Yet Another Milagai Podi pairs Dosais and Idlis

We are  heavy breakfast, moderate lunch, an evening snack and a light dinner routine family. Idlis and dosais can be made in varieties for the morning and the batter helps plan something for dinner too. Most likely, I might eat my idlis and dosais with a freshly made sambhar or some chutney. While that is the to-go accompaniment for them, apart from a quick tomato masala, I keep stock of idli milagai podi also. My mother's pantry never runs short of supply of  her  milagai podi. Stock in mine and my sister's though, seems one batch stays forever. Just the other day I used up all of the podi I had in stock and was wondering if I could have a recipe other than my frequently used ones.
My paternal cousins, my sisters and I are always a WhatsApp message away from each other. So that was the best forum to get a recipe and I put out my request. Not surprisingly, each one had a recipe, however little they varied in terms of ingredients or proportions. Thus, be warned, I shall be posting a different podi recipe soon as one stock gets finished.
The recipe I share today is from a cousin who follows her mother-in-law's. I did not make any tweaks or changes on my whim, though a lot of discussion happened, about more wholesome additions.This recipe is quite adaptable to such tweaks and one may try variations.

Milagai podi for Idlis and Dosais - Version 3

Ingredients:
All measures are 125 ml cup
Yield: Fills a 450 ml jar/ 280 grams

1 packed cup dry red chillis broken in small bits
1 cup urad dhal
1/2 cup channa dhal
1/3 cup white sesame seeds
1 1/2 tablespoon powdered jaggery (for flavour only, so you may adjust accordingly)
Salt to taste
2 drops caster oil to fry chillis (optional)

Method:
Rub in the oil on the chillis and roast the chillis in a heavy bottom pan until brittle and brown without burning them.
Transfer to a largish plate and keep aside.
Dry roast each separately, the urad dhal and channa dhal until the lentils are golden and aromatic.
Transfer from heat.
Roast the sesame seeds until they pop and add to the dhals.
Finally toss the salt (I use coarse sea salt) in the heat of the pan and keep aside.
Transfer the dhals and sesame seeds to the jar of your spice grinder/ blender and pulse to a coarse powder.
Add the chillis and salt and grind further until almost fine.
Finally add the jaggery, pulse to mix and transfer to a dish.

Allow to cool and store in an airtight jar.
Keeps well for months at room temperature.
Serve this podi as side for idli and dosai along with sesame oil/ ghee.

Porikullu - Protein Packed Healthy Snack

I was home, in India, for a short vacation during March. I happened to be around to attend a family celebration. Meanwhile, it was a good opportunity to catch up with cousins and needless to mention it was a great vacation. The family celebrated the occasion of a child to be born later this May. In India special celebrations are observed during pregnancy. We hold the 'valaikaappu' and 'seemantham' for the mother-to-be around her last trimester, the South Indian custom like Baby shower. This means lot of good food and snacks. Each of us who attend such festivities get to carry back sweets and savoury snacks too.
One of the dishes made is the Porikullu or the varuththa payaru which is soaked, drained and dry roasted legumes and few additional nuts. This is a power packed snack that the mother can consume to combat her cravings. It is rich in fibre, vitamins and protein which is good for the mother and child. Because making it is a long drawn process, we do not make it like an everyday snack. Getting to make and eat them occasionally has its own thrill, isn't it?
Each household has a unique combination and some dry roast, some of us sun dry for days and some people fry in some oil. There is no measures nor ingredients to adhere to. We just add few legumes, nuts and spice and salt. While I make it with legumes, you may find recipes that sprout the legumes and do the porikollu. Adding puffed beaten rice and bits of dry coconuts will tone the heat down.

