Panchmel Dal and Baati

When RCI Rajasthan was announced, I had bookmarked few recipes. I found Dal Baati , part of an ordinary Rajasthan menu. Most of the Rajasthani recipes were new to me. Finally I tried Baati and Gatte ka Pulao. But since my personal life kept me busy, could not post it in time for the event. Even now, its the routine cooking going on in my kitchen. Meanwhile, the to-be-posted recipes will make it to the blog.

Baati
For baati, I followed partly sanjeev kapoor's recipe and Aathika's .

Whole wheat flour - 1 1/2 cup

besan - 1/2 cup

ghee - 3 tbspn

curd - 1/2 cup

baking powder - 1/2 tspn

ajwain (omam) - 1/2 tspn

salt to taste

Mix all the ingredients and knead into a soft dough using water.

Divide the dough into 8 equal portions and shape into balls.

Cover and keep for one hour.

I use my MIL's old handvo cooker for baking. I baked for nearly 30 mts. By that time, I could see cracks on top of the baatis. To have a look at the handvo cooker, visit here.

Panchmel Dal

Recipe source - Sanjeev Kapoor

As the name indicates, this recipe calls for 5 different dal. Needless to mention about the protien punch hidden in this recipe.

Bengal gram (chana dal) - 1/4 cup

Whole green gram (whole moong) - 1/4 cup

Split black gram (urad dal) -1/4 cup

red lentils (masoor dal) - 1/4 cup

turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn

salt to taste

ginger - 1 inch

green chillies - 2

oil - 3 tblspn

hing - a pinch

cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

cloves - 5

red chillies - 2 (broken into two)

cumin powder - 1 tspn

coriander powder - 1 tspn

red chilli powder -1/2 tspn

tomatoes - 2 nos

garam masala - 1/2 tspn (I used Kitchen King masala)

Wash all the dal together. Pressure cook with enough water and turmeric.

Grind ginger and green chillies to a paste

Heat oil in a pan. Add hing, cumin seeds, cloves and red chillies. When cumin seeds change color,
add ginger-chilly paste and saute for few seconds.

Stir in cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder.

Add the chopped tomatoes. Cook till oil separates.

Add cooked dal and additional water if needed.

Cook for ten minutes with occasional stirring. Take care the dal doesn't stick to the pan.

Add garam masala powder and remove from heat.

Serve hot with baati.

Baatis are usually broken into pieces and dropped in a bowl of dal and eaten.

My Craving Stuffs

Those are the stuffs that always filled up in a container and stored in my kitchen cabinet for my craving teeth at anytime. There are Nutty Granola, a recipe from my idol chef Ellie Krieger, Italian Fruity Biscotti a recipe from so called “sweet baby James” James Martin from the UK, and Nutty French Balls from a Japanese recipe book translated by Taiwanese. My family like these stuffs as I do and I like to used it as a gift when I’m rushing to visit anyone else. I have introduced the Granola at my previous posting, and now I continue with the other two. First, I like to share the Nutty French Balls.

I mixed 187g of sugar powder with 85g each for chopped walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts then divided it into two bowls of 13g and 6g for chocolate powder and instant coffee powder respectively. Warm the two bowls of mixture in a preheated oven at 100°C for about 5 minutes or until the mixtures become 40°C (this step for mixing up with eggs white much easier later on).

Mix these warm mixtures with 40g and 45g egg whites for chocolate and coffee mixture respectively. The eggs white seems very little when mixing with the mixture but this measurement is just nice for the texture later on. The mixture would be too wet to roll up if the egg white is too much.

I shaped each mixture into 13 balls each for both flavors and baked in a preheat oven at 130°C for about two hours.

This Nutty French Balls are very crunchy and definitely could cure someone who is crazily craving like me and also good to serve with a cup of coffee or tea for my guests come in without prior notice (sometimes it happen).

Extending my break

Its been 2 long weeks since I have blogged. And the break seems to get extended. I never thought its going to be a long break. I am not sure when I can resume serious blogging. I really miss visiting all your blogs. Very soon, I will try to catch up with all the wonderful posts out there, though it may take some more time to put my blog back to action.

I was very touched by emails from some of my blogging friends, who enquired about my absence from blogosphere. Its a great feeling to know that you are missed.