The recipe to fall in love with dal, bhaat & lau. The ‘nasty bits’ on one’s plate in another life.

I did not like having dal as a kid, and even as a teenager. 

Once, when I was 13, my aunt and my late grandpa dropped in at home after my mother had left for work. It was an intervention! 

Dadu requested me to eat the dal served at home quietly and not make a fuss. Not doing so made life tough for my mom who had to travel far for work everyday, he explained. 

I listened to him and had my dal from then, though I do not think that I really enjoyed dal till I was in my 30s. Unless there was a fish head in it!

I do love my dal today. Moong, bhaaja (roasted) and kaacha (unroasted) and with rohu/ kaatla/ ilish mudo (fish head), mooshur, chholar dal and tud dal (Banu’s contribution) and dhansak (my mom in law’s recipe and cooked by Banu) are regulars at home now.

Dal rice

Lau/ bottle gourd/ lauki is a vegetable that I did not like even when I was in my 40s. 

My mother has it everyday for health reasons. A couple of years back, I changed the way I ate and made my diet more ‘age appropriate.’ I called this my #LittleJackHornerMeals project as I had begun to eat vegetables that I would not touch before. Vegetables such as karela (bitter gourd) for example. And lau (bottle gourd)! 

Like the ‘good boy’ that Little Jack Horner claimed to be in the nursery rhyme named after him. 

I experimented with my own recipes from then on to land lau dishes that not only I like, but so does K. I have taught these and my dal recipes to our cook Banu and with a bit of supervision and my measuring out the spices, she does quite a decent job of it, as she did today.

Lau

And this is the story of how I learnt to love what I once considered to be the ‘nasty bits’ on my plate. A story I told Baby Loaf today who, like his daddy when he was a kid, is a bit of a fussy eater.

PS: Nasty Bits is the title of a book by the late Anthony Bourdain. Someone who was a big inspiration behind my taking up food blogging 13 years back.

This story was for Baby Loaf who, like Daddy Loaf, is a fussy eater

Here’s today’s lau recipe:

1. Heat a tablespoon of mustard oil in a wok. 
2. Add 1/2 teaspoom whole cumin, a bayleaf, 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger, a dry red chilli
3. Then add the finely chopped bottle gourd.
4. Add spices – 1/2 teaspoon whole cumin, 1/2 teaspoon of coriander, cumin and turmeric powder and 14th of chilli powder. 
5. Add 1 finely chopped bottle gourd. Salt. Stir.
6. Slow cook till done.

My kaancha moong dal recipe:

PS: Little Nimki let K and me eat in peace today as there was no fish on our plates.

Little Nimki needs his maachh bhaaja

I attended a food photography workshop earlier today. It was conducted by husband and wife duo, Vernika Awal of Delectable Reveries and Souvik Das. The photographs that you see here were inspired by some of the ideas that they shared in class. The class was not too technical. It was comprehensive and comprehensible and made one think. Which I felt was a good thing. Perhaps you can see the results.

Baby Loaf in class today

‘Making one think’ is what the Studying Food workshop by Dr Kurush Dalal and Mythopia, that I attended recently, did too. Its focus was more about opening ones mind to how one looked at food, than on the technical aspects of food writing and I appreciated that. 

2020 has been the year of online classes. I have conducted some. I have attended a few and am enjoying them, even though late to the party.

Attending online classes has been a great idea, even though  I have come late the party myslkef.

Here’s how you can register to my recorded classes on brand building for home chefs at BookAWorkshop.in

Also read:

• My fish head dal recipe
• My tahdig memories from Iran
• Boiled dal & cauliflower recipe
• How mom learnt to cook Chinese food