Bisi Bele Bhath

Bisi Bele Bath is a one-pot south Indian delicacy. It is nothing but rice and lentils together. To be brutally honest, it is not the most photogenic dish. It's the most delicious dish!


For me, the Bisi Bele Bath at the restaurant tastes better. There is nothing wrong with this recipe though. I might be biased about my cooking?




Ingredients:
1. 1 mace
2. 4-6 cloves
3. 1 tbsp chana dal
4. 1 tbsp urad dal
5. 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
6. 3 tbsp poppy seeds
7. 1 inch cinamon
8. 10-12 dried red chili
9. 2 tsp coriander powder
10. 3 sprigs of curry leaves
11. 2 small tomatoes.
12. 2 large onions, chopped
13. oil
14. 3 tbsp ghee/clarified butter
15. 1/2 red green pepper, chopped
16. green beans, 1 cup, frozen
17. turmeric powder
18. toovar dal, 2 cups
19. 2 cups white rice, steamed
20. salt to taste
21. tamarind pulp
22. mustard seeds
23. peanuts (optional)
24. heeng
25. Jaggery, 1 tsp

Instructions:
1. Dry roast ingredients 1-8.
2. Grind the dry roasted ingredients with coriander powder. This will give you the spice mix. You can also add dried coconut, shredded.
3. Boil dal with turmeric powder and salt in a pressure cooker.
4. When the cooker opens, add tamarind pulp and jaggery. You can also add red chili powder depending on how hot you like it.
5. Heat oil in a wok and fry onions.
6. Add red bell pepper, tomatoes, and curry leaves to this. Cook till al dente.
7. Mix this and green beans to the dal and boil the dal.
8. To the dal, add 6 tsp of the spice mix and rice.
9. Heat ghee in a wok and add mustard seeds and let it crackle.
10. Add heeng to the ghee and then add peanuts and temper it in the dal

Serve hot with some salad.


This recipe was adapted from here.
Tried and Tested.

Dal Dhokli (Savoury Pita bread immersed in tempered lentil soup)

Dal Dhokli - the name was new to me but the delicacy itself was not. As a kid, my mom would occasionally cook a variant of this dish. Back in the day, we called it Dal Pitta (literal translation is Savory Pita bread immersed in a tempered lentil soup). This dish was never my favorite and so conveniently I made it a point not to learn the recipe. My mantra was that if I don't know how to cook it, I wont have to cook it :) But life often has interesting things in store for us...

As you know, I was married into a Gujju family. The other day we were invited for dinner at Mr. Husband's Gujju friends' place. To my surprise, they served Dal Dhokli for dinner. That is when I discovered that Dal Dhokli/Dal Pitta was an integral part of and typical Gujarati cuisine. Counting backwards, that day it had been some 20 years since I last had Dal Dhokli and to my surprise, I fell in love with it. A nutritious one meal dish, the dhokli's melted in the mouth while the warm lentil stew comforted and wrecked havoc in the taste department . How strange it is that the things you like as a kid are no longer on your most-coveted list as an adult and vice-versa! Such was my case.

Filling and delicious, I decided to give this dish a try. It has the goodness of a tasty protein-rich lentil broth along with the wholesomeness of flavored whole wheat pita bread.

Serves 2. No preparation required.

Ingredients:
1. 1 bay leaf leaves
2. Mustard seeds
3. Green chili, finely sliced
4. Tomato chopped
5. Salt 2 tsp
6. Jaggery 4 tsp
7. Oil
8. Heeng, a pinch
9. Red chili powder
10. 1.5 teaspoon coriander powder
11. Fresh Coriander leaves, chopped
12. Toovar dahl, 1 cup
13. Turmeric powder
14. 3 cups whole wheat
15. 1 cup ajwain or carom seeds
16. 1 tbsp ghee or clarified butter
17. 1 inch cinamon stick
18. 1 tsp methi seeds or fenugreek seeds
19. 1/2 inch ginger, shredded
20. A handful of unsalted peanuts
21. A small ball of tamarind pulp, soaked in warm water

Instructions:
1. In a pressure cooker, add 1 cup toovar dahl, salt, turmeric powder, and 3 cups water. Allow 4 whistles to blow.
2. When the pressure cooker opens, let it cool. Then mash the dahl with an electric blender.
3. In a separate pan, heat ghee for the tempering.
4. When the oil is hot, add bay leaf, Cinnamon stick, mustard and fenugreek seeds and let it crackle.
5. Add a pinch of heeng and then add green chili and ginger. When the green chili fries, add coriander powder, red chili powder.
6. Add this, along with a peanuts, to the dal.
7. Boil the dahl.
8. Add gur  to the dahl. Mix then add tamarind pulp to the dahl.
9. Make a dough of 3 cups whole wheat with 2 tsps oil, salt, .5 tsp red chili powder, .5 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp carom seeds, .5 tsp coriander powder.
10. Make small balls of the dough. Then with a rolling pin, flatten the balls. With a pizza cutter, make slices of the flattened ball. Add to the dahl and let it boil.
11. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

This recipe is based off Hetal's recipe and customized to my pantry and taste :) Thanks, Hetal!