Porikullu

Ingredients:
1 cup green gram whole
1 -2 cups black chickpeas
1 cup red chori beans
1/2 cup peanuts peeled
1/4 cup roasted gram
1/2 cup dry coconut slices
1/2 cup  beaten rice
2 tablespoons red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Curry leaves
1 teaspoon asafoetida powder
1 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

Method:
Wash each of the beans separately and soak them in water overnight. Next day, drain the water and in a change of water soak again for another six hours.
Drain the water and spread them on a cloth and allow them to dry in the sun. Keep it in the sun for two days bringing them in by night, still on the cloth and kept separately.
Wash the curry leaves, spread them on a cloth, cover with another light cloth and leave it in the sun. they will dry to a shrivel during the time the legumes are drying in the sun.
Heat a heavy rounded bottom pan, an iron wok will be ideal. Once the pan is rally hot, reduce the heat to medium.
Dry roast, in small quantities, a few fistfuls at a time, each of the dry legumes. Repeat with all of them.
Transfer to a flat and large dish.
Moisten the powders and salt with few teaspoons of water.
Gently turn the roasted legumes in the mixture so as to coat them with the mixed spices.
Spread them back on the dish and place this in the sun for a day from morning to evening.
Bring the dish in and keep it spread overnight.
Next morning if there is moisture in the mixture, take it back to the sun and dry them until they are dry.
Roast the peanuts as you may find in this post. Add them to the above porikullu.
Slightly toss the roasted gram in the heat of the pan. Transfer them to the dish.
In the same heavy pan, roast the beaten rice until it puffs (you may use store bought puffed beaten rice, aval pori). Do this in small quantities at a time and do not allow the rice to brown. Transfer these to the porikullu.
Add the sliced, dry coconuts to the mix.

Porikullu is ready to store and snack on. Store in an airtight container and it keeps well for even three months as there is no oil.
The legumes will be crunchy to munch and feel hollow unlike their hard texture that is characteristic of legumes.
The guilt factor is the salt and spice alone, otherwise it is one of the best snacks to consume in small handfuls.

Susan, The Well seasoned Cook 's ever popular My Legume Love Affair is now managed by Lisa since February 2013. This current edition MLLA #82 is being hosted by Briciole. The above tasty nutty snack is being sent there.

Sumptuous In-Between-Meals Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing

My sister and I were discussing the pattern of  blood sugar levels and how to maintain them through the day. She suggested that we have small portions of food spread over five or six meals a day, balancing the carbs, proteins and fibre ratio well. She told me about someone who would count and eat 12 boiled chickpeas and after another two hours something light and similar. That intrigued me and inspired to follow the small portions per meal and a mid morning snack.
The pattern works fine, but I am lazy to soak and boil or sprout legumes everyday. So I had to look for alternatives with vegetables. The idea of a colourful salad could be interesting and I read up a few that I may want to try.
I have in my stock lot of different toasted nuts that I add to the salads for the extra crunch. I read up something with sautéed pears and plums with nuts and rocket leaves with a very simple vinaigrette. That was in my mind to try and when I bought some pears that were crunchy, I wanted to try it. I did not saute' the pears, used them as they were. I had some green grapes and sour apples to go into the salad with cherry tomatoes and nuts. The dressing and a hint of sweetness with some sugar candy made a perfect mid morning snack.

Sumptuous In-Between-Meals Salad with Vinaigrette Dressing

Ingredients:
Serves two people
All measures are variable as per individual taste

1 Crunchy pear
2 small green apples (partly sweet and sour)
10 -12 cherry tomatoes cut in halves
15 numbers green grapes halved
a fistful of mixed toasted nuts
1 teaspoon sugar candy(optional)

Vinaigrette Dressing:
2 tablespoons Olive oil
2 teaspoons Balsamic vinegar
3 pods of garlic minced and crushed to infuse

Method:
Make the dressing by mixing the oil and vinegar. Chop the garlic to a mince and drop it into the liquid. Crush with a spoon to infuse the garlic in the vinaigrette.
Cut the pears and apple in thin slices. I retained the peel as they held the crunch in the salad.
Place them in a salad serving bowl/ dish.
Add the tomatoes and grapes.
Toss the nuts in and the sugar candy.
Pour the vinaigrette and give a toss.
The salad is ready to serve/ eat.

The sweet, sour and pungency from the vinaigrette make this one a very welcome  and colourful mid morning snack.
The No Croutons Required event is jointly hosted by Lisa and Jacqueline. This April 2015 edition is hosted by Jacqueline. I am sending my salad to the event.

