Mellow Yellow... aka Yellow Mung Dal

Yellow is a lovely colour for food. When the weather is dull and grey, cold and rainy, a splash of yellow is like sunshine on your plate - guaranteed to brighten your day and bring a smile to your face. Banana and custard, Scrambled eggs, Yellow Mung Dal... all favourite comfort foods of mine.

This weekend has been mentally, physically and spiritually fulfilling, but the weather has been a little grey and rainy, so yellow food was needed to make my weekend complete. Scrambled eggs for breakfast and Yellow mung dal and rice for lunch. I'm thinking about bananas and custard for later, but I'll need to go out in the rain for supplies, and find a recipe to make proper custard from scratch... I think I'm enjoying my lazy Sunday too much for all this. Instead I'll probably make Alu Bhaji for dinner...it's also yellow!

I'm not sure where I got this recipe from, but it's become one of my favourites as it's so easy to make, and uses just a few ingredients. I usually eat this with rice, but it's also really yummy with warm, buttered pav (bread rolls).

Yellow Mung Dal:


1/2 cup yellow mung dal, washed
2 cups water
salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon haldi (turmeric powder)
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
a pinch of hing (asafoteida)
1 teaspoon garlic paste or 4 roughly chopped/crushed cloves of garlic
5-6 curry leaves
1 green chili - slit and deseeded
1 medium tomato, finely sliced
a squeeze of lemon juice
a handful of coriander, chopped for garnishing

1. Put the mung dal, water, salt and haldi in to a pressure cooker and cook until soft - I usually do 4-5 whistles, then leave it to cool and release the pressure naturally. Leave this water and dal mixture in the pressure cooker.
2. In a small, heavy based pan heat the oil over a medium flame. Add the jeera and hing.
3. When spluttering, add the garlic, curry leaves and chilli and stir for 30 seconds or so.
4. Add the tomatoes and cook for a minute or two then add this to the dal.
5. Bring the dal to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.
6. Add the lemon juice and coriander. Stir through and serve.




As an alternative to the jeera, garlic and tomato you can use rai (mustard seeds) and ginger instead.

I really do like dal, it's a great vegetarian dish that really fills the tummy. I was also lucky this week to eat some channa ki dal which was delicious. I'm hoping to get the recipe soon, and if I do you'll definitely get a blog post about that!

But enough about me. What about you? What's your favourite dal?

Breakfast Smoothie - but equally good at any time of the day...

I tend to have the same thing for breakfast everyday for weeks or months at a time. Morning is not my optimum functioning period of the day. Last year it was bran flakes with berries or banana. The last few months have been wholenut peanut butter on wholemeal toast. Now I'm on oatmeal with banana. Coco has scrambled eggs and milk.

I found a great Nigella recipe recently, whilst re-reading my Nigella Express book. Simple and sooooooooo easy to make, like many of Nigella recipes, even first thing in the morning.


What also attracted me was that many of the ingredients are staples of my usual morning routine. Oh and the addition of chocolate! So naughty to have first thing in the morning. Actually Nigella's recipe listed chocolate Ovaltine which I don't have, so I substituted regular hot chocolate powder.

I also love the fact that the banana is used straight out of the freezer so you don't need any ice. To freeze the bananas, peel them, chop into four and pop in a freezer bag.


Nigella's original - Go Get 'Em Smoothie

1 peeled banana cut into 4, from the freezer
150ml milk
1 tablespoon honey
4 teaspoons chocolate Ovaltine
1 teaspoon Camp coffee

Nigella also suggests replacing the coffee with a tablespoon of peanut butter... I'm going to try this soon - it sounds delicious.

My version used regular hot chocolate powder and 1/2 a teaspoon of coffee powder. I left out the honey as I don't like things too sweet. It was yummy!

You can check out other Nigella breakfast recipes on her website. Another favourite of mine is Mexican Scrambled Eggs, but I use chapatti instead of tortillas.

Leave a comment and let me know your favourite Nigella recipe.

Aloo Mutter and my crazy, pea-loving Dog

What a week it's been... Coco's boyfriend, Brownie, is becoming a permanent fixture outside my door, even though he's not so taken with her now because she's no longer in heat. He's a good guard dog - so much so that if any delivery boy comes to our floor, they end up hiding in the lift until they can be rescued!

As he hangs out with us all day I've tried to feed him, but it turns out that Brownie is very fussy about his food. He doesn't like Coco's plain chicken, rice and veg - no that's not good enough for him. His food has to be spicy, but not with any of those rubbish veggies in it. Coco, on the other hand, will eat just about anything, as previously documented in my blog.

One food that she always begs for is Aloo Mutter - she'll eat it straight out of the pan given chance, but prefers to be hand-fed Aloo Mutter with Chapatti. I have to be careful that she doesn't try to eat my fingers too!

It's also one of my favourites, and is simple to make too. I use fresh peas as I love to sit and shell them, but you could easily use frozen peas if you prefer. Coco loves helping to shell peas. She steals peapods at every chance. If they're young and fresh she eats them whole, otherwise she opens them up and chases the peas around the floor. Crazy, pea-loving dog!


Aloo Mutter

1 tablespoon oil
1 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
1 teaspoon rai (mustard seeds)
pinch of hing
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes
1 cup of peas
1/4 teaspoon haldi (turmeric powder)
1 teaspoon dhaniya (coriander powder)
1/2 teaspoon jeera powder (cumin powder)
1 teapoon chilli powder
salt to taste
water
Coriander leaves to garnish

1. Heat oil over medium flame. Add jeera, rai and hing.
2. When seeds start to splutter add potato and peas and stir until well mixed.
3. Add haldi, dhaniya, jeera, chilli powder and salt. Mix well.
4. Add a small amount of water - just enough to cook the potatoes and peas - you can always add more throughout the cooking.
5. Cook on a low heat until potatoes are cooked.
6. Garnish with chopped coriander and eat with chapattis.

