Wednesday, May 25, 2011

A recipe for capsicum barda palya

Ok I have a recipe after a long time.
I'm sure many people must be making this, or variations of it.

But i'm so thrilled mine turned out great today and I must put it down for myself. I used to make it earlier but in the past three years, for some unfathomable reason, I had stopped.

Including a dal in a subji/palya is a great way for me to mask the taste of a vegetable you don't like (i would love to try this with cabbage which i hate in the cooked form). It also adds volume when you're short of any vegetable. And most importantly it easily adds protein to your day's requirements.

What you need:
Capsicum - 4, chopped medium
Onion - 2, chopped
Kadle bele/Channa dal - a small cup
Green chilli -one (more if you like your food spicy)
Curry leaves
Coriander
Ginger
Jeera
Red chilli powder
Turmeric
Lime or amchoor powder
For seasoning -- mustard, jeera, oma/ajwain, uddin bele/urad dal
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:
1. Soak the channa dal for two hours. Drain excess water.
2. Pop it into the mixer along with the chillie, some chunks of ginger, some jeera,  salt and sugar to taste, turmeric, a dash of red chilli powder, curry leaves and coriander (chopped)
3. Grind it (DON'T ADD WATER), but just enough to make it a grainy grainy  mixture -- don't let it become a paste. It should be chunky...it's ok if you see some unground pieces of dal in it as well.
4. Heat oil in a pan/kadai/bandle, splutter the seasoning (you can vary it and add all you want).
5. Fry the onions light brown.
6. Add the dal mixture and cook it well too (it cooks pretty fast). Cover and let it cook, but keep stirring or dal may stick.
7. Add the capsicum.
8. Taste and check to adjust salt /spice levels. You can sprinkle on some red chilli powder if it sin't giving you a kick ;-)
9. Sprinkle on some drops of lime or add some amchoor powder to add the tang. Cover for a short while and it's done.


Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Sonny Boy's travelling itch

So Sonny's done it again.
He went to Hubby's hometown on his own, with just his pappa as travel partner.
This is his second time in less than two months. I'm proud of him and the Pappa.
But it's also the beginnngs of the "I'll cut the strings and run" syndrome that our kids are sure to be prone to as they grow up.
He seemed so happy yesterday telling me he had fun without me, and will soon do it again! The little rascal hah!
Of course he's come back this time, not with the usual cold and loosies, but some sort of allergic rashes. Little pimply specs all over his arms and legs. If it doenst subside by tonight with anti-allergic syrup and a calamine lotion to contain the itch, it's back to the doc tomorrow :-(

In the meanwhile I've managed to clean parts of the home while he dad-and-son were gone, visit an ailing friend in hospital, buy new ceramic plant holders for the home, increase my collection of plants outside the door, buy myself two new pairs of shoes, take my parents out to lunch, READ, READ READ, call up cousins and friends and chat, upload photographs .....aaah so much done, so much more that could have been done.

Work has been getting worse by the day. Cooking, gardening and planning for my SIX MEALS A DAY -- all that's been taking up time.

Monday, May 2, 2011

Started another blog... my weight loss attempts

I suddenly realised, after I started a new blog that I'm just some 10 days from the fisrt anniversary of this blog!

I've been travelling again (yes I left Sonny Boy again with my parents to travel on work for two days) and thinking a lot with the time on hand. I've decided to do something about my health in a positive direction. Staring with a decent amount of food control, exercise and hopefully some weight loss. And in the long run I hope I get healthier.

Dedcided to start a new blog for it as I didn't want to mix things up with this blog.
So here's the link -- I've not done much with it yet. Hope the blogging keeps me motivated to stay on track this time at least.

http://www.waitingtoloseweight.blogspot.com/