Wednesday, January 28, 2015

urad daal aur sowa ke pakode | lentil fritters with dill leaves



Daal ke pakode is a winter snack made with tea or coffee in the evenings or for weekend breakfasts in many homes. Weekend breakfast mostly becomes a brunch for us but we normally don't cook elaborated meals on weekends and make something that we enjoy eating in leisure but simpler to cook. So mostly it is something like a platter of hot pakode or crisp cooked methi or alu ke paranthe in this season or a huge bowl of salad in summers. Newspapers and such comforting meals make our weekend mornings very relaxed, usually very late mornings in fact, stretching out well till afternoon.

I had soaked urad ki daal (split and skinned black beans) last week to make some kanji vada to be soaked in the kanji that was fermenting on my kitchen counter and a relaxed Saturday brunch of sowa wale daal ke pakode. But on Friday evening one of Arvind's friends called and came to visit us on a short notice for tea. I decided to quickly fry some daal ke pakode and harey lasun ki chutney with chai and as it turned out, this snack became our dinner that day. Not that I am complaining, I did fry some plain vadas and soaked them in the kanji to make the much craved for kanji vadas.


Sowa bhaji is a fragrant leafy green that is usually mixed with spinach or methi (fenugreek greens) to make saag or stir fries. We love it in our daals, raw chutneys and even in lehsun sagga. It was after a long time I made pakodas with these dill greens. All of us loved this impromptu meal of pakodas.

ingredients 
(enough pakodas for a gathering where no one minds portions)

urad daal 1.5 cup soaked overnight or minimum 3 hours
chopped dill greens 2 cups packed
minced green chillies 2 tsp or to taste
minced or grated fresh ginger root 1 tbsp or a bit more
coarse pepper powder 1 tsp
anardana powder 1-2 tsp (optional)
salt to taste
mustard oil for deep frying

procedure 

Discard the soaking water and grind the soaked daal to a smooth paste. Whip some more while still in the mixie jar to make the batter light. Do not add water while making this paste else the batter will get runny and the pakodas would absorb too much oil while frying.

Mix this batter with all the other ingredients except the oil and start frying right away. Keeping it for long makes the batter runny and it absorbs more oil while frying.

Heat the oil in a deep kadhai and fry small portions of the batter to make pakodas. You can use a rounded dessert spoon or soup spoon to scoop the batter and drop it in hot oil to make pakodas, depending on what size of pakodas you want.

Take care to fry them at medium flame so they cook thoroughly, these pakodas do not soak much oil as urad daal is quite sticky and the surface of the pakodas get sealed quickly in the hot oil.

Serve hot with any green chutney but this green garlic chutney works really well with this dill flavoured daal ke pakode.


To make this green garlic chutney mix a cup of chopped green garlic (leaves and some of the bulbs) with a cup of chopped green coriander leaves along with 3-4 green chillies, 1 tsp chopped ginger, salt to taste and lime juice to taste. The chutney is so good you would want to make it everyday with all your meals. We eat too much green garlic in this season.

These urad daal ke pakode are irresistible. I suggest you to make it a meal always as such snacks feel guilty if one is heading for a meal after this. Or serve it as starters for an elaborate meal for guests and see how fast they fly.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Rivaayat is revival of tradition : tasting some traditional flavours from Awadh, Delhi, Hyderabad and Amritsar at The Oberoi, New Delhi


Yes, I went for another Rivaayat dinner hosted by Threesixty at The Oberoi, New Delhi. As I mentioned in my last Rivaayat experience at Trident Gurgaon, this initiative by The Oberoi group is a way to bring the traditional cuisines to the forte and build up a repertoire of authentic Indian recipe for their properties all across India.

At Threesixty, we met Chef Arun Mathur who has worked with some khandani cooks and brought age old recipes from them for the patrons of The Oberoi. And I must say the chefs at Threesixty have done full justice to the traditional cuisines going by the things we tasted there.

Ruchira, Himanshu and I went for a dinner there last week and could not resist the crusty breads on the table. The brown rolls were so so good. As we were nibbling on the crusty rolls with butter, Deepica Sarma (Manager communications) introduced us with Chef Arun and he told us how he learnt the talli murghi from a cook in the by-lanes of old Delhi. And we could whiff the old Delhi spices when talli murghi came of the table along with a fiery peeli mirch ki chutney and hari chutney.


