Back home three weeks back after a tiring business trip. Though I bounced back immediately into
cooking, I was inching back on my another routines, hence could not sit for
blogging.
Being at home is the best feel one could have after a long,
strenuous and demanding business trip. I
was returning back home on our anniversary day and DH was eagerly waiting for
me at the airport to receive me. We are
entering into our 13th year of marital bliss.
I know nobody in this World would love me as much as him and tolerate my
silly nonsense stuffs. I could not find any
best words to describe it. It was
surprising to see him with a bouquet of flowers . DH never express himself much but his actions
always speaks louder than his words. I always look forward to the Airport pickups by
DH and Jr. H. I could feel the love and
contentment in DH eyes. Jr.H would run
towards to me and always gives me a big hug and would melt my heart and calm my
soul.
While it was only work and work when I was away home, I was
eagerly looking forward to the planned personal vacation after my return. We have planned for a vacation to Ooty, one
of the most popular and gorgeous hill stations in South India. We have been there couple of times before and
this is our third trip there. As we have
seen all the sightseeing locations on our earlier trip, we planned this trip
truly for leisure and have good amount of family time. During our trip, the nature was at its best
and we enjoyed the cold nights and chilled evenings. Our long morning and evening walks
rejuvenated us . Jr. H was more excited than us and he became
our photographer and clicked many pictures of this memorable trip :-).
While we were back to Chennai, I grabbed lot of native
vegetables from the very famous hill station.
The freshly plucked carrots, beets, and radishes looked vibrant and colorful
and seized my eyes. The vegetables were
seen with colorful leafy greens adorning their top. We never get these vegetables with leaves
here in the market. I have heard a lot
that these greens are very nutritious and wanted to try it out. So I took care in bringing them back them. I wrapped them in wet towel so that the
leaves would not go wilt. I was managing
the kitchen for a whole week with the veggies I got from there.
I prepared the beet greens adding moong dhal and it turned
out to be a hit at home instantly. The
exotic taste rendered from the beet greens were elevated with the addition of firmly
cooked yellow moong dhal . I tempered
the dish with browned onions which additionally enhanced the flavor to the
dish.
Ingredients:
Beet Greens - 1 cup
Moong dhal - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 4 pods
Green chilly - 1
Salt - to taste
To Temper:
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Red chilly - 1
Onion - 1 (Sliced thin)
Preparation:
1. Remove the greens
from the stem, wash it thoroughly in running cold water, and chop roughly.
2.
Cook the moong dhal in pressure cooker for 2 whistles with salt
and little
water. I like the dish to be crunchy,
hence I cooked the moong dhal firmly and not mushy
3. In a vessel, add the greens, little water, salt, garlic
pods, and green chilly and allow it to cook in medium flame for 5-7 minutes. Stir in between, the greens would cook faster. Once they become tender and cooked, add in
the cooked moong dhal (skinned split mung gram) and mix well. Allow it to cook for 2 more
minutes. Switch off the flame once the
dhal blends nicely with the greens.
4. Heat oil in a pan
and throw in the tempering items one by one.
Once the mustard seeds sizzles, add the urad dhal, red chilly followed
by sliced onions. Saute well in low flame until the onions are
browned. Browning of onions would take
little time, so need to be patient in it.
When it is browned well, add it to the dish and mix well.
Serve it as an accompaniment with steamed rice.
We had this as an accompaniment for small red radish sambar (will post the recipe next) and garlic rasam.
