• Chhola Dab^al For AlifBe ~ 16

    Chhola /Charaan i.e Kabuli Chana curry is a very popular dish in Sindhi cuisine and it is often had with rice, roti as well as with sliced bread and Pao (laadi paav) too. Sindhi style Chole (Chhole in Roman Sindhi) are made in basic onion tomato gravy style, though many cook it in just tomato gravy. No tea leaves are used (to give color) and also, traditionally, no chole masala (spice mix) is added. The curry gets its flavors from whole spices like Kamaal patt (Tej Patta), vadho photo (Black Cardamom) etc while tomatoes  and tamarind (optional) provide tanginess. Few…

  • Bitto Lolo for AlifBe~3

    Third letter of #AlifBe i.e Sindhi ‘alphabet’ is very interesting. The consonantal sound of this letter is used in only a handful-of  languages spoken across the world like: Ega or the West African language spoken in South central Ivory coast or Vietnamese, Zulu etc if I am not wrong. The letter is ٻ and is written as B^ in Roman Sindhi. In English language the sounds of consonants are articulated when the air from lungs move outwards and hence such sounds are known as pulmonic sounds (Try saying A, B, C, D….and you will be able to relate). But in…

  • Kirng Upma|Thick savory porridge using Samo seeds rice

    Kirng or Samo seeds rice is often used in India to cook ‘fasting foods. Also known as Bhagar or Moraia , Samo seeds are  a kind of wild rice (seeds), hence named as ‘Jungle  rice’. Botanically known as Echinochloa colona, it is actually a weed growing in rice fields. Samo is widely used in India, to prepare rice, sweet porridge and Upma. The samo flour is  also used to make unleavened flat breads and is  generally consumed during fast, when one needs to avoid grains like rice and wheat. I cooked it as a regular upma, replacing semolina with samo…

  • Dal Moth|Moong Dal With Moth Beans

    Dal Moth~ Many of you might confuse it with the snack Dal Moth (Farsan), but this isn’t it ! Generally Sindhis relish a hearty breakfast of Dal Moong and Koki, where Dal moong being yellow moong dal topped over whole green gram. Personally I find green grams bit bland and not much appealing to my palate. Technically too, I face a problem with green grams..if overcooked these turn slimy instead of creamy and if undercooked, the curry and moong stand separated and somehow the whole dish do not come together nicely. For this reason, I find Moth beans, known as…

  • Dal Moong ~A healthy Breakfast

    Dal Moong is a typical Sindhi Breakfast item, and is more famous as a Morning Street Food. Well, this means that generally  Dal moong , along with Dal pakwan, Makhni Dal , sold at Thelas or as street food in morning , are preferred by Sindhis . A very simple to make, Dalmoong is a wonderful combination of Yellow split beans (Moong ki peeli dal) , and Green Grams (sabut Moong), cooked till mushy and topped with some spices and vegetables like boiled potato, beetroot, raw mango etc, with some tangy tamarind chutney is relished with some Koki or even…