Dal Chawal Palidu -- from Bohri Kitchen

Belonging to a minority community in my adopted country and "God-alone-knows-what" community in my mother land, I stay away from discussing politics in this space. Also, I am not good at being a keyboard warrior.
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However even as I type and share news about what I cooked and served for dinner in the backdrop of chaos, a part of me cringes at the selfishness of it all. But then that's life. That is what you do.
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Bias as has always been a part of our countries. You peel away religion, there is region, then caste, then gender, then color -- there is always a minority community, whose voices are not loud enough to be heard. And it's always relative. If there is more of you, I am a minority.
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Many a times, we are not even aware of the communities outside our own and often stick to the stereotypes. Like say, all Indians are vegetarians or all Indian parents get extremely upset if their kids get anything less than a A+ grade or Girls like pink or  South-east Asian Muslims serve Biryani on all important occasions.
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To know a community, you have to break bread with them . It's best if you can share a meal but if not just expand your horizons and cook a meal. That way you learn a little and you find that your heart has space to share for more.
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So that's what I thought I will try to do. I usually stick to my known cuisine of Bengali, global Indian, Italian, American etc.  This time, I went out of my comfort zone to find a Bohri Muslim recipe. I know no one from that community and I know very little about their eating habits. However Bohri Thal has recently become very popular in Mumbai and so there were plenty of articles on the internet. The more I read, the more I was intrigued.

"The Bohra community originated from a Muslim sect in Yemen and Egypt, later spreading to India and Pakistan. Hence, the food influences have been heavily adapted from the Middle East. The initial settlement of the Bohra’s in Surat, Gujarat have led to major Gujarati influence on the cuisine as well.This is why you will find that Bohri cuisine is much lighter and lower in spice than Mughlai or Pakistani food." -- Mumbai Foodie

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I found a very, interesting and simple vegetarian dish that all those articles mentioned as the Bohri comfort food. So, I went out on a limb and made "Dal-Chawal-Palidu" for lunch today.

I followed the recipe from two sites -- Goya Journal and Farida's post in One Life To Eat

Did you know Dal-Chawal-Palidu and not Biriyani, is a dish for all celebratory occasions in the Bohri Muslim Community?

In the Bohri style of community dining, the family gathers around the thaal, eating the meal in courses that alternate between sweet and savoury.  One of the staples of the Bohri thaal is Dal Chawal Palidu – a dish with rice, lentils and moringa that is so beloved in the Bohri repertoire that no meal, no celebration, is complete without it. Gently boiled and spiced, the lentils are layered between freshly steamed rice, and cooked on dum, served with a side of tempered moringa - Goya Journal

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It was so very different from the Dal-Chawal I have grown up with that I had to actually compare 4 recipes to make sure this was indeed a Dal-Chawal. The Palida on the other was more in our line of food habit and the taste was very akin to sambhar. We really loved the Palida.
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Did we like Dal-Chawal-Palidu? Yes.
Will it be my comfort food? No.
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But I did learn something and if I befriend someone from the Bohri community, I will look forward to taste their authentic version of "Dal-Chawal-Palida".

Dal er Borar Jhol -- Lentil fritters in a light gravy

If you follow my blog on FB, you will know that my Mother arrived a couple of weeks back. With her of course came packets of Mukhorochak chanachur-- tauk--jhaal-mishti -- sour--spicy-sweet. And loads of books. Tons of Enid Blytons for the 9 yr old, Bengali story books by Sukumar Roy from my childhood for the little one and fat Lila Majumdar Rachanabolis for me.

A natural fallout of all these books is that I have been engrossed in reading and have had little time to do anything else during free time. And there in an FB status, I heard that people these days don't like free time, as they have no idea what to do when there is nothing to do. Anyway, I have no such problems.

I am an ardent Lila Majumdar fan and have been one for the last 30 years. I can read her stories and essays over and over and yet find new joy every time in the tales of uncomplicated times of simple livings. The downside of reading such great authors is that I myself feel very incompetent and my writing feels bleah ! So, I take the easy way out and read more, hoping to learn something but eventually only get engrossed in the tales.

When I get time away from reading, I make Dal er Bora. And also take showers.

Now, the Dal er Bora or Lentil fritters is a very typical Bengali dish. There are lentil fritters made  throughout the length and breadth of India for sure but these particular ones are  typical to Bengal. They are also deep fried and very different from the sun dried lentil fritters-- the bori.

I had written a detailed post on the Dal er Bora some years back. That one was made with Matol + Musur Dal. This time I did not have any Mator dal and so used only Red Masoor. Also different from the jhaal-jhol last time which needed mustard paste, I made a Borar Jhol this time, which was more in the lines of a dalna like this Alu Potol er Dalna. I also added few of the boras to a thin jhol with vegetables and spiced with mustard paste, like this Alu Begun er Jhol. Both the dishes tasted very good.

Bengali vegetarian dishes are vast and varied but very few non-Bengalis know that. One of the oft heard comments I have received from non-Bengali readers of my book, is the surprise on the Vegetable chapters. As this particular reader says about my book  "But it has to be said, the book has opened my eyes to the breadth and depth of Bengali cuisine, which in my severely myopic view did not go beyond macher jhol, mangsher jhol, and the indiscriminate use of badly chopped (sometimes whole) potatoes and of course mustard oil." Now honestly, the variety is too much for me to even know, forget putting in the book, but I hope as we dig out these simple gems, more people will be able to enjoy Bengali food beyond maacher jhol and kosha mangsho.

Dal er Borar Jhol or Lentil Fritters in a Gravy

To Make Dal er Bora

Soak 1/2 cup of Matar Dal(split peas) & 1/2 cup of red Masoor Dal in water for half an hour.For only Musur Dal er Bora use 1 cup of Red Lentils/Red Masoor dal
In the blender add 
the soaked lentils
1" piece of peeled and chopped ginger
3-4 green chili
1/2 cup of water
and make a smooth paste.

To the paste
add 1 tsp of roasted cumin powder
add salt to taste
some finely chopped onion
finely chopped green chilli
finely chopped coriander leaves(optional)

Beat the lentil paste with a fork till everything is well mixed up.

In a kadahi, heat Oil for deep frying.

When oil is hot, scoop the paste with a tablespoon and drop it in the bubbling hot oil. Fry till the lentil fritters are brown and crunchy.