Almond Carrot Soup

Sometimes you are intrigued by the description of a dish in the menu and go for it, like it so much that you want to try making the same. This soup is one such dish that has been keeping me thinking. Once, we were at a restaurant, my nephew and I seemed to fancy the almond soup. It had so much flavour to it from all the garlic and caramelised onions to the otherwise bland soup. We liked it so much that we discussed the soup through the meal.
Few weeks ago, my daughter told me that she was making soup every night to warm herself up as the weather was chill. Everyday she would tell me what soup was their dinner and some of them were quite interesting that it prompted me to try a few. She had made this almond soup with a head of cauliflower. She told me that she used a fistful of almonds and that the soup turned out creamy by itself without any milk.
I had a huge quantity of almonds in the pantry; my husband has this selective dislike for cauliflower, his theory ,manchurian and deep fried golden cauliflower is good while in any other it tastes weird. So putting cauliflower, broccoli and such had to be erased from the soup. Initially I wanted plain almond soup with robust flavours, then wanted to have a vegetable and decided on the carrot. The almonds and the vegetable gave the soup a richness by themselves that the vegan option was a good choice. We did not miss the extra creaminess from addition of milk. I had earlier made the Pane Siciliano for the We Knead to Bake - Bread Baking Group, which paired very well with the soup. It was all we had for our dinner.

Almond Carrot Soup with Garlic and Caramelised Onions

Ingredients:
Serves two people
12 to 15 whole almonds blanched
1 medium carrot cubed
3 teaspoons vegetable oil (any cooking oil would work well)
5 pods of garlic

1 medium red onion sliced finely
Small piece of  ginger (adjusted according to taste)
Salt to taste
Ground black pepper to taste
2 cups of vegetable stock or water

Method:
Soak almonds in hot water, remove the peel. I had blanched almonds readily available and used them.
Soak again in water for about 15 minutes.
Grind the almonds adding sufficient water at intervals to a very smooth paste. Add more water to make a milk like liquid.
Cook the carrot until soft.
Heat 1 teaspoon oil and sauté the garlic pods until they are browned.
Run the garlic, ginger and cooked carrot in a blender and puree them.
Place a pan on the stove, pour the vegetable stock or water in it.
Put in the carrot puree and cook for a few minutes until the raw taste subsides.
Pour in the almond milk and cook on medium heat stirring every now and then to avoid any lumps.
Add the salt and ground black pepper, adjusting according to taste.
Simmer the soup until thickened.

Serve warm with any soup bread.
I am sending this soup to the No Croutons Required Event jointly administered by Lisa and Jacqueline with Lisa hosting the March 2015 edition.

Indian gooseberry and shoe flower mocktail

I have travelled home to be with my parents just for about two weeks and then to attend the first of its kind Indian Food Bloggers Meet in Bangalore, in less than ten days time.
I chose to travel light and did not bother to carry much of my equipment that would help me write a post, take pictures and blog about that. However, each update on the IFBM page gets us the participants more excited. Some of the sponsors have announced interesting contests and I am chiding myself for not being prepared for surprises. I would have loved to participate in all of those announced, though not hoping to win, yet to feel good about trying.
One of the sponsors Urban Dazzle have a simple contest for the participants. We just have to make a cocktail or mocktail with Indian flavours and blog about it. We abstain from any form of alcohol and thus I went on to prepare a mocktail. My nephew is around and both of us were voicing choices out that my mother got pulled in. After much debate, we went for this mocktail, I wish to share here as an entry to the contest.
In the past few months, as suggested by someone, my father is trying out a small ounce of hibiscus tea and consumes one steamed Indian gooseberry with his meal.This is a practice to keep his blood pressure under check along side his regular prescribed medicines. So both flower and fruit were available at home and all I needed was a soda drink that will add to the flavour.
The below recipe serves three in 330 ml tall glasses, I wish I could serve them in these Urban Dazzle glasses shown in their website.
Indian Gooseberry and shoeflower mocktail

What we had on hand
10-12 fresh hibiscus flowers/ shoe flowers
10 Indian gooseberries/ amla/ nellikkai chopped to come up to 1 cup and 1/3rds of the same
1/4 cup sweetened gooseberry candy chopped
Juice of three limes
1" piece fresh ginger grated
250 ml of 7up drink
Sugar syrup from 150 grams sugar

  How we combined the drink

We put the fresh hibiscus in a large pitcher and added the juice from the limes. We squeezed these by hand until the flower dissolved in the juice. We added some water and part of the sugar syrup.
We blended the goose berries, berry candy and the ginger in a blender and strained it.
We mixed both the juices and adjust the sweetness by adding sufficient sugar syrup.

