Tomato Dal / Tomato Pappu

" Develop the winning edge; small differences in your performance can lead to large differences in your results."

Ingredients:-


Tomato - 2 (Medium-size)
Tuvar dal - 1 cup
Ginger-garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Salt as per taste
Red-chilli powder (as required)
Green-chilles - 5 to 6
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
Water - 1 cup

For Seasoning/tempering:-
Oil
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds
Urad dal
Curry leaves


Method:-
1. Clean the dal. Add tomatoes, ginger-garlic paste, cumin seeds, water,green-chilles and turmeric powder.Pressure cook the dal for 3 to 4 whistels or until the dal is cooked.
2. Once it is cooked, add tamarind paste, salt and red chilli powder according to your taste buds.
3. Now take a small pan for tempering. Add some oil, add all the ingredients under tempering. Once they are turning brown , add to the above dal.
4. Now cook the dal for 2 to 3 minutes on a medium heat. Serve with roti or rice of ur choice.

Note:-
1. Some people like the tempering with ghee.
2. You can avoid the tamarind paste, if the tomatoes are too tangy.

Palakura Pappu

"Success is never final and failure never fatal. It's courage that counts."

Todays receipe is Palakura Pappu or Spinach dal.

Ingredients
~~~~~~~
Spinach - 1 cup(Nicely cleaned and chopped)
Toor dal -2 cups (washed)
Ginger-garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Salt as per taste
Red chilli powder as required
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Water - 2 cups
Green chillies - 2 to 3
Oil

For Tempering or Seasoning
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds
Red chillies

Method:-
---------
1.  Take a Pressure cooker, add dal, spinach, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder and cumin seeds. To this add water and pressure cook until 3 whistles. 
2. Heat some oil in a pan. When it is hot add all the ingredients mentioned under tempering.
3.Add this to the cooked dal. Now add salt and check the spices if required add red chilli powder. Add tamarind paste and cook on medium flame for 5 to 7 minutes. Cook until it gets desired consistency of your choice.
4. Serve hot with rice or chapati of your choice.

Tomato and moong dal curry

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved." 


Todays receipe is a simple dish which we often make as a curry when we have chapati or roti.

Ingredients
-----------
Moong dal - 1 cup
Tomatoes - 2 (Medium)
Green chillies - 5 to 6
Curry leaves - 5 to 6
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Red-chilli powder(optional)
Salt as required
Oil

For Seasoning/Tempering
--------------------------
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 5 to 6

Method:-
---------
1. Wash the moong dal and keep it aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan. All the ingredients mentioned under seasoning one- by one. When they are truning golden brown, add ginger-garlic paste, curry leaves and green chilles. Fry them nicely under medium flame for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Now add moong dal. Fry the moong dal under low flame until it is golden brown. Now add tomatoes and close the lid. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Mix nicely and add water as needed. Close the lid and cook the dal until it is nicely cooked and there is no water left. Now add the salt and check the spices.

5. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Dosakaya Pappu/yellow cucumber dal/

Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only what you are expecting to give — which is everything. What you will receive in return varies. But it really has no connection with what you give. You give because you love and cannot help giving.

Todays receipe is yellow cucumber dal or dosakaya pappu.

Ingredients
-----------
Dosakaya - 1 small to medium size(Skin should be peeled and chopped in to small pieces)
Green chillies - 5 to 6 (Adjust according to your spice)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Ginger-garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Toor dal - 1/2 cup
Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
Salt as per taste
Red chilli powder (optional)
Oil

For Seasoning/tempering
-------------------------
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Garlic - nicely chooped
Red chillies - 2 to 3
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 4 to 5

Method:-
---------
1. Take a pressure pan and wash the toor dal.To this dal add green chillies, cumin seeds, turmeric powder and ginger-garlic paste.Take a bowl and put the nicely chopped dosakaya pieces in it. Place the bowl in the center. As shown in below picture.

2.Pressure cook the dal for 3 to 4 whistles. Cook and remove the lid.