Instead of deep frying, I made the fritters in an ebelskiver pan aka appe pan. You can follow the instructions in this post for making them using the appe pan.

This measure makes about 15 Dal er bora. Of which about 10 were used in the Jhol

Make the Borar Jhol

Heat some more Oil in the same wok

Temper the Oil with
1&1/2" thin stick of cinnamon
1 small Bay Leaf
4 small green cardamom
1/4th tsp of Whole cumin seeds

When the spices sizzle add 1 medium potato peeled and chopped in quarters. Sprinkle about 1/4 tsp of Turmeric Powder and saute the potatoes until they start taking on a pale golden color

Take 2-3 peeled whole tomatoes from a can or 1 big juicy tomato and blend to make tomato puree. Add the tomato puree to the pan.

Add 1 tbsp of grated Ginger + 3-4 green chilli coarsely pounded

Add a little salt and fry the tomato till the raw smell is gone. If you are not the smelling type, check to see if the oil is separating from the masala. This will take about 6-8 minutes at medium heat

Time for the masala.
Add
1/2-1 tsp of Bhaja Moshla(Recipe here)
1/2 tsp of Kashmiri Mirch or Red Chili Powder
Note: usually Jeera powder is used but I added Bhaja Masla.

Sprinkle a little of the tomato juice or a little water and fry the spices for about 5 minutes. This is called "kashano" in Bengali or "bhuno" in Hindi and a lot depends on this step. You need to fry the masala till the oil surfaces and the masala takkes a deep red color. Don't try to hurry it. I have done that and there has been a difference in taste.

Add 1 cup of warm water. Add salt and sugar to taste. Cover and cook till potatoes are done.

Now add the fried dal er bora/lentil fritters. Let them simmer in the gravy at low heat for a few minutes. The bora soaks up the gravy fast so add more water to the gravy if necessary. Taste the thin gravy to see if it tastes right and adjust for spices.

Add a touch of ghee at the end to up the taste. Serve with rice.

Similar Recipes:

My Dal er Borar Jhaal version 1.0

KichuKhonn's Dal er Borar Jhol 

Musur Dal Seddho with Lime Leaf -- Boiled Red Masoor with Lime Leaf

Musurir Dal Seddho -- Boiled Red Masoor with no tadka

Little Sis will soon be five. A big milestone. For her. For me. I had never thought I am the kind of Mother who sheds tears at her children growing up. I always thought "growing older" was a nice thing to happen with children. I can only think of how nice it will be for BigSis to turn twelve and then welcome me home with a cup of tea at the end of the day.

Red Masoor in a beautiful bowl gifted by a friend and on a coaster gifted by a lovely reader from Australia

But now that Li'lSis is almost five and will soon be a Kindergartner, I panic. I have not been able to have  much time, where there is no one but only her and me. Like the ones I used to have with BigSis because there was no other child and I had quit work for a while.My time with her is usually shared by the elders sis or the Dad.And now with onset of school, I know it will never happen until she graduates college, and both she and me are on unemployment.

This has been a niggling thought at the back of my mind for a while now, and I had wanted to take off for a period, to be with only her before Kindergarten starts but because of various reasons it did not work out. Thankfully my work is such that I do get to spend enough time with her, even if it is not strictly one-on-one. She does not mind at all, this getting me to herself thing, as I think she sees enough of me, but it is my maternal instinct which triggers my pangs. I don't know if Moms with more than one child go through this phase or it is my PMS talking.

Of course the time that I do get with her, I try to multitask with things like...errmm... like drinking tea. So every request of a game from LS is preceded by "Tumi eita cha niye khelte paro" (You can play this with a cup of tea). Her games, mostly made-up,  are however very complicated. I often fail to grasp their rules which makes her lose patience.As a result I am always trying to find an excuse to not play those games. It is a circular problem.

LS doing the cartwheel after umpteen days of trial

She is also a very independent minded child and one with a quick temper. One of our close frineds has a nickname for her -- NDR -- "Naaker Dogay Raag" (temper at the tip of her nose) and it suits her fine. So one of these days when BS's BFF was having a sleepover at our home, I threw a random question to the kids
"Tell me something that you would like to improve in your personality this summer?", I said.

BS's 10 yr old BFF, M,  promptly said that she had a quick temper and she is trying to think happy thoughts every time she gets angry so as to cool her anger.

BS said the it was her personal problem and she did not want to discuss in public.

Inspired by M didi, LS too quipped that she wants to cool her temper by counting to 10 as I had suggested but it was not working, so she would try the happy thought method.

Few days later when I tried to remind LS that she needs to work to reduce her temper, she told me "But how can I think happy thoughts about you, if I am mad at you. You have to stop doing things that make me mad at you".
So now the responsibility has been offloaded to me. She is as smart as they come.

One of the things that most took me by surprise in the recent months was LS's ability to read. She reads almost everything these days from road signs to books. Though BS had started reading as early as 4, I had never thought LS had the patience to do so. Each child is different and since I don't sit with LS to make her read as much as much as I did with BS, I had assumed it would take her longer.

Imagine the surprise when a child who would read 4 letter words at the most was reading Peter Rabbit with words like "garden" and "wanted" with ease and saying aloud "New York & Company" or "Banana Republic" at the stores. It seems magical to me, that something clicked in those tiny brain cells and now she can figure out words without me saying "Chunk" or something like that. These days she peers over my shoulder and reads words from a book I am reading and feels very chuffed about it all. The deal now is we sit with a book and she reads few lines while I do others. She is not yet a "passionate reader" like BS, but she is great at emoting the lines she reads, complete with exclamation and question marks, which makes reading a lot of fun!

Talking about emoting, she has this knack for acting out songs etc. and if in a good mood, the sisters sing and act out songs all the time in the car. And after "Despicable Me 2", creative songs with "bottom" have been featuring more regularly in there.

She will soon be a fabulous five and I will be a Mom with two public school going kids. Sniff. Sniff. Clearly, this is taking me some adjusting and comforting which means a Red Masoor Dal in my book.

Now for the recipe of Musur Dal Seddho which I made with MLLA(My Legume Love Affair) in mind. Now, honestly, I love my legumes too much, so much that I have a whole chapter on Dals in my book and a Dal is had almost every day in my home. So when Susan of The Well Seasoned Cook, decided to giveaway two copies of my book for her the 61st edition of her event MLLA hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen, I was overjoyed.

