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: Punj Rattani Dal

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Dals are an integral part of Indian meals. In some form or the other, they are eaten daily in almost every Indian home.

Dals- lentils or pulses- are varieties of dried beans and peas. They are the main source of proteins for the average vegetarian Indian. Although dal generally refers to split pulses, in actuality there are two types of dal. Whole pulses are known as sabūt dal and split pulses as dhuli dal. The hulling of a pulse is intended to improve digestibility and palatability, but as with milling of whole grains into refined grains, this affects the nutrition provided by the dish, reducing dietary fiber content

Each state in India cooks its dal in different ways.  In south, dal is mostly eaten in the form of sambhar. People of Uttar Pradesh swear by toovar dal which is tempered with asafoetida, cumin seeds and sometimes garlic. Punjabis love their dal whole and unhulled, in the form of the delicious dal makhani, or rajma to accompany their rice or chole with their bhaturas.

When I have to describe dal to people in America who haven’t eaten it, the easiest way is to give them a picture of a lentil soup, although dal is a far cry from just a simple soup. The dal that we have is not as watery as soup, generally being creamier (without necessarily adding cream). A well cooked dal is generally quite thick, but sometimes just to keep it light, people thin it down a bit, such being the case for some of the dals that are cooked in southern India.

The tadka or the tempering is what gives a dal its distinct flavor, and is probably what distinguishes it from soups.

Tempering involves heating oil/ ghee in a small pan, to which whole spices are added, which in turn is poured over the cooked dal. Tempering can be simple with a little asafoetida and cumin seeds being tempered in some ghee/or oil, and then mixed in with the cooked dal. Or it can be elaborate by tempering some onions, ginger, garlic and tomatoes in ghee/oil, before adding to the cooked dal.

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