My Experiments in the Kitchen

Following my poor lifestyle choices and ill health, I got a wake up call on Monday. I suffered from Vertigo the whole day. It was truly terrible and hubster took me to a GP in the evening. The good doc quickly diagnosed my problem. It seems I was spending too much time hunched over my laptop in a totally incorrect posture. Long hours of this and I am on my way to cervical problems if I dont stop now. It was such an awakening. I dont want to be sick with anymore chronic diseases because I already do have diabetes. Thank you very much.

Ever since then, I have made drastic changes in my lifestyle most especially with regards to the food we eat as a family. I started following Rujuta Diwekar, a celebrity nutritionist and trainer from India. I have her book Dont loose your mind, Loose your weight. It is such a life saver. Full of practical and do-able stuff. I am sowly but surely incorporating her advise in to my eating habits and can already see/feel tremendous change. Now, I would have signed up for a nutrition session with her but she caters to the major celebrities in Bollywood. So imagine her fees! Best left unsaid. *heavy sighing*

Anyhow, inspired by this new regimen I am posting a recipe here. My first ever, although I dont want to blog too much about recipes because I feel it is tiring. I luurvvvve to cook but writing about what I cook would be a bit too much, me thinks. It is a major stress buster for me. For our dinner tonight, I invented a new combo of Dal (Lentils) with pumkin and green Moong sprouts. I dont cook seperately for Yohaan. He eats whatever we do. If it gets too spicy I just add fresh Yoghurt to his bowl. And he loves it all. I made this Dal in order to disguise some vegetables in it, mainly for hubster. Can you imagine, a grown man, has to be fed veggies like a spoilt teen!

Here's the recipe:

• Toor/Arahar dal- 2 small handfuls, washed and soaked for a coupls of hours.
• Moong dal- a handful . Washed and soaked overnight . I happened to have some already soaked.
• Pumpkin- 1 cup, washed , roughly chopped, de-seeded- any sweet variety.
• Green chillies- Whlole 1 or 2 , any variety, depending upon your taste
• Raw green mango- 1 small, peeled and chopped in to thin strips
• Turmeric- 1 small tsp
• Salt to taste
• Clarified butter (desi ghee) or any vegetable oil- 2 tsp

Boil all the ingredients together in 2.5 glasses of water. Add one tsp of oil in it so that the curry does not boil over. Boil for roughly 20 minutes or so. The longer your dal has been soaked, the faster it will cook. After the first five minutes of a rolling boil, cover the pot and simmer for the rest 15 minutes. Keep checking once in a while if the water is reducing, else you may need to add more water . The consistency should be that of a thick soup. Once you have checked for the done-ness, stir it around vigrously so it becomes soft and mashed up nicely.

And finally, We got to do the tempering!

In a small wok, heat the remaining 1 tsp ghee/oil. When hot, throw in a pich of asafoetida, 1 small tsp of cumin seeds, 1 small tsp of mustard seeds, 1 small dry red chilly. When all of this starts to plutter put in 1 small tsp of finely chopped garlic, 1 small finely chopped onion and 1 small tomato. Let sizzle and become soft. Pour over your dal. Serve hot with plain steamed rice.

I am serving this with rice, salad and some fried fish masala tonight. It cannot get simpler!