I felt elated after enjoying Dal and Rice. I enjoyed it because I made it. I have an arrangement with a Household to provide food. However, the person who cooks is out of town for a few days. I never cook, In fact I loath it. This perhaps stems from my previous unsuccessful attempts at cooking the aforementioned Dish. Eating outside, is an option but I didn't feel like doing that today. Moreover, the restaurants near my place need to understand that certain people enjoy nutritious food rather than a overdose of oil and 'Masala'. So I reluctantly decided to cook. I called up my mother and asked her for the list of ingredients and the procedure.
I then made my way to the nearest Market. The list didn't look intimidating. Onions, tomatoes, Curry Leaves and Green Chillies. The other items in the list were available in hermetically sealed packets. I had a tough time selecting items that weren't available in packets. Selecting Green Chillies was fairly straight forward. All the green chillies in the carton looked the same. So I just picked up a few, visually inspecting them for any blemishes. Next came Tomatoes. The market seemed to have lots of tomatoes. So I stood in front of these cartons. Some of them red, while others looked as though the red color has faded. I was confused as to which to select. I then decided that I shall randomly select Tomatoes and visually inspect them and then if they pass the visual inspection test, I shall test them for softness. I had a gut feeling that it shouldn't be too soft. So after 10 minutes or so i zeroed in on 4 tomatoes. Next came Onions. I went to the area where onions were kept. To my chagrin the whole lot failed the visual inspection test. I stood there for a full 5 minutes wondering what I should do. The last time I came shopping for tomatoes, I had a nice aunty help me. She looked at my confused face and helped me with the selection. That was perhaps a year ago.
I kept staring at the lot of onions, hoping that some aunty would turn up again to help or at least someone would select onions and all i had to do was follow his actions. But, 15 minutes on, no one came. The storekeeper came to my rescue, he loaded the carton with a fresh lot. I wouldn't say that the fresh lot passed my stringent visual inspection test, But I was fed up of standing there, so i selected a few.
At home I diligently followed the procedure.
I avoided the mistake of roasting the dal before cooking it. I did that last time and I kept waiting for it to pressure cook and in the end it was the pressure cooker that got cooked, not the dal.
I chopped the onions, and tomatoes, soaked the dal for half an hour and pressure cooked the dal , put the pressure cooked dal on a frying pan after frying the garnish and guess what, it came out well . It was slightly bland. But unlike my previous attempts, it was cooked. (Oh and I forgot the Curry Leaves)
' Try Try and Try till you succeed' is true beyond doubt.
I then made my way to the nearest Market. The list didn't look intimidating. Onions, tomatoes, Curry Leaves and Green Chillies. The other items in the list were available in hermetically sealed packets. I had a tough time selecting items that weren't available in packets. Selecting Green Chillies was fairly straight forward. All the green chillies in the carton looked the same. So I just picked up a few, visually inspecting them for any blemishes. Next came Tomatoes. The market seemed to have lots of tomatoes. So I stood in front of these cartons. Some of them red, while others looked as though the red color has faded. I was confused as to which to select. I then decided that I shall randomly select Tomatoes and visually inspect them and then if they pass the visual inspection test, I shall test them for softness. I had a gut feeling that it shouldn't be too soft. So after 10 minutes or so i zeroed in on 4 tomatoes. Next came Onions. I went to the area where onions were kept. To my chagrin the whole lot failed the visual inspection test. I stood there for a full 5 minutes wondering what I should do. The last time I came shopping for tomatoes, I had a nice aunty help me. She looked at my confused face and helped me with the selection. That was perhaps a year ago.
I kept staring at the lot of onions, hoping that some aunty would turn up again to help or at least someone would select onions and all i had to do was follow his actions. But, 15 minutes on, no one came. The storekeeper came to my rescue, he loaded the carton with a fresh lot. I wouldn't say that the fresh lot passed my stringent visual inspection test, But I was fed up of standing there, so i selected a few.
At home I diligently followed the procedure.
I avoided the mistake of roasting the dal before cooking it. I did that last time and I kept waiting for it to pressure cook and in the end it was the pressure cooker that got cooked, not the dal.
I chopped the onions, and tomatoes, soaked the dal for half an hour and pressure cooked the dal , put the pressure cooked dal on a frying pan after frying the garnish and guess what, it came out well . It was slightly bland. But unlike my previous attempts, it was cooked. (Oh and I forgot the Curry Leaves)
' Try Try and Try till you succeed' is true beyond doubt.
