A belated GMT (again) and two recipes revisited!

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I know, I have been making a trend of doing belated GMTs. But it’s been crazy busy with me and when its not been busy, sitting on the computer has been last on the things I feel like doing. I have  been cooking and photographing- just not getting enough time or will to pen (or in this case type) it down.

The reason why I could not blog yesterday for GMT (again) is that Tuesdays have become busier than other days. I have joined Art Class, giving me no time in the evening. And since I am getting up at 5 am everyday to exercise, most afternoons I try getting a quick snooze in. I still thought I would be able to do a quick post yesterday, but my cold (which thankfully is better today) and a visit from my friend threw those plans out of the window.

Another reason, besides my triathlon (which FYI is this Saturday) training, my posts have been so sporadic is that due to a recent easy recipe plugin update, all the recipes that had the print it option were missing text and photographs. The easy recipe plugin guys have come out with an update that claims to take care of the problems with the previous update, but not before I manually fixed the recipes myself. That took some time and thus I had to take some time off blogging new recipes.

I promise next week onwards, I will be more regular and you will have a GMT that is posted on a Tuesday and not a Wednesday!

But for now, to compensate for my absence, I am sharing two old recipes that I posted around the beginning of my blogging days. If you remember I mentioned that I will be revisiting old recipes- one, to check whether they are spot on in terms of instructions and ingredients and two, to shoot better photographs and give them the exposure they deserve.

Today, as part of GMT I am revisiting V’s crockpot Toovar Dal recipe. This recipe is seriously good and so easy!

It’s the only thing that V has cooked for me (besides Maggi), and even though V doesn’t cook often or at all, this dal of his is my all time favorite dish. My friend B has also made this dal and every time she makes it she asks me to thank V for the recipe. Yes, this is THAT good. And since its made in the crockpot, it’s the easiest thing to put together. Click on the picture or here for the recipe.

The other recipe I am sharing today is my mom’s quick channa masala. Going with the theme today, this too is an easy recipe to put together. Somebody who tried the recipe, commented that “it was the best chole i have ever made. :) the perfect punju taste that i always attempted to get”.

I love this recipe not only because it tastes great, but because its really easy to put together. You can find the recipe here or click on the picture to take you to the post.

The day I made the chhole, I had a few ready to fry channa dal samosas in the freezer. So I decided to  make a favorite Indian street food- Samosa Chaat. I have made it before with a different recipe for the chickpea dish and homemade samosas. This time I used my mom’s quick channa masala recipe and ready made samosas. The end result was pretty good. You can find the original recipe here.

Garam Masala Tuesdays: Channa Masala with easily available ingredients

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I started Garam Masala Tuesdays with three aims- one, to familiarize non-Indians with Indian cooking; two, to familiarize Indian cooking to Indian ladies like me, who had only recently forayed into Indian cooking and who like me did not have the pleasure of their moms to guide them through various aspects of Indian food and three, to share recipes handed down by my mother or friends or relatives or seen on different sites along with giving a little background about the dish.

Now, because of the above three aims I am always in a dilemma when I write any post for the GMT. I wonder if I am writing the recipes for Indians, non-Indians or for Indians who are living abroad.

Indians living in India have access to all kinds of spices and vegetables and their taste buds are used to eating Indian flavored dishes. Indians living abroad have access to most spices, but might not have access to all and if they have been born and raised abroad might not be used to the different flavors of Indian cuisine. Non-Indians might not have any of the spices and even though they like Indian food, they might find it a pain to stock up on the oh-so-many spices that most Indian dishes call for. On the other hand, if I post a recipe without the necessary spices, Indians who might cook from my blog will lose out on the flavor that these very spices hand to the dish- and then for them the particular dish won’t be the real thing.

So, the dilemma always remains- how do I make sure I cater to everyone’s needs?

Of course I can’t and won’t even attempt to. And today I thought I’ll try to cook from a non-Indian’s pantry perspective. I think that’s something that GMT misses out on occasions.

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MAMA’S QUICK CHANNA MASALA

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This is the picture collage I posted with the original blog post. Yup, my photography has come a long way and still there is a long way to go!

Yesterday was feast day for V and me. Not that yesterday was any special  day but I just felt like cooking a grand meal. Probably, a reason for the special dinner was that V worked every day of last week. While his parents were here he had taken two days off, for which he had to make up by working Saturday, Sunday too this week. Another reason was that I wanted to try a few dishes that I had been postponing for a while. So, as a result, the dinner table was laden with my quick version of shahi paneer (an Indian cottage cheese dish), mama’s channa masala (a chickpea/garbanzo dish), spinach pooris (Indian fried flat bread) and for dessert shrikhand!

Shrikhand is one of the main desserts in Gujarat (a state in western India) and quite popular in Maharashtra too. Its fairly easy to prepare and delicious to eat. To make it, you need to strain the yogurt in a muslin cloth under pressure, so that all the water drains off. Then, to the strained yogurt, you add green cardamom powder and powdered sugar. In a tablespoon of hot milk, dissolve saffron. Add this to the yogurt. Mix well. Top with finely chopped pistachios and pomegranate, chill for a while and its ready to eat!:)

The shrikhand, spinach pooris and the paneer were something I tried on my own and forgot to note the measurements down. So, I am only posting the recipe for the chhole/chana masala, (but have given the general idea to prepare shrikhand above). The recipe is fairly quick to make and freakingly tasty! Enjoy making and eating it!

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