Since I could not decide on what to cook for MLLA from Mango Dal, Chholar Dal, Dal er Bora or Musurir Dal, I resorted to the simple Musur Dal Seddho or Boiled Masoor Dal with green chilli and raw mustard oil perfumed with lime leaf, the one that is done without any tadka or "tempering" or "putting life and spice in my Dal" as I say in my book

This is the easiest form of Musurir dal that I do. The last moment what-shall-we-have-for-dinner kind of Dal. Green chilli, raw onion, drizzle of mustard oil and few lime leaves make it exemplary.

With some Rice it is bliss. With some salad and Papad , it is healthy eats.

I am sending this dish to Aparna for MLLA this month, started by Susan and managed now by Lisa.

Recipe updated with option for a variation

Rinse 1&1/2 cups of Red Masoor in running water.

In a sauce pan put the
rinsed lentils 
about 4 cups of water
1 tsp of turmeric
2 green chilli finely chopped
salt to taste( go with less salt as you can always adjust later)

In a small variation which turns out fabulous, add thinly sliced onions and chopped tomatoes along with all of the above and then set to boil

Keep the heat at medium and let the dal simmer. The Dal will simmer and froth. So be careful. Because if you are like me and get too engrossed in the kids playing "Just Dance", the dal will spill.
Solution: Use a deep sauce pan. Stir infrequently and keep a long handled wooden ladle immersed in the saucepan.

When the Dal bubbles over, give some stir and you will be good to go. If you want the Dal more soupy, add more water.

In about 25-30 mins, the lentils will be almost cooked.
Now
add couple of lime leaf, 
2 more green chilli finely chopped 
1 tsp of Mustard Oil
and cook for about 5 more minutes.
Adjust for salt.

If I don't have lime leaf, I also add mint leaf to get a mint flavored Musur Dal.

Garnish with finely chopped raw onion, coriander leaves if you have them and a squeeze of lime juice.

Soma Chowdhury's Jhinge Motor Daaler Borar Jhol --- Guest post

This post is a first in many respects.

First, it is a dish which I have never tasted before. I love Motor Daaler Bora and I have done Borar Jhaal but never have I had a Jhinge Motor Daaler Borar Jhol.

Second, this is the first time I have a guest post by a reader on my blog. Usually when a reader sends me a recipe, I try to cook the dish and only then do I post it. Other than that it is only my Mother's and my close friend's recipe(Aditi's Biryani, K's Dal Gosht, T's Tiramisu)  which have been posted as is without any intervention from me. So when Soma sent me this recipe last week I was not sure what I should do.

I definitely wanted to cook it but with my current schedule, I was sure that a "Jhinge" or "Daaler Bora" wasn't going to happen to me soon. The pictures of the jhol attached to the mail were also fabulous and a whisper in my heart or maybe my ears or somewhere said that many a Bangali Poribar, aka Bong Phamily would benefit much with a recipe like this. So I asked Soma if she could write down the recipe post ready for me and sure she send me a doc with a perfect writeup.

So handing over this post to Soma Chowdhury, a reader of this blog,  for her and her only Jhinge Motor Daaler Borar Jhol. She sent me this recipe last week and I have posted it in her exact words.. Do welcome her and remember that all the delicious pictures here are Soma's and copyrighted.

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Last week it was my husband’s birthday and he asked me to make some of his favorites. Jhinge (aka ridge gourd), which was on the list, is unfortunately not one of my most beloved vegetables (although I love most others except this one and kakrol (teasle gourd)). I have tried many times to acquire a taste for these but have failed. As it was, the jhinge-motor daaler borar jhol was on his list and as it was his birthday, I couldn’t refuse.

The jhol (gravy with watery consistency) is very light and delicate and mostly eaten at my in-law’s place during summer months to alleviate the scorching Calcutta heat. The jhinge/ridge gourd supposedly has cooling properties and is easily digestible. It is hard to tolerate spicy and rich food during summer, so people come up with lighter recipes with fewer spices which are easier on the stomach. When I was in India I never thought that I would grow to love cooking, but I do. As I live far away from home, I miss the comfort food cooked by my mom and my mom-in-law. I try to learn the recipes which are very special to both the families. Whenever we eat something which they used to cook, my husband and I share the memories at our dinner table. Day before yesterday when I served the jhinger jhol, he became nostalgic and said “if I close my eyes now, I can feel the dinner table, the summer heat and all of us eating together”. To me that’s a big achievement.

I never thought of sharing this recipe because I do not write a blog. But when I made it, I felt like I should share it with Sandeepa. Being a Bong myself, I like her blog and how she writes about the food, the history behind it, the simple, clean recipes and her sweet sense of humour. I thought she would appreciate such subtle delicacies, and I was right. The moment I emailed her, I got a positive reply. To my surprise, she asked me to write down the recipe with a little story behind it to post it on her blog. I was overjoyed.

As I do not follow exact measurement while cooking, I had to think hard to write down the tea spoon and table spoon measurements. I took the picture in a hurry this morning before coming to work.

So here is the recipe and hope you all will like it.

Jhinge ar motor daaler jhol: ( Ridge gourd with lentil fritters)

Ingredients:

    Split pea lentils/motor daal -- 1& 1/2 cup

    Cornstarch 1tbsp.
    Three medium sized ridge gourd. Peel and cut into 1/12” pieces (cylinder).
    Potato two medium sized (optional), cubed.
    Kalojeere/black cumin seed/kalonji ¼  tsp.
    Green chili 5-7 nos.
    Turmeric ¼ tsp
    Salt to taste
    Mustard oil 1&1/2 tbsp.
    Vegetable oil for deep frying the fritters.


Cooking procedure: 

Soak the washed lentils overnight or minimum 4-6 hours. Grind it to a coarse paste.

Add cornstarch, salt to taste and chopped green chilis. Mix well.

Heat up the vegetable oil, make small balls (a little smaller than a regular lime) with the lentils and deep fry them. Remove the fried balls or bora and soak the excess oil in a paper towel or any absorbent paper.

