It had been long since

Life is pretty busy nowadays

Waiting for the summer vacation…Darn……finding it hard to pen down my thoughts today. So many of thoughts arising and then dwindling in my mind..at times I wonder what to share with you all and what to hold back. There had been plenty of things going around but when I sit here to write, nothing clicks ..Sigh..the Irony of life !

Never mind, lets talk about the recipe then, for , that’s what you are here for , No? For today, lets save each one of you from those yakety yak talks of mine, and lets just head over to the Recipe of the day..Patta Gobi-Chana dal.

Now that Summer is officially here in Mumbai , its going to be hard to stay in kitchen for long durations. Summers to me, mean mangoes, Aam Paana, Jaljeera, Kulfi, Watermelons, Cucumbers, Buttermilk, Dahi/curd/yogurt, Quick stir-fries, Khichdee ..basically everything simple and less-spicy. Anything that is easy to cook and easy to digest. And this patta gobi-chanadal combination is one such recipe for sure. Just serve it with roti or Khichdi, some curd/yogurt and you have one hearty meal ! BTW what does summers means to you?

Ingredients:

• 1 Medium size Leafy Head of cabbage
• 1/2 cup Chana dal( Bengal gram )
• 2-3 Green chillies  (Adjust as per taste)
• Ginger 1 ” piece, finely chopped
• 2 small tomatoes
• 5-7 Curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• Salt as per taste
• 2 tsp oil(or less if cooking in nonstick ware)
• Coriander leaves for garnishing
• 1/4 tsp of Pavbhaji Masala (optional..just in case you need that KICK)

Method:

• Rinse the cabbage head thoroughly, drain excess water and slice or chop it .
• Pick, rinse with water several times and soak Chana dal for 20 minutes and boil it with some salt , water and turmeric powder till just cooked.Do not let it overcook or get mushy.Boiling in pressure cooker till one whistle is heard, is fine if you have soaked it well. If bit undercooked, just let it cook further with cabbage.
• In a pan or Kadhai, add 2 tsp of oil, add curry leaves and mustard seeds, and allow it to splutter. Add sliced/chopped, cabbage and stir it nicely.
• Keep stirring  on high flame till cabbage changes a bit of colour. Add chopped tomatoes, green chillies, ginger, salt , turmeric powder and coriander powder and mix properly.
• Lower the flame, add a spoonful or two of water if the mixture tends to stick to bottom of pan.Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook till tomatoes are done and the raw smell of cabbage is gone.
• Add boiled chanadal and continue to cook on low flame , covering the mixture with a lid, till all the flavors are mixed nicely.You can add pavbhaji masala along with chanadal. Sprinkle some water if needed.Cook for 3-4 minutes on lowest flame
• Garnish with coriander leaves, and serve with Roti/chapati/phulka/rice/Khichdee , along with some dahi/ buttermilk, salad etc to fight those summer blues !
  

Seyal Phulka

Spring announced its arrival, winter bid adieu, and summer is almost knocking at the doors. Holi(Indian Festival of colours ) is just few days away, and I am as usual grumpy and lethargic. No changes in  SEASON of my MOOD. The diet regime  seems to be improper, leaving me dull and tired whole day. I need to breakup my meals into more sensible way and include some more antioxidants and proteins too.

Of late we had been socializing more, that ends up in many unwanted calories in the body and the fight to get rid of those extra calories is proving to be strenuous.

On the whole, I am literally dragging myself to the daily grind, day after day. I am still researching( Highly dependent on  Google for that) on consumption of protein shakes before work outs in Gym.Till now, I  haven’t reached to any conclusion since there seems to be a lot of difference of opinion amongst people. Do you have any first hand information on that? Do share that with me please. I do not want lethargy to be an excuse for not working out

Coming to Recipe of the day, it has nothing to do with diet food or wonder milkshakes. Instead it has got something to do with leftovers..yeah, leftover rotis/phulkas. This is one very popular way of cooking with some leftover rotis , turning those into tangy, spicy morsels . And its so simple to cook, with just few basic ingredients.

