Friday Food Feature – August 21, 2015 blogging 101

Recipe for lentil soup:

Ingredients:

1. red lentil–(masoor daal) 1 cup

2.yellow lentil(moong daal) 1 cup

3. onion – 1 medium(finely sliced)

4.cayenne pepper- 1/2 teaspoon

5.salt to taste

6.curry powder- 2 teaspoon

7. garlic powder-1/2 teaspoon

8. ginger powder– 1/2 teaspoon

9. olive oil– 3 tablespoon

10. tomatoes- three whole tomatoes diced

Method:

wash the lentils thoroughly, until the water is clear, put aside. Heat the oil in the pot, add onions, fry until the sliced onion pieces are slightly brown. Do not burn it. Add all the spices including the salt, fry for one minute. Add the washed lentils with the water and the diced tomatoes, let it boil for five minutes, turn the heat low to simmer. When the grains of the lentil mixes with the water and looks like a paste, the lentil soup is done taste for salt if it is salty enough, take it off the stove.

Lentil soup can be served as soup or eaten with plain boiled rice as we do in Bangladesh. They are also eaten with chapatis( Tortillas) in Punjab. Lentil is considered a poor man’s protein.

Lentil soup

……………………………………………….:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

365 Writing Prompt: Taglines

Often our blogs have taglines.But what if humans did, too? What would your tagline be?

I remember when I was very young a vendor used to come to our house, his intention was to sell fried spicy lentils. He made up a song to attract the attention of the children. It was all about his dried spicy fried lentils.

The lyrics of his spicy fried lentils was: my lentils are the best,

they are eaten by Bengalees who wear loose dhotis(these are worn instead of                                                                          trousers)

They are warm they are hot, come one,come all.

Each house he visited he changed the lyrics, he only went to houses where there were children. I remember running to the gate to eat his tasty goodies.

I realize now hot spicy fried lentils was his tagline, he was describing his delicious lentils to attract kids.

I cannot imagine humans having tagline, then again that car salesman comes to mind. He knew my husband and I were potential car buyers, because the one we drove to see him was on its last leg.Like a perfect salesman, he offered coffee, when we declined he went so far as to say, he’d mow our lawn, clear our snow, all we had to do was to call him.We smiled we knew what he was trying to do. The immediate feeling we got, ‘He is such a nice man.’

He tried to impress us by his demeanor and it certainly worked.

If I were to use a tagline, I’d probably talk about teaching, about the scholarships I was awarded, but having used that I can’t see droves of people coming to me to ask for help for their slow learner kid.

I don’t think I can use a tagline to impress people. The car salesman has done his sweet talk for years, it works for him. It will not work for me.

………………………………:)

 

 

 

365 Writing Prompt: Seconds

Describe the most satisfying meal you’ve ever eaten, in glorious detail.

Sometimes a meal can be satisfactory without the word “Gourmet” attached to it.

Here is my reason for the above claim. I was always very simple minded when it came to food. There were times my mother would cook all kinds of delicious food, everyone in the family would be dancing up and down for this meal except me. I’d complain,”Mom, please can I have some lentils and mashed potatoes with my rice?”

I wish you could see the expression on my mom’s face, she’d say: Rani I cannot believe you want lentil and mash potatoes when I have cooked so many delicious foods?”

My mom called me Rani instead of Ranu if I said something outrageous.

Here is the glorious detail of my most satisfying meal.

For lentil the ingredients are:

1. one cup orange lentils(for soup)

2. half teaspoon- cayenne pepper

3. quarter teaspoon– turmeric powder

4. salt — half teaspoon

5. one small onion(diced)

6. two tablespoon— vegetable oil

7. water –two cups

Method:

Wash the lentils thoroughly until the water is crystal clear. Drain the water, pour the lentils in a saucepan. Put the pan on the stove, turn the heat to high, add salt, cayenne pepper, and turmeric. Bring it to a boil, if there are white scum floating, gently take it off with a spoon and discard it.Lower the heat to simmer, let it simmer until the grains mix with the water. Take the stove off the burner and  place a frying pan, use medium heat to heat the pan, pour the oil and when the oil is hot put the diced onion in the pan, fry until the onion is lightly brown, next step put the fried onions in the lentil soup, put the sauce pan to reheat the soup, taste for salt if it is suitable for you turn off the stove.

The next item is mashed potatoes:

Ingredients:

1. potatoes: two medium sized

2. Onion : one diced

3. dry red pepper: two

4. oil: one tablespoon

5. salt– half teaspoon

Method:

Boil the potatoes until they are soft. Heat the saucepan on the burner, pour the tablespoon of oil, when the oil is reasonably hot put the two dry peppers, with the spoon stir it until the peppers are a bit charred, take them out and place them in a bowl. Now put the diced onion and let it get slightly brown, do not let it burn, take them out of the pan and put them in another bowl.

Peel the boiled potatoes mash them with your hand or use a potato masher make sure there are no lumps. Next use your fingers to squash the dried peppers into a powder, care should be used to wash your finger thoroughly with soap after taking care of the peppers. Put the onions , powdered peppers, salt and mashed potatoes in a  slightly larger bowl to combine them together.

Serve it with plain boiled rice, it is delicious. I consider this tastier than any gourmet food I have eaten.

: https://sabethville.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/365-writing-prompt-seconds/

 

Food Post by Ranu

Food is something our body needs to maintain life,growth and nourishment.

Boiled white rice (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In Bengal our staple food is rice.It is grown in large quantities and the weather

is suitable for growing it. We eat a lot of rice.The best combination of rice is

fish.We have several kinds of fish,they range from very tiny ones to very large.

Not all the fish is available throughout the year, some of them are seasonal.

We  grow a variety of vegetables and they are available in particular seasons.

In winter we get all our favourite vegetables,e.g   tomatoes,potatoes,cauliflower,

lettuce etc. We  grow variety of lentils; the most popular lentil is masoor,it is

Masoor dal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

cheaper than moong .Masoor dal(lentil) is cooked  daily in our homes. Masoor dal

is called the poor man’s beef. Among fish, Hilsa fish is very popular.

English: Smoked hilsa cooked with mustard seed in Dhaka. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)