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Masoorachi Aamti or Red Lentil Curry

January 23, 2012 by manjirichitnis 10 Comments

Masoorachi Aamti or Red Lentil Curry – Recipe adaptation from Mother, Mother in Law and a close CKP friend – Saai who loves to stir up some spicy CKP fare and generally succeeds at it 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 2 measures of Masoor Dal (Red Lentil) with their brown covers intact and whole
  • Mustard Seeds
  • 2-3 Garlic Cloves
  • Green chillies 2- 3
  • Curry leaves about 5-6
  • Jeera (Cumin Seeds) – tiny spoonful
  • Freshly grated soft white coconut
  • Goda Masala – mommy made is so much better than the one from the shops but well

(**This is a mix of various spices readily available in Asian Grocery stores it’s basically a mixture of dry coconut roasted with a mixture of at least 10 different spices, best of all it’s available to buy online at Red Rickshaw – previously called itadka.com

Refrigerate this pack to increase shelf life ,yayay so many tips from me, don’t YOU just LOVE me , if u better don’t just READ this make n slurp it all ALONE, drop me A LINE and thank meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee)

  • Coriander Powder
  • Ginger Garlic Paste

(Coriander and Chilli paste – 2 small sized bunches of coriander pureed with 2-3 green chillies – freeze and use on demand, handy and 1 of my 5 “save your face” purees for unwanted guests popping in at odd hours – the other 4 are listed at the end of this recipe)

  • 3 medium sized onion red – chopped fine
  • Asafoetida(Hing or Heeng)
  • Turmeric
  • Red Chilli Powder
  • Dhania Powder
  • Jaggery

Aamsul 2-3 soaked in lukewarm water to release it’s juices trapped inside the gorgeous maroon folds – Amsul – also called kokum or Garcinia indica, a plant in the mangosteen family (Clusiaceae)

  • Fresh leaves of Coriander chopped fine for dressing

 Process ( Once a Chemistry student and a retail employee stay that way forever , instead of “PREPARTION” I choose the word ”Process” which is drilled into a Retail Managers brain like young parents making their kids rote learn alphabets)

The masoor dal can be done 2 ways for stage 1 of this process, 1st is the short cut which I love as I suddenly get an urge mid evening to cook this typical CKP recipe to appease my urges to run to Heathrow n take the next flight to my parents home in Pune ,hummmmm, so we soak the masoor dal 2 measures feeds 2 adults with a ravenous appetite and leaves some to spare.

Then soak it in water for about 20 minutes , the traditional route is to soak the masoor for about 10 minutes and pressure cook with 1 or 2 whistles so that it doesn’t go too soft as it will not absorb the marvellous flavours of all the spices we are to add in the kadhai.

Heat 2 large generous tablespoons of oil in a wok, no weight watchers tip this huh? Indeed!

Add mustard seeds and wait for them to pop but please be carefull not to burn them, one classic error here is that there are 2 types of mustard seeds, one variety is slightly big and the other one is smaller n more packed with flavour according to my mother , I dare not disagree , the only reason I use the smaller variety is that it gives me an ego boost each time I do a phodni and don’t burn them.

Then add Asafoetida, crushed garlic cloves in their skin as the skin turns a tasty caramelised brown adding to the visual delight of the process of tempering a curry or dal! then when the garlic is starting to brown add the curry leaves , green chillies , jeera and then  a generous spoonful of the fresh grated coconut (fresh from froizen is fine by me too) then , stir in the goda masala – 2 generous teaspoons, coriander powder ,turmeric , a big blob of ginger garlic paste and coriander chilli paste and stir this wonderfully aromatic mixture till it starts to brown , then add the chopped onion  and stir it now n then , let the oil work its magic in the onion allowing it to brown so that it secrets it juices and adds the typical flavour that a powerfull pungent red onion has pack3ed inside each leaf ,umm , mouth salivating isn’t it by now reading this , it should that’s the whole point my friend .

Now when this mixture is nice and ready, drain the water from the soaked or boiled par-masoor dal and toss it into the kadhai, stir in enough water to cover the lentil n then some and cook it till it almost done, when your almost done pour in the water of the soaked amsool and the dunk the amsool in along with salt to taste and bring to boil.

