Today Iam back with some simple curry yet tasty one, from my MIL. This vegetable is rich source of fiber. Also it is useful for the new mothers to get relief from the pain they get while feeding milk or from engorged breast. Though it has some uses, many of us hate eating this vegetable because we are left with very few methods to cook this. How ever we cook it taste the same..this is what exactly we think. But my view changed when I tasted this curry. I took this recipe from my Mil. The dal or lentil part of this recipe really makes it more tasty. But I like cabbage when it is cooked with just some popu or tadka with chapathi then rice. It serves as best side dish. But today when I went to prepare usual cabbage fry just with tadka for chapathis, I found Iam not left with any chapathi flour. Too late to know haa..;-) Then I rememberd this recipe told long back by my MIL and I cooked it only once. So I cooked this with little variations, suitable to be taken with plain white rice. For thsi all I need is..

Ingredients:
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1 Medium sized cabbage
1/2 cup or 4oz or 125ml uncooked moong dal or pessarpappu or green gram( washed)
1 Small onion or 1/2 of big onion
4 to 5 Green chillies (as per ur wish)
2 garlic cloves
1/4th or 1/2 tsp mustard seeds(adjust to ur spice)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp flat turmeric powder (or less If u want)
Hing a pich(optional) (Inguva) (obtained easily in Indian Stores)
Salt for taste
1 tbsp Vegetable oil (or as per ur taste & choice)

Method:
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1. Cut the cabbage into small pieces, and grate them to fine or in a food processor bit by bit. Wash and keep it aside to drain the water completely.( You can enlarge the picute above a see)
2. Meanwhile, wash the moong dal in cold water several times and micro wave for 15 minutes with enough water to be cooked. Or can cook on stove directly. When I cooked in micro wave no water was left and it cooked as I desired. I.e., it should not be over cooked nor completely smashed as we cook in pressure cooker. So take care of it.(Can see in above picture) Keep it aside.
3. Cut onion into thin slices and slits to the green chillies. Crush the garlic cloves or ito tiny pieces.
   
4. Take a wide pan, heat oil. Add mustard and cumin seeds respectively. Once they are done spluttering, add green chillies, crushed garlic and hing. And fry for few seconds.
   
5. Now add onions and fry till light brown in color and they should be soft. They should not be over cooked.
6. Now add grated cabbage and turmeric powder , mix with all other ingredients and cover the pan with lid and allow it to settle down and half cooked.
   
7. After it is cooked for 3 to 4 minutes, add dal or green gram along with desired salt and mix well.
8. Cover the pan and cook for another 5 to 8 minutes, so that cabbage is cooked competely.
9. Serve with hot plain rice, some papadams and spicy yogurt mirchis which are deep fried. Thus completes your any time meal. It was our today's meal:-)
   

Note: Timings mentioned above or in any recipe of mine is approximate one, not exact timing. So do take care while cooking to avoid any over cooked or under cooked dish.

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.

As I said in my Mooli Paratha post, that I learned some couple of dishes from a good cook. One I posted i.e., mooli paratha and another one is Moodu Pappula Dosa, which Iam blogging today. I heard before, that with many combos of pappulu or dal's different dosa's can be made. Every combo has its own taste I think. Because, when I tasted this one it was quite different unlike dosa yet very tasty. I hope you will all like too. Another speciality of this dosa is, it does'nt require any marination time, which is perfect for weekends for a quick dish. With no delay here I go...(This measurement is for 2 to 3 people and comes for 2 days breakfast, since its quite heavy unlike regular dosa) Though different appetites has different measurement :-))

Ingredients:
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Pesarpappu 1 cup (moong dal)
Minapappu 1 cup ( urad dal )
Chenagapappu 1 cup (chenna dal )
Menthulu a pinch (fenugreek seeds)
Small size ginger 1
Dry red chillies 10 no's( can reduce as per taste)
Dhaniyaalu 1tbsp or (can use dhaniya powder which should be equal to 1 tbsp dhaniyaalu when powdered)
Jeera 1tsp
Coriender(Fresh) 1/4 cup
Salt as per taste (my measurement is 1 to 1 1/2 tsp)


Method:
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1. Soak 3 dals over night (or else if you want to make same day, soak for 3 hrs). More soaked , more soft as usual. But there will be no change in taste. I tried both ways, and both were good.
2. Grind menthulu(fenugreek seeds), red chillies, ginger, Dhaniyalu and Jeera(cumin seeds) togeather.
3. Grind dals in small amounts along with above mixture plus salt and coriender(add little water if needed).
4. After batter is ready, heat thawa and spread like dosa and oil all around as needed. This will be little thicker than regular dosa, which makes stomach full soon :-)
5. Serve hot with any chutney or just like that.

Note: This dosa taste's at its best, when it is served hot. Enjoy!!