Heat up the mustard oil. It should be smoking hot. Lower the temperature and then add the kalonji (if the oil is too hot, the kalonji will burn and give a bitter taste). Sauté for few seconds and then add two slit green chilis. Sauté until you can smell the nice aroma of the kalonji and green chilis.

Add the potatoes (if you are using them), sauté for few minutes (don’t fry them) and then add the gourd pieces. Add turmeric, sauté for 2-3 mns. more and then add water.

Cover the pot and let it boil. Cook it on medium flame for several minutes. Uncover and add three more slit green chilis and salt to taste. Let it boil on medium flame for few more minutes until the vegetables are completely cooked. Check the consistency of the jhol (gravy) and taste for salt. It should be a very thin watery consistency but the raw taste of water should be gone by now.

Add the bora/fritters and boil for two more minutes and then turn off the flame. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes and then serve with plain hot rice.

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Similar Recipes:

Borar Jhaal -- A spicy gravy with the lentil fritters

Daal er Bora -- My recipe of Daaler Bora made with Motor + Masoor Dal. Also I have done the bora in an abelskeiver pan with no deep frying

K's Dal-Gosht -- meat cooked with lentils

The last weekend we went visiting a friend whom we have known since donkey's years or whatever years that makes sure that you can sleep in late at their home while the kids are running amock.

Perfect place to sit with a book and a cup of chai

Now we visit them often, taking on a journey of 3hrs ever few months for their house is a haven where I can rest my weary soul and be jealous of other people. But somehow we have never made it during the summer months for one reason or the other. So this year before making any other plan we had set aside this weekend, right at the start of summer for a visit to K, M and M's home. They in turn had guaranteed a resort like retreat for relaxation.

Well, it was way above anything any resort could ever provide.

Other than the hours of adda and amazing good food that came one after another starting from luchi and ending in Thai taking a circuitous route through Ilish and Dal-Gosht in between, there was bird-watching right at their backyard.

Birds from glowing gold-finch to tiny hummingbirds, red cardinals to blue birds all flock their backyard. K and M have many bird feeders hung up and that is what attracts these tiny birds out of thin air. They clearly love all the bird watching and have different kinds of feeds depending on the birds' choice. The American Gold Finch apparently favor Thistle seeds. The hummingbirds prefer sugar water and love red colored feeders. The blue bird is omnivore and prefers insects in its diet. Pheww, picky they are.

I have never been with birds so close before unless we take into account my paternal grandparent's sprawling and old home where birds lived along with humans in a peaceful co-existence. Well by birds I mean mostly "House Sparrows".

They made their nests in the skylight---ghulghuli as we said, laid eggs and ate rice and fish curry off the dining table. It was not totally unnatural to find straws of hay in your charchari as the arduous male sparrow carried raw material to repair his nest. If it was not hay, it was twigs, or a piece of cane from the rocking chair. The male of the species were always flapping wings around the outer verandah appearing to be very busy in one home improvement project or the other.

The female sparrow lived a more relaxed life and I am sure took long naps because many a summer afternoon we would have to sweat out in the sticky heat unable to switch on the ceiling fan because a spoilt sparrow child had chosen that moment to fly across our bedroom in a game of tag. My Thama, who had otherwise accepted the birds as a legacy, would at times get exasperated with the mess they made and get one of those broomsticks with a long handle to shoo the birds away. She never threw away their nests or did anything that would permanently ban their return though. The birds therefore stayed in that house, being neither nurtured nor watched, but living a comfortable life and feasting on fish curry-rice.If I recall I harbored no special feeling towards them. Just like the cats who sat around our feet munching on fish head, or the crows on the banana tree who cawed so deep that it broke the silence of an otherwise sleepy afternoon, the sparrows belonged to that house as did we.

Now, after many years, I watched birds. By Choice. I took my tea and sat out there in the mornings watching those colorful birds, the sophisticated cousins of my once home's "house sparrow". But as is my norm, I did not take my camera along and was not able to capture good pics on the camera. Some of the bird pics are from K from another day.

The food T the K's home as I have said was gorgeous and the Dal-Gosht that K made on Sunday was something I have never had before. Goat meat cooked with chana dal to a softness that is downright sinful, it is a beautiful dish. K said he had followed the recipe from this youtube video. I watched the video and it was pretty simple to follow.

However we do not eat a lot of meat at our home and so I wasn't going to try out this recipe for a while. But it was so good that I thought some of you might be interested.

I therefore decided to post the recipe, roughly as K said which actually religiously follows the You Tube video except for the amount of Oil. Since K's goat meat had fatty pieces he let it cook in its own fat instead of adding too much oil. At least that is what he told me.

Wash and clean about 1.7-2lb(approx one and quarter kg) of goat meat.

Soak 1/2 Cup of Chana Dal in hot water for 2 hour

In a pressure cooker
add goat meat
1 cup warm water
2 tomatoes roughly chopped
1 cups of onion chopped in large chunks
6-8 fat cloves of garlic (half a head of garlic roughly)
1 tsp of Red Chili Powder
1 tsp of Cumin Powder
1/2 tsp of Cumin seeds
1/2 tsp of Turmeric Powder
Salt
Cook the meat for about 4-5 minutes at full pressure.

While the meat is cooking in a mortar ground
1 tsp whole black pepper
1"of whole peeled ginger

Also heat about 3 tbsp of oil and fry 1/2 cup of thinly sliced onion

Once the meat is done open the lid add
the chana dal
about 2 cups of warm water
the ground paste
Close lid and cook for 2 more minutes.
Don't cook too much else the dal will be mushed. Check to see the meat should be cooked by now.

Now do the tadka by adding to above the fried onion and the oil. Mix and let it cook for a couple more minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped coriander leaves

My Methi Dal -- simple rants

**This is my pet rant. Brings out the dying, old feminist in me. While nouveau feminists have more important matters to deal with, me, I love this one. Solves my purpose **

Why is it that we women, educated and enlightened like a Sylvania Laxman 100watt bulb, tell the woman, whose husband loads the dishwasher every night, "You are so very lucky".Can someone please come up and ascribe some luck to the male too.

Why do we assume that just because the husband makes the occasional Sunday breakfast, the wife is a lazy slob who polishes her nails while all other house work gets done magically.

Why do we keep on insisting that the woman whose husband does a fantastic "dal tadka" should actually prostrate and worship the ground her husband walks on ?

