CURRY AND SPICE: TOPA KUL DIYE MOTOR ER DAL

I THINK AFTER QUITE SOMETIME I AM BLOGGING ABOUT A FAMILY RECIPE!

And that cannot be otherwise but Bengali! We are a middle class Bengali family, of East Bengal origin to be precise and hence, we cook a variety with perhaps anything edible, may be we cook & make inedible stuffs edible? You can say, from our family kind of kitchens; there started using every part of a vegetable; peel to the seed to cook a recipe may be! There has in my phone's album a couple of such rustic recipes, of them four are with Kharkon pata, a different variety of yam leaves! If you ask my preference, these days I want to eat such meals like "dal, aloo bhaja, shutki mach er bhorta", "shukto, chuno mach er chocchori, dal", "pabda mach er jhal, dal, fulkopir bora", "chicken aloor patla jhol, aloo potoler dalna, ucche chocchori!" I can talk about 25-30 more of such combination of Bengali food! We must have ruti-porota-luchi on a regular basis! BTW, some of your beloved friends out there {or mother? haha} eats desi breads; you can gladly share in your space! They cannot make it is a different issue!

TODAY TOO I STARTED TO WRITE LATE!

It is my fault altogether! Until 2:30 pm, I was re-arranging the existing blogpost's pictures! All of a sudden, I felt I should not keep too much of workload for Cristine! I set the ladder & did the cleaning job! I changed the bed spreads & cleaned Cristine's room & toilet, washed her clothes, door curtain in the washing machine, hanged! Her door curtain holder fell on my head, I did not die! That made me eat a bit late than regular! And I ate uncountable number of those appe starting at 4:30 pm onwards, I was working & eating one! Cristine has to do a lot of ironing once back!

T is scolding me as to why I climbed the ladder in an empty home, we ask Cristine to do it in my presence! I am practicing, so I do not have any issue when we visit our son, that I can serve his home during the time of visit! Only that T hates doing any household chore & both my thumbs got injured, in fact both of our's since our visit to that land! My condition aggravated in the past one & half month! I feel good whilst engaged, else weird thoughts get hold of me! I am irritated, feels extremely violated! People I loved & trusted blindly, actually manipulated me to serve their friendship, put on sell my emotions in an open market! I do not know if henceforth, I should arrange college group meets in our Kolkata Home at all, I think I should attend college meets if only they arrange it in an eatery; not in my place or at anyone's place in groups; individually I can attend! I love my friends but I should love myself too! I cannot let people use me! The day our son would call his college friends home & ask mumma to cook & feed them, allow her to share the pictures in public; mumma would get back to normal! For the childhood friends, and the few of the school friends left in Kolkata, things would remain as it is! Someone has to declare in public I am the best & closest of all friends the person ever had, then I would consider to facilitate the person's other friendships! I do not want to see that gang around, I enjoyed watching until I was a dumb! I am still dumb but my eyes got half opened! Do not get nonsensical testing my loyalty, I am loyal to myself alone!

WHAT IS THIS TOPA KUL DIYE MOTOR ER DAL?

Motor Dal is Yellow Split Pea, looks similar to Toor Dal / Pigeon Pea, but not the same! Usually, Bengali families cook their sour lentils curry with this variety of pulses! Throughout the entire summer, my side of the family would cook sour curries! The use of Topa Kul / Sour Jujube in a lentil curry was rare, the mother mostly used elephant apple, raw mango, tamarind, dried raw mango [amshi] slices! Sour Jujube was majorly used to prepare two to three varieties of achar / pickle! My brother, his wife do need sour lentils during the summer, I can have it throughout the summer! The son was brought up feeding dal & rice majorly! Even T, his mother, our deceased father; the non-dal lovers adores / adored a sour lentil curry! Why not share this vegan, gluten-free family, Bengali curry TOPA KUL DIYE MOTOR ER DAL that our mother cooked rarely when sour jujube was in season?

INGREDIENTS :

MOTOR ER DAL / YELLOW SPLIT PEA : 1 MEDIUM TEA CUP

TOPA KUL / SOUR JUJUBE / BER : 6-8

SLITTED GREEN CHILLI : 3-4

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP

DRY RED CHILLI : 2-3 [HALVED]

BLACK MUSTARD SEED : 1/4 TSP

BAY LEAF : 1

SALT : AS REQUIRED

SUGAR : 1 TSP

OIL : 2 TSP [I USE MUSTARD SEED]

PROCEDURE :

Wash & smash the jujubes a bit, marinate with little salt & turmeric!

Wash the lentils & soak in hot water for an hour. Pressure cook at minimal heat up to 1 whistle adding two coffee mugs of water, 1/2 tsp turmeric & some salt! Let the lid open in it's own time!

If you boil in a container, the dal / lentil curry would taste better! In that case it has to be soaked in hot water for 2-3 hours & simmered, half covered in minimal heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour!

In a wok, heat the oil & temper it with the black mustard seed, dry red chillies, give a stir! Add the boiled dal & give a stir! Let it boil for 6-8 minutes at medium heat! Do not forget to add 1 1/2 coffee mugs of water to the wok!

Thereafter, add the slitted green chillies & the smashed sour jujubes & let boil for 3-4 minutes! Then add the sugar, let boil for a minute, take down!