The Amritsari machhli was done really well, flavours of ajwain and slight tartness by amchoor well preserved. Many chefs drown the flavours in loads of besan coating and kill the fish but this one kept the promise, more so because the fish was very fresh.

Chawnk ki tikki is a baniya specialty from purani dilli and some parts of UP and it was done well too. Deep fried but light, with a stuffing of chownki hui hari matar, almost like matar ki ghugni. Some people make this tikki with a stuffing of chawnki mung ki daal. We tasted a few pickles on the table and loved the mushroom garlic pickle the most. Chicken and prawn pickles were good too but mushroom-garlic took the cake.

Among the mains my most favourite was the saag murgh kofte. Silky smooth chicken balls poached in water and then cooked lightly with wilted spinach was very delicately spiced and cooked just right. Maah chhole ki daal felt exactly like home cooked, light and honest. No nonsense of too much tomatoes or too much butter or cream in it and yet so flavourful.

I loved the rarah meat too as it was not over spicy like the dhabas and no oil floating on top. But the robustness of the spice was evident as it is supposed to be. Well balanced.


Nihari gosht was different from what we had tasted from Shahjahanabad ki Sair but was still very good. Light and aromatic with hints of saffron to be enjoyed with khameeri roti or baqarkhani roti. I took a bite from each type of roti and loved them all. Baqarkhani was not sweet and aromatic with saffron which I liked a lot. Garlic naan was also done really well but I can't eat too much breads with my meals.

Dahi wala kukkad was a bit too tart for my liking but not bad. I know many who would like it. I had found the saag murgh kofte and needed nothing else in fact. I would try and recreate it in my own kitchen really soon.

Desserts were served and everyone liked the gulathi which is a grainier version of phirni. This gulathi is a UP specialty chef Arun informed and is cooked along with some coconut and saffron, it was rich and heavy but tasted good. Although I don't enjoy such desserts much, 2 spoonfuls and I am done.
Gajar ka halwa was also good but we have had better gajar ka halwa so it did not make an impact.

I would definitely remember the saag murgh kofte, maah chhole ki daal and rarha meat from Threesixty and the fact that all food was light despite being traditional Indian curries. This is what I like when old recipes are treated with respect and recreated in a way that it can be enjoyed for normal meals.

We had some green tea before we departed. It was such a comforting meal for a chilly winter day.


It feels good when a traditional meal is served this well, is done justice towards and is enjoyed by everyone on the table. A meal that doesn't feel too heavy if you actually don't overeat.

Rivaayat is a great initiative by The Oberoi in fact. I am watching how it unfolds in other cities as a friend told Hyderabad is next where Rivaayat is unfolding.



Rivaayat, a royal Awadhi food experience at Saffron, Trident, Gurgaon


Awadhi food is close to my heart as I have spent a major chunk of my growing up years in Banaras and even the vegetarian food there has the Mughlai Awadhi influence. Probably it was the geographical region that influenced the Awadhi Mughlai and made it richer with milk products, ghee and nuts making the spicing milder and more aromatic together. The origin of all Mughlai cuisine offshoots spread across the country is Persia as Dr. Izzat Hussain says, adding that the essence of Mughlai cuisine was preserved best in Awadh region. I think it was also because of the climatic and geographical attributes of this region where milk, khoya and ghee were used abundantly since time immemorial.

I met Dr. Izzat Hussain at Trident, Gurgaon last week where he is training and showcasing his own rendition of Awadhi Mughlai cuisine that he has developed over the years with his knowledge of Unani medicine combined with the love for food. We went there for dinner and Dr. Hussain greeted us with his trademark cheeky smile, then we settled down with some pineapple juice with ginger and talked about spices and herbs, condiments, cooking oils, ghee and everything that has a possible connection with food. He believes in using only as much spice and herbs in a recipe as is required for good health and digestion and that was the essence of everyday cooking in older days too.

My choice of pineapple and ginger juice mix was an effort to be prepared for a heavy meal.


Recently The Oberoi Group conducted an Indian culinary conclave by the name of Rivaayat and invited noted food historians, food critics and culinary experts to educate and train 32 senior most Chefs working with the group flown in from all over India. This is a great effort to preserve a culinary legacy and make a richer repertoire keeping the authenticity intact. Dr. Izzat Hussain's contribution to the Rivaayat is quite a wide range of kababs, kormas, rotis and biryanis and a few fine techniques that Chef Sandeep (from Saffron) finds useful. Many of these recipes will be included in the menu of Saffron, an eclectic Indian restaurant at Trident Gurgaon glowing with vibrant red and golden hues, massive Doric pillars and live instrumental Hindustani music.