This version is a 'dry' dish - not a gravy dish. I need to learn how to make some gravy dishes... So if you have any gravy versions, please let me know!

Soft food required... Mung with Aloo and Tamatar

This weekend I've had a bit of a tongue incident. I bent down to pick up Coco's bone and she jumped up at the same time...You can see it can't you - a chain reaction; I bend down as doggie jumps up; hard dog skull (I'm sure it's steel plated) makes contact with soft chin and jaw; teeth clamp shut on soft, pink tongue; I yell in agony and doggie looks at me like I'm mad and goes back to chewing her bone as I hold my head in my hands until I can see straight again.

Today it feels like I've gone several rounds with a heavy-weight boxer; The right side of my face aches. My shoulder and neck ache. I've got a bruised jaw and a chipped tooth, but the thing that hurts the most is the HUGE gash across my tongue - it's practically hanging off!

Ok, ok, I'm being a little melodramatic here. It's really a teeny cut on the side of my tongue but it really, really hurts. I can't keep my mouth shut coz it hurts. I can't keep my mouth open coz it hurts. I can't eat coz it hurts. I can't have a glass of cold water coz it hurts. I can't have a cup of hot coffee coz it hurts. It hurts.

So as I drink my luke-warm cup of coffee (it hurts), I've decided to write today about a great dish - Mung with Aloo and Tamatar. I'm looking forward to eating this later... I'll make it extra soft coz of my tongue. Plus, even though it's got a few chillies in, it's not spicy at all. In fact the reason I like it so much is that it's actually quite sweet due to the fantastic mung beans (and the pich of sugar I add). I often eat this by itself, but you can eat with chapatti or rice.

Mung with Aloo and Tamatar

1/2 cup mung beans (can be soaked for a couple of hours to reduce cooking time)
2 medium potatoes, cut into small chunks
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin seeds)
1 green chilli, slit and deseeded
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1/4 teaspoon haldi (turmeric powder)
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon sugar
A few curry leaves
3-4 tomatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (if you prefer, you can leave a few tomatoes out and add some tomato puree)

1. Cook the mung beans in plenty of fresh water, until soft (30 mins). Keep aside. If you prefer, you can cook them in a pressure cooker - If your beans are soaked, it'll take just a few whistles, plus let the pressure go down naturally.
2. Cook the potato chunks in plenty of boiling water. When just cooked, drain and keep aside.
3. Heat the oil in a large pan, over a low heat. Add the jeera.
4. Once seeds start to pop, add chilli, garlic and ginger. Stir for a few mins.
5. Add the haldi, chilli powder, salt, sugar and curry leaves and stir for a min more.
6. Add the tomatoes (and/or tomato puree) and cook until soft. This takes about 5 minutes.
7. Stir in the cooked mung and aloo and simmer for a few minutes until everything is hot. You may want to add a splash of water at this stage to keep everything from sticking.
8. Eat.

Tonight I'll cook the mung and potatoes till they're mushy so I can eat this more easily!

What about you? What's your favourite beany dish?

My signature dish... I don't have one! Will Masala Rice do?

I love watching food programs. Nigella, Jamie, Kylie Kwong, Anthony Bourdain, Man versus Food, Rachel Allen's Bake, Hell's Kitchen... the list goes on. So this weekend I caught a couple of shows of Masterchef Austrailia. The concept's a little different of the Masterchef (UK) of my childhood, as there's pressure tests and cook offs now, I guess to satisfy the reality show generation. It's not good enough to just kick off the worst cooks every week, the viewing audience will get bored... we need some spice!

On one of the shows the 45 contestants had to cook up their signature dish... and they had some strange concoctions. Cheese and snail souffle was one that really didn't appeal to me (ok I'm veggie, but if I weren't I still wouldn't eat this). Another contestant dreamt up a wattleseed, avocado and chocolate mousse... which sounds good, except I have no idea what wattleseed is.


All of their creativity made me realise that I don't have a signature dish yet. I guess I'm just too new at this cooking malarky to have one. So why have I chosen Masala rice this week? Well it's probably the opposite of a signature dish. It's not posh and showy. You wouldn't serve it at a dinner party. It's plain and simple comfort food. And really quick to make if you use left over rice like I do.

Masala Rice:

Left over Basmati Rice
Enough Onion, Potato and Tomato for the rice
Enough oil to cook the onion potato and tomato
Some Rai and Jeera (Mustard and cumin seeds)
A green chilli or two, deseeded and finely chopped (optional)
A little Haldi (Turmeric powder)
Some Dhaniya (Coriander powder) and Chilli Powder
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped, for garnishing

1. Finely chop the onion, potato and tomato. I slice the potato in really thin slices to speed up the cooking.
2. Heat the oil and add the rai and jeera.
3. When seed pop add the chilli, onion and potato. Cook on a low heat until nearly done.
4. Add the tomato, haldi, dhaniya and chilli. Add any salt at this point too.
5. When everything is well cooked, add the rice.
6. Mix well and heat the rice thoroughly.
7. Garnish with Coriander and serve

I usually eat this with curd and it's really yummy.

I know I've not been at all precise with the amounts, and that's because I never have the same amount of rice left when I make this, so I don't know the quantities myself! Just start off easy with the spices, you can add more if necessary, and remember to put less haldi than dhaniya and chilli powder. Sometimes I also use Jeera powder too. If you fancy you could even add some cloves or cinnamon stick for a different taste. Sometimes I make it without the tomato or potato, and it's just as good.

BTW... Wattleseed is the seed of the Acacia tree and when dried and ground it has rich coffee, chocolate and hazelnut aromas & flavours.