Dal Potli

Hi friends it seems like an eon I am back into writing my blog. In this gap a great thing happened in my life. I have started the voyage of motherhood. The princesses of our (me & my hubby) world, landed in my lap on 20.12.2012.  So I was all busy these days. Now she is 5.5 months old.

Well coming to my cooking now a days I hardly get time to cook something delicious. After a long long time yesterday I prepared  “Dal Potli”.  Monsoon spilt its first shower in Delhi and this dish fits with the weather. The name “Dal Potli ” itself speaks a lot about the dish. In India potli means bag. In ancient time when we did not have these stylish convenient bags of the modern era, people use to take all their belonging needed for a journey in big cloth and wrap them well and called it a potli.

Ingredients:

  • 250 gms white flour (maida)
  • 2tbs butter
  • 1teaspoon baking powder
  • 150 gms yellow moong dal
  • 1tbs chilli powder
  • 1 pinch turmeric powder
  • 1tbs roasted Cumin seeds powder
  • 1/2 tbs Carom (ajwain) seeds
  • 1 teaspoon roasted Fenugreek (methi) seeds powder
  • 250ml refine oil to deep fry
  • salt to taste

Sieve the flour and add 2tbs butter, baking powder and a pinch of salt to it. Mix well. Gently add water to it and mix well to make a dough. Keep aside. Boil the moong dal with 1 cup water, turmeric powder and salt to taste in a pressure cooker. Let the cooker whistle two to three times. Drain the excess water from the dal. Keep it under fan for about 10 minutes. Now, lets add all the spices to spice it up. Add the chilli powder, roasted cumin seeds powder, carom seeds and roasted fenugreek  powder to the dal and put them in a blender. Blend them well. The inner stuffing is ready.

Now take the prepared dough, divide them into 7-8 portions. With the rolling pin give each portion a round shape. Place about 1 & 1/2 tbs of dal stuffing in the middle of the round shape prepared from the dough. Fold them as shown in the picture above.

Heat oil in wok. When the oil is hot gently put the potlis into the oil. Deep fry them in medium heat until they turn golden.

Note: This preparation has to be consumed on  the same day of its preparation. If you want to keep it for long instead of boiling roast the dal and make a coerce powder of it. Rest of the procedure remains same.

Prawn baked in Ginger-Parsley sauce

When guests arrive why not dazzle them with something which looks exotic & tastes delicious. Well this dish sure fits the bill and the icing on the cake is its rather simple to make. On top of it zero oil, keeps the calories in check.

Ingredients:

  • 500 gms Jumbo Prawns  (cleaned, heads removed)
  • 100 gms Ginger
  • 100 gms Parsley
  • 1 large lime
  • Salt
  • 1 large red Tomatoes (cut into small square pieces)
  • 2  1/2 Tbs Curd

Grind and make a paste of the Ginger. Squeeze the ginger paste and take out the ginger juice in a cup. Put Parsley & curd into the grinder and make a smooth paste.  Add parsley paste & ginger juice to the prawns and mix well.  Leave to marinate for 2 – 3 hours.

Take a plate or shallow dish and place the prawns on it.  Take care that the prawns do not crowd each other up. Pour any extra marinate on top of the prawns.  Cook in the microwave for 10-12 mins.  Garnish the prawns with the cut tomato pieces and we are ready to serve.