To serve we placed a few ice cubes in glasses, poured in the juice and topped off with the 7 up drink.
Though both of the fruit and flower can be separately had as drinks, this combination worked wonderfully for the mocktail.
Don't you think it will be a great party pleaser too?

I will be at the first of its kind Indian Food Bloggers Meet –Will you be there too?

I am writing this post, I pause to check my packing checklist again. Going home to India is always exciting for me, no matter how often I go. It has only been a few months that I am back here after spending about three months, yet I am going again. This time I am as excited for the time I get to spend with my parents and a little more for I am going to be attending the Indian Food Bloggers Meet in August.

 

This idea had been brewing in the minds of four like-minded people who have spared no attempt to make it happen and see to that all will go smoothly. On a Skype call, some day late this last May, Aparna, one of the organisers told me about this and few more details as there was nothing in full shape yet. That made me wanting to plan to be part of something of such magnitude.

Four ladies, who share the same passion for excellence in whatever they do, thought that they should introduce more of us to each other and give us much more. They planned this Meet, inviting us to join.  They planned it for months on, to make this, first of its kind in India a memorable one for those who attend. Though there are limited slots they have tried to accommodate most of the people who have shown interest. I am happy to be one to register participation. There is a blog where they give us updates. With each post I read, my excitement grows. At the same time I am apprehensive as to how I might fit amidst so much talent that will be evident when I am physically there. But the anticipation overpowers the apprehension.

Why do I want to be there?

Through my blog, I have made friends; few of us have more interaction, while some others, I only know virtually. Sitting in some remote African country, I work the time zone differences to my advantage and keep in touch more. Wouldn’t it be nice to meet some of them for real? To me their blogs are an introduction and to get to know someone I would love to. I am hoping this event will provide an opportunity. That I am about to meet some forty other people, who share the same interest, is something I am looking forward to.

 I have been writing this blog for a little longer than five years now, however intermittently. Yet there is a nagging doubt about how much reach do I have? What more should I learn, what’s that my reader looks in this space and my blog? I know not the answers to these.  I might find out there?
Otherwise they have planned a few sessions that are going to help the likes of me to pick up points in that direction.

I am to understand that some very talented bloggers are willingly going to introduce us to many aspects of food blogging. Does my picture make you think, “Oh, I need to try this”? Does my writing interest you to read further? I do not know. But I am sure that someone there is going to give me a chance to know what I need to do more. How to present what I have put on the table for my family to kindle your interest, someone is going to introduce me to that aspect. And this is not all; I am, as I willingly label myself, ‘wary of technology’. To try something that I have to learn only through technology intimidates me a bit. Though I do not expect that one will hold my hand and take me there, I am hoping someone is going to tell me it is easier than what I think. Someone there will reassure me that they have ‘Been there, done that’ and that it is okay.

What am I hoping to experience?

With all the meticulous planning that the amazing organisers have put in, I am sure it will be a fun event with friendly food bloggers from throughout India. They have timetabled sessions that will expose me to blogging and beyond that. Guest speakers and interactive workshop sessions are sure to help me improve. I am sure that I will learn from the knowledge and talent that will shine there. Interactions with cookbook authors, food critics and more talented people, you cannot but take home knowledge.

I am sure that my network will expand; there are going to be new friendships made. Share interests and experiences with fellow bloggers. That might bring me more blogs to read and more friends to talk to.
Then there are the sponsors with their products for our tasting and testing and a few goodies to carry home with me. 