Why do we think that it is perfectly natural for the wife to work outside the home, cook, clean, take care of kids and tell her it is really easy for her because her husband can change diapers ?

Why do we think that in the secret of their home the wife surely paints her face and dons a Nazi suit, how else can we explain the husband to remember buying "organic brown eggs" when there is "organic brown eggs" written on the grocery list ?

Why do we women think husbands helping around the house is an anomaly rather than the norm ?

I mean what happened to all that feminism thing and demand for equal work and pay and all that hogwash.

Hey, if we keep applauding and going "awwww" for every guy(in the capacity of a spouse and not your offspring) who manages to bake a cake at home aren't we lowering the standards or something? Where is the motivation if he sees his basic skill set is held at the pinnacle of excellence and he would be the best fit for any lucky woman with an open requisition for husband position ?

Do we even understand that this pulls down the global standard for men helping with housework and there could be serious consequences if we all live beyond 2012 ?

Disclaimer: Any resemblance to characters in real life is purely unintentional. As if.

My Methi Dal is just my regular Dal made magical with Methi Greens(Fenugreek Greens). For more of a star kind of Methi Dal, check this.


Read more...

My Methi Dal

Step 1: Wash part Masoor, part yellow Moong Dal in several changes of water --> put in Pressure Cooker with a pinch of turmeric, a roughly chopped tomato and enough water(water should not overwhelm the dal, very important, copyright Sra) --> cook till dal is done --> roughly mash the dal

Step 2: While Dal is cooking, wash and chop methi greens. I just go snip, snip with my scissors. That is as much patience I can muster.

Step 3: Heat Oil or ghee in a deep, thick bottomed cooking pot. Temper the oil with few cumin seeds, 1 clove of garlic minced and thinly sliced onions. When the onion starts browning, I said browning and NOT burning, so take care. Anyway when it starts getting brown or whatever color deemed fit, add the chopped methi leaves. Saute for a minute and those leaves will start wilting.

Step 4: Add the cooked dal and saute for couple of minutes. Add salt and sugar to adjust. Add some slit green chili if you are that kind. Now add the dal water or if no dal water regular water.

Step 5: Bring to a boil and adjust the consistency. Squeeze lime juice to finish off.

Step 6: Serve with rice, ghee and aloo methi.

Step 7: Experience Bliss.

Dal with Beet Greens

Little Sis aka LS is a funny creature. She is the kind you would like to have at the other table at the fancy restaurant. The kind who will stick her tongue out at you, climb up and down the high chair, throw forks around, throw folks around and make you silently gloat on your own parenting skills. When she starts yelling you can pay your tip and leave.

I cannot leave however. I am the Mother. I have to grab her by the nape while I shovel Pad Thai down mine. I have to constantly remind her that throwing a plate(thankfully it was a copper or some metallic kind) around is not acceptable behavior, that she cannot pull tablecloths or poke ac vents.

People@Home think I am too soft with her. But trust me I am not. Ok, maybe I have lost the steam to discipline since Big Sis aka BS but even then I am not soft. It is just that LS is like that, naughty and funny and always on her toes.

Now BS is the quieter one, she doesn't scold her little sis when LS shouts "My Turn" ever so often, doesn't utter a word when LS takes away her crayons, lets her lick her ice cream and only sometimes complains that LS scratched her arms.

LS never complains. If needed she throws herself on the floor albeit carefully and expresses her anger. She plays mostly with BS's friends and uses her limited English editions of "Hello", "How are You Doing", "No, don't" and "My Turn". After that she just continues in Bengali. She figures her way around them, relying totally on BS for help and ignoring any grown up interference.

A couple months back when we were at Orlando, she shook hands with Mickey and told him a lot of stuff including "Hello", "How are you doing". Unfortunately Mickey did not understand a word. Since then she has a Mickey fixation. So she is the kid you can hear yelling "Mickey", "Mickey" at the library or the mall or anywhere the familiar mouse is visible.

She is the one with parents sporting an embarrassed look.

Next time when you hear a kid in the flight protesting to wear the sea belt, when you see a kid who is practicing target with forks and peas at the restaurant, when you hear a kid whose excited voice drowns the silence in the library please, please DO NOT blame the parents.

Think of LS. Some kids are "like that wonly".

Now to the Dal cooked with a bunch of beet greens. This again is my Ma's dish. Since we usually get a bunch of beet for LS, Ma uses the greens in this Dal and it has become a family favorite. You can work around with the spices and the type of Dal. I have always, always cooked this with only Masoor--Red Lentils but I have a hunch that this will go beautifully with Toor too.


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Dal with Beet Greens

Wash and cook Masoor Dal(Red Lentils) with enough water and little turmeric. I usually do it in the pressure cooker. I had about 4 cups of Cooked Dal. My dal was cooked rather thick, usually it should be more liquid.

Chop the Beet Greens. I had one bunch of it.

Heat 3-4 tsp of Oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Temper the oil with 1 small Bay Leaf, 4 cardamom, 4 clove and 1" thin stick of cinnamon

Add 2 cloves of garlic finely minced, followed soon by almost 1 &1/2 -- 2 cups of chopped onion. Fry the onion till it is soft and translucent.

Add the chopped Beet Greens. Fry the greens till there is no raw smell of the greens. If they tend to stick to the bottom of the pan, sprinkle water and scrape and fry.

Add about 1/4 tsp of Garam Masala powder if you wish and 1 more tsp of oil. Fry for couple more minutes

Now add the cooked dal. Do this gradually, sauteing the dal along with the greens so that they mix thoroughly

Now add water about 3-4 cups of it. Add salt and sugar to taste. Add chili powder to taste. Let the Dal simmer till it comes to a boil. Mix thoroughly. Switch off and squeeze a quarter lime juice into the Dal. Serve with rice or Roti or just by itself.

Moroccan Lentil & Carrot Soup -- Indianized

Sometimes I feel I am the right parent at the wrong age or maybe the wrong parent at the right age. At least never the right parent at the right age.

I am so archaic in comparison to the new age hip parents that sometimes I feel I should have paid heed to the ever well wishing relatives, you know the ones who wanted me to get married young and have kids early and keep a fast every alternate Saturday. If I had my kids really really early, early as in right after ummm high school, I might have aimed for grand kids now and then I could at least be the cool grandma instead of the uncool Mom.

