Continuing the browsing through Bong Mom's Cookbook, I came across an intriguing recipe for "Tetor Dal" or Bitter Dhal. Sandeepa's recipe calls for bottle gourd and bitter gourd; none of us are over-fond of kakarakayi - especially not the six year-old. We do however love akakarakayi - kantola - which has a similar texture when prepared the right way, and has a hint of bitterness though nowhere near as much as kakarakayi proper.

In preparing the recipe, I made three further changes: first, we had some fresh ridge gourd, but no bottle gourd, so I substituted that; second,because we love the taste and texture of crispy fried akakarakayi I fried up an extra handful that we lightly salted and added to the pappu at the table; last, we found the recipe upon completion to be quite liquidy. Our pappu preparations are usually a bit thicker than that, so I put it in a kadhai and reduced it a little over heat.

When we make this recipe again (and believe me, this one is a keeper), I will not reduce it quite as much, trying for the happy mean.

Well, the blog's name is Hunger Pangs and hunger pangs are indeed what we were suffering last night. I had to work late last night, and 6 p.m. the phone rang at my desk.

Me (after checking the incoming number on caller ID): "Hello darling."
Him (sounding forlorn): "Still working, hmm? Any idea how long it will still be?"
Me (in a tired voice): "I still have a few things to finish up; hopefully not too long now."
Him (sounding desperately hungry): "Any ideas for supper?"

Which is when Rajitha came to the rescue! I had just commented on her blog earlier that day, and had been working on an idea in my head (inspired by her entry) on the Gujurati restaurants I've been to that had the best food (you'll have to wait a bit for that post, I am afraid) and so, while desperately thinking what to feed my hungry family, her entry on Dhal Banjari jumped into my mind.

Now, let me tell you, this is a wonderful recipe. I asked my husband to start pressure cooking the dhals, and to take out some frozen corn (that recipe will follow a bit later). This meant that by the time I reached home, the dhal was ready for the rest of the recipe - perfect timing.

We left out the cinnamon stick, and we used whole urad, so after everything simmered together at the end, I used my power stick sparingly - dipping it here and there into the dhal and "zirring" it for just a moment, resulting in a lovely mix of some creamy consistency with still lots of whole urad. Right before removing it from the heat I stirred in some cream (you could use a little rich curd as well) to ensure it was liquidy enough and to give a little richness to the dish.

It was finger-licking good - thanks Rajitha for the rescue and the recipe!

If you are wondering what it is that I served it with (remember the corn?), you will have to keep watching the blog.

Food bloggers are wonderful people; everyone always seem so willing to help. I was looking for more Gujurati chana-bateta recipes after posting a modified concoction I made a while ago. And people very helpfully suggested that I look at the recipe posted by Trupti from The Spice Who Loved Me.

Now, for those of you with young children at home, this will be a familiar scene. Sitting down at dinner table, Angel Face usually will not eat much of the "proper" food, but instead will load up on the rice, or the bread or pasta or potatoes... you get the idea. To counteract this, we had instituted the "one-bite/one-bite" policy, which says she can have a bite of carbs only after she's had a mouthful of "real food." Sound familiar?

Well, it turns out she loves senagalu and what's more, she lo-o-o-oves them Gujurati style. Well, when you find something that the kid will eat without complaint that happens actually to be good for her with lots of protein (always a concern for us vegies), and that the adults also happen to like, you go for it!

So I tried Trupti's recipe, and it was another winner; I will keep it with the previous recipe, and we will probably alternate them, making one this time, and the other one the next time. As for Angel Face? Like last time, she took a spoon to the katori with the chana-bateta nu shaak in it and finished it off that way before even touching the bhatura. For her second helping, I filled it only halfway, thinking she won't finish it, but she did and asked for more even after that. Now what better endorsement than that do you want for a recipe?

Note: I've made only a few small changes to Trupti's recipe: left out the besan because we like it liquidy and when some of the potato is broken up a little bit it thickens the gravy quite well, and didn't put the jaggery.

Ours is a Telugu household; in short, that means that you cannot speak of a "proper" meal if there is not some rice and some kandi pappu (toor dhal) on the table. There's more to it than that, of course, but those two are a staple requirement.

This version is a very common one, a firm favorite with us, and fortunately extremely easy to make. The short version of the recipe is: Put the dhal and the vegetables in the pressure cooker. Make a tempering. Combine and eat.

There, that wasn't so difficult, was it? As always though there is some art in the composition of the tempering, the detail of the method. That is the piece that is so hard to capture when you are trying to write down the recipe that an experienced cook is demonstrating for you.

I think the biggest tip I can give here is to assemble the bits and pieces for the tempering first, before you even start heating the ghee. I measure out the seeds and the dhals together in a small bowl, and in another I put the broken red chilli and the stripped curry leaves. Then, when I turn on the heat for the ghee, I measure the methi and stand with it in a spoon, waiting for the ghee to reach the right temperature.

Once I start making the tempering, it is only a life-threatening situation that would interrupt me, and then only after I had placed the whole vessel in the sink; I would rather start over than burn the house down!