Summing it up, I have signed up to be part of the INDIAN FOOD BLOGGERS MEET that is planned for the 1^st and 2^nd of August 2014 and completed the registration process. Have you?
My travel plans are in place and so is the accommodation during the event with thanks to the organisers and a friend. Are your plans in full shape yet? Hurry and tick your checklist.

And to me the countdown begins :) If you are going to be there, see you then; if you are wishing to be there, try your luck and find a few slots are there or all sold out. 

If all fails, be the first to register next year, good luck.

If you would like updates on the event, all you have to do is, like their page on face book, find them on twitter handle .

All of the images in this post have been shared from the Indian Food Bloggers Meet Blog with many thanks to the organisers.

Green gram and oats dosa

Sometimes planning for breakfast on lazy weekends when I have no clue where to start with makes it a task I can do without. I ask my husband if he had something specific in mind and then I can go about it. But the usual reply will be "whatever you think is good enough".  That is some help I was hoping for. I also want to get away from the regular on the menu dishes only when I have time on hand. There is not much I do when it is just the two of us. Now that my daughter is here, she comes up with her wishlist and my husband has no option but to go with it. Thus, when she asked me why I had not posted this dosai with whole green gram on the blog so far, I had the Saturday's breakfast set.

I usually adapt the recipe from Ms. Mallika Badrinath given in the book 100 Tiffin Varieties. This time I put my own proportions and varied the ingredients. I had some white oats on hand that needed to be used up quickly. So, I soaked the green gram overnight, the oats was given a thorough wash and left to keep the moisture for a few minutes before grinding. Since this is one dosai that does not require fermentation, I put the ingredients to grind in the morning and let the batter sit until only I made the side dish. the green chillis and the whole gram gave the dosai a nice green colour. The oats gave it some softness and it was perfect for us.

Susan's My Legume Love Affair is now an event taken up by Lisa's Kitchen. This month's Edition 61 is being hosted by Aparna. I would love this recipe to be featured there.

Ingredients:
Makes 10 slightly thick Dosais
1 & 1/2 cups whole green gram/ mung beans
1/2 cup white or quick cooking oats
5 green chillis (adjust according to heat and required spice level)
2 tablespoons horse gram (optional)
Salt to taste
Few teaspoons cooking oil

Method:
Wash the green gram and the horse gram giving a few rinses. Drain and soak them together in sufficient water for a few hours. I soak them overnight.
About half an hour prior to grinding, wash the oats clean and drain allowing it to retain some moisture.
Run the soaked legumes along with the green chillis. Once they have been ground coarsely, add the oats and run the machine for a few minutes more to achieve a batter that is not very fine.
Remove the batter from the jar of the machine and add the salt. Give a few brisk stirs to mix the salt.
Heat the gridle/ non stick pan. Drop a ladle full of the batter and spread in circular dosai.
Drizzle some oil over the batter.
Flip it over and when both sides are done remove from the pan.
Serve hot with chutney of choice.

You may adjust the texture of the batter according to the thickness you desire for the dosai. I usually have it thick and like to pat it around the pan with my palm. It is also easy to spread like regular rice and dhal ground dosais.
You may chop onions and add to the batter or spread them over while cooking the dosai.
Though fermentation is not required, there is no harm making the batter ahead for later use.
I have served them here with tomato-onion gojju and milagai podi.
Enjoy them with your choice of side dishes.

What I am leaving behind - Black and White Wednesdays

This is the last week for us in Lagos. Just saw the last of my packages loaded on to the movers' truck for stuffing and shipping last weekend. It is a back breaking task I do once every few years, that now my friends think I am a pro at it.
The home that was, is back to a shell of a house, but my small pots are blooming with their plants. Some sprouts are also showing promises of lush, only I will leave them with hopes of someone would care.
There will be a new home to set up and newer plants will bloom in the garden, yet it is not easy letting go and allow them to die.

 

Aparna is hosting this 78th week's Black and White Wednesdays, a culinary and food related photo event.
The event is the brainchild of Susan of The Well seasoned Cook and is currently being put together by Cinzia of Cindystar
My entry to the week is titled "The street vendor". There is this man who brings on his push cart his wares ranging from plastic trash bins to aluminium cooking utensils and some small stainless steel stuff in my home town.