As we sampled Galouti kabab and Kakori kabab, both cooked excellently. I asked Dr, Hussain about the origin of kakori kababs and he mentioned the place called Kakori closer to Lucknow. A cook named Golu miyan used to make kababs and to prevent the kababs from falling off the seekh, he tried a coating of egg whites that binds the soft and delicate kabab so well that it sticks to the seekh till cooked. The uncoated version is tied with thread and is called dora kabab.

Dr. Hussain has created a few vegetarian kababs too and they were good. I liked the paneer seekh, the mixed vegetable kabab enclosed in rice dough and bhuna aloo. I found the chutneys interesting as he introduced thoum and olive and coriander greens chutney. Thoum (or Toum) was made less pungent by adding cream and olive coriander was made almost like pesto.

I had never seen olives being used in Awadhi cuisine but Dr. Hussain revealed that the Nawabs of Awadh always had access to the finest olives, zereshk berries, dates and spices imported from Iran and Persia and their use was common in royal kitchens. Something we never find in the street foods we eat at Tundey's or Dastrakhwan in Lucknow.


The platter that came for mains was huge with both vegetarian and non vegetarian options for tasting. I loved the Saffron special daal (a specialty of Saffron), which is a light masoor ki daal garnished with cream and saffron. The best non vegetarian curry I liked was malai boti kabab (curried) which was delicately flavoured and cooked really soft. I liked the shahi nihari as well.

Nihari is eaten with gilafi kulcha in Lucknow and it was made well. The Baqarkhani roti was also made really well but I cannot eat breads so just took one bite from each. But I ate a good portion of Izzat ki roti which is a specialty of Dr. Hussain and it is really good multi grain roti.

The only grudge I have with this meal is the use of refined soybean oil for cooking. It is sacrilege for all traditional Indian cooking and health wise too. Ghee and mustard oil and other traditionally used cold pressed oils make so much difference in the final taste and healing properties of food as well.


A vegetarian kaju biryani was light and delicate, although just like a pulao. The gosht biryani had familiar aromatic flavours while the murgh tursh pulao was a bit tart but interesting. I would have liked the biryanis if served as a meal and not as a part of this huge spread. I was definitely full by then.

The desserts had the typical awadh signature. Tar halwa is a semolina halwa that is drowned in ghee, cooked with only milk and nuts this halwa is quite rich but somehow not my favourite. I liked the chhena kheer which was done really well and the shahi tukda that had raisins and nuts in the dense bread that is baked specially for this shahi tukda.

Mallika Gowda ( Manage communications) joined us for the dinner as well and introduced us to the whole concept of Rivaayat and how Oberoi group is taking it forward with their properties all over India so the signature recipes remain the same all over.


Chef Sandeep's rich fudge like chocolate cookies were the parting gift that came with an instruction to be microwaved for a few seconds before eating. I agree, rich chocolate is best enjoyed slightly warm.


I am sharing the recipe of Izzat ki roti that Dr. Hussain shared with me so graciously. It is a multi grain roti cooked with a few seasonal herbs and light spices and served with curries and kormas.


ingredients...

a mix of oats, ragi, gram, corn and whole wheat flours 500 gm
season fresh herbs like dhaniya-pudina 25 gm chopped fine
green chilli to taste
minced ginger and garlic 10 gm each
kalonji, ajwain and saunf 3 gm each
salt to taste
oil (ghee for me) 1 tbsp
warm water to knead the dough

procedure...

Mix the flours, the herbs, the spices and the ghee and salt. Mix well by rubbing together and knead a firm dough using warm water. Let it rest for half an hour and then make flat breads as you like.

Smear ghee or butter as per liking and serve as required.



