What's for dinner tonight?

Oh, me too, littlek!!!
c.f., do you EVER have a quick, boring meal on the run?

I am hungry now !! Who cares abt dinner, I am gonna eat RIGHT NOW !!!!

Chomp Chomp, yum yum...

Seriously cold, after our Indian summer, littlek .... Tonight it will be down to 2 degrees C ..... The 2 cats appear to have mistaken me for an electric blanket tonight .... Very hard to get them off!
So it's looking like another hearty soup tomorrow night, to warm up the ol' bod. I like the idea of a dhal, too .... What are your favourite ingredients?

So tell us what you're chomping into, G.

One of the essential ingrediants of a dinner in the region of India I come from....

Dry Dal

Ingredients
1 cup urad dal
1 cup onions slices (thin)
1 tbsp. coriander finely chopped
1" stick cinnamon
2-3 cardamoms
2 cloves
1 bayleaf
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
1/2 tsp. pepper powder
salt to taste
1/2 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. ghee

Method


Clean, wash, soak dal for 15 minutes.
Boil in 5 cups water, adding turmeric and salt.
Either pressure cook or boil till just soft.
Drain water.
Heat ghee in a heavy saucepan.
Add all spices, broken coarsely, and cumin seeds.
Allow to splutter, add onions. Stirfry till light brown.
Add dal, lemon juice, masalas. Stir gently.
Take care not to mash up dal too much.
Garnish with coriander.
Serve hot with rice and kadhi, or paratha and a gravy vegetable.
Making time:20 minutes (except boiling time)
Makes: 4 servings
Shelflife:Best fresh
Variation: Instead of urad dal, use channa dal and instead of coriander leaves use tender fenugreek leaves or dill leaves.

Cheesecake

(I know, I know, I am being bad !!)

Piffka

Oh that sounds so good & so healthy! Yum.
I'm interested what you folk in the US mean when you talk of BBQ-d food .... Heard on the radio today that often you leave to lid on when cooking - to sort of broil the food - wheras in Oz we usually leave the lid off, for for a dry, crispy finish.

Gautam

That sounds good!
Will give it a go soon, after getting some fresh spices ... mine have gotten a wee bit tired .... Haven't made dhal for yonks.

Don't worry about being "bad", Gautam .... We promise not to tell the virtual weight loss crew! :wink: Enjoy!

MsOlga, it's LATE spring here and barely warmer than there! But, I know it feels colder for you guys. We're kind of used to it up here.

MsOlga and Gautam, as for the dhal I just made. I own a cook book called 'curries without worries' and looked at a recipe for basic dhal before I nearly completely disreguarded it.

I used french (tiny green) lentils and added them with water to a pot (guessed at the ratio) after rinsing the lentils.

Threw butter (no ghee) and a bit of olive oil in a pan and slow sauteed:
onions, garlic,
1/2 bay leaf, seeds from within one cardomom, dried coriander leaf, one wing of star anise,
a few shakes of tumeric, a couple large pinches of home made garam massala (smells a bit like a very strongly spiced chai tea),
and some slivered fresh ginger.
Tossed some chopped cherry tomatoes in at the last minute
and then tossed it all in with the lentils which were all but done.

Lentilles de Puy...one of my faves...

Yummm, I like lentils, too, though they're not ON the Atkin's diet.

MsOlga -- it is supposed to get up to 23.9 C. here this afternoon. I checked and converted the temperature for you (that's 75F for the Americans). It really isn't that warm, but in the Pacific Northwest, we rarely get any super-hot days. I think once a summer it gets to about 37.8C (100F). We're just beginning to think about summer -- ahhhhhh. It can't come too soon for me. So is it possible you'll get snow? I didn't think you had that in Australia!

As far as the BBQing and using the top. My husband runs the BBQ, y'know, it's a guy thing, but I do notice that he usually puts the top on. When we're camping, he's likes to cook over an open fire and, of course, there is no top. I don't know why he uses the top at home maybe so the food cooks faster? <shrugging shoulders> What I like most about BBQing is there are no pans to clean up afterwards.

Piffka, there are snowfields in Australia nearish (in the grand scheme of that continent) to MsOlga and dlowan. Or is that nearish to Margo? Maybe between all 3?

We had salmon and rice. c.i.

I had some Haddock, asparagus, and brown rice made by the new housemate (she's here for the summer) and two cheese and vegie enchiladas.

Sauteed vidalia onions with a vat of steamed rice left-over from lunch thrown into the pan. I couldn't figure out til I was out with the dogs that there was something missing from the meal. The egg - there was supposed to be an egg and some spinach in there. I musta been hungry.

The dogs got some left-over steamed rice mixed with bolognese sauce to top their kibble. They're resting nicely now, thank you very much.

Just so msolga knows, tonight was a tired night, we ordered in a bit of Chinese and a bit of Vietnamese.

There are some snowfields in Oz, probably closest of all to MsOlga. But they are some distance from any of the cities. None of the cities get snow - even in the middle of winter. It doesn't get really cold until end July / August, but we always complain as winter sneaks up!

Rice! So many of you have mentioned rice! Lovely, fluffy white rice & littlek's brown. It's made me realize how much I miss it. (Somehow I've forgotten to cook it in my past few busy weeks)... I MUST get some into me soon - I feel a craving! .... Any brilliant & super-easy new ideas for this frantic busy woman?

Thank you for the dhal recipe, littlek ... You & Gautam have inspired me to give indian cooking another go. Had a big run of it, a few years ago, then left it aside .... But dhal is a wonderful comfort food! I forgot!

C.F.
Good to know that you, too, have a tired night! Was beginning to think that you dined gourmet every night! The envy, the envy ...

ehBeth

I like hearing happy critter stories! If only my cats & I could share the same dinner! That only happens when I do the roast chicken thing ... They LOVE that!

Piffka

Now how come the BBQ thing is a bloke thing in EVERY country? And they seem to enjoy doing it so much!
Your spring sounds fractionally warmer than our autumn-almost winter! You must be hardy stock up there in the Pacific NW!

margo

Hello!
Thank you for clearing up the Oz snow situation. Yup, it snows here in Oz, but EXTREMELY rarely (if ever!) in our largest coastal cities ... You have to go inland, to the mountains, for that.

Master of Indian cooking and probbaly its biggest fan, at yr service <takes a humble bow>

OUCH WHO PINCHED MY BUTT ????

Gautam, is your Aloo Gobi dry or saucy, heh heh...