Cholar dal
i have a love-hate relationship with dal. i have been told i used to bawl my little heart out if there was no dal on the menu when i was a kid and Ema had to go and buy dal from the hotel nearby. Then i grew up a bit and decided not to eat dal till i passed my Matric Exams! And so i did not touch a drop of dal till my results were out. But the damage had already been done and after the many years of estrangement, dal and i i have never really taken off again like old times.
Now, it comes as no surprise that cooking dal has never been my forte. i am always confused by the quantity of dal – i mean, i take two or three handful and it feels like there would not be enough to go around. So i add some more. And after i open the cooker, i see the dal has multiplied in the privacy of the closed cooker and we are left with enough dal to feed to an army. My sister always used to complain on the rare occasion i cooked dal as the dal lasted for days and she had to eat it while i cleverly escaped citing inability to eat leftover dal!
i got the recipe from my dear friend Suravi. i did not have much hope going by my record when it comes to dal. But miracles do happen and the dal turned out good enough to be featured here.
The recipe calls for coconut but it was omitted as there was none.
Cholar dal
Things you need:
Chana dal – as much as you can eat!
1 teaspoon Turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon Coriander powder
1 inch Ginger
2 dry red chilies
Oil/ghee
1 bay leaf
3-4 green cardamons
Sugar
The method:
Boil the dal in sufficient water till cooked. You could use a pressure cooker. Crush the ginger and make a paste with the coriander powder and turmeric along with a little water. Heat ghee or oil in a wok. When hot , put in the bay leaf, cardamon and red chillies. Add the paste and fry till the water is absorbed. Add the boiled dal and season with salt. You can add a bit of sugar if you want. Simmer till you get the desired consistency. If you use oil to cook the dal, add a touch of ghee at the end to enhance the flavor. You could add freshly scraped coconut if you have it.
Bhapa ilish
Oh no, not another ilish recipe! Please, please do bear with my ilish fetish! This one is just perfect for lazy cooks like me since you don’t need to fry the fish. And since it is so delicious, you get away with it.
This recipe is from my friend Somenath who counts himself as one of the “best ilish cooks” ever and this dish is almost a permanent fixture on his dinner party menu. As always, i have not followed the exact recipe. i was told that the mustard seeds to poppy seeds ratio should be 2:1 but i made it 1:1 because i don’t like the sauce/gravy to be too pungent. Also, i omitted coconut milk (actually, i was planning to ‘milk’ a fresh coconut but it turned out to be not too fresh and had to be discarded).
Bhapa ilish
Things you need:
4-5 pieces ilish
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
3-4 green chillies
Turmeric
Salt to taste
Mustard oil
1-2 teaspoon coconut milk
1 teaspoon curd/yoghurt
The method:
Wash the fish and pat dry. Marinate with turmeric and salt for about half an hour or so. Soak the mustard and poppy seeds for about 15 minutes or more (i don’t know why but i soak them for more than 6 hours! i usually make this for dinner so i start soaking the seeds from morning. It is crazy, i know but i like doing it for no particular reason). Grind the soaked seeds along with one or two green chillies to make a thick paste. Add the yoghurt, coconut milk and about 1 teaspoon of mustard oil to the paste and mix well. Coat the marinated ilish pieces with this paste.
Arrange the nicely coated ilish pieces in an oven proof dish. Drizzle some mustard oil over it and throw in two or three green chillies slit lengthwise (well, you don’t have to ‘throw ‘ the chillies in – it would do just as well to place them nice and gently on top of the ilish, between the pieces or wherever you like!). Cover with aluminium foil and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at 160 centigrades.
Alternatively, you could use a pressure cooker. Stack the pieces in a tiffin box (steel and not one of those plastic school lunch boxes) and put in the cooker with just enough water for steaming. Cook for one whistle.
Bhapa ilish
Recent Comments