Experiment #1

Finally went ahead and did something all by myself. Decided to make a Pullav and the Pindi Channas for lunch (had already pre-soaked these overnight).

It’s said that pictures speak a 1000 words, so will do this in pics

(01) Started with the Pullav… pretty easy instructions which I followed precisely (except for the peas, as I didn’t have any peas in the house). Here’s Pullav cooking.

(02) Started to make the ‘Bagar’ for the channas. The ingredients for the Bagar included a ‘Roasted Amchoor Powder’. Since we had Amchoor Powder, decided to roast this myself. It’s well to be noted, I messed up in this itself (which led to all future problems). The recipe said – “… roasted to a dark color”. Silly Mello kept roasting and roasting, but not getting the dark color. Now though by this time, kitchen was filled with fumes (seriously) and Mello was coughing & coughing (also seriously), she did not have the common sense she ought to stop roasting. After all, it wasn’t yet a dark color. Brilliant.

(No pics here, was too busy coughing)

(03) Finally the dark color came and added the powder to the rest of the Bagar & made it as so:

(04) Added Bagar to Channas (which I had in the meanwhile Pressure Cooked) and left to cook:

(05) Wonders of wonders, the channas do NOT turn out well. My mum says they’re under cooked (yes, I goofed up with the pressure cooking as well) and the bagar is burnt (d-uh)

(am too ashamed to even take a pic)

(06) Am sent back into kitchen to re-cook the channas. And also add some lime to take out the burnt taste. Another wonder: it’s actually edible after this (though, not surprisingly, no one really wants to eat it). Am left to eat my channas all by myself. Possibly will feed to the dogs tomorrow.

(07)The good news is that the Pullav comes out perfectly! Mum cut down on our salt consumption many years ago, so my family is used to eating little (and sometimes no) salt. And since I followed instructions as per the recipe, it was a trifle salty for our taste. Lesson for future – Salt & Chillies are always to taste. Still it was a 9/10.

End of Experiment #1. Am exhausted. Need some sleep.