Thursday, January 17, 2008

Daal Chawal and....

Hubby demanded Daal Chawal again...this time with fried prawns on the side. It got me thinking.. what all do we eat as accompaniments to good old Daal chawal? Daal Chawal seems to be quite a universal staple in many homes across India, eaten along with a variety of fried or mashed side-dishes, pickles, poppadums or salads...

Here are a few of the fried stuff that are common in my house...

Fried Prawns.

Prawns, shelled and deveined.
Turmeric, chilli powder, salt, Ginger garlic paste, garam masala powder (optional), oil

Wash prawns well and drain. Mix in generous quantities of all ingredients except the oil. Let it marinate for a while. Fry in hot oil. Serve with a twist of lemon juice and a couple of fresh green chillies for added bite.

This is a typical Parsi way of doing fried prawns.


Aloo Bhaja

Fried potatoes, Bengali style.

Cube potatoes. Rub turmeric and salt into potatoes. Heat mustard oil and throw in some mustard seeds. Let them crackle. Add the potatoes. Stir well and fry on high heat for a minute. Lower flame and let it fry covered stirring once in a while. Don't let it burn. Serve hot once potatoes are cooked through.

Peyaanj Bhaja

Fried onions.

This is something my Mom's aunt used to make, especially for us kids.

Onions sliced. Sugar. Ghee.

Rub the onion slices with your fingers to open them up into individual strands. Heat a generous amount of ghee in a kadai. Fry the onions with some sugar. Fry over a slow flame so as to not burn the onions.
This tastes lovely with plain daal and rice. You can serve Aloo Bhate with it.


Aloo Bhate

Aloo Bhate is one of the most loved preparations that I would eat at my grandmom's house every summer when we visited during school summer holidays...

Boil a couple of potatoes with the peels. Peel after they are boiled. Mash the potatoes while they are still hot. The basic mash will have only mustard oil and salt. You can elevate it to a slightly fancier version by adding finely chopped onion and minced green chillies to it.


Tareli Machchhi

Fish fry, Parsi Style

Surmai or Pomfret slices.
Turmeric, chilli powder and salt
oil to fry

Marinate the fish in the spices for half an hour.
Fry in hot peanut or any neutral oil.
Serve hot with lemon slices.

4 comments:

Ansh said...

Awesome Rhea!!

some pictures of the food would add a visual appeal!!

I am gonna try make these !!

The Walker said...

Aaah... I'm loving your recipes! These are so simple, even I can make it!

May I link you from my blog? I get quite a few readers who stay away from their families and who could use your recipes :)

Cheers!

The Walker said...

Hi :)

I can send you an instruction manual of sorts... But I need an e-mail address to send it to. And since your recipes look wonderful and you're the second customer today (for the manual) it's free for you...

If you want to reply to a comment, simply type another comment! You could address it to a specific person using an '@' symbol. Like for eg.:

@ the walker: You may link my blog cos I'm feeling generous :)

Simple, innit?

(BTW... if you don't want to publish your mail address on the blog, send a message to Damien Walker on thepainishere@gmail.com and gimme about 12 hrs to send you the manual :)

Cheers! (Bon apetit too)

Rhea Mitra Dalal said...

thanks!!
my email is archaeocooks@gmail.com

thanks a ton :)