Staying away from home is not easy specially when it comes to food. Till my BE studies, I had never stayed away from home and definitely never alone.So when I first moved to Pune and then to Bangalore, I was happy that every day I can eat in restaurants. But that joy was short lived as it gets boring to eat same paneer,kurma,naan day after day. I started craving for home cooked food and I had no other option but to start cooking. I used to help my mother here and there and knew recipes in theory. But theory is very difficult than practical is what I realised. So I thought that at least on weekends I should cook something nice.Then I committed my first mistake which most beginners do; try to cook something very elaborate like they show in TV shows. Most of the times the result is disastrous. I don't remember what exactly happened in my case. But anyway I turned my attention to very basic recipes. As I used to see how my Mom used to cook a recipe, I tried to visualize the steps and then confirmed with her on each stage. Once you start cooking on regular basis, you get handle on ingredient quantities, time to cook. Post which cooking some elaborate,complex dishes becomes very easy. Now I cook regular daal,chaval,roti,subzi almost every day and on weekends I try some special dishes. But still sometimes I try to attempt recipe modifications even when I'm trying it for first time and some times results are horrific but now the ratio of failed v/s successful recipes is better.
Here is my recipe of basic varan (boiled daal) which is common in Marathi household. I think each beginner cook should learn this. This will help you survive when staying alone :)
Ingredients*:
1 cup toor daal (this will be enough for 4-5 people or more)
1/2 tbls turmeric powder
1/4 tbls asafoetida(hing)
2 tbls grated jaggery (or 1-2 small pieces of "halls" size)
1 tbs salt
*Note: These are approximate quantities. You can change quantities as per taste.
1. Thoroughly wash the daal. If you've time keep the washed daal aside for 1/2hr. This will help in faster cooking.
2. Add the daal in pressure cooker with 3-4 cups of water depending on the thickness of the cooked daal you want. Generally for cooking rice 1:2 ratio of rice and water is used and for daal its 1:4.If you heat water little bit on high flame (by the time you wash your daal)and then add all ingredients then cooking is faster.
3. Add all other ingredients and close the lid.Light gas burner and keep on high flame.
4. After first whistle, reduce gas flame to low and wait for 2-3 whistles.Switch off burner then.
Varan is served mostly with hot rice. Add lemon juice and ghee in hot varan-bhaat to experience heaven on earth.
Here is my recipe of basic varan (boiled daal) which is common in Marathi household. I think each beginner cook should learn this. This will help you survive when staying alone :)
Ingredients*:
1 cup toor daal (this will be enough for 4-5 people or more)
1/2 tbls turmeric powder
1/4 tbls asafoetida(hing)
2 tbls grated jaggery (or 1-2 small pieces of "halls" size)
1 tbs salt
*Note: These are approximate quantities. You can change quantities as per taste.
1. Thoroughly wash the daal. If you've time keep the washed daal aside for 1/2hr. This will help in faster cooking.
2. Add the daal in pressure cooker with 3-4 cups of water depending on the thickness of the cooked daal you want. Generally for cooking rice 1:2 ratio of rice and water is used and for daal its 1:4.If you heat water little bit on high flame (by the time you wash your daal)and then add all ingredients then cooking is faster.
3. Add all other ingredients and close the lid.Light gas burner and keep on high flame.
4. After first whistle, reduce gas flame to low and wait for 2-3 whistles.Switch off burner then.
Varan is served mostly with hot rice. Add lemon juice and ghee in hot varan-bhaat to experience heaven on earth.
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