 

Sprouts and mixed vegetables salad

In general, I do not recall that they made salad regularly at home. One occasional kosumalli with grated carrots, cucumbers or just soaked, drained and garnished moong dhal were made on festival days. Apart from that we always had cooked vegetables in curries, stir- fries and kootus. Even in my hostel during college and working years it was not on a regular menu. Only when ladies at work used to bring and share home cooked food that we had salads often and with variety.
My husband is not very fond of raw vegetables, while I am very used to eating a cucumber raw and whole. My daughter is somewhere in between on the scale. She would choose to have a salad with select vegetables, and not very often. I have to find days to make a salad because, with just the two of us, I find it difficult to limit portions. If that is the case, how do i ever make such small portions only for myself? However, I try to indulge and make my salads on days that my husband decides to pack extra portions of his breakfast for lunch. I do not cook a meal for myself and make do with a bowl of  anything I fancy.

Likewise, salad dressing was quite new to me for we have always had them with one squeeze of lime juice and salt. Tempering will have mustard seeds and slit green chillis. I was introduced to dressings only from restaurants. In Bahrain, there was a small exclusive to salads and juices outlet in a mall. The assistant there soon got to know that I refuse mayonnaise and would give me other dressing options like cider vinegar or infused olive oil. On one such day I spotted that he had labaneh and asked if he could use it for me. He obliged and I found that creamy texture interesting. Now I play around with the flavours and make curd cheese by hanging the home set curd.
The other day, I found that my vegetable shop had stocked small size raw papayas and bought one to make kootu. But when I cut it, they tasted semi sweet and so I had to give the idea of kootu for another time. I used them in my salad and thus this post.
It also happens that Lisa's  popular No Croutons Required event is being hosted at Lisa's Kicthen and she is asking us to bring raw salads and soups. So this will be my share to go there.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup green gram sprouts
1 small raw papaya peeled and julienned
1 medium carrot peeled and julienned
1 chinese cucumber peeled and julienned
1 large tomato sliced
A fistful of fresh herbs (I have used basil and mint leaves)
Salt to taste
Powdered black pepper corns to taste

For the dressing:
1 cup home set yogurt
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon mixed dry herbs crushed
1/2 teaspoon powdered black pepper corns

Method:
Make the hung curd or curd cheese by bundling the yogurt in a cheese cloth and hanging it to drain the whey.
Once the curd has been removed of the liquid, transfer it to a dish and add the rest of the ingredients listed for the dressing and cream together with a spatula.
To make the green gram sprouts, wash and soak the gram for about eight hours. Drain and transfer them to a casserole. Cover the lid and leave it to sprout overnight.

In a larger bowl, first take a portion of the curd cheese and top it with the vegetables. Toss them to be coated with the cheese. Add the salt and pepper as required.
Keep alternating with curd cheese and vegetables. Finally add the sprouts and gently mix them in.
Top with fresh herbs.

Serve with portions of lime and the curd cheese.
Consume fairly quickly or refrigerate soon after making the salad until required.
This makes a meal for me by itself, but if you are not inspired eating raw vegetables, have this as starter and have a main course with these Quinoa peppers and some Hariyali paneer tikkas.
I would be glad to add this to Priya's event Healthy Me and Heathy Us.

Dhal kalbeliya and cooking that in my Indian pressure cooker that did not blow on my face