Season with finely chopped fresh as ever coriander and serve piping hot with phulkas dripping with ghee (clarified butter) or the plain old boiled white rice.

As you lick your fingers n the plate don’t forget to thank your daddy for giving you an internet connection which allowed you to see my divine blog n stir up this delightfull dish !aww come on now did u really buy your laptop and your internet connection on your own ! Atta girl!

Key (reminds me of my Chemistry textbook in school years)

*C.K.P stands for Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu a sub section of the Maharashtrian community in India and they generally hail from the coastal regions and hence are rather partial to freshly grated coconut and amsool in their food, not to mention their love for fresh fish and mutton, oh yeah!

*Dal used loosely to refer to the uncooked Lentil and AMTI a Marathi word meaning cooked curry.

*Coriander = Cilantro

*Jeera – Cumin (what were you thinking?)

*Aamsul / Garcinia Indica – this is typical to the Konkan region in Maharashtra

*Phodni – Marathi for tempering

*Kadhai – Hindi and Marathi for Wok, easy or what?!

*Phulkas – Also called chapattis or the delightful Indian Bread soft and fluffy and fresh off the pan has ghee smeared on it to pack some punch a many many calories 🙂

The other 4 SAVE ME NOW pastes are:

* a garlic ginger coarse paste,

* Finely grated fresh white coconut paste,

* Tomato red onion puree -1:3,

*And the best one for last aye? – few onion chopped lengthwise n lightly roasted in a kadhai (wok) with fresh white coconut finely grated till they turn slightly brown , then churned into a paste in the mixer )

Pic 1 :The saucepan contains oil heated and then the asafoetida, cumin seeds, mustard seeds, then the garlic , chopped green chillies and curry leaves and last but the best one GODA masala

Pic 2 :Chopped red onion added to the mix

Pic 3: That’s the dal cooking

Pic 4 & 5: All done , the AROMA is filling my senses and transporting me into my MIL’s kitchen , I want to HUG her nowwwwwwwwwww

P.S: Will post pictures to compare the 2 sizes of Mustard seeds at a later date , I am now going to be too busy slurping my amti (dal) off the plate 🙂

Filed Under: Curry - Vegetarian, Food, Indian, Recipe Index, Vegetarian Tagged With: aamsul, allergic, amsul, amti, aromatic, asafoetida, Atyamala, birund, blog, boil, Bollywood, bread, busy, butter, calories, chillies, chukra, CKP, cloves, clusiaceae, coarse, coastal, coconut, cook, corainder, curry, dal, dance, dhania, dish, dried, easy, elastic, fast, food, food blog, garcinia indica, garlic, ghee, goda masala, green, Gujrat, heeng, Hindi, hing, hot, hug, hurry, internet, itadka, jaggery, jeera, juices, Kadhai, Karnataka, kokum, konkan, laptop, leaves, lentil, lick, link, Madame Tussads, Madhuri Dixit, maharashtrian, mangosteen, Marathi, masoor, men, MIL, moi, Murgal, Murgala, mustard, mutton, Orissa, palate, paste, phodni, phulkas, piping, pour, powder, process, Punampuli, Pune, pungent, Raktapurak, ratamba, Ratnagiri, raw, recipe, red, region, rice, Sanskrit, season, seeds, slurping, song, Tamil Nadu, tasty, tease, tempering, Tintali, tintidika, tomato, tumeric, turmeric, typical, Vrikshamla, waist, water, wax, wet, white, wiki, wok

My 1st Post …Bombay Blues …

January 21, 2012 by manjirichitnis 5 Comments

Deja Vu? Or is it my mind playing tricks with me again ?? sighh….

It’s often times nowadays that I slip out of my body and walk the streets of the city where I was born – Bombay to me and Mumbai to many . It is generally triggered by a simple series of photos that I see on FB of someone in Bombay or some poor soul like me that “lives” abroad but “walks” around in Bombay in their head .

So where am I right now ? I am sipping on a cold watermelon juice, alone , on a bright sunny afternoon , wearing a white gunji n blue denim shorts ,my hair is cut in a blunt cut style,something of a short bob like bouncy and fun , blow dried and I am looking at the hot humid and extremely vibrant Colaba Causeway and watching the usual street stalls hawking over priced goods to unsuspecting tourists, prostitues mingle with the rest of the world and try with no success to merge into the fabric of this vivid picture . Then I am walking towards the gateway of India feeling energised after my cold beverage only to sweat it all out by the time I reach but the sight and sounds of the beautiful Arabian sea , the waves crashing against the beautiful stonework take me far far away to a happy place in my head .