Why did such wisdom dawn so late, you might ask. Well because it was only last week that I came to know of TogetherVille, a social networking site for kids under 10. I didn't even know the terms "social networking" and "kids under 10" can be uttered in the same breath.But apparently teeny-tiny kids need a social network and right after school these teeny-weeny kids need to jump onto the internet to connect to friends over the internet and discuss social life and maybe exchange vacation photos and show off Dad's new Mercedes. It is all very safe and protected and Moms/Dads who need to be on FB for their kids to be on Togetherville are raving about it.

Me? I said, I am old. I think the best way for my kid to "social network" is hop across to a friend's place. Naturally, by just going out of the door and knocking on the neighbor's door if you have a neighbor like mine or premeditated, with some effort on the parent's part, by setting up a time&date for play with friends not exactly next door. But definitely NOT online.

I think kids need to play with friends in real, they need to just go and get some un-organized play, not necessarily a sport, in a jumping-hopping-little pushing-running way. That is how they connect if needed after school, where I am guessing a lot of "social mingling" should get done.

But why would a 6 or a 7 or a 8 year old need to connect to someone, anyone ONLINE ? For the life of me, I am unable to understand this whole Togetherville thing. How uncool of me. How deprived my kids are. And on top of this I make them eat Moroccan Carrot Soup. Yikes !!!

And honestly I have nothing against Mark Zuckenburg or Mandeep Dhillon or Pope Benedict except admiration and a tad envy. I even think Zuckenburg is cute if anyone is hearing.

We have a big bunch of carrots at home, thanks to organic carrots becoming easily available in our price club. This time it was too much though, way too much carrots to anyone's liking. So, I decided to make a carrot soup and most sounded like bleah until I chanced upon this one. The "Moroccan" did it for me. I also added some Lentils, because I love them. I love lentils so much that if given a free reign I will put them in pretty much everything, even dessert. Ok not dessert because I love my dessert more dearly than the lentil.

I also added Garam Masala and Green Chili and did everything to make it the most Indian Moroccan Carrot lentil Soup ever.Morocco are you listening, next time please can you include Garam masala and Green Chili and some Paanch Phoron in your cuisine ? Please, pretty please, I love your food.


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Adapted from this recipe

Moroccan Carrot & Lentil Soup

Heat 1 tbsp of Olive Oil

Add 1 cup of finely chopped red onions and saute till they are soft. Add 2-3 cloves of garlic minced

Add 2 cups of thick slices of carrot and saute till the carrots start browning a wee bit.

Add about 3 tomatoes from a can of whole peeled tomatoes or use 2 medium fresh juicy tomatoes chopped. Saute the tomatoes till they are mushed up and there is no raw smell.

Wash and add 1 cup of brown lentils. Mix everything well together and add about 3-4 cups of water.

Add about 1 tsp of Garam Masala Powder, salt to taste and cover and cook.

In 20-25 minutes the lentils and carrots should be done. Add 1 tsp of honey and mix well. Adjust for seasonings.

Cool and puree in a blender with 2 green chili. Ok, chili is optional. When you puree, save 1/4 of the soup sans the carrots in the pot. Put back the blended soup back in the pot and simmer at low heat.

Dry roast 1 tsp of cumin in a skillet till fragrant and grind to a fine powder. Add this roasted cumin powder and 1 tsp of Paprika to the blended soup. You can add 1 tsp of Lime Juice if you want, I didn't.

Ladle the soup in bowls and serve the soup with a dollop of yogurt.

For a carby version, tear a slice of wheat bread and toss with olive oil, roughly chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Toast in the oven till crisp. Dunk in the soup.

Bora'r Jhaal/Jhol/whatever -- Lentil Fritters in gravy

So here is the answer to the big question "What I did with the Daler Bora"

A couple weeks back my Ma made a borar jhol which was just too good. It was so good that I could not stop eating it. When Ma is here, I don't ask for recipes and then lament loss of those recipes only when she leaves. So any way this bora'r jhol that she made was a light soupy gravy with potatoes and brinjal and the recipe sounded like this Macher Jhol except of course this had no Fish but Lentil Fritters.

Did I say it tasted awesome ? I did ?
Ok, so is that how I made this dish ? No. Of course not.I have ADD, I cannot follow instructions.

Last weekend morning the entire family was out on errands and me & BS were the only one home. Not because we have the laziest bones in the whole family but because I had to take BS for her swim class later in the day. Having some time to myself I experimented with the Appe Pan and made those daler bora. Yeah , there are full grown adults(like the husband) in my house who interfere with sagely advices when I cook so I need to save all experimentation for such times.

After I made those tiny boras, I decided to make a Bora'r Jhaal, the stress is on the word Jhaal here as Jhaal is different from Jhol.

I had no idea about making a jhaal. Does that deter me ? No. Of course not. I have a hypothetical confidence in my abilities syndrome.

So I heated up some Oil. Once the oil was hot and fiery, added a tsp of Nigella Seeds/Kalonji and 3-4 slit green chili.
The spices started popping and I added quarter of a red onion chopped fine.
When the onions started browning, in went half of a red juicy medium sized tomato chopped fine.
A tsp of ginger paste followed suit
The tomato was stirred and cooked till it was mush. Satisfied by the tomato's final looks, I threw in a potato chopped longitudinally. Don't know why I say "longitudinally", actually chopped in quarters would do just fine. A pinch of turmeric and frying the potatoes for 2-3 minutes till they were golden ensued.
Now the spices went in, a tsp of Corriander Powder, 1/2 tsp of Cumin powder and 1/2 tsp of red chili Powder was all that I added.
Everything mixed together with a sprinkle of water and sauted for the next 2-3 minutes till the masala seems you know cooked.
Add about 1 cup of water, salt to taste and cover and cook till potatoes are done.
Once the potatoes are cooked add the bora/lentil fritters, about 12-14 of them and let them simmer in the gravy for 3-4 minutes.
The fritters will soak up the gravy fast and become plump, so you might want to remove them from the gravy and add back only at time of serving.

So this is how I made the borar jhaal, put it in the serving dish, making a mental note that I should increase the gravy a little since the boras had soaked up most of the liquid and took BS out for her class. Before leaving I told Ma, who had just come in that I had made a Borar Jhaal for lunch.

