Toor dal – another Gujju treat.

I just bought some toor dal over the weekend. Now, it is difficult when one is setting up a home and a kitchen from scratch, where spices and foods have been left behind when moving countries. I find that every time I want to make a particular dish I realise that I am missing at least one or more ingredient. Having got the toor dal and the hing I just could not find curry leaves. I guess I have to make do without it till I can find where it is sold… maybe they had just run out in the shop I go to. It does lend a distinct flavour and aroma to the dal.

Dal (lentils) are a big part of Indian meal. Toor dal is one of my favourite specially the Gujarati version of it. There are many different recipes for making dal and there is a difference in the way people from different communities make it. For example there is a video from Manjula’s Kitchen.

Even for a Gujarati receipt you will find subtle differences between households as they are handed down from mother to daughter. Indianfoodsforever provides a simple toor dal recipe which is interesting. However, the one that got my interest is from Archana’s kitchen. The dal is made using all the ingredients that I am used to. I am particularly partial to the sweet and sour taste. This does not mean that there is not a good kick of chillies as that is put to suit your taste. Archana proposes to have it at soup consistency which is fine but my family tends to prefer the dal to have thicker consistency and have it with plain rice.

I also think that when cooking any food and particularly this dal if you are distracted and unhappy while making it the taste does not come out just right. This is not linked to how experienced the cook is believe me I have noted over the years that when the dal is made by a distressed cook it is bland, lacks the tang and feels flat. I love it when it turns out just right and then having that little bit extra to have as left over is such a pleasure. For a gujju meal the toor dal is accompanied by at least plain rice, some sabji and roti. More elaborate will include some salad (as kachumber - finely chopped onions, tomatoes, cucumber), pickles, yogurt or raita, papad and of course a sweet dish which unlike western customs is served with the main meal.

’61 Hours’ – Lee Child

I have come to read Lee Child’s books only recently. They are fascinating in the level of detail about everything. The latest one I read was ’61 Hours’. It is fascinating that the book is for all that happens in just 61 hours. I particularly like how each part of the story is embodied in every chapter as it moves though the countdown of 61 hours. The pace of the story is actually fast but the detailed description of everything makes it slow down a bit. I always feel I want to rush through the descriptions to get to the plot and get the story moving.

The hero Jack Reacher is just that a superman. He is ex military police and wanders through the US getting to know his country and helping to keep ordinary people safe. He gets inadvertently involved as per usual when the bus he is on crashes. There is a murder and a witness in need of protection that starts Jack’s involvement. The 61 hours are typical of details of the plot and the suspense builds as more are murdered. Who is the hitman? What I in the old stone building just outside the town? The plot keeps its grip on you right up to the last sentence. For the big suspense is what happened to Jack. This is the first book of Lee Child that leaves you wondering about Jack.

Lee Child’s style is definitely different as all his story lines are covering a short period of time. I think the longest one I have read is over a couple of weeks. There is also an obligatory female presence that is a help to or needs help from Jack. In this book it is the head of Jack’s old command. There is always this feeling of will they or won’t they? It book is about the triumph of good over evil but unlike many stories where everyone lives happily ever after, in this story the good pay a heavy price before it overcomes the evil. There is a lot of human psyche and emotions explored with a delving into what is in the mind of one who fights for justice and puts things right.

It is a good read for all those who like mystery, murder, crime genre. I shall put it away and in a few months of even a year go back and read it again. Strangely , having read it once and knowing the end of the plot does not make any difference to the enjoyment of books for me.

Gujarati savoury flat bread - Methi Thepla

I love thepla. For the non gujjus it is a flat bread like paratha but with spices in it. 

To the basic chapatti flour which is wheat flour one adds a spoonful of oil, salt, chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder as well a big pinch of turmeric. 

Add water and knead the dough. Once the dough is ready roll out and cook like a paratha with a small amount of oil applied on each side while cooking.