3. Mash the dal nicely. To this add salt and if required add red chilli powder. Add Tamarind paste and mix well.
4.Now Take a kadai. Add some oil. when it is hot, add cumin seeds, mustard seeds. When they start to crackle add garlic, red-chillies and curry leaves.
5. When they start to change color, add the cooked yellow cucumber/ dosakaya and fry nicely for a minute.
Now add the mash dal.
6. Boil it for a minute. Serve with roti or rice of your choice.

Note:-
1. After peeling the skin of the dosakaya, and before adding to the dal check the dosakaya pieces. When you bite, if it is sour / sweet/ tasteless its ok to add. If it is bitter it is better to avoid otherwise whole dal would taste bitter.

2. You can add tomatoes, or onions . Its upto you. No rules. In the above dal there are no tomatoes and onions.

Spinach Dal with garlic tempering/Lasooni dal

"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time." - Thomas Edison

Todays recipe is spinach dal. I love to have green vegetables in my diet.They are good for eyes and hair.Using spinach , I also prepare  spinach fry with moon gal and garlic (dry version), spinach pakoda.I will blog them too sometime. I usually love to have spinach dal with meal maker fry. I like the combination. Today i would like to try the spinach dal with potato fry.

Ingredients


Spinach - Bunch (Nicely chopped and washed)
Toor Dal - 1 cup
Garlic - 3 flakes
Tamarind paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Green chillies - 3 to 4
Red chilli powder as per taste
Salt to taste
Oil
For Seasoning/tempering


Cumin seeds
Coriander seeds
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves (leaves)
Dry red chillies (Optional)
Hing(Optional)
Chopped garlic - 2 flakes

Method


1. Wash the dal nicely for 3 to  4 times in a pressure cooker. Add 1 and half cup of water to it. Add turmeric  powder, cumin seeds, chopped green chilles, chopped garlic and now add chopped spinach to it .
2. Pressure cook the dal up to 3 whistles.If the dal is not cooked, you can cook for 2 more whistles.
3. Once the dal is cooked, add salt and tamarind paste to it. If the spice level is less you can add the red chilli powder.
4. Take another small pan or kadai. This is for tempering. Add oil to it. when it is hot, add the ingredients listed under tempering.
5.Pour this tempering to the dal and Boil it for 5 minutes and switch off the flame.
6. Serve hot with roti or rice.

Lessons from my experience


Initially when I start cooking, I never used to taste the curry while preparing. So I used to wonder whoever tasted used to tell me about salt/red chilli powder being less or more.Sometimes also with the question how many spoons you have added?.As I used to feel I added reasonable amount of them. Then I started tasting the curry whatever I made before it is served. After then I became confident with the amount how much need to be added.Later on , whenever I made anything I just used to trust my instincts.

Zuchini dal

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. - Lou Holtz

Whenever I happen to go to vegetable market, I used to wonder how to cook zuchini, especially using zuchini in the Indian cooking. Atlast, I took the courage and brought the zuchini home. I decided to make zuchini dal as i was missing dosakaya (cucumber pickle). The dal came out well, worth a try different from other dals.

Ingredients


Moong dal - 3/4 cup
Zuchini - 1 (peeled and chopped into small pieces)
Tuvar/ Toor dal - 1/4 cup
Tomato - 1 (chopped)
Tamarind - 1 inch( Soak it and extract the juice from that)
Garlic cloves - 4
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Green chillies - 5 ( chopped into small pieces). This is according to ones spice level.
Coriander leaves to garnish
Salt to taste
Onion - small (chopped)

For Seasoning


Oil - 1tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1tsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Red chillies -1 medium size
Hing or asafaetodia a pinch
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Method:-
Wash the 2 dals above mentioned and add pinch of turmeric powder, cumin powder, garlic cloves , green chilles. Pressure cook the dal until the dal is cooked and is soft.
Now heat some oil in a pan. Add the seasoning, Add chopped onions. When they become little brown, add zuchini to it. Cook for 3 minutes with the close lid. Check in between and mix well so that the zuchini does not stick to the pan.
Now add tomatoes and cook under closed lid for about 5 minutes.
When the tomatoes are cooked at the same time when the zuchini is cooked, at that time add the dal with some water and tamarind extract.

When the dal is starting to get boil add salt. Check the spice, if it is less add the red chilli powder. Boil it for a minute and switch off the stove. Before serving garnish with the coriander leaves.