An hour and half later, sitting down for lunch, the dish that I had cooked that very morning, my borar jhaal looked very different from what I had last seen of it. Not only did it look different, it also tasted very different from the dish that I had cooked. It tasted very very good, but different, different from my vision of borar jhaal.

"Did you do something to this dish?", I asked my Mom

"Hyaan, tui to bolli jhaal, oita jhaal hoini, ami sorshe bata diye ar ek bar photalam" (You said it was a jhaal, that was no jhaal, jhaal has to have mustard paste so I added mustard paste and gave it a good simmer) she said, nonchalantly.

"But I wanted to put it in the blog, how much mustard paste did you add", I wailed.

"Ta jani na, oi ek chamoch hobey"(I am not sure, maybe one spoon), my Ma replied

"What spoon, teaspoon or tablespoon?", I continued grilling, trying to think what my blog readers with their critique remarks would say to that.

"Kichu ekta likhe de to, blog, blog korish na"(Write something, anything and don't nag me about your stupid blog), she was now visibly irritated at the offspring's ignorance and did not encourage any further questions. Ok, she did not say "stupid" either but you could sense it.

So for a jhaal you need to add mustard paste, maybe a tsp of mustard paste would suffice for this quantity. I honestly do not know. My Mom might have put in other things too. If you don't know my Mom, go ahead skip the mustard, but never ever tell her that.

Daler Bora -- Lentil fritters

Daler Bora -- Lentil Fritters

Has anyone been following "Along the Grand Trunk Road" on NPR ? It was last week that I heard first of the series when Philip Reeves started out on his journey from Calcutta and spent a good few hours searching for the start of the road, with a banter typical of Calcutta on the background.

For a route of such enormous historical stature, the Grand Trunk Road makes a surprisingly modest start to its journey across the breadth of northern India, through Pakistan to the Hindu Kush.

Maps suggest that the road sprouts out of the heart of India's great eastern city, Calcutta (also known as Kolkata), not far from the banks of the mighty Hooghly River, a distributary of the Ganges.

But if you go there -- as NPR did, at the outset of our trip along this ancient highway -- the starting point is not particularly easy to find.

Residents of Calcutta love nothing better than a good debate; the city's famous for its militant left-wing political activism.

Stop in the street and ask local residents where the road begins, and they will happily launch into a lengthy argument on the subject.

We were finally directed to a large banyan tree, beside a railway crossing, where a small throng of truck drivers were sitting in the shade, drinking tea out of clay cups, and playing cards. There was a consensus among the drivers that we had found the right place -- the spot where the Grand Trunk Road began during British colonial rule when Calcutta was the imperial capital.

I couldn't follow the series on the air waves thereafter but I am reading it on their site.

On May 14, NPR was at the city of Aligarh along the G.T Road and they threw a very pertinent question. In India, Can Schools offer a path out of Poverty ? Millions of Indians definitely think so and education is highly rated amongst the mass but the Government obviously thinks otherwise and very little thought is given to public education.

India has some stellar educational institutions. The government-supported Indian Institutes of Technology churn out thousands of world-class engineers every year.

The fields of medicine and business have similar elite colleges. Hundreds of thousands more young men and women graduate from colleges and universities just a rung or two below in terms of excellence.

Yet as students toil in classrooms and coaching centers, desperate to get into these elite institutes, even larger numbers of Indian youths barely get a start. Last year, UNICEF estimated that about 8 million Indian children between the ages of 6 and 14 were not in school.

And those that do attend are educated at government-run primary schools like the one in Nandpur Pala, a village just outside the city of Aligarh on the Grand Trunk Road. We visited the school as part of NPR's series of stories on the lives of people living along the route that crosses India and Pakistan

Isn't that so true ? In a country where education holds such high esteem, it seems abstruse that literacy rate is so low . And even getting a primary education when you can modestly afford it, is not easy either.

The other day someone in the family who lives in the technology hub in the southern part of India was discussing the lengths they had to go to get their two year old admitted to a reputed school. The reputed school is one of the few which do not demand huge sums of donation and so has a stringent entry policy. The two year old was interviewed by a posse of 4 teachers to be admitted into what but a 2 hours play class.

I am sure my kids would be illiterate if they were in present day India.No way would I allow 2 year olds be asked questions on color, creed, alphabet or animals. Yeah, I might grill them on such things but not any stranger throwing such stuff at innocent minds, thank you.

Follow the series here, I am sure there will be some very nice moments along the road.

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There is nothing great about Daler Bora or Lentil fritters. Every cuisine has its own version of it. Simple delights to tide you on rough days.

What is different about today's dal bora is how I made them, using a strange contraption that looks like an instrument used by aliens in 6000BC and later excavated from Harappa. It was this, this and this and this that played a major role in me ordering this strange stuff for only $10 on the internet. Yeah, they sell such relics from the past on the internet and call it Dutch with a still stranger name, ebelskeiver pan.

You would think there is a link between the Dravidians and the Dutch, yeah more similarity than the "D", for this same Ebelskeiver pan is popular in Southern India as the Appe pan or the Paniyaram Pan( a staple in the South Indian kitchen as my friend indosungod says).

I had never ever heard or seen such a thing in all my life in India and so though I bought it in December, it sat uptight and conscious waiting to be of any service.. And then this gave me the push and since then I have been on a roll. I have made pakodis and fritters and all kind of fried stuff that I would normally not make much.

With this pan my oil usage was way less. I did not have to heat a whole lot of oil for frying only to be thrown out after use. Also my pakodis/ boras/fritters were tiny and cute which meant we could eat more of them thinking we were doing portion control.

This time it was the very Bangali Dal er Bora made in the Southie Appe Pan, something like Mani Ratnam making a Tollywood(Bengal's Holywood) movie.


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Daler Bora/Lentil Fritters

Soak 1/2 cup of Matar Dal(split peas) & 1/2 cup of red Masoor Dal in water for half an hour. If you want only Musur Dal er bora, You can increase the masoor and decrease the Matar till Matar Dal becomes 0 cup. If you don't have matar dal use chana dal.

In the blender add

the soaked lentils
1" piece of peeled and chopped ginger
3-4 green chili
1/2 cup of water

and make a smooth paste.

