Dudhi with chana dal/Bottle gourd with lentils

Hi everyone! How have you all been? My today's recipe is very easy and simple one again. Ha Ha and I am sure you all must be thinking, what!! another simple one, but trust me you would love it. So should we begin. Dudhi or bottle gourd we have in many ways, some spicy or some sweet. Lets hear what you have to say to this one.

Ingredients:

• 1 bottlegourd/dudhi
• 2 green chillies
• 1/2 cup chana dal soaked for 1hour
• salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder/haldi
• 1/4 tsp coriander powder/ dhaniya powder
• 1/4 tsp  Dry mango powder/ amchoor powder or lemon juice
•  1tbsp oil
•  a pinch of hing
•  1 small piece of ginger chopped
• coriander leaves to garnish

Method: 

Chop dudhi into small pieces. In a cooker, put oil to heat and add green chillies cut in small pieces. Add hing and stir for a minute.  Add dudhi and put chana dal which has been soaked earlier. Mix and add all the masalas. Now add little water  and cover and cook till 1 whistle. Let the pressure cooker cool down on its own. Open and mash chana dal dudhi mixture slightly so it thickens. If its too thick add some water and if its too watery let it cook for some time to get desired consistency. 

Garnish with coriander leaves and ginger and serve hot with rice or chapati. 

There is a dry method to make this or keep it like gravy. 

Over to you for feedback...

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Mix vegetables with chana dal

Hello!  Today I would share with you one of our recipes which I myself like it and its again very easy to make.   I really need to say this because of all my blogging friends and who are all great cooks I was also inspired to write about my recipes or rather what  I cook at home and as I was told, cooking is bit of this and bit of that.  So here we go….

Today recipe is mix vegetables with chana dal and once again you are free to make variations as you find it fit. Please adjust all seasonings according to your taste. Let’s start our recipe…

Ingredients:

¼ cup chana dal (Bengal gram dal) washed and soaked for  1/2hr

2-3  small brinals

2 medium sized potatoes

½  dudhi or ghiya or bottle gourd.

2-3 tomatoes

One small piece of yam or sooran

2-3 green chillies

1 small piece of ginger

1/4tsp turmeric powder

1/4tsp coriander powder

1/4tsp dry mango powder

1/4tsp red chilli powder

1tbsp oil

Salt to taste

A pinch of hing

Water as required

Coriander leaves to garnish.

Method:

Cut all vegetables in small cube sized pieces.   Take a heavy bottomed pan and put oil. Once it heats add green chillies cut in small pieces and add hing. Stir for a min then add all vegetables and soaked dal.  Stir it and add atleast 1 cup of water.  Add salt and stir it. Cover and cook for 15 mins or if you are using pressure cooker then cook till 2 whistles come as dal has to become soft.  Open pan and check if dal is cooked.  Using a mashing spoon roughly mash the entire mixture.  Do not make pulp out of it. Just mash the vegetables and dal roughly.  Add all the spices and cook for 2-3 minutes. Adjust water if the gravy is too dry. If its more watery cook bit more. Add chopped ginger here for added flavor.   Finally its done.  Garnish with coriander leaves  and serve it hot with rice, poori or chapatti.

Enjoy and do let me know what you think.

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Mix vegetables in dal

Hello everyone! My today’s recipe is inspired by Aarthi’s blogpost and I thought I would give it a try. I have made few variations from what she made.I had made this about 2months back when I saw at her blog but just kept it pending to post.

Recipe source: Aarthi ..@ Yummy Tummy

We all make  dal in different ways and at times plain dal becomes boring so lets do mummy ka magic here.

Ingredients:

1cup tur dal  , washed and soaked for  30mins

1tsp haldi (turmeric powder,

1tsp jeera (cumin seeds)

1tsp rai  (mustard seeds)

1tsp urad dal 

Pinch of hing (asaephotida)

1tsp red chilli powder

1tsp garam masala powder

1tsp coriander powder

1tsp amchur powder

Salt to taste.

Few curry leaves,

3 green chillies, cut in small pieces

2 dry red chillies  broken in pieces

1onion sliced

2cloves of garlic crushed

2tbsp oil

1 cup of mix vegetables of your choice.

Here I have used tomatoes, carrots, brinjal, okra, gwar, yam (sooran) and cauliflower cut and mix them all  in one cup.

Method:

In pressure cooker boil  dal in usual way. In a pan put oil, sauté onions, then put jeera, rai and green chillies, stir them and then add  urad dal, curry leaves, dry red chillies,garlic and hing. Stir for a min then add all the vegetables. Stir and and put some water so they cook nicely.

Add salt and all spices and keep it aside after they have been cooked. Take dal out of  pressure cooker and mash it a bit. Add water and add salt and turmeric powder. Be careful with salt here as we had added it in the vegetables.  Mix the cooked vegetables in dal and stir it. Let it come to one or two boils.

Voila your dal with vegetables is ready.

Serve it hot and garnish with coriander leaves and a dash of butter. You can leave out butter but I just simple love the look of butter on top.

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The great spice route------------

Hello everyone! Today's topic is giving quick easy pictorial guide to some basic spices,seeds and lentils or dals which I am sure many would find useful as they cook and can differentiate one from other. Specially bachelors would find this useful, I hope.

I am listing the basic ones which are used in daily cooking.  Please use 1/4 or 1/2tsp of these seeds depending on quantity of your dish.

Methi dhana or fenugreek seeds. Good for digestion but bitter in taste.

Jeera seed or cumin seed.

  mustard seeds or sarson  or  rai

  coriander seeds  or dhaniya seeds

The above items are used in tadka. Not all use dhaniya seeds but some do like that.

Basic spices or masalas to be used in cooking.

Turmeric powder or haldi powder.

  Red chilli powder

      Amchur powder or dry mango powder .

  Dhaniya powder or coriander powder

Above are the basic spices used in any dish and of course salt is important. Some people also use garam masala powder which is mixture of many spices like clove, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom.

Dals or lentils.

Tur dal or arhar dal

Chana dal or bengal gram dal

   Whole moong.. It can also be used sprouted.

Moong dal

 There are many more but I have listed just the basic everyday used  lentils or spices so its easily recognisable. Have fun cooking.

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