Freestyle Savory Dalia

I am a gobbler for comfort food in a bowl. Whether its grass root or gourmet. Or something in between. Its the way you look at a bowl of freestyle Dalia (broken wheat) fortified with vegetables.

My Mum-in-law makes this during winters and serves each bowl of savory Dalia with a hard-boiled egg. And freshly cracked pepper for special effects.

Believe me when I say it cannot get healthier from here.  I used to down a bowl of steaming hot Dalia and an egg before going to work in absolutely no time! I’d come back home and check if there were any leftovers. It is that good.

Ingredients for Freestyle Savory Dalia are:

1 cup dalia/broken wheat
Quarter cup green peas
Half a red onion, chopped
1 carrot cut into small pieces
Handful of green beans, cut into very small pieces
One knob of ginger, cut coarsely
Two green chilies, chopped (optional, if making for kids)
One tablespoon ghee + extra to drizzle later (use unsalted butter if you don’t have ghee)
Salt
Hard-boiled eggs (optional)

Wash the broken wheat to clean off any dirt. Drain water. Though I have cut my vegetables in small pieces, you can cut them any which ways. After all the name is freestyle.

In a saucepan, add the washed broken wheat, vegetables, ginger, ghee and salt. Add enough water to cover all the ingredients. Cook uncovered till the vegetables are done but not mushy.

Ginger adds a very nice pungency to the boiled vegetables and wheat. I would say its the essential item in this dish. You can use any seasonal vegetables for this recipe.

Drizzle some ghee and serve a bowlful of this healthy Dalia with sliced boiled eggs.

A Hard Day’s Night & Fried Noodle Soup Delight

I come back today with the promise of a soup recipe for my friend RS, who lives by herself and often works late. By the time she comes back home, she is so dog-tired that the idea of cooking something for herself does not appeal to her at all. She ends up eating out and then burning calories on the treadmill!

I have been there and done that too! Hence my experiments with food often are results of my own experiences.
RS, this soup is for you and hundreds of bachelorettes who fly high but like the comfort of their own kitchen. Ingredients for Fried Noodle Soup are:

6 cups broth/stock (vegetable or chicken)
1 cup fried noodles
Half cup bean sprouts
One and half cup bok choy, stems removed
Few flowerets of broccoli
Handful of very finely sliced green onions
Quarter cup julienned carrots
Handful of cilantro leaves
2 tablespoon dark soy sauce 
1 tablespoon green chili sauce
1 tablespoon cooking oil
Little dice of unsalted butter
Salt and pepper for seasoning

Fry the noodles in oil till crispy, drain excess oil on paper towels and keep aside.

In a large open mouth sauce pan, boil the stock with little butter and add all the vegetables one by one – starting from the most hardy. Season with soy sauce, chili sauce, and black pepper powder. Check on the salt as soy sauce already is salty.

We don’t need to cook the vegetables, its important to maintain the crunch and the color in this soup.

Ladle out the soup in bowls and top it with the fried noodles. Garnish with green onions and cilantro leaves.

I wouldn’t suggest making this soup ahead of time, as it is important not to have soggy vegetables in it. Cook and serve only when you are about to eat.Comfort food on your couch will never let you down! Ask the boys from The Beatles…

Train Travel Clichés Made Interesting

Remember those steam engine trains with non-AC coaches of the India in the 1980s?
My sister and I were enrolled in its frequent traveler program. Every holiday, we were packed off to our Dadu-Dida’s (grandparents) home on the banks of Sone River, a small industrial town called Dalmianagar.

The only rewarding thing about these short-distance train travels were the hawkers and sellers who boarded the train, and did very effective marketing and selling and entertaining all at the same time.

The times I wasn’t gaping at the agricultural landscape outside, I was awed by the chana-moong wala. That’s sprouted red gram and green moong for the uninitiated!

In the last many years, I have replayed the image of that dhoti-clad man with a distinguishable gumcha around his neck many times, over and over again. Chopping and dicing, singing and hawking, balancing his basket of goodies on one knee, standing in the corridor of the train’s coach like an elegant stork. Doling out that heavenly mixture of sprouts and chopped onions with black salt and a squeeze of lemon. Spreading it out carefully on a leaf, which he would curl up to make a little bowl, and throw in a leaf “spoon” for you to scoop the salad.

Now which salad bar on this earth can bring you that same happiness? Not one I can think of.

I have spent many sleepless nights thinking and salivating about that same chana salad.
I was feeling particularly ambitious about making it for myself today as a light lunch. Yesterday’s horrid wetness had dampened my spirits and my salon-treated tresses. But the thought of chowing on a sprout salad and soaking up some Vitamin D cheered me up.

Looks like I am deriving some of my energy from this picker upper salad.
Its color and crunch are guaranteed to kick start the weekend. I will have a good one! I know you will too.