The lazy chef's quick Misal Pao

After my first encounter with Misal Pao, I was sure I would never ever eat it, leave apart preparing it someday and blogging about it!

A day after we landed up in Mumbai, I ate Misal Pao in the breakfast buffet of the hotel we were staying at. My first impression was - something watery with just few lentils for the sake of formality and lot of namkeen and onions compensating for the lack of lentils. The next time I tried my luck was  during snacks time at the office cafeteria and needless to say, I was equally disappointed. "This dish is not meant for the Dilliwalla" I concluded and wrote it off. 

However, I often wondered what is so good about Misal Pao that my Mumbaikar friends can't stop going gaga over it. So much that a friend of mine has named her blog after the dish!

Anyway, the ice breaking happened few days ago, when Mr. Hubby declared that he had developed the taste for the dish. Now let me tell you, he is thousand times more finicky about food than me. So, when he appreciates a dish, I do pause and take notice. "It's about the preparation. If it is prepared well, it tastes awesome!" Apparently one of his friend's wife is a pro at the dish. 

Few days back, I was at a restaurant near my office for a quick bite and as I was glancing through the options that they could serve me within the next 5 minutes, my eyes fell on Misal Pao. My scepticism was obvious, considering my earlier experiences. But, being the typical Indian wife, how could I not decode the mystery of Misal Pao! So I ordered one plate and to my utter surprise, it tasted so good! The humble sprouts added to the body while the crispy farsan and the chopped onions played sporty. The right dash of lemon juice added well to the romance! Perhaps it was indeed about the preparation style!

Now the only milestone left was to prepare it better than his friend's wife, and going by his reaction to my maiden attempt, I am sure it was a job well done! 

Since I am a lazy cook, here's a simpler version of the recipe that I managed in 15-20 minutes while the toddler was enjoying his afternoon siesta!

Ingredients (Serve 4)

Mixed Sprouts - 250g (The main advantage of this dish is that it makes it easy to feed protein rich sprouts to otherwise fussy eaters!)

Onion (chopped) - 2 medium,

Green chillies (chopped)- 4

Tomatoes (chopped) - 3 large

Dried Coconut, grated - 1/2

Oil - 1 tbsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Whole cumin seeds - 2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Turmeric powder - 1tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Red chilli powder - 1tsp

Misal Pao masala - 2-3tsp (The most important ingredient!)

Water - 2-3 cups

Namkeen

Lemon juice

Pao

Method

While most recipes I saw on Youtube involved preparing the sprouts and gravy separately, I have decided to play quick and easy by cooking everything together in my pressure Handi. However, to each his own!

1. Heat oil in a pressure handi. Add asafoetida, cumin seeds. 

2. When the seeds splutter, add chopped onions and green chillies. 

3. When the onions turn pink, add the grated coconut and cook on medium flame for 2-3 minutes.

4. Add turmeric powder, coriander powder, red chilli powder, salt and Misal Pao masala. Cook on low flame for 1-2 minutes till the spices are cooked.

5. Add the chopped tomatoes and mix well. If the masala sticks to the surface, you can add a bit water at this stage. Cook the masala till it leaves oil on sides.

6. Add the sprouts and mix well.

7. Add water generously. Mix well and adjust seasoning.

8. Cover the lid and cook it till 1 whistle. Allow the steam to escape and open the lid.

Serving

Add some lemon juice to a bowl of the Misal and garnish with namkeen and chopped onions. Your Misal is ready to romance the Pao!

Of Sambhar and memories...

For us Delhiites, the very definition of South Indian food begins and ends with Sambhar. Be it Dosa, Idli, Vada or Utappam, we like to pamper ourselves with Sambhar. I remember during college days, me and my bestie Surbhi would often hang out at Madras Hotel in Connaught Place for some awesome Masala Dosa and Sambhar. The USP of the outlet was its "to die for" Sambhar. The servers or Anna as we called them would serve us generous helpings of Sambhar till our tummies would feel like gas balloons. I remember once we were so full (in the tummy, not in the heart) and sleepy after the meal that it was a tough walk from Madras Hotel to the bus stop from where we had to catch the bus to home (Delhi metro was non existent those days)!

My fondest memories of Sambhar are from my childhood, when my papa would prepare lip smacking sambhar with dosa. I still remember we had this special big tawa/griddle exclusively for preparing dosa. Even though kitchen was mom's baby, Sambhar Dosa was entirely papa's department. 