Friday, January 23, 2015

chukandar gosht | mutton stew with beet roots and leaves


Chukandar gosht or mutton stewed with beet roots and leaves is one dish that looks really good on the table. Meats stewed slowly with vegetables is a Muslim way of cooking meats as much as I understand and that might be because it might have been the only way to eat vegetables in a primarily meat eating culture. I had never seen such meat stews being cooked in my family with added vegetables although spinach and fenugreek leaves were occasional additions to the meat curries cooked at home, sometimes a potato would be added for someone who doesn't like too much meat. Gobhi keema musallam and keema matar was common but any mushy vegetables were not at all considered for meat. I was a vegetarian back then.

chukandar gosht recipe

Later when I learned about shalgam gosht, arbi gosht and bhindi gosht etc being cooked regularly at some of my friends places, I figured that would be a better way to eat meats. Then I started adding one odd vegetable to the Indian style meat stews but was not confident with adding a strong tasting vegetable to the meats. Then I started cooking rajma with beetroots some 6-7 years ago and everyone used to love it although I am guilty of not sharing the recipe of that rajma too.

Bringing beetroots to the meat stews was the next step and we loved this new avatar of Indian meat stew with beetroots and leaves. So much so whenever I find beets along with the greens attached, I think of a mutton stew. I sometimes cook this stew with just the leaves and sometimes add cubed beet roots as well. I must admit the version with just the leaves is appreciated more by majority of people I have come across.

This recipe is not quick but is fairly simple to cook. Cook this chukandar gosht when you have more work to do in the kitchen and this stew keeps cooking on the sly. I had learnt this recipe long back reading some Pakistani blog written in a very casual way but it was so good after tweaking the spices to my taste that I kept repeating it and forgot where I picked up.

chukandar gosht recipe

ingredients 
(2 servings or 3 small)
mutton on bone (from shoulders or raan) 300 gm
beetroots with leaves 2 pieces (about 300 gm total)
tejpatta 3-4
ginger garlic paste 2 tbsp
dry whole red chillies 3-4 or more (keep it slightly hot to balance the sweetness of beetroots)
everyday garam masala 1 tbsp
yogurt 1/4 cup
special garam masala 1 tsp
mustard oil 2 tbsp or less if you can manage
sliced onions 2 (about 150 gm)
salt to taste
finely chopped green chillies and fresh ginger root to garnish

chukandar gosht recipe

procedure 

Rinse, clean and chop the beet leaves roughly. Peel, rinse and dice the beetroots. Keep aside. (You can choose not to add the beet root chunks if you think they will be too sweet for the stew. You would need to tone down the spices in that case).

Put the mutton, beet leaves and tejpatta in a large stockpot along with a liter of water and cook on low flame for an hour or more, till the meat is cooked perfectly. Add salt after skimming any greyish matter that floats on the surface initially. You can pressure cook this mix in one step if you find it convenient.

Once cooked, fish out all the mutton pieces, remove the tejpatta and liquidise the stock along with the cooked beet leaves. Keep aside.

Heat mustard oil in a pan (preferably cast iron kadhai) and fry the sliced onions till browned well. Drain and make a paste along with the everyday curry powder and yogurt. Keep aside.

In the remaining oil add the broken dry red chillies and let them sizzle for a while to release flavours into the oil. Now tip in the ginger garlic paste and fry till pinkish. Add the onion, yogurt paste and fry in low flame till it gets glazed well or releases oil (if using more oil).

Add the cooked mutton pieces and bhuno till everything gets mixed well and the mutton pieces get a nice browning. Add the special garam masala, the beet root chunks and bhuno for 5-10 minutes. Add the pureed mix, some water if required and simmer till the beet root chunks are cooked well. This step can also be done in pressure cooker, being cautious of overcooking.

Serve hot with chopped green chillies and ginger. It tastes great with khameeri roti or kulcha and some sirke wala pyaz or sliced mooli.

chukandar gosht recipe

Sometimes I cook mutton with spinach almost the same way, specially when the spinach is large and mature. This kind of masala suits well for added fibrous pureed leaves in the gravy. Basically a bit higher chilly and ginger heat to be toned down by the sweeter beets and yogurt. This curry has a unique taste that can convert beetroot haters. Some might not convert but most of them will for sure.

Please try this chukandar gosht and tell me if you like. Cook it with paneer or kala chana if you want a vegetarian version, you won't be disappointed.