Seyal Phulka

Ingredients:

• 4 Leftover Rotis (atleast one meal stale)
• 2 Green chillies chopped(adjust as per taste)
• 2 small Tomatoes, grated
• Some Curry leaves
• 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
• 4 Cloves of garlic
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• Handful of  Coriander leaves
• Salt as per taste
• 1 tsp oil
• 11/2  cup or more of water(Explained below)

Method :

• In a kadai or frying pan, take 1 tsp of oil, heat it, add  chopped garlic, saute till it changes colour, add curry leaves and mustard seeds and let the seeds splutter.
• Quickly add  grated tomatoes, chillies, salt , turmeric and coriander powder and fry on high heat till the raw smell of tomatoes go away.
• Add about a cup and half or more of water. Depending upon how OLD are your Rotis, the quantity of water required differs.The more stale (please do not use rotis more than a day old, that too if you have stored it well) )  and stiff the rotis, the more amount of water required.The softer and fresh the rotis, lesser the water quantity.
• As soon as the mixture starts bubbling, torn off the rotis into bite size pieces, and add to the boiling mixture.
• Add coriander leaves and let it cook on medium to low flame.Go with your instincts as you watch the pieces of rotis, get dunked into water.If you feel that there isnt enough water in curry to soften the chapati, just cook the mixture on lowest flame, with lid put on the pan.
• Cook till all the water is dried up .Garnish with some more coriander and a drizzle of freshly squeezed lemon juice adds the holy tang to the yummy and easy to cook Seyal phulka.Enjoy !

Other Related  Recipes:

Seyal Pao

Seyal Bhaji

Food blogging is Hazardous. Yeah, what else will you call an obsession when all you can think of, is cooking food (mind you..cooking and not eating..for the eating part, a blogger keeps  hunting for a  scapegoat ) all day long, and many times in your dreams too.

A recipe request by a reader of your blog , in you mail Inbox, could leave you researching various resources till you find that perfect recipe to share . After cooking ,comes Clicking sessions, wherein you not only test your photography skills, but also your family’s patience, as the poor souls wait for their turn to assail that tempting looking food(yeah at times food looks and tastes good too..Why the doubts?) , while you are busy with your acrobatics trying to click the picture with hundreds of angles.

Your family feels sick of your failed attempts in kitchen and in my case, Hubby dear and kid, stare at me, when after my storming session in kitchen , in attempt to make some exotic recipe , all they could see is overcooked/undercooked/ charred/ bland/over spicy/ not so good( ok..Yuck) food. Their dilemma  of  ” To eat or not to eat” is so obvious to capture in their horrified looks  and you feel so helpless when after all that, the only options remaining are “Home delivery” or “Eating out”..sigh !

The passion leaves you not only cooking more but stocking more too (In pantry, in refrigerator and of course in your body as fats). Interacting with bloggers , talking about International and National , local and exotic cuisines, end up  with you purchasing more food stuff than required. Above that, the mushrooming malls in vicinity spoil you with loads of choices to fill your shopping cart, and empty your wallets.

As a result, the refrigerator is overstuffed with tons of varieties of flours, the ever- flowing- in -vegetables, nuts, corns, mushrooms, breads, herbs and so on so forth.My situation is not different from Dhivya of Chefinyou who expresses her plight funnily with this quote “What can I do if my stocking talents are better than my expending?..lol.

But at times, I do feel enough is enough and that I need to give my passion of  cooking  a well deserved break ( and that happens quite frequently, say ..every weekend ). That gives break to the grocery shopping too, until I go out of stock of  vegetable supplies  and then keep wondering what to cook in absence of fresh vegetables.

At such times of distress, simple but healthy and filling food is all what I look around for.And Dal sandwich( Dal toast) is one such option.

I had already posted its recipe. So why again you may ask, right? Well it was supposed to be for the Repost Event but I missed the deadline(Darn !). But then, I can still go ahead and share it with you , after all I clicked fresh pics for the same, so can’t afford to trash it

So here comes Dal sandwich, a very popular street food of Sindhis. The recipe is inspired by that of a  famous Eatout, called Shankar Dalwaala, though not yummm as his, but still good enough to gobble.