Now I know this is not a recipe as that has been done by many people. For example there is a YouTube video about making thepla. Tarla Dalal has a slightly different version with yoghurt added into the dough to give it a nice sourness. While I do love this plain version of thepla and have it with yoghurt or plain potato sabhji or indeed with sweet mango pickles like chhunda and gol kari. Now the hyperlinks will get you to the recipe sites but I have not tired making them myself and only remember the traditional way my mother used to make. Now that I have some time I will actually give it a go and see if they work.

My favourite thepla are with other additions like either chopped methi (fenugreek leaves) or with grated doodhi (bottle gourd). With the doodhi it is always good to add yogurt in the making of the dough and sometimes mix a bit of bajari (pearl millet) flour in it. The methi or grated doodhi is added to the flour along with the spices and the kneaded into dough by adding water. Now I am planning to make methi thepla (sorry this is a gujju video) for dinner today and so thought maybe my friends would like to have some too! Thus the blog…. However I am well aware of my limitations as a recipe writer and so resorted to making use of the various websites and also youtube. Hope you guys like it too.

Budda Hoga Tera Baap – the lost time

I am a big Amitabh Bacchan fan and used to see every movie I could. Therefore I have seen all his great movies. So the name Budda Hoga Tera Baap sounded amusing. I have seen the classic like Chupke Chupke were he carries off the funny man role very well. So I got excited about finally being able to see this film.

The man plays the eternal good bad guy role! There is some attempt to refresh the audience with the old classic songs from his old hits like Don. The action is predictable with an equally predictable story. The son played by Sonu Sood is wooden and reminded me of a wooden Sly Stallone and I do not mean that as a compliment. Even when attempting to romance Sonal Chauhan one wants to shake him and say get an expression. The only things right about it is his father intervening to help his romance! Raveena Tandon as a lovesick older woman is amusing specially since it is OTT.

The ‘bad man’ and the whole gangster scenario is very cliché. There are some odd dialogues by the big man himself that raise a smile now and then. This is a shame and the only redeeming thing was Amitabh’s voice, song and dance. And did anyone doubt that Hema Malini would forgive the wayward gangster husband and all live happily ever after? I am glad I saw it at home and not wasted money going to the cinema. The lost hours of my life… have taught me that not every Amitabh movie is a classic. Both the veteran actors Amitabh Bacchan and Hema Malini are utterly wasted in this movie.

My Plants and I

I am a total novice when it comes to gardening. I have always lived on a first floor flat or a maisonette and so never had the pleasure of a garden. The first time I had experience of being in a garden was with my in laws. They have always had a garden and it was nice to walk about on the lawn, smell the roses and even pick some blackberries, grapes and tomatoes that were grown by my father in law.

Now do not get me wrong I am not useless with plants. I do have a green thumb as I have always grown pot plants in my home. When I lived in India we had a terrace where we grew a few pots of roses and tulsi plant. This was a limited potting experience as the monkeys that roamed free around our locality always broke up the pots to find the little bugs living in the soil. After breaking of a pot practically every other day my mother gave up as it was getting expensive to buy new pots every week.

In UK I had only one window sill I could use and that was in my kitchen. I had a whole host of plants scattered all over the house. There were succulants, cacti, Christmas cacti, rubber plants, cheese plant, happy plant (some call it the money plant – its lovely deep green fleshy leaves on woody stem which I had seen growing in large bushes in Maderia) and occasional rose. Generally my plants thrive and grow with occasional watering and talking to them. I find that the thriving of plants is a good indicator of the health of the home. One winter all of us in the house were ill with severe flu and all my plants actually died down to a leaf of two in the pot. It was sad for some of them did not recover while others revived quite happily. I had to get a new happy plant as that one did not make it. One of my colleagues was giving away her plant as she was bored with it. That plant lasted for nearly 20 years and from the branches that drop off I managed to plant another 5 pots. The old stem finally died out just last year and the babies of my plant were given away to family when I came to Australia.

One wonder was that after having the plant for years, one year it suddenly got flowers, small white star-like flowers which lasted for nearly 2 months. I asked everyone I knew if they had seen flowers in this plant and even took picture to show them around my mother in law’s friend circle (many of them are into gardening). But everyone said no they had never experienced flowers growing in that plant. The flowers came every 2 years and lasted 8 weeks during winter. Here in Australia I have seen this plant grow in big shrubs and covered in flowers!