I cannot think of any Indian household that does not use a pressure cooker. In my home presure cooker has been around since the introduction of the appliance and it may well be even before I was born. There was this aluminium pressure cooker nice and stout that my gradmother and mother would cook the dhal for sambhar and rasam in. Many times they would use it to steam vegetables. When the idli plates were introduced, they will fit the pressure cooker and had a stand to hold four such plates, the ever versatile pressure cooker was the steamer for idlis too.
In a tambrahm household dhals are cooked on an everyday basis. So this was a regular morning scene that I remember well. Once a cousin remarked that if you lived in apartments, you may wake up to the milk cooker's whistle one after another from your neighbours and yours. Then  you will get to listen to the number of whistles of the pressure cooker.
In my parents' home they still steam cook rice,but dhals are always pressure cooked. I cook my rice in a pressure cooker, placing the rice in a bowl, not directly cooking in the cooker. I have seen it being used so much that i might think not having one is a handicap.
So much so I bought one 12 litres cooker as that was the only size available in the city i lived, before moving to Malaysia. I have hardly used it after the two plus years there that too cooking with it occasionally when we had a party. I kept using my older aluminium pressure cooker that had served well. I did not, but the packers forgot to pack it on my next move. So to Egypt I carried with the 20 kilograms luggage allowance a pressure cooker.
Living in countries where you may not get accessories, I buy extra safety valves and gaskets as I buy couplers and washers for my mixer. I am quite comfortable playing handyman with these appliances.
Jaya the Desi Soccer Mom read somewhere about a random incident of a cooker blowing up. The writer had generalised that all Indian pressure cookers explode. That rubs the cooker faithfuls on the wrong side, doesn't it? So she wants us to share our lifelong attachment to the pressure cooker. Thus this post.
I am also aware of stray incidences where the cooker had exploded. I know of a lady who was unfortunate to be around and the bits hurt her eye badly that she is partially impaired.
My mother follows her pressure cooker ritual faithfully. Before placing anything inside, she will do her checks, the safety valve, the steam vent, the gasket and the handles too. This may sound a futile exercise but necessary as the manual will recommend.
I might also say that more times than once it is the fault of the user that causes accidents. People do not use sufficient water to cooking time ratio. To avoid darkening of metal as reaction to water, they tend to place substances like a rind of a lime or a small ball of tamarind and such things. This may cause malfunction of the cooker. Pieces of these and/ or the cooking food might overflow with excess pressure and block vents. In most cases the safety valve will open, release the pressure and avert mishap. All you need is to replace the safety valve and you are good to go.
I too have, in my kitchen more than one Indian pressure cooker. It doubles and trebles in function. I have them in different sizes and use according to requirement. I try to buy a good and 'been around for years' brands and they serve me well.
I am sharing the recipe to cook the dhal as side dish for my rice. Though dhals cook without the appliance too, it is much faster and easier to use a pressure cooker.

Dhal Kalbeliya: A Rajasthani preparation adapted from TAJ VEGETARIAN FARE.

Ingredients:
Serves 4

3/4 cup mung dhal
3/4 cup grams thoor dhal
3/4 cup masoor dhal
4 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
10 - 12 cloves garlic chopped
2 medium onions chopped
4-5 small tomatoes chopped
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves chopped
2 teaspoons butter
Method:
Wash the dhals separately in few changes of water.
Pour 250 ml water in the base pan of your pressure cooker.
Take the washed dhals in a bowl and add sufficient water and the turmeric powder.
Place this in the pressure cooker. Place the lid of the cooker firmly.
Switch the stove on and allow the steam to flow through the vent. Then place the weight/ whistle.

Once the pressure has reached optimum, the whistle will let the steam escape with a sharp hiss.
Reduce the heat and allow a few more whistles of the pressure cooker. Switch the heat off and wait for the pressure built inside to subside. Once the hissing has died, gently open the lid of the cooker and remove the bowl .
The dhals would have been cooked soft. Lightly mash them and set aside.
Now did the pressure cooker blow on ones face? It did not on mine!
Place a heavy bottom pan on the stove. Add the oil and heat it.
Add the cumin seeds and when they splutter drop the chopped onions in.
Cook the onions to a translucent pink and then add the chopped garlic. Toss them around for a few more minutes.

Add the tomatoes, red chilli powder and the coriander powder. Cook on a low fire until the tomatoes are pulped.
Add the mashed dhals and adjust the water. Bring to a boil, add the salt and simmer for about 10 minutes until they blend well.
Remove from the fire and transfer to a serving bowl.
Garnish with coriander leaves and the butter.
Serve hot with steamed rice or rotis.

I also cook a variety of other legumes and rice in my pressure cooker. To me it happens to be one of the essential gadgets in my kitchen. It does not blow up on my face!