Dal with fried eggs taken along with hot plain boiled rice makes wonderful lunch or dinner especially in cold wheather. Balti dhal, I have made previously two to three times but never thought of blogging it. This balti dhal dish I have learned from a cook book called "Healthy Indian Cooking" by "Shehzad Husain and Manisha Kanani". This book contains authentic dishes with less fat. Thanks to the authors for sharing wonderful dishes ..all Vegetable,Non-Vegetable dishes, Soups, Snaks and Salads. Though not exactly, I cooked dal with little variations suiatble to regular dal taste. The result was amazing.

The another dish is Boiled eggs fry in curry leaves paste. This dish is from my mothers cook book. I love this as side dish along with dhal or biryani or sambar or just like that. It has got curry leaves paste taste which is good to health with eggs. Do give a try ..it is very easy to make and much tasty to eat:-))

Ingredients For Balti Dhal:
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1/2 cup toor dhal
1 medium bunch spring onions roughly chopped
1/2 capsicum (or green pepper) seeded and sliced thinely
1tsp garlic pulp
1tsp ginger pulp
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt (or a/c to taste)
1 stem curry leaves (which are absent in author's version)
1/2 tsp Coriander powder (which is absent in author's recipe)
2 small tomatoes(sliced into thin long pieces) or (a/c to author 6-8 cherry tomatoes)
1/2 tsp mustard seeds or (a/c to author onions seeds. I used mustard since I was lack of onion seeds)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (or a/c author fresh 1 cup fenugreek leaves)
small lemon sized tamarind(soaked in warm water) or (a/c author 1 tbsp lemon juice)
fresh coriander leaves to cook in and garnish
oil for cooking (a/c to author 2tbsp oil)

Method:
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1. Cook the dhal in a suacepan of boiling water until soft and mushy. Drain and set aside.
2. Take the tamarind juice out of soaked one and keep aside.
3. Heat the oil with oinion seeds or mustard seeds till they splutter.
   
4. Add spring oinions and curry leaves and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Add cooked dhal and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
6. Now add turmeric, salt, chilli powder, coriander powder, ginger and garlic pulp respectively, mix and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
7. Then add cut tomatoes or cherry tomatoes as it is and cut capsicum into the dhal. Mix well and cover the pan with lid and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. See that tomatoes become soft if using cherry tomatoes or if using regular one's see that they are not over cooked and mashed up. They taste best with dish when they are just soft and as it is.
8. Finally add tamarind juice or lemon juice and mix well and allow to cook for 2 more minutes if using tamarind juice.
9. garnish with some cut spring oinions and fresh coriander leaves on top( also can add some coriander leaves while cooking, which I did.

Egg Fry In Curry Leaves Paste
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Ingredients For Egg Fry:

4 eggs
1 packet of curry leaves available in indian store or 5 to 6 curry leaves stems
salt a/c to taste
ground pepper a/c to taste
1 garlic (shredded finely) optional
2 to 3 tsp of oil for frying

Method:

1. Boil eggs and remove shell , pork them with knife or tooth pick all over the eggs and keep aside.( this is done to let the paste go inside the egg)
   
2. Wash curry leaves separated from stem and grind to fine paste or as much as possible.
3. Heat oil in a deep sauce pan. Add curry leaves paste and fry till all water evaporates.
4. Now add salt , pepper and shredded garlic (I did not use garlic here). Mix well with paste and fry for few seconds.
5. Now add eggs , mix well and fry till the color of eggs changes to light brown. Not necessarly the color should be even all through the egg.
6. Serve hot with boiled plain rice or with any dhal of your choice.

Note: A small tip for good boiled eggs. Boil eggs for long time and to remove the shell with out any damage to the egg, after they are boiled, keep them in cold water or under cold running water for some time. And before removing the shell again wash it under cold water. Now the shell will come very easily with out any damage to the egg.

Don'nt they look like some brown pearls??? Yeah, they are!!! I mean they are so precious in food world not though in pearls :-)) Thease, beans we found in indian grocery, where we were actually searching for alasandalu (black eyed beans). I bought them with out knowing anything about. Then after seeing the name Moth Beans on the packet, I started searching on the net for information. Then I found some sites, stating they are called Mat or Matki in maharashtra and are used to make sav or chaat or curry. They were in my store for long long time untouched. When I was lack of vegetables except onions and tomatoes in my store, I took them and made some dry curry, finally. And ask what? ...the end result was very good, more than I expected. And yesterday, when I was going through Vaishali's Blog, I found matki farasbee bhaji, which is combo of beans and moth sprouts. You can check the recipe..its very intresting and Iam going to try this next time with moth beans. So some how I made a curry with thease beans using my regular masala ingredients. Hope you will like it:-)) Here I go....

Ingredients:
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1 cup moth beans (soaked overnight in water)
2 medium sized tomatoes (chopped finely or sliced into thin pieces)
1 medium onion (cut into thin slices)
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder (optional)
1 tsp lemon juice
oil for cooking( as required)
salt as per taste

Method:
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1. Wash moth beans soaked overnight , drain and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a wide pan, fry onion till light brown. Add ginger and garlic paste, fry for 1 more min.
3. Add all other spices and fry for 2 min.
4. Now add moth beans and little water. Mix all other spices and salt with moth beans and close the lid. Allow to cook for 3 to 4 min on medium heat.
5. Now add tomatoes ( can reduce to 1 tomato, if you want less gravy or like to eat as a chaat). Mix all other ingredients with tomatoes and allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Once you see the gravy become thick or there is no water, remove for the heat.
6. Add lemon juice , just before removing from the heat.

Note: Serve with hot chapathis or pulkhas. If you are serving, some time later, then can be served as a chaat with cut onions, fresh coriender and cut lemon pieces as desired. I liked this dish in both ways.