I turn and I am sitting at Café Coffee Day at Bandra Bandstand the wind in my hair feels wonderfull and the light spray of salty sea water hitting my face now n then makes me feel humid yet happy . I down a glass of cold cold yummy coffee topped with some marvellous crumbled cookies and attempt to scribble some thing I feel on a tissue paper , promising myself to one day make a blog ….

so finally when I am many miles away from my Bombay City and sitting in a tiny flat somewhere in London , when all the familiar sights and sounds have vanished do I make this blog come alive .

I do get these nostalgia attacks often times and each time I travel , if only in my head the busy yet beautiful streets of Bombay city and relive moments of my lovely life .

Oh yes and I must admit when I was in Pune , I used to get these nostalgia attacks too , especially when I was reading Shantaram . I do resent people who think that he exposed the dirty underbelly of Bombay , he merely stated life as it happened to him and his words, so beautiful , so graphic ,like I was watching a film maybe , why wouldn’t then I walk the streets of Bombay through his words ? Why not ? After all a good book does just that, doesn’t it ???

Someday I am also going to gift myself an i-pad or a tablet , I get these mad ideas when I am on a bus journey that I must write down , but they just turn into wisps of invisible threads and slip out of mind like a silent ghost …. and leave me feeling well, sort of like a person who is reading a gripping murder mystery and just as the end is to reveal all , the door bell rings…. and in comes a painfull neighbour who has to have a cup of TEA and one sided conversation NOW !

OH YES !And, I also get huge feelings of sorrow at not being able to shop and browse through the beautiful outlets of FABINDIA whenever I browse this wondefull blog called Rang décor, it’s a visual melange of all things India expressed in pictures and words that is simply a delight for a sore soul

So with this my dear future readers , I present to you humbly my blog , my thoughts at times totally neurotic but mine all the same .

I love attention who doesn’t ? therefore , I welcome bouquets and brickbats alike , but please desist from comments that are rude, racist ,inflammatory or else I shall give u what I call an “e-kick” and banish for evermore 🙂 serious !

I will always always attempt to give due credit if I am inspired by any material written by any blogger or photograph I use from any place – I hate anyone stealing my work and am sure those that I write from or paste from will also hate me if I don’t mention them .

My thoughts, my words , my life experiences and feelings are ALL my OWN and not borrowed , copied or lifted so therefore there is a copyright I reserve over them , ok ?

I may at times attempt to review or comment on movies , books , make up , fashion etc etc etc etc , which does not mean I get paid , if some one is MAD enough to ever do that , well I shall shout it out from the rooftop , NOT of my current rented flat inside a crumbling Victorian era building of course , why do that when London has so many TALL buildings- yes PUN intended 🙂

I also have a twitter id and am fairly technologically challenged and therefore will not be able to smarten this blog up and am under training , rather have forced myself to be trained by a rather sweet buddy of mine and my hubby’s for that matter , so if there’s any hanky panky stealing attempts , BEWARE , I shall catch u and spank ur backside with a LARGE , very large hairbrush . Humpfh !

I will use a lot of hyperlinks to better the understanding of many things I shall crib about and most times I link to Wikipedia which is an abundance of knowledge. If not the hyperlink will give due credit to the owner or writer of the information.

Phew!!!

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Miscellaneous Tagged With: 1st, admit, alivetravel, arabian, attemot, attention, bandra, bandstand, bell, beverage, beware, blog, blogger, blowing, blues, blunt, blunt cut, Bombay, buddy, causeway, Colaba, collide, copied, crashing, credit, crib, deja vu, dirty, door, due, era, FabIndia, familiar, film, flat, graphic, hear, hellow world, hubbyspank, hug, humble, i-pad, ideas, information, inspire, lifted, listen, london, mad, miles, Mumbai, my, neurotic, nostalgia, ocean, photograph, pun, Pune, read, rental, sea, search, see, Shantaram, sights, sleep, smell, smells, sounds, speak, stealing, stonework, tablet, tall, touch, twitter, vanished, Victorian, vivid, water, waves, wind, write

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