How Papa, an otherwise non cook material learnt to prepare the perfect Sambhar Dosa is also a very interesting story. Apparently, once during a long wait for bus at the bus stop, papa started chatting with a roadside Dosa stall owner. While the bus came way late, it gave papa enough time to learn the art of preparing the perfect Sambhar Dosa. So perfect is he with his dish that often his boss would drop by our place for savouring Dosa Sambhar. While mom would happily don the hat of an assistant that day, papa would be so full of zeal on being the head chef! Since we were a family of 6, the batter would be prepared in a large vessel in huge quantity. After the day long fermentation, it was time to savour the Dosa and Idli.  There was also a giant pressure cooker bought just to prepare enormous quantity of Sambhar.

Despite a Sambhar expert available at home, I never bothered to pick up the skill, being the lazy chef that I am! Even after marriage, Dosa Sambhar to me meant a visit to the popular Dosa joint in the WEA market in Karol Bagh and pampering myself to Dosa and unlimited Sambhar.

But, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention...

After we moved to Mumbai, the spicy North Indian style Sambhar became a luxury. I still remember the first time I had Sambhar in my office cafeteria. I walked up to the server and asked him if they put the sugar by mistake in Sambhar! Pat came his reply to my horror, "M'am that's how Sambhar is to be, how else?" Oh My God! For the Delhiite used to spicy Sambhar, this was nothing short of a cultural shock! Not willing to give up that easily, I tried my luck with few more joints so called "popular for their South Indian food" however, the ordeal repeated each time. 

At the cross roads, the foodie in me had just two options - either to forego the joy of relishing sambar or learn to prepare Sambhar as per our North Indian preference.

I decided to take things in my stride and became a pro at preparing Sambhar, thanks to my mom in law.

Sharing the simple and easy Sambhar that saves my day each time I have the craving to eat South Indian food.

Sambhar

Ingredients (for 4 portions)

• Tuur/Arhar Dal - 150g (soaked for an hour) (I have learnt a simple measurement rule from my mom in law - a fistful dal per person)
• Water
• Vegetables (Bottle Guard, Pumpkin, Onions, Tomatoes, Potatos, carrot, french beans) - Diced in mouthful size pieces (Sambhar is the best way to use the leftover grocery in the fridge!)

• Salt - to taste
• Turmeric - 1tsp
• Tamarind - to taste (deseeded and soaked in water for half and hour)
• Sambhar Powder - 2-3tsp
• Oil - 1tbsp
• Onion - 2 chopped
• Red Chilli Powder - 1tsp
• Rai/Black mustard seeds - 1tsp
• Asafoetida/Hing - a pinch (aids digestion)
• Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1tsp
• Curry leaves - few

Method -

Wash the soaked Arhar  Dal and drain out the water

In a pressure cooker, take all the diced vegetables, add the Arhar Dal and water. The water should be half index finger level above the vegetables.

Add turmeric powder and salt. Close the lid and pressure cook. 

After the first whistle, keep on low flame for 2-3 minutes and turn off the stove. Remove the lid and mash the vegetables a bit with the back of a round spoon (this will give a rich, thick Sambhar. You may skip the mashing if you like your Sambhar to be watery)

In a separate kadhai, heat oil. Add the asafoetida, rai, cumin seeds and curry leaves.

When the rai and cumin seeds begin to splutter, add the chopped onions and sauté.

When the onions turn golden brown, add the sambhar powder and sauté.

Next, add the red chilli powder and sauté till the mixture leaves oil on sides. 

Add the mashed vegetables and water and mix well. Finally, mash the soaked tamarind into a homogeneous paste (you may also choose to blend in a blender) and add to the Sambhar.

Give the mixture one nice boil. 

Tadaaa! Piping hot Sambhar is ready!

For the Onion Utappam

Ingredients

• Dosa batter - I am a lazy cook and allow myself some shortcuts in the form of readymade Dosa batter from the South Indian store nearby!
• Spring Onions - 2-3 chopped
• Green chilies - 2-3 chopped
• Salt - to taste
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Oil - 1tbsp

Method 

Add a pinch salt and asafoetida to the readymade dosa batter for a good flavour and easy digestion.

Mix together the chopped spring onions and green chillies and keep aside.

In case the batter is too thick you may add a bit water to dilute else skip the step. The batter should be flowy for crisp Utappams.

Heat a tawa/griddle. Spread some oil.

Once the oil is smoky hot, with the help of a round spoon, spread some batter on the tawa. The technique is to pour a spoonful batter on the tawa and make circular motions with the round spoon, reading the batter from centre to edges.

Spread some onion chilli mixture evenly on the utappam. 

Smear oil and once the other side looks brown, change sides.

Once both sides are cooked, the Utappam is ready to be served with Sambhar.

Aloo Parantha simplified

My parantha preparing skills are directly proportional to the number of years I have been married!