Monday, January 19, 2015

everyday daal : chane ki daal bathue wali | sagpaita cooked with split chickpeas and chenopodium greens


Sagpaita is a name given to all lentils cooked with winter greens. Spinach, Chenopodium (bathua), Fenugreek greens (methi), Chane ka saag (chickpea greens) or a mix of spinach and dill leaves, fenugreek greens and dill leaves etc is cooked with any lentil to make a saucy daal rich with flavours of garlic, hing and cumin used for the tadka.

sagpaita recipe

Sagpaita is basically a winter food that is considered warming and hydrating for the body at the same time. The lentils used mostly for sagpaita are arhar ki daal (split pigeon peas), chane ki daal (split chickpeas) or urad daal (split black beans) but a mix of lentils is also used. Mung ki daal (split mung beans) is also cooked to make sagpaita but it is mostly with baby spinach or baby fenugreek greens.

All these sagpaita recipes are slightly different from each other despite being a mix of lentils and greens basically but the taste of each sagpaita tells you how and why each one is cooked differently.

We do cook lentils with purslane greens in summers too but somehow sagpaita is a name given to the ones cooked with winter greens only. No wonder, the daal can include a lot of spices and loads of ghee is topped over the bowls of sagpaita. It has to be a winter delicacy as the recipe is tuned to be eaten in winters. All parts of Uttar Pradesh get very chilly during the 2 months of winter and there are various foods made with fresh produce to stay warm.

This chane ki daal ka sagpaita with bathue ka saag is made differently in each family. Some would add a little urad dal to it and some would add some fresh green peas or 'harey chane' but the tempering will always have some hing-jeera-lasun and laal mirch along with mild spices like dhaniya, jeera, kali mirch powder and may be a couple of tejpatta. There is good protein in the daal along with a lot of greens, so the hing and garlic etc is added to allow proper digestion of the sagpaita.

I sometimes add es of paneer to my sagpaita to make it a one pot meal. Otherwise it is best enjoyed with plain boiled rice, some bhujia type dry subzi, raita and papad kind of Indian meals.

ingredients
(2-3 large servings)

For pressure cooking
chane ki daal (split chickpeas 100 gm (scant half cup)
finely chopped bathua (chenopodium greens) 300 gm (2 cups packed)
minced ginger 1 tbsp
salt to taste
turmeric powder 1 tsp
water 1.5 cup

For tempering
ghee 1 tbsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
hing (asafotida) a pinch
chopped garlic 1-2 tsp according to taste
red chilly powder 1/2 tsp or more to taste
everyday curry powder 1 tsp (optional)

lime juice to serve.
Paneer cubes as per requirement.

procedure

Pressure cook the daal and bathua greens along with the ingredients listed. Wait till the pressure builds up and the whistle blows, then cook on low flame for 10 minutes.

Prepare the tempering by heating the ghee and then adding the ingredients one after the other in the order listed. Make sure the garlic gets pink in colour and turns aromatic before you add the chilly powder and then remove the pan from the stove and pour the ingredients into the cooked daal. Mix well and churn the daal mixture if you like the sagpaita a bit saucy.

Serve hot with some lime juice or hot melted ghee or butter on top. This can be served with all the usual Indian accompaniments for a meal as I mentioned.

When I add paneer cubes I usually let the sagpaita simmer for a few minutes to soften the paneer before serving. Sagpaita or bathue wali chane ki daal has a distinct aroma of hing, cumin seeds and garlic that we call 'hing-jeera-lehsun ka tadka' and a mild kick imparted by red chillies. The base is earthy with bathua and chana dal that makes this sagpaita a very uniquely flavoured daal.

You can cook this daal with arhar (toor or pigeon peas) ki daal as well. The recipe wont changeeven if you use a mix of chane and arhar ki daal. But mung and urad daals need a different treatment. We will talk about that when I share the recipe of sagpaita with those lentils.

Enjoy bathua chane ki daal ka saigpaita till then.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

bisibele bhath : the southern khichdi we loved even in the simplest way



Bisibele bhath recipe used to feel very complicated whenever I saw it on other blogs or when friends explained it to me. Roasting a lot of spices separately, powdering them and then cooking a few more things separately to mix them all together to make a khichdi that tastes divine, that was my impression of Bisi bele bhath or BBB as it is called by BBB admirers. Yes Bisibele bhath has admirers, you realise when you talk about it to someone who has grown up eating this. I used to feel really out of place even though I love everything that looks like khichdi, be it our bhuni khichdi, mung ki khichdi or risotto, the firangi khichdi. Even Haleem that we love so much.

