MOONG BADE (मूँग वड़े) or MANGODEY (मंगोड़े)

- Soak Moong Daal overnight.
- Strain away all the water in the morning and wash the daal 2-3 times. Strain it.
- Now grind this with heeng (asafoetida), ginger and green chillies.
- The batter should be thick. Now add chopped onions in this. 
- Heat oil to high temperature and then lower the flame to medium.
- Fry small lumps of batter in hot oil on medium flame till they are light golden.
- Serve hot with green chutney.


- मूँग दाल को रात भर भिगोएँ
- सुबह सारा पानी निथार दें और मूँग दाल को अच्छे से धो लें। सारा पानी निकाल लें।
- अब इस दाल को हींग, हरी मिर्ची और अदरक के साथ दरदरा पीस लें।
- मिश्रण का गाड़ा होना ज़रूरी है। अब इस में कटी हुई प्याज़ मिलाएँ।
- तेल को तेज़ गरम कर के लौ को मद्धम कर लें।
- अब इस में छोटे छोटे मंगोड़े तलें, धीमी आँच पर हल्का सुनहरा होने तक।
- हरी धनिया चटनी के साथ परोसें।

विधि:
चने की दाल को रात भर भीगा कर अगले दिन सारा पानी हटा के, अदरक, मिर्ची, नमक और हींग के साथ थोड़ा दरदरा पीसें। फिर कटी प्याज़ मिला कर छोटी और चपटी टिक्कियाँ बनाएं और धीमी आँच पे तलें!

Recipe:
Soak Chana Daal overnight. Next morning, strain all the water and grind coarse with some ginger, green chilly, salt and asafoetida. Then mix some finely chopped onions and make thin tikkis. Heat oil to a high temperature and then simmer the flame and fry these tikkis.

Lemon Pickle - Grandmother's Recipe

They say, if life give you lemons, make lemonade. So when my full of life Buaa Abha Sharma Dixit gave me a bag full of lemons, I decided to make Lemon Pickle. That too with the recipe of my grandmother that my buaa had noted down in 1978 - 37 years ago. Waiting a month and a half to start savouring it is going to be very difficult.

Ingredients:

25 Lemons

0.5 kg Salt

1 TBSP Heeng (Asafoetida)

100 gm Red Chilly Powder

50 gm Ajwain (Carom)

2 TBSP Methidana (Fenugreek seeds)

2 TBSP Haldi (Turmeric Powder)

Dry Roast Methidana and grind coarsely. Coarsely grind Ajwain separately and mix all dry ingredients.

Split Lemons into four and fill this mixed masala in it.

Take a glass jar and fumigate it with Heeng fumes. Place some masala on the base of this jar. Put stuffed lemons and remaining masala in the jar and keep aside for two days.

Add juice of 10 lemons and keep the jar in sunlight for a month and a half. Shake it every day. This pickle will be good for years.

Bharwa Shimla Mirch aka Stuffed Capsicum

Ingredients:
2 Capsicums Green
1 Cup Besan/ Chana Flour
1 tsp oil for Stuffing
2 tsp oil for Capsicum
1 tbsp Jeera
1/4 tbsp Heeng (Asafoetida)
1 tbsp Salt
1/2 tbsp Haldi Powder
1/4 tbsp Chilly Powder
1 Green Chilly Chopped


For Stuffing: Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and put heeng in it, followed by Jeera. Then put chopped Green Chillies in it. When the chopped chillies look crispy, put the besan in it and stir continuously to avoid sticking. When this besan looks sufficiently cooked, add salt, haldi and little water to make halwa kind of consistency. Keep it aside.

Cut your capsicum into exact halves and remove the seeds completely. Now fill it with stuffing. Put 2 tsp oil in a flat non-stick pan and shallow fry these stuffed capsicums till they are crispy from all sides. Serve with chapatis.

Note: If you like, you can add onions in the stuffing. Fry them in the oil after frying the green chillies and before adding besan.

Pasta and Mashed Potatoes

Make sunfeast pasta on stove following the recipe on packet. While this is happening, take a glass bowl, put fork mashed potato, one chees slice, little milk, salt and pepper and put in microwave for 1 minute. then take it out and mix it well. once you sunfeast pasta is done, pour this cheesy mashed potato on the top. and EAT.

Q: what if I don't have microwave?

Then you can mix the ingredients in a nonstick pan stirring constantly. Just make sure, milk is the first ingredient you pour in the nonstick pan and not cheese.

Potato Groundnut Curry (PGC)

It was the day after Janmashtmi. All I had in my refrigerator was one boiled potato, curd and one green chilli. And yes, I had groundnut powder which I had used for making khichdi the previous day. So I decided to experiment.
Ingredients:
1 boiled potato mashed
1 green chilli
1 cup curd
1 cup groundnut powder
1 tsp jeera
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp salt
oil

Method: Put oil to heat and put chopped green chilli and jeera when the oil is hot. Then put mashed potato, groundnut powder, chilli powder and salt and mix it well. Add water to make it into a gravy while stirring continously. Keep the flame medium. Put curd and bring it to a boil. Your Potato Groundnut Curry is ready. You can enjoy it with chapatis, rice and even with bread-slices.

Paneer - e - Paalak or something like it!

I had promised I'd bring Palak Paneer for the potluck party. I reached home at 8.15pm from work. Started cooking at 8.20 and was ready to leave house with my palak paneer at 8.50pm. So lets get started.
Ingredients:
2 bunches of Palak/Spinach (don't ask me how much did it weigh, lets assume you are also going to buy it from Food Bazaar)
250 gms Paneer
2 onions
2 tomatoes
3 green chillies
2 tbsp Dry Coconut Powder
1 tsp KhusKhus (poppy seeds)
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp Dhania Powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sabzi masala
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
100 ml milk

Method: Wash the spinach and put it in a cooker with covered lid and vent-weight in place on low flame for 5 minutes (or one whistle). In the meantime, grind all ingredients except salt, dhania powder, chilli powder and sabzi masala into an even paste.
Put oil in a deep pan (kadaai) and put the paste in it. Add the remaining ingredients except milk. Put it on low flame and keep on stirring it till its golden brown.
Grind the steamed spinach separately and mix it with the golden brown curry paste.
When the whole paste becomes green, add milk and keep on stirring.
Now add cut pieces of paneer and your Palak Paneer is ready.

PS: It was a bit tiring may be because of the long day that preceded this adventure. Next potluck, I'll bring half a bottle of blender's pride.