All time favorite

Today I had a very tiring day. Firstly, I got up late in the morning and then I had to finish all the household work quickly which took half of my day. After which, my daughter was in a bad mood and wanted all my attention. So most of my day went in pampering her and playing with her. After that, I had to go for my weekly groceries. By the time, I reached home, I was so exhausted that I was absolutely in no mood for cooking. But then, my daughter doesn't like eating pizzas and other kind of fast foods. So, after a little thought, I decided to make my all time favorite meal which is rice, dal and fish fry. Inorder to make it a little elaborate I also made paneer tikkas.

Although it sounds like a lot of food to make on a tiring day like this, believe me I finished all this cooking in less than an hour. Sometimes, the simplest of dishes can make a great meal like this one. So, I thought of sharing these recipes with those of you who also experience such bad days like mine.

Dal Tadka:

A lentil soup tempered with curry leaves, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and crushed garlic from Northern India.

Preparation Time : 15 minutes

Cooking Time : 20 minutes

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of yellow lentils (toor dal)

1 green chilli finely chopped

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 small onion finely chopped

1 small tomato finely chopped

salt to tast

a few corriander leaves finely chopped

2 cups of water

For the tadka:

2 tbsp of oil

1/2 tsp of asafoetida (hing)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp mustard seeds

a few curry leaves

2-3 cloves of garlic crushed with the skin

Method:

• Wash the dal nicely and pressure cook with water, onions, tomato, turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Remove 3 whistles and let it cool for a while
• Take a tempura vessel or a pan add some oil to it.
• When the oil is hot, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing, the curry leaves and the crushed garlic and fry for 1 minute.
• Add this to the dal
• Finally garnish it with finely cut coriander leaves.