Add salt to taste to this paste. If you wish add 1 tsp of roasted cumin powder . Since I was making niramish bora I did not add any onions. Ok to tell the truth I forgot and decided it was a niramish bora. But you can add 1/2 of an onion chopped fine.

As a reader "khabarpagol" says in the comments, finely chopped corriander leaves and a few nigella seeds in the batter makes the bora tastier. So go ahead and add that.

Beat the lentil paste with a fork till everything is well mixed up.

Now add oil to each of the round slots of the ebelskeiver pan and heat. Since my pan is cast iron, I add a little more oil(about 2tsp oil in each slot) for the first batch. For the next batch, I just add drops of oil along the edges.

Add a spoonful of lentil paste in each of those dark crevices and see the oil merrily bubbling around. Keep the heat at low medium. Once one side is golden brown with the help of a fork, a spoon or a skewer turn the other side and cook till both sides are brown and crisp.


If you do not have this pan, don't fret, you can always fry this the regular way.

Tomorrow I will tell you what I did with these daler bora or fritters, other than eating them just like that of course.

Dhokar Dalna -- a lesson in Lentil Cakes

Spiced Lentil Cakes in a gravy

I am a lot like Big Sis S(BSS) or is it the other way round ? Whatever it is we both try to avoid things that are hard. Force us in a difficult situation and we will be fine coping with it and coming out stronger but given a choice we will try to avoid the difficult route.

Take BSS. She started Piano lessons some time last year. She loved it, practiced with diligence, sailed through her lessons as if she was a musical genius and played at the drop of a hat. Things started changing couple of weeks back. She started giving excuses around practice time, musical enthusiasm hit all time low and a marked drop in excitement on lesson days was noticed. A talk with her Piano teacher revealed what I already knew. Lessons had gotten harder and as Little Miss BSS was not able to sail through them as easily as on a cloud, she was no longer as enthusiastic about them.

We had a little talk, that kind of thing comes easy to me, I love it when I am at the giving end of such talks. Things seems to be better now, it is not that hard to motivate a 6 year old after all.

Take Me next. Dhokar Dalna, the master piece of Bengali Cuisine has eluded me all these years. I love Dhokar Dalna, to eat that is, to cook, I always dismissed it as "too difficult". Ok, I think I did it just once but that just reinforced my belief that it took too much time and oil to be deemed worth repeatable in my kitchen. However BSS's example triggered me. If that little girl could go back and do her "Lets Rock" or whatever sheet music several times over, I could at least try Dhokar Dalna once more.

So I made it today, I wouldn't say total success, there are these small nuances that need to be taken care of next time. I am yet to get the right texture for the lentil paste to make the cakes and some of my dhokas or lentil cakes were cracking which shouldn't happen. But I think I did conquer my fear. After all my three decades and more of existence has taught me that "Done is better than perfect"(quoted from Scott Allen), at least some times.

Dhokar Dalna, is one of the pillars of Niramish(Vegetarian) Bengali Cuisine, just like Shukto. The lightly spiced lentil cakes or dhoka are fried and then simmered in a gravy made with tomatoes and ginger, spiced with cumin and coriander. This dish traditionally is a purely satvik dish, sans any onion or garlic like most Bengali Niramish(vegetarian) dishes. Bengali widows were not allowed to eat onion or garlic and the Bengali vegetarian cuisine is mostly their contribution, that explains why it is satvik.

The dhokas are such a delight and the gravy is so fragrant that you wouldn't even miss onion or garlic in here. Enjoyed best with plain white rice, the dhoka sure brings joy, though it actually means "to cheat".

Get this recipe in my Book coming out soon. Check this blog for further updates. 

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Dhokar Dalna

To Make the Dhoka or the Lentil Cakes

Soak 1& 1/2 cup of Cholar Dal/Chana Dal/Bengal Gram in water overnight

Drain the water and grind
the lentils + 6 green chili + little salt
to a fine paste. Add little water as required for grinding

Heat Oil in a Kadhai/Frying Pan. Temper the Oil with
3/4 tsp of Whole Cumin seeds/Jeera,
a pinch of Asafoetida/Hing,
1/2 tsp of sugar,
and 1& 1/2 tsp of Ginger paste.

Add the lentil paste/ground dal to this and cook until the mix comes off the sides clean. The dal should be cooked so that is moist and soft but not runny or hard. Note: This step is really tricky.You need to stir vigorously else the paste will stick to the sides and you need to be careful to remove the moisture without making it hard. Add little oil as needed to avoid sticking.

Smear a flat plate with oil and pour the soft dal mix on this. While it is warm, pat lightly with your hands to form a flat, slightly raised round structure

With a knife make squares or diamond shapes

Heat some more Oil and fry the lentil cakes till golden brown on both sides. Take care that they do not break

To Make the Gravy

Heat Oil in a Kadhai or any other thick bottomed pan

Fry 1 potato chopped in eights till golden, remove and keep aside.

Temper the Oil with
2 small Bay leaf/Tej Patta,
3/4 tsp of Cumin Seeds/Jeera
and a pinch of Asafoetida/Hing

Add 1 tomato finely chopped and 1 tsp of freshly grated ginger. Saute till tomato is reduced to a pulp and there is no raw smell.

In 1 tsp of Yogurt, mix
1/2 tsp of Corriander Powder, 1/2 tsp of Roasted cumin Powder(or Regular Cumin Powder) 1/2 tsp of Red Chili Powder
and a little turmeric to make a fine paste.
Add this paste to the Kadhai. and fry the masala at low heat.

Add the potatoes and about 1&1/2 cups of water. Add salt to taste and cover and cook till potatoes are done.

Adjust for any seasonings, add a little sugar. Add about 1/4 tsp of Garam Masala and 1/2 tsp of Ghee and gently mix.Now gently slide in the pieces of dhoka or the fried lentil cakes. Simmer for couple of minutes to let the dhoka soak up the gravy. Note:If like mine some of your dhokas are cracking do not add them to the gravy, rather place them on the serving dish and pour the gravy on them.

Serve with hot white rice.


Other Dhoka Dalna around the Blogosphere with little variations:

Dhokar Dalna but with onion and garlic -- from One Hot Stove

Dhokar Dalna from Ahaar

Dhokar Dalna from SJ

Indrani's Dhokar Dalna

Sudeshna's Dhokar Dalna