Dal Makhani

This makes a restaurant style Dal Makhani. It is so creamy and rich not to mention comforting that you will want to lick the bowl after the dal is long gone.

The other weekend when we were making our usual round of Costco, a store I hate as it makes my pantry look like it is bursting at the seams, they were handing out samples of  Madras Lentils from Tasty Bites, now I thought from the name that it might be something like Sambhar. But it was Dal Makhani !! I still do not get why they would call Dal Makhani - which is a north Indian dish - Madras lentil.

Anyway it was really tasty and my husband requested that I make this for him. This recipe tasted far better and it is home-made to boot. Try it and see for yourself.

Puran Poli

Puran Poli is poli (tortilla-like flatbread ) stuffed with puran ( channa dal and jaggery mixture).This is made during festivals and is a favorite amongst many. It is also called Holige or Obbattu in Karnataka. My mom makes these at home and that is where I learnt how to make these polis.

The other day it was Varalakshmi Vratham, so while my mother-in-law took care of all the puja, I took care of all the cooking. One of the dishes to be made was puran poli. Honestly, I could not wait to make this, but the process of resting the dough and pressure cooking the dal ensured that it was the last dish to be made. The puran polis came out great, soft, moist and filled with a lot of puran. I am not very fond of the ultra thin and dry polis that requires you to have a glass of water nearby whenever you are eating one. I love my polis to be plump with puran, soft, moist and fragrant with the smell of cardamom and nutmeg and this recipe produces such a poli.

They are actually quite easy to make the trick is to have a very soft dough. If you make the regular roti / paratha dough, it will be very difficult to roll, your puran poli will end up as a disaster during rolling. Also ensure that you thicken the channa dal and jaggery / gur mixture by evaporating as much water as possible without burning it. Remember that the puran will thicken as it cools down, thick enough to roll out in soft round balls.

I do apologise for the lack of photos of the finished product, you see my hungry hubby was glaring at me for cooling all the hot rotis while I snapped photos.


Puran Poli

Sai Bhaji

When we lived in Ghana we had quite a number of Sindhi friends and they would cook these yummy delicious Sindhi food. One of the Sindhi dishes that really made an impression on us was Sai Bhaji.

Sai Bhaji became part of our menu whenever we had some spinach on hand. Sai mean green and the Bhaji means vegetable, so this green vegetable is not only tasty but healthy and wholesome too.

I have adapted my mom's recipe to the ingredients available here . Generally along with spinach a couple of other sour tasting green leaves are used, as those were not available to me I substituted with tamarind concentrate and some kasturi methi  ( dried fenugreek leaves).

The Sai Bhaji tasted great, just like I remembered it and everybody loved it at home. I served it with some hot steaming rice. You can also have it with warm rotis. So if you have some spinach at hand and want to try something new with it, try Sai Bhaji, you will not regret it.




Sai Bhaji