from our kitchen
Old recipes, written simply — so the jar in your cupboard gets used, not just kept.
Soft rotis from stone-ground atta
Stone-ground atta drinks more water than mill atta, and it needs a rest. Take two cups of atta, add warm water a little at a time, and knead until the dough is soft enough to press a thumb into easily. Cover it and leave it for ten minutes. Roll thin, cook on a hot tawa, and press the edges gently with a cloth so it puffs. Rotis made this way stay soft until dinner.
Tadka that actually smells of the spice
Heat wood-pressed oil or ghee until it moves easily in the pan, not until it smokes. Add mustard seeds and wait for them to pop, then curry leaves, then your powdered masala — and take the pan off the flame as you add it. Powdered spice burns in seconds, and burnt masala is bitter. Pour it over the dal at the very end.
Everyday dal from hand-pound dal
Unpolished dal takes a little longer than the shiny kind, because nothing has been buffed off it. Rinse twice, soak for twenty minutes if you have the time, and cook with a pinch of turmeric until it collapses. Salt at the end, never at the start. Finish with the tadka above.
Ghee coffee, the Sunday version
Half a teaspoon of bilona ghee stirred into hot filter coffee. It sounds strange and it is very good — the ghee rounds off the bitterness and it keeps you full through a long morning.
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