Khichudi Bhaat

This is a simple dish I learned from my mother-in-law. She grew up in Kharagpur, West Bengal and has an avid interest in cooking, especially Bengali cuisine. Thsi is a variant, using Nutrela chunks.

You will need:

Rice: 1 cup
Moong/Tuvar/Chana dal: 1/2 cup
Ghee: 2 tsps
Haldi: 1/2 tsp
Red chillies: 3-4
Jeera: 1/6th
Ginger: little bit, diced
Salt: to taste
Nutrela chunks: 10-15 pieces
Bay leaves: 1-2

Method

Soak the rice and dal together in a vessel and put in the pressure cooker. Add the nutrela chunks to the vessel. Pressure cook for 7-8 minutes or 5-6 whistles. The rice should be slightly more than cooked.
Grind the jeera, red chillies, and ginger in the mixie and keep separately. Now, place a kadai on the stove, add 2-3 tsps of oil. Add the ground masala once the oil is hot. Saute the masala a bit and then, add the cooked rice-dal mixture. Mix it well for a few seconds. Now, add water to make the mixture of pourable consistency.

Now, add haldi and salt. You can add ghee at this point or later. Keep stirring the mixture well till the rice and dal become indistinguishable. Ensure the masala gets mixed properly. Remove the vessel from the stove and serve hot. You can have it with curd or fryums.
 

Recipe in Bengali:

Bruschetta

Name: Bruschetta pronounced as broo-skut-haa
Making time: 5-6 minutes
Serves: 2

I made this delicious looking meal last night. Actually, I found out a while ago, it was called Bruschetta. Before that, I called it simply, salad. Yeah, naive.

I saw the last French bread pack in the supermarket and flew to grab it. I wondered later what to do with it. Well, I did not have olive oil or mayonnaise. So, I made do with good ole butter. I used it sparingly though.

First, I put a lil bit of butter on the pan and roasted the bread slices well, on both sides. Then I chopped the tomatoes, raw, big, and red ones, coarsely. I added some oregano on top for that tangy flavour. Bingo, dinner was ready.

Easy to make and real quick. Man, it tastes awesome too. :)

My 1st post

I watched this movie, Julie and Julia. The movie is a screen adaptation of Julie Powell's book on the popular French cook, Julia Child.

Well, to say the least, I got so impressed with the movie and Julie that I decided to start a food blog of my own. Now I am not a gourmet cook. Far from it, my measure of salt always falters. Always. Some days it will be more, some days it will be less. In any case, my MIL used to say, whoever learns the art of adding salt to food is a good cook.

Well, that makes me a bad one. Sigh!

I shall share my experiments with food, here in this space.