Though I always loved to savour stuffed paranthas prepared by my mom, I never bothered to try my hand at them....till i got married. One lesson cooking teaches you is that "practice makes one perfect!"  And when the family is typical North Indian foodie, there is virtually no escape from cooking! Over the years, it has been an interesting journey - from joining two separate dough discs with stuffing spread between them to effortlessly managing all sort of stuffed paranthas. My heart swells with pride when my mom in law says I have become a pro with Paranthas. Finally! All married women will understand what that means coming from the MIL herself! 

Being a lazy cook, one thing that gives me jitters is elaborate recipes. Often I have skipped recipes by merely glancing at the long list of ingredients. Having spent decent amount of years honing my culinary skills, I can say that a good recipe is not one involving elaborate ingredients but the right quantity of the right ingredients. For just like too many cooks spoil the broth, too many ingredients mask the flavour of the key ingredients!

Sunday breakfasts is incomplete without hot paranthas. Here's the way I prepare Aloo Paranthas, albeit my simple way, sans any elaborate ingredients.

Ingredients (for 3 adults having 2 paranthas each)

Potatoes - 3 (boiled and peeled)

Onions - 1 large (chopped coarsely)

Green chillies - 2-3 

Red chilli powder - very little (as per your preference)

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Green coriander - few sprigs, finely chopped.

Salt - to taste

Asafoetida - a pinch (aids digestion)

Ajwain/Ova/Carom seeds - 1 tsp (aids digestion)

Wheat Flour - made into a medium dough. Also, some loose wheat flour for dusting

Refined Oil - for cooking

Method

Mash boiled potatoes in a bowl. The potatoes should neither be hard boiled nor very soft as it will be a herculean task to manage the paranthas that way. A simple tip I have learnt from my mom in law is that the softness of the dough should be in perfect harmony with the softness of the stuffing to get the perfect paranthas. If the dough is too tight vis a vis the stuffing, the stuffing will escape the paranthas whereas if the dough is too soft, you will have a nightmare rolling the paranthas.

Add chopped onion, chopped green chillies and chopped coriander.

Now add the spices - salt, red chilli powder, asafoetida, carom seeds, coriander powder and mix well into a homogeneous stuffing.

Take a ball of the dough (I take a little larger than the normal ball I take for chapati, since a lot of stuffing has to be accommodated). A little larger than the size of a boondi laddoo, I would say. Roll the dough into a small circle using a rolling pin.

Place the stuffing in the centre and centre and spread a bit taking care to leave enough distance from the sides. Now the quantity of stuffing is subjective. Depends on how much stuffing can you manage without tearing the paranthas while rolling. I say, start safe and increase the quantity as you gain confidence.

Fold the sides keeping the stuffing in between. Dust some dough on the disc and with hands, press lightly to expand as much as you can.

Now, using a rolling pin, lightly roll the parantha till it reaches the side of a chapati. Take care to roll lightly, else the parantha will tear and the stuffing will escape.

Avoid this

That's better

Heat a tawa/griddle and place the parantha on it. Cook both sides well, smearing oil (Punjabis are very generous with oil however, I prefer low oil paranthas). 

When the parantha gets a nice golden brown colour, take off the flame. 

Paranthas are the most favoured North Indian breakfast. Serve with curd/raw mango pickle/Mint -Corriander chutney or just a generous dollop of homemade butter!

Bon Appetit!

Book Review - A Broken Man

Author - Akash Verma

Publisher - Srishti

Genre - Fiction

Price - Rs. 195

First Impressions

The ordinary figure of "A Broken Man" becomes rather special due to the multitude of colours running in his veins. Just like a rainbow, our life is an ensemble of various hues, each painting a different emotion on the canvas of our heart. A Psychedelic man had me totally impressed!

My View

The book begins on a beautiful thought by the Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda, "As long as one has hope, there is nothing one cannot achieve; everything is born from hope." Beautiful thought to begin a story that feeds on hope.

There is something about campus romance that makes stories an instant hit with the readers. Perhaps it is their ability to take us back in time to our college days and envelope us in the warmth of their memories. What makes the story more special is campus romance brewing amidst politics, casteism and issues faced by people in remote villages of our country.

A major part of the story runs in flashback, with the rich, popular and successful script writer and lyricist of the Hindi film industry, KK remembering his journey from rags to riches. From a poor Dalit boy who is a nobody in the campus of Lucknow University, Krishna Kumar, alias KK is now the most sought after writer. True to the popular saying "Behind a successful man, there is a woman" KK too attributes his success to Chhavi, his college sweetheart. Though physically not present with him, her memories inspire him each day just like the many inspirational stories she had told him when they were together. The only spark of happiness and hope remained in his life is an yearly email from Chhavi wishing KK on his birthday, the only remaining communication between the two. Like prized possession, KK reads the mails again and again to feel the lot unsaid behind those two words. So one year, when he finds the usual birthday message missing from his mailbox, anxiety and the fear of losing his love grips him. Without thinking twice, he sets out on a road trip from Mumbai to Lucknow - a trip that is also a trip down the memory lane, as he narrates his tragic love story to his driver and confidante, Ram Singh.