Bisi bele bhath is no less than Haleem mind you. The dark beauty it is, packed with flavours that makes the meal deeply satisfying and worth admiring too. And this was a short cut recipe that my friend Nirupama typed for me in a hurry one night so I could make a decent Bisi bele bhath with the fresh Pigeon pea lentils she had packed for me during my Hyderabad visit 2 weeks ago.


Yes we were in Hyderabad for a week and experienced harvesting, cooking and eating a farm to table meal along with other things one does in a city seeped with history and old world charm. I met a few dear friends, made a few new friends and brought back some really good stuff home. I bought pickles and kalamkari fabric and my friend Nirupama packed some more foodie gits for me, one of the gifts was this bag of fresh pigeon peas that they call Kandulu in Telugu, Thuvaram in Tamil and Arhar phalli or Tuvar phalli in Hindi. I was amazed to see heaps of this lentil being sold on roadsides towards airport along with seasonal fruits, mainly papaya, oranges and pomegranate.

We never get to see this arhar ki phalli in north Indian markets, fresh green peas are very common during this season and hara chana (fresh green garbanzo) also starts coming but just imagine if we get fresh pods of all the lentils we grow. I think I will use one or the other fresh beans everyday in my cooking.


Fresh Pigeon peas are also called Toor lilva and is used extensively in Marathi and Gujrati cuisines. Some day I will cook all of those things for sure. A proper Undhiyo has been on my list for ever although I have cooked lame versions of Undhiyo a few times.

We had enjoyed this fresh Pigeon peas at Aiyor Bai farm by just boiling them in salted water and snacking on them warm. But this was the first time I was eating these lentils fresh and I wanted to experiment more.

Nirupama recommended the Bisi bele bhath, typed a recipe for me and I mustered the courage to make it for the first time. The divine tasting BBB did not disappoint me even though it was a simplified recipe that Nirupama told me so I could manage to make a decent one.

ingredients
(2 meal portions with some yogurt and papad on the side)

white short grain rice (or broken basmati) 1/4 cup
fresh pigeon peas 1 cup
dry grated or desiccated coconut 2 tbsp
whole coriander seeds 1 tbsp
2-3 Bedgi chillies broken
cinnamon stick 1 inch broken
sambhar powder (ready made from a packet) 1 tbsp
cashew nuts 2-3 tbsp
diced onions 1/2 cup
curry patta 2-3 tbsp
mustard seeds 1 tsp
hing 1 pinch
ghee 1 tbsp

chopped vegetables in bite sized pieces 2-3 cups (I used carrots, cauliflowers and brinjal)

tamarind extract to taste ( I boiled 1 tbsp worth of tamarind with a cup of water, mashed when cool, filtered and added the watery extract to BBB)

procedure

Boil the fresh pigeon peas along with a cup of water and salt to taste in pressure cooker. About 5-8 minutes under pressure (after the first whistle blows). Cool down, open the cooker, add the chopped vegetables and simmer till the vegetables are soft. Add some water if required.

Cook the rice with a cup of water till done. The rice will be watery even after cooking but this is intended.

In the meanwhile, dry roast the broken chillies, cinnamon, whole coriander seeds and the coconut together till they all become a little dark and aromatic. Add the desiccated coconut later if using, grated coconut can be roasted along with everything else. Add sambhar powder in the end and switch off the gas so the powder gets roasted in residual heat. Let them all cool down. Then make a coarse powder and keep aside.


In the same pan, pour ghee and tip in mustard and hing. Let them crackle before adding cashew nuts and fry them till pinkish brown. Add the onions and curry patta and fry till translucent.

Mix the powdered mix with the fried mix and stir well.

Add this mixture to the cooked lentils and rice together, add the tamarind extract, adjust seasoning and simmer for 5 minutes till everything comes together.

The resultant dish will be very aromatic by now. Fry or roast some papad and lay the table. You can't wait for long once the Bisi bele bhath is ready.


I had fried alu ka papad which is a Banaras specialty and a vadi made with puffed rice called Aralu sandige that Nirupama had packed for me. Such meals are enjoyed with extended family most.


I always feel we love such flavours best when there are more people around. People you have grown up with, have made memories together and have eyed the the last yummiest morsels of food from the table together.

Bisi bele bhath will be licked clean by the end of the meal no matter how much you serve. Even this short cut recipe thanks to Nirupama is a keeper and I will be cooking this version a lot. But I will be making the elaborate version of Bisi bele bhath very soon.

Feeling encouraged by the first success of my Bisi bele Bhath.