PREP TADKA MAARKE!!!!!

Hello!!!! I am very much alive...... It was my comp which ditched me & kept me away from catching up with the happenings around, for sometime..... I had to (oops! sorry, My hubby! No credits taken).... My hubby had to get few things changed in it, to get it back fixed & working.... He feels really bad & hurt, to see me without my Computer..... as I start drooping around, not knowing what to do..... ;-)

Now that it is back & since I had no challenges I was desperate to attempt, for my Craft blog, I thought it was time I posted here to save my nose..... ;-) Seriously, I felt ashamed looking at the archive, which showed just one post each for the months of April & May.... I really felt... "Chullu bhar paani mein dhoob maroon"..... I am sorry.... I know I am being unfaithful to this blog & all my supporters, who have made me grow till date... with my preps for consumption & postings too..... I thought at least to face myself, I had to post today......

So here I am with preps I thought would make an entry (last minute again! Shame! Shame!) to the Dal Event @ Veggie Platter....... I was looking forward to post since many days for this event, but it kinda got piled up... So here I am with Three Dal preps....... TODAY!!!!!


DAL TADKA!

This is a popular prep at my in-laws...... Very simple yet divine...... Goes well with both rice as well as rotis......

Ingredients :

Toor dal + Masoor dal - 1/2 cup ( I keep a mix of both)
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt to Taste

For Tempering -

Green Chilli - 2, finely chopped
Onion - 1/2, finely chopped
Tomato - 1 medium, finely chopped
Oil/Ghee - 2 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch

Method :

Cook the dal with the above ingredients as usual/ pressure cook..... Whip it lightly & keep aside...
Heat oil in a wok & add the cumin seeds...Allow it to splutter & add the green chilli, onion & tomato.... Stir fry till the onion turns pink..... Add asafoetida & stir for half a minute... Now add the whipped dal into the tadka..... Mix well & allow it to cook further for 5 minutes, covered.... Depending on the required consistency, add water...... Usually dal fry has a thicker consistency..... Now serve it hot with your rice or roti accompanied by any other dry sabzi......

Well I served it with Bhindi Bhoonjiya for the dry sabzi that day...... prepared similar to the Aloo Bhindi Bhoonjiya minus the Aloo (Potato). Savor!!!!!

Mango Dal!

I just wanted to try something different from the usual, hence added few pieces of raw totapuri mango, with the dal.......

Ingredients :

Toor dal + Masoor dal - 1/2 cup
Raw mango - 10 chunks (optionally peeled)
Onion - 1 medium (finely sliced)
Green Chilli - 2 small (slit lengthwise)
Garlic - 3 cloves (minced)
Tomato - 1/2 chopped
Methi Seeds - 4 to5
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt to Taste

For tempering -

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry Leaves - 1 twig
Asafoetida - a pinch
Oil - 1 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1/4 tsp
Dry Red Chilli - 2 broken

Method :

Pressure cook dal with all the above ingredients & once done, lightly whip the prep with a whisk & keep aside...... Now heat oil for tempering in a wok & add all the ingredients in the order from mustard seeds, curry leaves, dry red chilli, asafoetida, & the masala powders..... Stir fry for a minute & add in the whipped dal mixture....... Let it boil for 2 minutes & then savor it hot with rice..........

Few months back, my gardener did the garden.... Changing the soil, adding manure & sprayed pesticide..... And just recently I saw, few tomato plants in few of my pots along with the flowers in them, which were the original inhabitants of the pot........... I was like WOW!!!! There were quite a handful, which were raw.... I called Kuku & we both marked them together...... But later, we forgot......

One morning as my maid left, I went behind her to close the door & saw her leaving with two tomatoes...... I asked her "from where?" & she replied "from your garden" & I was like "What???" My tomatoes I forgot about & my maid was happily savoring them... I asked her to spare them for a minute at least, to let them pose for few captures as a memory of my garden tomatoes..... And willingly she did & left one for me too..... So here are the captures.....

Are they not cute & glossy..... I felt so proud to see them grow in my pots.......

And after that day, whenever she found one in the garden, she plucked them for me..... I felt good.... One tomato, I sliced into rounds for a simple salad & the other I used in my regular dal....

U can see the bits & pieces of my garden tomato in this simple regular dal, which I prepare for my daily lunch.......

Hmmm.... So that's a lot of Dal stuff...... These are my last minute entry to the Dal Event @ Veggie Platter.......

That is it for now...... I would be back soon, & I see to it that I keep up to my schedule this time.....

UNTIL NEXT, KEEP THE FAITH!!!!

VEGETATION AT PUTTUR

There are many fruits & vegetables at my place in Puttur. It is a festival to our eyes to even get a glimpse of these vegetations. What we see here in the city are the ones sold in the vegetable markets, after few hours of transportation from their fields. By the time they reach our place they are all half dead. But here to see them grow on their plants & trees is a feast in itself. I get all thrilled looking at them. When in use, to pluck them by your own hands, the feel of their tightness & freshness with dew drops on them is great. You also get to see them in their original form completely alive & in gay. Once they are cooked & eaten, the satisfaction that I ate fresh veggies & fruits, free of chemicals, is worth the trouble taken in plucking them.

We have many fruits like Butter Fruit, Cashew, Different Kinds of Mango, Chiku or the Sapota, Guava, Kokum, Coconut, Jack fruit, Kinds of Banana, Arecanut etc.,

ONAGIDA ADIKE (SUPARI or DRIED ARECANUT)


TENGINAKAAYI(COCONUT)


BUTTER FRUIT (BENNE HANNU)


GUJJE (RAW JACKFRUIT)


HALASINA SOLE (JACKFRUIT)



MAAVINA HANNU or KUKU or MANGO


ADIKE


GERU HANNU (CASHEW FRUIT)


MAAVINA KAAYI


GERU HANNU


PUNAR PULI or BIRINDA (KOKUM)


In vegetables we have Alasande called as Yard Long Beans or Runner Beans, Lady's Finger, Brinjal (Eggplant KING of vegetables), Noolkol (Kohlrabi or Cabbage Turnip), Green Chilli, Green & Lal (Red) Saag, Gooseberry, Jeegujje (Breadfruit), Bimbuli (a sweet & sour fruit used to make Pickle, Chutney & curries prepared mostly in M'lore) etc.,

BIMBULI


ALASANDE


BENDEKAYI


BADANEKAYI


NOOLKHOL


HASI MENASINAKAAYI


CABBAGE TURNIP (NOOLKHOL)


JEEGUJJE (BREAD FRUIT)


BIMBULI


There are other vegetation's which are medicinal as well as used in some Mangalorean Cuisine like Thimare (Brahmi leaves), Basale Soppu (Basella Alba or the Malabar Spinach which comes both red stemmed as well as gree stemmed), Sambrani Soppu(Doddapatre in Kannada), Neem, Curry Leaves, Turmeric Leaves & many many more which I hardly remember right now.

SAMBRANI SOPPU




THEEMARE SOPPU (BRAHMI LEAVES)


There were many more, but no more, after my Badepapa passed away. Fruit like Pineapple.

They also made honey (bee keeping) at home then, but history now as it takes a lot of patience & your time.