So you see my estimate that I do have a green thumb is not wrong. Once I had another succulent with small leaves that had serrated edges which grew in the window in the bedroom and then the bathroom for a long time. One day I put it in the bedroom on the dressing table right in front of the mirror. It went crazy and shot up long shoots and grew profuse small yellow flowers. I looked as if this was a plant that saw itself in the mirror and thought there is another plant and flowered in an attempt to reproduce. But sadly the effort that was put into the flowering meant that the plant died and I did not have the heart to replace that plant. However I did make sure not to put any plant facing a mirror again.

Cacti are another favorite with both of us and I used to have many different ones. I was only disappointed in growing aloe in the pot as every time I tried to re-pot it did died. Then my foray into bonsai was also a failure as I do not think I pruned it right nor fed it correctly. Maybe I will one day attempt it again and have more patience with it. The cacti occasionally flowered and required very little maintenance. There is one of the cacti that had got very fine white spines almost looking like fine hair. This tended to be bothersome if one touched it or brushed against it accidentally. It was a very small pot and so I placed it on top of the bathroom cabinet to keep it out of the way.

What happened is funny but I need to tell you that I wander about the house at night without switching on lights if I need to wake up either to drink water or to use the loo. As per my habit I went in the dark to the toilet and as I sat down thought ouch… it hurt.. in a sleepy haze I got up and as I turned to pull the flush thought why is there something black in the toilet bowl? I switched on the light and found that the cactus was in the toilet. Then a bulb went off in my head too! Eureka… there had been a sound earlier and I was not awake enough to get up and see what it was. The pot had toppled over and fallen on the seat and into the bowl. Ahhhhhhhh now I realised the pain … all those tiny white fine spines were stuck on one buttock and thigh. How was I going to get them out? My husband was on night duty and so could not be woken up to help! If I tried brushing them off they would go deeper and would also get into my hands. My sleepy mind thought, put some cream on the skin covered in cactus spines and try to wipe it off. So there I was in the middle of the night trying to apply cream on my backside without driving the spines further into the skin, swearing to myself. I do not think it really made a big difference but it was soothing to have the cream on after the burning pain of the cactus spines. This story was the rounds of the family and friends. I think my mother in law’s friend had a good laugh as did my colleagues at work.

Now despite these odd disagreement with plants in the house I have always wanted a garden however since I was always having hay fever it had not been a good idea. Now after all these years and also the fact I am on numerous drugs that curb the hay fever the move to Australia made it possible to have a garden. I now have a house and a small garden. I can now indulge in some of my dreams of growing my own vegetables and herbs. Since I am renting I am not going to uproot the lawn but start with pots. So I went out earlier in the week to Bunnings. This is a huge store with all the household and garden things.

Spent money of starter kit for coriander, basil, chillies and broccoli; also got a pair of gardening gloves and a trowel. As for potatoes, I had done some reading about growing those. Found a set of potatoe grow bags in sale and soil that was specially prepared for vegetables. However, I could not find seed potatoes. All the websites indicate that you need to buy seed potatoes and the ones from the supermarket were washed and cleaned. In the past if the potatoes have been left for a few days in the basket they have sprouted and so I am confused about this. Having given it some thought I am going to just keep back a couple of potatoes (I buy brushed potatoes and so have not been cleaned off the eyes they have) and see if they sprout and then I can grow them.

Yesterday, I got down to the planting of seeds of the coriander, basil and chillies. The first two are supposed to require shaded area and some sun light while the chillies are to have full sunlight. In the afternoon wandered around the house to see which place I could put the pots. Have chosen the front verandah for this as the middle part gets dappled sun through the tress only in the morning while the corner gets direct sun all day. There will be seedlings in the next 10 to 12 days… I shall keep you al posted with the growth diary and eventually pictures of the produce like some of my friends do on the facebook.