Delicious Daals...Simple to cook..

Most Indians relish their Daals or Lentil curries in a big way! Surprisingly, the way water and language change with every five miles in India..so does tastes and flavours of food, even if ingredients might be same or similar. As You love your 'Daal' in its simplicity or complexity, I propose to give you recipes of all your daals, which you can make in a jiffy, in that pressure cooker of yours!
The healthiest and purest daal is the 'Masoor'.

The easiest recipe for a delicious masoor Ki Daal is to take 1/2 cup/katori of dal, washed, add 2.5 cups of water, salt and 1/4 tsp turmeric powder and pressure cook. Variation is to add chopped tomatoes, if you want a thick tangy daal. The masoor dal can be seasoned with 'rai' in a bit of ghee or 'mustard oil' with red or green chillies, or can be eaten with just a teaspoon of hot spluttering ghee. As you love eating hot steamy rice with plain masoor dal, you can always add washed and scrubbed potatoes in the daal, to boil it together with the daal! Thats called killing two birds with one stone :) Now you can enjoy rice, daal and boiled potatoes or chokha!!!!

Tips for an Indian Foodie Kid Abroad

When we are on home turf, we take the daily bread and butter, the daal-chaval, the roti-paratha quite for granted. We only realise the 'beauty' and the 'necessity' of the 'home food' when we suddenly are deprived of it. In my case, it has not YET happened. But as my little...errr...I mean 'BIG' girl goes to UK, to a place called Pontipridd ( yes it does remind of Ponti Chaddha), I get an unusual request ( read demand) from the same girl...' Mumma, please write me all your recipes...especially the ones typically Indian...or rather Bihari). As they say, 'Harry' will always remain a 'Harry!!

So I decided to create a blog for my daughter, Anjari, of delicious, simple recipes from her "home turf", with a lot of tips and 'tippani' which I hope will come handy to her.

The first TIP comes here!
The moment you have your own kitchen which you are able to manage, there are a few things that are "must haves" there.
1. The 'Oh So IMP' pressure Cooker. This will be helpful to make that fluffy rice, boil those cuddly potatoes( cuddly like you) and also make those delicious 'daals'. besides that you can make any and every type of "vegetable' stews and curries in the cooker.
2. A Few Masalas are a must. If you want to relish all 'Hindustani cuisine' in its true flavour, PLEASE have a packet of turmeric, red chilli and garam masala powder. rest can go outta wind! But if you wanna go in the detailing...buy some amchoor, dhania, and some seeds like jeera, sarso, and tejpatta. You can even chuck all this too...
3. OIL. Although lately I've learnt the art of using extra virgin oil, and sunflower oil, or rice bran oil...I will give one tip. If you want to have that "Bihari" zing to your "Alu Bhujia" or " Masoor daal" buy a can of mustard oil. A small can of Ghee too will be helpful later for pullao or anything that you start experimenting, once you are a real homebody!

So for the first lesson...these three tips!

Now for the FIRST RECIPE OF THE DAY!!!

ALU BHUJIA

Ingredients:
Finely sliced potatoes with jackets ( chhilka), washed thoroughly
1/2 Tsp Paanch Foran
1.5 Tblsp Ginger garlic Paste
3-4 Tblsp Mustard Oil
1/2 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Tsp Turmeric Powder
Salt To Taste

Process:-
In a deep bottomed pan/wok, heat mustard oil to smoking point, add the panch foran, once it splutters, put the sliced potatoes, and stir once, immediately sprinkle ginger garlic paste and stir again. Now add remaining spices, except salt and stir well and lower the flame a bit. Keep stirring after every 2 minutes, spreading the bhujia evenly around the wok, so that they get crispy-soft. In the end, when its shrunk, add salt to taste and stir again. Once the bhujia turns golden brown, slightly crispy ( you can have it soft, if you want, for that cover the pan, the steam will make it soft), and looks cooked, shut the stove and cook the bhujia. Eat with "hot steamed rice", "daal" or with paratha...or even with bread!