bake the beans, the sweet potatoes, potatoes etc in earthen pots with their mouths covered with dried grass or something. Then serve these baked veggies with spicy green chutney, also the sweet chutney, sev, oil
We had to take the beans out of their covering, mash the potatoes and them mix all chutneys and eat it. I will remember the taste all my life. Nothing can beat it. Then you have jalebi with it. It is the yellow, crisp jalebi unlike the orange, softer version which I saw in Maharashtra. I love the yellow jalebi. Haven’t eaten it since I left Gujarat :(
The other version of undhiyo which is more cooked vegetable kind is also great.
Then there is this fulvadi with mattho. Fulvadi is fried vadi...not sure of details but extremely spicy and when you have it with curd based mattha, it tastes just perfect.
Oh yes, then there is ‘papdi no lot’ (translated to papdi dough). You wouldn’t have heard of people eating dough but once you taste this you will wonder how the dough can be left to be turned into papdi (similar to papad). The steamed dough is eaten with oil drizzled over it. I am pretty sure, women in Gujarat would hide some ‘papdi no lot’ from family
members otherwise they can never prepare papdi. The oil is poured to reduce the spiciness of the dough.
I can not get enough of Gujarati food. Though the real fact is that I have had it only few times till now. I am not talking of the gujarati thali. That I have everytime I go there but the other things that make the Gujarati food so much more fun. We didn't prepare this at home so I had it only when friends and neighbors used to send them to us. I am thankful to all the people who introduced me to the delightful tastes of Gujarati food. I hope everyone gets to taste it. It will remain with you forever.
Experiments in Cooking and Me..
I am writing this post because I am happy I concealed the lauki (bottle gourd as they say in English) in a dal and had my husband eat it with relish. But mainly because I knew all of you are missing me. I can get quite self-praising (is that the word?) at times, as you can see.
Is your husband a fussy eater? Husband species are meant to be fussy, I believe. I had chanced upon a wonderful methi matar malai recipe on the net and also had methi at home. But I didn’t have enough time to prepare it, starting with separating the methi leaves. I saw a nice, small and tender lauki at Nilgiris’ newly started vegetable section and I knew I had to buy it. I was looking for some vegetable which will be fast to cut and this lauki fit the bill and making it tempting was the fact that it was so tender and without seeds. I don’t like lauki seeds. That is not being fussy. Ok?
But the problem was making my husband eat lauki. I thought of mixing it in dal. He really likes dal. I went home. Took out a cup of toor dal, then I thought let me mix in a bit of masoor, then a bit of chana dal and then yellow moong dal. The dals look lovely and specially the masoor adding orange to yellow. Washed them and kept it soaking in water. Ok, now I am telling you the recipe so that you can get your husbands to eat lauki ;)
See, now I consider myself a recipe guru. Yes, the continuation of the self-praising phase.
I cut the lauki into small pieces and added to the dal(s) and cooked it in pressure cooker along with salt till it gets mushy. You can see the lauki pieces among the dal if you look hard. Till then I put rice to cook and went about tackling the methi which needed immediate attention. Till the dal cooked, I got all the methi leaves in Ziploc bag and hoped they will stay till I get time to cook them. I also got 2 small onions, 3 garlic cloves, 2 green chillies and 3 small tomatoes cut into small pieces. Now take a kadhai and put some oil, add mustard seeds and jeera and hing. Add the onions, garlic and chillies.
When onions are done, add tomatoes and haldi and let it cook till tomatoes are almost mashed. Add this to the cooker. I did this coz adding the dal to kadhai was more difficult :)
Add everest garam masala, little bit of sugar and chopped coriander. Let it boil. This is quite thick in consistency. We had it with paratha and curd and rice. If you are wondering, where did the parathas came from, well, I had the dough ready in the fridge and my experience says old dough makes better roti/paratha. Maybe its just one of my weird beliefs.
For once, I got a good result from my cooking experiments.
Similar thing can be done to brinjal, karela. But this will be more of sambar style with tamarind, jaggery and maybe sambar masala instead of garam masala. I am yet to try it with my husband. This will be more challenging than the lauki.
Is your husband a fussy eater? Husband species are meant to be fussy, I believe. I had chanced upon a wonderful methi matar malai recipe on the net and also had methi at home. But I didn’t have enough time to prepare it, starting with separating the methi leaves. I saw a nice, small and tender lauki at Nilgiris’ newly started vegetable section and I knew I had to buy it. I was looking for some vegetable which will be fast to cut and this lauki fit the bill and making it tempting was the fact that it was so tender and without seeds. I don’t like lauki seeds. That is not being fussy. Ok?
But the problem was making my husband eat lauki. I thought of mixing it in dal. He really likes dal. I went home. Took out a cup of toor dal, then I thought let me mix in a bit of masoor, then a bit of chana dal and then yellow moong dal. The dals look lovely and specially the masoor adding orange to yellow. Washed them and kept it soaking in water. Ok, now I am telling you the recipe so that you can get your husbands to eat lauki ;)
See, now I consider myself a recipe guru. Yes, the continuation of the self-praising phase.
I cut the lauki into small pieces and added to the dal(s) and cooked it in pressure cooker along with salt till it gets mushy. You can see the lauki pieces among the dal if you look hard. Till then I put rice to cook and went about tackling the methi which needed immediate attention. Till the dal cooked, I got all the methi leaves in Ziploc bag and hoped they will stay till I get time to cook them. I also got 2 small onions, 3 garlic cloves, 2 green chillies and 3 small tomatoes cut into small pieces. Now take a kadhai and put some oil, add mustard seeds and jeera and hing. Add the onions, garlic and chillies.
When onions are done, add tomatoes and haldi and let it cook till tomatoes are almost mashed. Add this to the cooker. I did this coz adding the dal to kadhai was more difficult :)
Add everest garam masala, little bit of sugar and chopped coriander. Let it boil. This is quite thick in consistency. We had it with paratha and curd and rice. If you are wondering, where did the parathas came from, well, I had the dough ready in the fridge and my experience says old dough makes better roti/paratha. Maybe its just one of my weird beliefs.
For once, I got a good result from my cooking experiments.
Similar thing can be done to brinjal, karela. But this will be more of sambar style with tamarind, jaggery and maybe sambar masala instead of garam masala. I am yet to try it with my husband. This will be more challenging than the lauki.
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