Capsicum Masiyal(Capsicum dal)

This dal is very easy to prepare and goes well with rice and curry.

Serves 3

Ingredients:
To pressure cook in water for 3 whistles:
Capsicum-1 medium size chopped into small pieces
Mung dal-1/3 cup
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
Hing-1/4 tsp

To fry in 1/2 tsp oil till golden brown and grind to a coarse powder:
Urud dal-2 tsp
Red chillies-2(adjust according to your taste)
Whole pepper-1 tsp
Grated coconut-1/4 cup

Seasoning:
Jeera-1 tsp
Curry leaves-a few
Coconut oil-2 tsp

Method:
Pressure cook the ingredients mentioned above.
Add the ground powder.
Add water and bring it to a consistency slightly thinner than sambar.
Add salt and boil the mixture for 2-3 minutes.
Heat coconut oil in a pan, do the seasoning and add it to the dal mixture.
Serve with rice, ghee and curry.

I thank Foodbuzz for sending me a pack of Mother's circus animal cookies for tasting. I loved them. The cookies look so cute. They are very creamy on the outside and crunchy on the inside. The product will hit the market on May 4th. Do not forgot to try these delicious cookies. Kids will love it.

I have received a lot of 15 minute recipes so far. Thank you so much girls! keep them coming. I have a small request from you all.

Please read the updated rules for 15 min cooking event:

1. It will be great if you can reduce the size of the pictures to 300 pixels and send. If you don't have the software to reduce the size, I will do it for you.
2. Rename the picture to dish name. It will make my life little easier :)
3. Though I also accept some recipes that require advance preparation like fermenting, soaking, freezing etc.. I would prefer recipes that will take only 15 minutes from start to end. One exception is-the time taken to cut veggies.

Thanks once again for your lovely entries and I myself can't wait for the round up!

Devon Avenue

You can wait for the recorded voice to drone out "Devon Avenue." Or watch for Indians to crowd the aisle - in saris, burkas, salwars, kurtas, or jeans. They often  fill it before the bus stops.  I melt in, drawn to the North Side neighborhood by memories of India. The grocers offer fresher produce than most chains stores and the ripened plantains remind me of my paternal grandmother's rustic kitchen.  She steamed them for a mid-day snack and served them with a sprinkle of raw sugar.  I squeeze the mangos and think of the "manga" trees that overlook my mother's family home. The fruit ignites the tongue when featured in pickle and cools the body when blended in lassi.   

Spring Notes from The Kitchen Sisterhood

Dear Friends,

Here are some projects and endeavors that have caught our attention and we want to pass along.

Keep it rolling,

The Kitchen Sisters

Archives we're trolling

Prelinger Library: Outsider librarians, Rick & Megan Prelinger have a mission to convene community around a collection. It is a free offering, an installation, a workshop, an extension of their living room, that seeks to foster discovery and serendipity and to experiment with new forms of access to information.

Southern Folklife Collection & Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Books/Articles we're reading

Hawaiian Son: The Life and Music of Eddie Kamae by James Houston

Hillbilly Music: Source and Symbol by Archie Green

West of the West: Dreamers, Believers, Builders and Killers in the Golden State by Mark Arax

The Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky. A portrait of American food--before the national highway system, before chain restaurants and before frozen food, when the nation's food was seasonal, regional, and traditional--from the lost WPA files.

Mark Danner's articles on torture in The New York Review of Books and The Washington Post

Hidden Kitchens Texas by The Kitchen Sisters

Manifestos & Presentations

Peter Sellars: Art in the Age of Obama

Forage Oakland

The Eat-In Manifesto

Movies we're watching

The Garden. The story of the 14-acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles, started as a form of healing after the 1992 LA riots. An urban farm in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. The film chroncles the fight to save this 14-acre community oasis from development.

Ferlinghetti. A documentary portrait of poet and City Lights co-founder Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

A Woman Under the Influence by John Cassavetes. A newly restored print by the Film Foundation and UCLA has just been completed.

Crude. A new documentary about the shifting course of a lawsuit by 30,000 Ecuadoreans against Chevron over contaminated waters of the Amazon.

Music on our turntable

The Burka Band. We are chronicling this story for our upcoming series exploring the secret life of girls around the world.

Chicano Zen by Charanga Cakewalk

Events

May 8 - The Kitchen Sisters at the Food Matters series of Interdisciplinary Humanitaries Center at UC Santa Barbara. 4 PM.

May 12 - "Who Glues Your Community Together Through Food?" A Night of California Hidden Kitchens. The Kitchen Sisters and guests at the California Endowment in Downtown LA, including food from Homegirl Cafe, Let's Be Frank hot dog cart, and the Kogi Korean BBQ truck. RSVP here.

The Kitchen Sisters Manifesto: We are a non-profit, independent, public radio collaboration dedicated to creating documentaries that chronicle the untold stories of American culture and tradition, to keeping the nation's airwaves vibrant, imaginative and accessible, and to training young people and others with a passion to be involved in public radio.. You can help support our work with a tax-deductible contribution: www.kitchensisters.org/support