Ingredients:

For Dal:

• 1 cup Moong daal(Dehusked, Yellow split moong beans) enough for 2 sandwiches
• Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp or bit less.
• Salt as per taste

For tempering:

• 1 tsp Oil/Ghee
• Few pinches of Garam masala powder
• Less than 1/4 tsp of Red chilly powder
• 1/2 tsp of Coriander powder

For Sandwich:

• Bread slices (2 for each toast).I used Brown Bread, but you can go ahead with white too.
• Butter
• Boiled potato 1
• Boiled beetroot 1
• Tomato 1
• Onion and/or cucumber 1
• Mint coriander chutney
• Salt just for sprinkling

For Garnishing:

• Black pepper powder
• Chaat masala
• Red chilly powder
• Coriander powder
• Sev or farsan of choice
• Coriander leaves
• Tomato Ketchup (optional)

Method:

• Pick, rinse several times and soak  yellow moong daal for 15-30 minutes.
• Boil it with enough water, salt and turmeric powder till cooked.
• Whisk it properly , add more water if required , but the consistency of dal should be thick.
• Temper it with  a spoonful of hot ghee to which redchilly powder and coriander powder is added. Add garam masala after removing the tempering from heat, just before adding to the dal.Simmer on low flame and make sure the dal is piping hot when you serve the sandwich.
• Peel and cut in round slices, boiled potato, Beetroot and also onion and cucumber.
• Chop some of boiled potato ,beetroot,onion,tomato and sprinkle some salt, coriander powder, red chilly powder, coriander leaves .Reserve these for Garnishing Sandwich.
• Now take a bread slice, apply some butter , place slices of boiled potato, boiled beetroot, tomato and onion/cucumber.
• Take another slice apply some chutney on it and place at the top of previous slice.
• Now heat the griddle , put some oil or butter/Ghee  and roast the sandwich on medium flame till slightly brown in color.

• Place the sandwich on a serving plate,cut it into pieces,top it up with few spoons of daal, sprinkle some chaat masala, black pepper powder, red chilly powder, some chutney, tomato ketchup(optional), some of the chopped mixture of beetroot, tomato, potato, onion and finally farsan or sev.
• Serve immediately.

The Year 2009 was surely a year of many events, good and bad. Much happened in past few months, when I was not Blogging here. Besides celebrating a contest Win (Click Photography event for Most Delish Picture- Gulabjamun ), our Kid’s Birthday, our Marriage Anniversary,  an engagement Ceremony of a dear Family member, the year end brought us close to one more occasion to celebrate, as soon as we stepped in year 2010.

Yeah Sindhi Rasoi, turned Two…What a feeling !

I still remember last year when we were Celebrating the first Birthday of this beloved Blog of mine, I was overwhelmed by so many wishes, pouring in.This year  I was preparing to celebrate the Day with something exciting and pleasant. But trust Life to give surprises! In my attempt to Renovate my Virtual Kitchen(Sindhi Rasoi), days passed into weeks  and weeks into months. I kept struggling with various LOOKS for my blog, messed up with many THEMES, wasted hours in learning basics of codes and all, but at the end , Hubby dear took the charge, helped me out in fixing bugs, tweaking the look (of blog ofcourse)  and finally we are here, though late, but raring to go , to mark the Second Birthday of Sindhi Rasoi…Three cheers for us !

Coming to recipe part, it has to be something special isn’t it? Well there you go ! A Spread of Jeera Rice, Chana paalak, Mushrooms in Red gravy, Fry (Tadka) Dal, along with usual Raita, Salad, Mint coriander chutney and Gaajar ka Halwa,  made in honor of  some friends visiting us, sounds good to you?

Jeera Rice was made simply by boiling Basmati rice with some salt and water till almost done. A tempering with  a spoonful of oil and  Cumin seeds, and later cooked on Dum for few minutes. Simple, aromatic Jeera rice went well with the Dal Fry, and Mushrooms and Chana paalak. Recipe of Mushrooms coming later (Or mail me at sindhirasoi@gmail.com to get its recipe in your Inbox). For now lets switch our attention to the wonderful combination of Vitamins, Iron, folic acid (from spinach) and proteins (from Chickpeas ).

