Chana Dal Sookhi | Punjabi Style Bengal Gram Lentils

Dals or lentils are a staple of the Indian Kitchen. They are prepared in a variety of ways that can often be identified as regional. Dals from the Punjab are often hearty and made with a combination of big flavours!! Chana Dal Sookhi is a fragrant combination of lentils, spices, fenugreek leaves, onions, and garlic.

Khatta-Meetha Nimboo Achaar | Sweet-Sour Lemon Pickle

Lemons are a plenty in the market, and its the perfect weather to enjoy them. Lemons are tremendously versatile and just add great flavour to food. I always keep a great stock handy for all those lovely dishes that come alive with a squeeze of lemon. Amongst our favourites are chilled sweet lemonade, margaritas, salad dressing, granita, and needless to say pickle!!

A drop of lemon pickle makes a perfect accompaniment to any meal. Try this lovely home made pickle with rice, paratha, crackers, toast, you name it!! The explosive combination of tart, sweet, and hot makes it finger-licking good:)

Ingredients:
8 lemons, quartered
1 cup canola oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 cup dry red chillies
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp asafetida
1/2 cup sugar
Salt, to taste


Method:

1. Heat the oil in a deep, heavy bottomed pan. Add the mustard seeds.
2. When they begin to pop, add the asafetida. Stir and cook for a minute. Next add the lemons.Take care not to splash the oil as it will be very hot at this point.
3. Reduce the heat to medium and cook the lemons well, until all the water they release is evaporated and the oil begins to separate from them. Remove from the heat.
4. In a separate non-stick pan, dry roast the fenugreek seeds and the red chillies separately. Cool. Dry grind these together.
5. Now add this spice mix to the cooked lemons with the salt and sugar. Mix well. As the oil is warm, the sugar will melt.
6. Once the pickle is cool, store in clean, dry glass bottles for at least a week before serving.

This lemon pickle goes to AFAM Lemon. A monthly event, it is being hosted this month by Easycrafts at Simple Indian Food. AFAM or A Fruit A Month event was started by Maheswari of Beyond the Usual blog. This recipe also goes to Sunita at Sunita's World food blog. Sunita's food event Think Spice... carries the theme Think Spice... Think Favourite this month. This is because this fabulous event is celebrating its very first anniversary! Great going Sunita - and wishing you all the best!! Quick note on my favourite spice which is fenugreek seeds. Fenugreek seeds are a staple of Indian cooking and they add great flavour to vegetables, pickles, and chutneys alike. Fenugreek, roasted and crushed is a vital ingredient of pickles. Its flavour though initially bitter plays a significant role in the maturing of the pickle. Here's to my favourite spice - fenugreek seeds!!!!

Vegan Recipe

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Gujarati Kadhi | Sweet-Sour Buttermilk Curry

Hey Folks! I'm back after a short hiatus. February was supposed to be our home moving month, with the actual move planned for the end of the last week. However we had some rather unexpected warm and sunny weather on the weekend of 23-24 February. Given the 100 plus inches snow that we have plowed our way through since the start of this year, the ray of sunshine seemed promising, and indeed too good to pass up. At the very last minute we decided to take advantage of this good fortune that nature had sent us and move a week before planned. There was some unfinished maintenance at our new home, yet we decided to chance it :)