The story exposes the dark side of casteism in UP and Bihar, as young Dalit student Krishna Kumar has to endure many insults and exploitation due to his lower caste. He leaves his village in remote Bihar for good, hoping for a bright future in Lucknow university. However, to his shock the laws passed by government for equality of all castes is merely a tool used by the politicians on campus. The very leaders who use him as a pawn to play caste politics, inflict caste based insults on him when not in public view. 

However, his faith in honest politics gets restored by a chance meeting with Chhavi, the daughter of a veteran Brahmin politician. What surprises and impresses Krishna about Chhavi is that despite coming from a popular political family, she has no air about herself. She is committed to serve for student welfare and unlike everyone else doesn't bat an eyelid before befriending a Dalit boy. In no time, Chhavi breezes her way into Krishna's heart and love blossoms. Chhavi not only embraces Krishna for who he is, she also reaches out to his family which has him assured of her true love.

Besotted by Chhavi's charm and lost in her love, Krishna forgets the curse of his low caste. It returns to haunt him, this time taking away from him the love of his life. However, before going away, Chhavi ensures to lay the foundation of Krishna's bright future by recommending him to her cousin working with an ace advertising agency in Mumbai. 

After every few pages, the author pampers the readers to Hindi poetry, something I found very unique about the book.

Whether Krishna reclaims his love or not is for the readers to find out. But after reading the book, I felt that the end of the story doesn't matter much in front of the Krishna's journey that keeps us engrossed throughout. If campus politics, romance and social issues interest you, you will find an interesting company in the book on a Sunday afternoon.

Grab the book for 

• The warmth of your hometown and the smell of village soil
• Genuineness of the characters. 
• The awesome Hindi poetry giving guest appearances after every few pages and the street play slogans reminding of JNU.
• Sheer simplicity of Krishna Kumar. He reminded me of Dhanush from the move "Ranjhana"

Scope for improvement

• As a reader of fiction, I had huge expectations from the ending. When the story finished in a very plain jane manner, I was left looking for more. The ending could have been thought better.

My Rating

3/5

This review is for Writersmelon and Srishti Publishers

GAIL - Indian Speed Star

India is a land of hidden talent. We may not boast of state of the art training facilities in every region; but that does not stop our talented sportspersons from fighting against all odds and reach out for their dreams. We Indians know how to make the most of available resources. Time and again, we have witnessed some of the best sportspersons shining bright from areas unheard of. 

While the government is coming up with various programs to promote hidden talent, recently many CSR initiatives too have focussed on this aspect.

GAIL (India) Limited, the largest state owned natural gas processing and distribution company in India has recently launched grassroots athletics program - GAIL Indian Speedster in association with National Yuva Cooperative Society (NYCS) on March 22, 2016. Aiming to create a pool of best athletes from across India, GAIL Indian Speedster involves identifying, selecting and nurturing hidden talent in athletes of age group 11-17 years in 100m, 200m and 800m track events. 

When it comes to selecting the best talent, there can be no better mentor than sportspersons who have worked their way hard up to success. A panel of eminent sportspersons like P.T. Usha, Rachita Mistry, AnuradhaBiswal& Kavita Raut have been appointed in the selection committee to support selections and guide coaching camps. From creating the selecting criteria to developing training module of selected athletes, everything is taken care of by these experts. 

The program was unveiled by legendary athlete P.T. Usha along with organisers DrAshutoshKarnatak, Director (Projects), GAIL (India) Ltd, Rajesh Pande – President, National Yuva Cooperative Society Ltd (NYCS) and Maneesh Bahuguna- CEO, Anglian Medal Hunt Company.

District trials were conducted under the watchful eyes of coaches and selectors in 55 districts across 10 states. More than 25,000 children participated in these trials and of these, 850 were selected for State Level. 

The first State level camp was organised on February 27-28 at the SawaiMaan Singh Stadium, Jaipur. 60 talented young boys and girls participated of which four qualified to the next level. State trials have been conducted in Odisha (14 Selection), Delhi (28 Selection), Kerala (28 Selection), Jharkhand(4 Selection), Maharashtra and Gujarat.

Preparations are on full swing for the National camp and selection to be held in May 2016 at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, which will be attended by shortlisted athletes from the states.The final trials scheduled after completion of the camp will decide the winners based on qualification criteria and their potential. Top 9 athletes will be then provided world class coaching for 5 years. The organisers hope that the initiative be successful in giving India fresh and talented representation at the Olympics.

For more information on GAIL Indian Speedster, visit their website http://www.gailindianspeedstar.org and like the Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/GAILIndianSpeedstar/timeline