Aei Aei's Dalma

It was the New Year and I was busy calling friends and cousins whom I hadn't called in ages. My daughter yelled from her room - 'don't forget to call Aei-Aei'. That set the ball rolling - I called my grandma (Aei) and spoke to all my mamas and meins and cousins who were around. That surely put me in the nostalgic mood and I was remembering the good old times at Aei's place. Thats when I thought of making this dalma.

My daughter calls my grandma (i.e. my Aei) : Aei - Aei. So in that spirit this is my Aei-Aei's dalma, since my Mom used to enjoy this version of the dalma at her grand mom's place. She says it tastes the best when cooked on wooden stove. But even the non-wooden stove one tastes great.

Dalma is a staple of Orissa and there are several different versions. This is my great grandma's home speciality.


Ingredients:

1 cup Mung Daal
1/2 tea spoon turmeric powder
2 small potatoes cut into large chunks
1 small egg plant cut into large chunks

1/2 tea spoon jeera
2-3 green chillies
1/2 tea spoon of ghee
1/4 inch ginger cut into small thin slices
lemon juice - to taste


Directions:

Take the mung dal and just dry roast in a pan for 10 min on very low heat. When the daal starts turning pink - take it off the fire and soak in water for 1/2 hr.

Take a big pan and put water, turmeric powder and start boiling the Daal.

Once it is half cooked, turn up the heat and add the potatoes and egg plant. Cook until everything is done but not over mashed.

Take another small pan, add ghee. Once it heats up, add green chillies and jeera and ginger. Pour into the cooked daal.

Serve hot with some lemon juice.

I love having this with rice and some bhajaa like 'baigan bhaja' or 'kadali bhaja'.

Sending this to FIC - YELLOW hosted by Sunshinemom.