Garlic & cumin flavored lentils...

Cooking lentils is fun. I love trying out different ingredients with lentils and my all time favorite is lentils with garlic- Garlic flavor works like magic with lentils. No matter how much you love eating from outside and trying different restaurants, there are times when you want to eat a simple dinner at home, nothing fancy….Garlic dal/Garlic lentils is my comfort food and I can cook them without much sweat.  The recipe is simple & would leave you wanting for more. Nothing else to dilute the garlic flavor- no fancy ingredients- just plain old garlic sauteed in butter (clarified butter) with a hint of cumin.

You can always improvise the recipe and add onions or tomatoes and cook the lentils with garam masala. But if you are fond of garlic and want the flavor of garlic to shine through, then this recipe is a winner!

Garlic & Cumin infused lentils

Ingredients

• 1 cup toor dal (yellow Pigeon peas)
• 1 cup mung dal (mung bean/ golden gram)
• 8-10 garlic cloves (chopped)
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• Clarified butter/butter for cooking
• 2 green chillies (chopped fine)

Instructions

1. Pressure cook the lentils till they are soft.
2. In a pan add butter and once melted add cumin seeds.
3. As the cumin seeds begin to sputter saute garlic & green chillies.
4. Add the cooked dal/lentils mixture to the pan and cook on a low flame for few minutes. (add a bit of water to make it soupy).
5. Adjust salt according to taste and serve hot with chopped coriander for garnish.

Published @ Honest Cooking - http://honestcooking.com/2011/11/03/garlic-and-cumin-flavored-lentils/

What's in a shape? Triangular rotis!

Seriously, who made the rules of cooking? Why follow a set of rules when you know you can do better? Cooking is an art and is dictated by taste buds and nothing else. When I started cooking, I used to be worried about the measure all the time. Am I putting more masala? Am I putting less spices? more salt? Is my roti geometrically round?? Practice and a bit of imagination is all you need to get it right. Now, if someone asks me how much salt should be used, I would have nothing to say- You just have a measure in your sub-consciousness and it will be tough to explain that to anyone. Enough bantering and lecturing on rules now! 

The other day, I finally chucked my regular round shape and created triangular shaped paranthas (roti's/stuffed indian flat bread). It turned out good and I just loved the new avatar of my roti's. Trust me, there is nothing fancy about the shapes and it is pretty easy to make. You don't have to worry about the precision of the triangle (some are hung up on the precision of the round shape, which won't be a problem with the triangular shape). Maybe, I will go overboard with my imagination and come up with star shaped roti's??? Just watch out for this space...

What do we need?

For the base-

Wheat flour

Water

Salt

For the filling-

Chopped coriander leaves (around a small cup)

Chopped green chillies (used about 3 green chillies)

Cumin seeds (around 1 tsp)

Salt (according to taste)

Preparation- 

Gently crush the cumin seeds and mix it with salt and chopped green chillies in a small cup. Keep the coriander leaves separately. Knead the flour with water and salt to a smooth and consistent dough. I used around 1 & 1/2 cups of flour. 

Method I followed-

Take a small ball of dough and flatten it to a round shape with rolling pin. Spread cumin seed mixture and coriander leaves on one portion of the round dough. Fold the other half over it so that it becomes a semi-circle. Gently fold the semicircle to a triangle. Now, gently flatten this triangle to a medium size keeping the shape intact. (I know it sounds super confusing, but you can get there if you fiddle around with the dough a bit)

Cook the roti (both sides) in a pan with oil/ghee/butter. Serve hot with Mango chutney/pickle and enjoy!!!

Another method- Mix coriander leaves, cumin seeds and green chillies to the flour and then knead the flour to a smooth & consistent dough. Now take a small ball of this dough and flatten it to a round shape. Fold it to a semi-circle. Gently fold this semicircle to a triangle. Flatten this triangle to a medium size keeping the shape intact.

Bread stix with a cumin twist!

Come winter, you always want to cuddle up with a hot soup at night. I have experimented with so many soups and probably have tried all the ready made soup versions I could find in the super market. The problem with soup is you want something crunchy to go along- something to dip in the soup. Garlic bread is my favorite and of course bread sticks taste great with any kind of soup- I did a batch of bread sticks and it tasted heavenly with my potato leek soup- Here is a simple recipe for bread sticks, enjoy!

Ingredients-

2 cups all purpose flour
cumin seeds approx 1tsp
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
lukewarm water to mix the dough
1tsp yeast

Preparation-

Mix the flour, cumin and salt in a large bowl. Add the yeast, then make a well in the center of the dough. Pour in the warm water and start mixing the dough. Add the olive oil and continue to mix till it becomes a soft dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes till it becomes soft and elastic. Put the dough in a separate bowl and cover it with clear film and leave for about 1 hour till it has doubled in bulk. After an hour, press the dough to release the air and knead for 2-3 minutes. Divide the dough into small balls and start rolling them into long sticks. Place well apart on a baking sheet and leave it aside for 15 minutes till they become puffed up. Bake for about 15 minutes till it becomes crisp and golden in a preheated oven (220 degree Celsius). Enjoy!