Walking down the memory lane!

Dahl Serendipity

I had been craving protein rich food for the past little while. The best way I could do this seemed to be through Dahl or lentil soup. The other day when I looked in the fridge, there were not many vegetables but a ton of shredded carrot. Adventure today it will be, I said to my self! And off I went to make use of whatever I had and experiment or invent a new recipe.

What came out was Dahl serendipity. Mr. Husband and I both were happy with the results. Boring dahl was spiced up with minced green chili and sambhar masala (powdered spices). Fenugreek seeds added warmth to the flavor of the soup, while the pungency of mustard seeds gave the soup just the right kick. While the smoothness of lentils were crunched up with caramelized onion, the sweetness of the onion was countered with a dazzle of tangy lemon juice and tomato paste. The unmistakable aroma of fresh curry leaves unveiled its magic making its way up the senses; the goodness of turmeric powder, garlic, and fresh vegetable defined the comfort and satisfaction of devouring a wholesome, healthy meal.


Serves 4. No preparation required.

Ingredients:
1. Toor (Arhar) Dahl, washed and soaked in water for 5 mins.
2. Curry leaves, fresh and green
3. Salt to taste
4. Musard seeds
5. Fenugreek seeds
6. Green chilli, shopped
7. Sliced onion
8. Tomato paste
9. Garlic, chopped
10. Oil, 2-3 tablespoons
11. Sambhar masala
12. Lemon juice.
13. Water.
14. Shredded carrot
15. Turmeric powder

Instructions:
1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker.
2. Add mustard and fenugreek seeds and allow it to splutter.
3. Add garlic, green chili, curry leaves, onion, and saute until golden brown.
4. Add turmeric powder and mix.
5. Add tomato paste and cook for another few minutes.
6. Add sambhar masala, salt, toor dahl, carrot, and water.
7. Cook and cover the lid of the pressure cooker. Let 5 whistles blow.
8. Remove from heat and allow the lid to open by itself.

Serve hot over a bed of white rice or as soup.

Sambhar (Spicy south Indian lentil stew)

Sambhar is a popular South Indian and Sri Lankan dish liked by North Indians the same. Sambhar is a vegetable stew or chowder based on a broth made with tamarind and toovar dahl.
South Indian food, people, and culture are inexorably linked to a ubiquitous dish as in idli (rice cakes) and sambhar, sambhar and rice and so on. Each state in the South prepares it with a typical variation, adapted to its taste and environment.
Sambhar is my all time favorite. A lot of things changed but my liking for sambhar never did. Sambhar was the first few things I learned to cook.

No preparation required. Serves 4-6. But I can finish this all by my self :P

Ingredients:

1. 7 fists arhar/toor dahl
2. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
3. 2 teaspoons salt.
4. 1 tablespoon minced garlic
5. 1/2 tablespoon minced ginger
6. 1 small onion, chopped
7. 1 small tomato, chopped
8. 1/2 zucchini or bottle gourd cut in inced sized squares. You can also add okra, eggplant, drum sticks if you want.
9. 3 teaspoon sambhar masala. I used MDH.
10. 2 tablespoons olive oil
11. 1 heaping teaspoon mustard seeds. I like to add fenugreek seeds and asafoetida as well but my mom butted in and didn't let me this time. ;-)
12. 4-5 fresh curry leaves
13. 1 dried red chili
14. Tamarind pulp (imli ka saar)
15. 1 green pepper, chopped into inched sized squares.

Instructions:

For the dahl
1. Soak arhar dahl in water for about 15 mins. Wash and then put it in a pressure cooker.
2. Add turmeric powder and salt.
3. Add water water to this - about a finger's depth of water from the dahl to the surface.
4. Cover the lid of the pressure cooker and let 2 whistles to blow.

For the masala
1. Heat olive oil in a pan and when hot, add mustard seeds.
2. When the seeds splutter, add curry leaves and red chili.
3. Add onions and fry until they turn golden brown.
4. Add ginger and garlic and fry for a few minutes. Then add tomato.
5. When the tomato is al dente, add green pepper, zucchini, and sambhar powder.
6. Add tamarind pulp.
7. Cover and cook until all vegetables are al dente.

When the pressure cooker's lid opens, add the masala and boil with an open lid for about 5-10 minutes.

Server hot with steamed white rice and roasted potatoes for lunch. Alternatively, you can have this with idli (rice cakes) or dosa (Indian crepe) which I will show you how to make in another post.