Somewhere in the beginning of this year I made a silent resolution to post more savories than desserts as my collection of desserts in my content repertoire had shamefully grown than any other category. Time and again I kept reminding myself about readers being aghast about the paramount number of desserts I had on my blog, as if I had convinced them to believe that this is all we had daily. I had many mailing for basic recipes, as basic as making butter and ghee at home, more savouries for breakfast and tea time snacks, etc., while I had desserts brimming to my blog, something which was unintentional, but in course just unpremeditated.

One of my colleague recently insisted I post recipe on basics of homemade curd, ghee and paneer when it came as a surprise to her on learning that we could make them all at home. From the time I can remember, I grew up seeing my mom skim off the cream from milk and freezing them for days to churn them into a good batch of butter or make ghee, ferment liters of milk overnight to make curd every single day without fail and weigh down blocks of paneer on those odd days when the milk separated temperamentally. I never considered them to be recipes in the first place, forget the thought of even considering worth posting, since it came to me quite inherently by instincts and not something I ever learnt to make. I mean, did someone give you lessons on how to boil milk? It was as synonymous to that.

I don’t think I can come to a phase soon where I can post such basics here. Instead I would love to bring some of my favorite dishes on this table, those much appreciated recipes that are hearty and simple, and are regular in my kitchen. One such being this Lasooni Dal aka Garlic Dal that’s been my long time favorite. I keep it simple because it reminds me of my collage days when I lived single in a rented accommodation and cooked basic meals with simple ingredients and modest flavors for my sustenance. I managed to pull it through quite easily. A simple garlic dal, a quick stir fry of veggies made an utmost delicious Sunday meal along with the humble rice.

An east Indian twist to the dal here is with the tadka or tempering of Bengali spices. Paanch phoran is a blend of five (paanch) spices that is a unique Bengali spice mix made by mixing equal quantities of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds and fenugreek seeds and storing it in an air tight container. I generally keep a ready mix of these spices in a container for my use on demand. Its used to season many dishes and lends a lovely aroma to a dish when tempered. Do hope you love it too.

Lasooni Dal with Paanch Phoran

INGREDIENTS

1 cup masoor dal
1 tbsp. channa dal
1 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tomatoes, chopped

For Paanch Phoran tadka:

1 tsp. oil
5-6 garlic cloves, crushed using mortar pestle
1 tsp. paanch phoran (a tsp. each of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds and fenugreek seeds)
1 tsp. asafoetida / hing
1 tsp. red chilli powder
2-3 whole red chillies

DIRECTIONS

Wash one cup of masoor dal along with the channa dal with couple of changes of water. Pressure cook the washed dal along with turmeric powder, chopped tomatoes and 2 ½ cups of water. Cook on 3-4 whistles till the dal is mushy and soft. Transfer the cooked dal to a wide mouthed utensil and add sufficient water to bring it to a soupy consistency. The consistency depends on how thick or thin you prefer. Keep it thick if you want to pair it with rotis and breads, and thinner if served with rice. Add salt to taste and bring the dal to a rolling boil. Turn off the flame and prepare the tempering.

To temper, heat a wok with a spoonful of oil. As the oil heats up, add the crushed garlic and fry for a couple of seconds. As they turn translucent and fragrant, add in the paanch phoran mix and allow it to splutter briefly. Quickly add in the whole red chillies and fry for seconds. Turn off the flame and add in the red chilli powder, followed by asafoetida to the tempering. Add this to prepare dal and cover. Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Notes:

* I’ve used masoor dal with channa dal here. Channa dal gives texture while masoor dal gives volume to this dish.
* You may use the same recipe with tuvar dal or moong dal instead.
* Skip the red chilli powder to reduce the heat.
* Asafoetida / hing aids in digestion and has a unique heady flavor, hence highly recommended.

Happy Birthday my dear bloggy... ! Veg Bowl! turned a year old this month. Time is fleeting. With what began a personal diary of few recipes went into public later last year. I am touching my 85th post with this one and it feels really nice.

Ever since the inception of my blog, Veg Bowl! has gone through several changes. It's close to a year since this blog was initiated and I have been constantly striving to improve it. The blog has been through constant amendments from its look to food, photography, matter, presentation and much more.

For the ones who have been in constant touch with my blog would know how much the site has transformed. It is getting to a good shape considering what it was earlier. Themes and backgrounds have been changed a couple of times. I had to change the previous ones as I thought they were a little too loud for my taste. I preferred simple looking blog with easy to navigate links, keeping it to the bare minimum, least to confuse the readers.

Though I have changed it to a considerably simple and elegant one now, I was not thoroughly happy with it earlier. I am still working around with options, positioning widgets, playing around with css codes, all trying to bring best out of it. I am finally done with the herculean task of completing the format as I had visioned it. Widgets have been changed, added, positioned, new tabs included, font, text, hovers and photos have been customized. It's been a very tedious task, having spent hours over this to transform to it's new look. With a complete make-over, I am now feeling satisfied with how it has come out. A few tit-bits are yet to be taken care, but that will happen over time.

As my bloggy baby turns a year old, I wanted to have a simple sweet dessert to celebrate her birthday. A rustic, simple Indian dessert which carries the Bengali elegance. Rosogolla, which is most commonly known as Rasgulla, is essentially a Bengali sweet made from paneer or Indian cottage cheese.

Coming to making these at home, in my opinion I am more better off taking pleasure in the store bought ones. A little tedious at task, you need to be really careful while making these. I had a disaster in my first attempt. They tore apart floating like clouds in sweet water, so they never reached this space. With the second one though, I was extremely careful to follow the instructions as is. Being successful at it, I was glad the way they turned out to be.

Rasgulla

To make Cottage Cheese/Chenna

1/2 lt milk
1 tsp lemon juice

Heat the milk till it comes to a boiling stage. Add the lemon juice till the whey separates away from curd. Give 5 minutes standing time to let the curd separate well. Hang the curd in a muslin cloth to let the whey drain away. Holding the ends of the muslin cloth, squeeze the water away to form coagulated mass.

With the heel of your hand, mash the paneer/cottage cheese/chenna repeatedly to make it dough like. This task is not easy as the cheese needs to be really well knead. It has to be mashed well repeatedly. I used mixie and it came out very fine. Gather it together and knead again like dough. Add 1/2 tsp Baking powder for a better rise. Allow to rest 15 min. Meanwhile prepare the sugar syrup.

To prepare the syrup

1 cup sugar
2 cups water
Strands of saffron
Few pistachios and cardamom powder for garnish

The ratio is of 2 cups water to 1 cup sugar. Add 1/2 cup sugar to water to start with. Bring it to a boil. Pinch the cheese balls to make 1/2" diameter balls each. Carefully drop the balls in boiling syrup. The balls will swell in about 5 to 10 minutes. Remove them once they puff up.

Add the remaining one cup of sugar and heat till all the sugar is dissolved. Add rose water if you have. They impart great flavors. Let it cool and then add the rasgullas to the sugar syrup again. Garnish with shaved Pistachio & nuts. Chill in fridge for an hour or more. They are best served cold or at room temperature.

A few tips which can help you a long way in making great tasting (and looking too ;)) rasgullas can be taken from here. These Rasgullas have fragrance from cardamom, pistachios and saffron. Saffron imparts a nice mild flavor, but can be skipped if you don't have any. These are sure to be loved by all.