Chana Paalak( Chickpeas or Garbanzo beans cooked in Spinach curry) :

Ingredients:

• 1/4 Kg Chickpeas, picked, rinsed and soaked for atleast 6 hours
• 1/2 Kg Spinach
• 2 Medium sized Onions
• 2 Large Tomatoes
• 2-3 green chillies
• Ginger a bit(about an inch size)
• Garlic 5-6 cloves
• Whole Garam Masala( A bit of dalchini, 2 cloves, 1 Black cardamom ,1 tejpatta or bayleaf, 2 whole black peppers)
• Salt to taste
• Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp or less
• Coriander Powder 1 tsp
• 1 tbsp Oil

Method :

• Boil soaked chickpeas with some salt till half cooked. For me , boiling chickpeas in a pressure cooker till 3 whistles of cooker, worked well.
• Drain the chickpeas and reserve the liquid.
• In the meantime, peel  the onions and grind those along with, ginger , garlic, Whole garam masalas to a fine paste
• In a pressure cooker, pour 1 tbsp of oil, add the onion paste and saute well till the paste changes colour to pink.
• Grind tomatoes and green chillies together and add to the onion paste which by now had changed to darker shades of pink.
• Saute well for few minutes and then add washed and chopped spinach and mix very well.
• Pour some water(not much as spinach cooks in its own juices), add some salt(remember there is already some salt in chickpeas , so be alert), and close the lid of cooker .Wait for 2-3 whisltes and put off the gas.
• Later, add the Half-boiled chickpeas, turmeric powder, coriander powder and saute well for 3-4 minutes, taking care so as not to break the chickpeas.
• Adjust the consistency of gravy by adding the reserved liquid in which chickpeas were boiled. Adjust seasonings and let the whole mixture simmer for few minutes on low flame till the chickpeas absorbs the flavors of spinach and  Garam masalas. The consistency of final dish is semi dry.
• Garnish with chopped fresh coriander leaves.
• Goes well with rice, Pulao, or even with Roti .

When finally the moment arrived, I was barely able to hear his voice and then my senses gave  up due to Anesthesia induced Black- out- of- brain. It took me more than 12 hours to come back to my senses and hold that most precious part of my world in my arms..
A moment of very strong emotions, when my mind was flooded with happiness, pride and contentment, eyes flooded with tears( ofcourse Tears of Joy) and heart waiting to pour out all the love that me and My family had  saved for the baby since when the journey towards motherhood began.A moment  which changed out lives….

Now after all these years, I am amazed with the changes that motherhood brought in me. The daily dose of excitement, amusement, fears, joys, colic cries, Nappy changes, feeding , Massage and all other work that comes along with the arrival of new member in the family, surely changed me .The way I handle things, the way I felt and portrayed, my priorities in life, my likes, dislikes, everything went for a toss.

Despite of many hiccups  while handling a baby, life went on smoothly, each day teaching us something new, each moment making us more and more responsible for our deeds, our words, our attitude towards life. The milestones of our baby are cherished moments….the day he started giggling, the day he started recognizing the family members, the day he learned to hold things in his fist, when he started rolling on his sides, crawling, weaning, sitting, walking, talking, running, going to playschool, all these and more, made us happy and proud parents.

So today , on his seventh Birthday when I sit back and try to re-live those moments, there is surely a sense of contentment. I had tried to be a doting and dedicated mother, but whether I had truly been one or not, only time will tell.

For now, I just want to say..Happy Birthday Dear Baby…You changed our world…for better..just by being in it.

Just wanted to cherish these moments of happiness, so thought to share my feelings with you all, dear visitors, of this place of mine. Though the Birthday boy is still young to understand all the emotions poured out here, maybe somewhere in his future, he will drop in, at this virtual place of mine, read these words about himself, and feel happy…Hopefully

Hope  each one of you will join us (virtually of course) when we will sing a Happy Birthday song for the Apple of our Eyes..Our Baby !

Coming to food part, well as much as the above emotions are Typical of Mothers, so is Gaajar ka Halwa, to celebrate anything and everything. I always wonder what it is with Bollywood mothers and Sons (Note..always sons…never daughters..huh !), that every bollywood mother ends up making Gaajar ka halwa for her son on every occasion..So did I..can’t help. coz my baby simply loves it

The detailed recipe of  Gaajar ka halwa(carrot pudding ??) is coming up soon on Beyondcurries, so do drop in there to check out