Maa-er Narkel Diye Cholar Dal ( Split Bengal gram with Coconut )

Maa's cholar dal has been one of my favorite dishes for as long as I can remember. 

My husband joined the club soon after we got married.  

But no matter how hard I tried, it wasn't easy to replicate the taste of her dal  until she shared her special tips with me  last summer . Ever since I have been flaunting her recipe at every gathering I can and thought it would be the most appropriate dish to begin the New year with....

Vadai thatti potta Mor Kuzhambu / Vada in South Indian Kadhi / Channa Dhal fritters in Buttermilk curry # SNC Challenge

As part of the South vs North challenge, this month Laxmi Priya of Samayal Diary challenged the members of the northern team to cook Vadai thatti potta Mor Kuzhambu aka Vada in South Indian Kadhi. Now I have cooked a Mor Kuzhmbhu, that is a buttermilk curry before (remember Venthayakeerai Paruppu Urundai Mor Kuzhambu !) and was pretty confident about doing it right. But in reality it took me three trials to cook the curry without curdling the curd. I just wasn't paying enough attention to the nuances of the recipe...

Irene's Lentil Soup with Turnip and Pounded nuts & Weekly Menu Plan

A few weeks back I mentioned to you the Italian Cookbook that I am crushing on these days... Cooking with Italian Grandmothers... from Tuscany to Sicily. I tried a few more recipes from it over the last few weeks and cooked this particular lentil soup twice in two subsequent weeks. Well I had to... for turnips are in season and this soup is so healthful and delicious. 

This recipe is again by Irene of Piedmontese, Bra and bears her characteristic earthy style. It is a slow food as opposed to fast food, and the original recipe featured one of the Slow Food Presidia products, namely the locally grown yellow fleshed Caprauna turnips. I however cooked it with the regular white turnips that are showing up in the vegetable aisles these days. Also instead of puy or beluga black lentils, that the author suggests, I cooked the soup using red lentils and used a combination of pecans and pistachios for garnish instead of walnuts.

Before going into the recipe let me tell you about an interesting project that I learnt about in this book... the Slow Food Presidia Project. In the words of the author, "it is an organization  that was created in 1989 in Italy to counteract the trend towards fast food and a faster life. It promoted the values of traditional foods and their preparation, the pleasures of table, of conviviality, and a life lived in connection to one's local terrain."  Though these are the very values that I grew up with, under circumstantial pressure I have often found myself losing sight of them and ordering fast food instead of cooking a nourishing meal for the family. The objectives of the Presidia sounded like a solemn reminder to go back to the basic values and stay rooted... a thought that is well worth remembering and imbibing in our fast changing lives...