Blogging and cooking

This is like the puzzle what came first the chicken or the egg, in my case it is replaced with blogging and cooking. I was always fond of food but never fond of cooking. It was to me like a very mundane chore that I did with a very grim face. We always had a cook and I always thought that the cook is the most indispensable person in my life. But as we all know that "change is the only constant", things didn't remain the same.the most interesting part is how it changed. After quitting my job in order to take care of my son, I was mostly staying at home. I became very restless. I decided to channelize my restlessness and started a blog. A blog that would primarily speak about me, my emotions, my daily chores, my vacations, my passions.Initially I wrote a short story in my blog and then inspired by other co-bloggers I wrote a recipe and then there was no looking back. I started filling up my blog space with recipes, this also led to a sudden surge in cooking. I do not know if I am passionate about the blog or the food. I suddenly started monopolizing the kitchen, which was ever since the sole domain of my book. She didn't naturally take this insurgence sportingly and left. The strange part is I felt good after she left. I suddenly feel free and am on a cooking spree like never before. lets see how long it lasts

Dal puri with a difference

I think very soon I will achieve the title of "re-use queen". I have started reusing leftovers to such an extent that I am almost getting addicted. Human kind should give me a standing ovation for this. In this age of global warming and food crisis I am trying to bring back equilibrium and push back the disaster with my reuses.
Well, I share this credit (I am assuming that you are already standing and clapping for me, being a Leo I survive on applauds)with both my mother and my mother-in-law. Both the women had OCD(obsessive compulsive disorder)in not wasting food. My mother used every single part of a vegetable to cook her meals, it included the skin, seeds, stem and what not. The same with my mom-in-law, infact my mom-in-law is so much in love with leftovers that she would even keep aside a single leftover aloo from a macher jhol to eat the next day. Although these habits of both the mothers irritated me once upon a time but now with age I have started realising their benefits. In today's age where preservation has become the key word for survival I think these age-old methods of our mother's should lead us to better future not only for our own families but for the entire world. Mothers take a bow.

Yesterday few of my husband's vegetarian friends came for dinner. I had prepared mixed dal, lauer torkari, begun bhaja(this dish is a hit with hubby's veg buddy's) raita and halwa for them. They loved the Bengali lau and begun bhaja so much that they literally neglected the dal, which I had prepared in a non-bengali style(hats off to simple Bengali cuisine). Negligence of the dal lead to it's leftover.I suddenly remembered both the mothers and following them I utilised leftover dal to make tasty dal puris. This Dal Puri is slightly different in preparatin nevertheless it is very tasty and above all it saves your leftover dal from heading the litterbin.



Preparation

Leftover dal (any variety)
2 cups wheat flour
1 pinch ajwain
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp vegetable oil
salt to taste

Take the flour in a bowl and add the dal, ajwain and salt to it. Mix well. Slowly add water to knead it into a soft dough. Make small balls from the dough. Roll them into small circles. In a tawa fry them adding oil. The same way as we fry parathas. Alternatively you can also deep fry them in a pan like puris.

Eat them with chilli pickle and curd/yogurt.