RADHUNI PHORON TOMATO DIYE MUSHURIR DAL O LAU ER CHOKLA BOTI

I was willing to share this Bengali, combination dishes for years now. This keeps happening every alternating week. I did a photo feature two years back, was not willing to share that. Last month again I clicked them both and felt they are ready to be shared; there can be nothing better than simplicity. We eat different kinds, like last night we had some potato & cheese croquettes I made from scratch and grilled fish, my CHEESY POTATO CROQUETTES recipe had to be updated.

These are hassle free cooking, the men are happier with such vegetarian stuffs but I have a mental block, I must stay true to my roots. Honestly, anyway I would prefer a spicy "mocha ba echorer chop" over this. Now that I have learnt the trick to fry a cutlet without breakage, all these should happen often. We are actually to prepare the cutlets, refrigerate them for few hours before frying. These days my routine is to serve the family a lunch with stuffs I cook on a Saturday and cook something fresh for our dinner. Because I mostly serve vegetarian food for dinner, I have to be a bit extra cautious about what to cook. The men cannot have an all vegetarian rice meal. There has to be a meat, fish or egg curry along side. There obviously had a non vegetarian curry besides this RADHUNI PHORON TOMATO DIYE MUSHURIR DAL O LAU ER CHOKLA BOTI. It is a vegetarian combination; a lentil curry with red lentil & tomato and a vegetable dish with bottle gourd peels & sliced onion. Our families do not use onion in the dish but I do. I have seen use of onion enhances the taste of the dish. Moreover, the amount also increases using onion which however results into this little after cooking.

It is again a very cloudy morning and I think I should finish off my outdoor workout before a late lunch. Again, I have just asked Cristine to take out banana, yeast etc. from the refrigerator; have some plans. Night time too I have to cook. I have to manage 11/2 hours for the outdoor activity. I think I am planning for years now to start with few rounds of "Surya Namaskar"  every morning; that is also not happening. What a lazy brat I am my readers have no idea. Yoga definitely have long term benefits and it is the best form of exercise; I just do not enjoy it. I was a teen when the first yoga teacher was deployed for me. My parents were too worried about my lazy, obese self but they failed to be strict with my diet. Weight loss is 70% of proper diet and 30% of exercise, I believe in it. Those who strive for a slimmer self do not eat RADHUNI PHORON TOMATO DIYE MUSHURIR DAL O LAU ER CHOKLA BOTI with a plateful of rice but I am helpless. Okay, I eat it with millet these days but our son so wastes even the little amount of rice served in his main meals that I have to eat his leftovers unable to let it waste. If someone have piled up biscuit and snacks in the room, if someone orders fries & fritters at 6:30pm in the evening, how can the one have proper meals? Yes, I am indulgent and stuff his room with food; may because the thought that tomorrow he will venture out and fetch for himself worries me. BTW, he and his father do eat these two Bengali dishes. The bottle gourd peel is cooked in many Bengali homes but I am not really sure if the wild celery tempered dal is the mother's invention or where she got the idea from.

INGREDIENTS FOR THE VEGETARIAN DISH WITH BOTTLE GOURD PEEL :

LAU ER KHOSHA / BOTTLE GOURD PEEL : OF ONE STANDARD SIZED BOTTLE GOURD
ONION : 1 STANDARD SIZED
DRY RED CHILLI : 1 HALVED
GREEN CHILLI : 2 SLITTED
NIGELLA SEED / KALOJEEREY : 1/4 TSP
BAY LEAF : 1
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/4 TSP
SALT : AS REQUIRED
OIL : 3 TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE RED LENTIL CURRY WITH TOMATO :

RED LENTIL : A SMALL TEA CUP
TOMATO : 2 MEDIUM SIZED
WILD CELERY SEED / RADHUNI : 1/4 TSP
BAYLEAF : 1
DRY RED CHILLI : 2 HALVED
GREEN CHILLI : 2 SLITTED
SALT : AS REQUIRED
TURMERIC POWDER : 1/4 TSP

PROCEDURE :

We will cut the bottle gourd peel in fine strips; Cristine does her best with a knife. It is not possible for her or me to cut as finer as our mothers do with a "bothi".

We will wash it. We will discard the two ends  and peel the onion. We will wash it and slice it thin.

What I do is I take together both the washed & cut bottle gourd peels & onions in a bowl and marinate with salt & turmeric, keep it aside for about 10-12 minutes. Our homes boil the cut peels in water before cooking it. I did not feel the need to do it, may be the island's bottle gourds' peels are softer?

We have heated the oil in a pan or wok and tempered it with a bay leaf, halved dry red chillies and nigella seeds / kalojeerey / kalonji.

We will give a stir and add the bottle gourd & onion pieces. We will give a stir and cover cook at minimal heat now.

We will uncover every 3-4 minutes; sprinkle some water and stir. It may take some 15-16 minutes or more to be done.

We have to be very careful to save the dish from burning. The reason why I add more oil than required. It helps avoid burning. Once done I take them out carefully leaving the excess oil. Okay, I admit one cannot be totally successful doing so!

For the dal; we will wash and soak the red lentil for an hour. If you boil it in pressure cooker, you do not need to soak it. I prefer to boil red lentil in a normal vessel.

So, we will take the soaked dal in a vessel, add two big cups of water, a little of turmeric & salt. We will boil it on stove top at minimal to low heat until done.

Meanwhile, we have washed the tomatoes and chopped them, washed & slitted the green chillies.

We will heat the oil in a wok, temper it with the wild celery seeds / radhuni, a bay leaf & halved dry red chillies.

We will add the tomatoes now and rest of the turmeric powder. We will stir for a minute and add the boiled red lentil.

We will add 2 coffee mugs of water and let the entire thing boil covered at low to medium heat for 8-10 minutes.

We will open the cover, adjust the salt and add the slitted green chillies. We will let it boil for a minute or two, we should be done.

At any point of cooking, if we find the dal to be too thick, we can add some more water.

We usually have it with steamed rice, I believe both will go well with chapati!