My Indian Cooking Lesson

The other day I was just talking to my neighbour V, who lives opposite the hallway. Every now and then, we will chat in the afternoons... And I was telling her how one day, Max was coming home and she happened to have her door opened and he was saying that her curry smells so good...

So V smiled and said, "Oh, that's so sweet.. tomorrow, come to my house.. i teach you how to make.."

So the next day, she knocked on my door just before she started to make lunch:)

And so, my cooking lesson starts:) wahahaahaha...

She said she already made the the chana and it smells heavenly:)

The way to make Chana is just to grind some garlic, onion and chilli and add curry powder to make a paste.. and then you fry it till it turns brown and there is a fragrance.. then you add in the chickpeas tat you soak the night before and some chopped tomatoes and some water and cook.. and tat's it!:) I am going to try making it soon!:)

Next, she taught me how to make poori.. first you get wheat flour and then you add either water or milk.. little bit by bit and knead till you get a very hard dough.. that is hard and dry..

Then you heat up the oil and you can roll the dough into a long strip and break it into bits and then you flatten it and roll it with a rolling pin. When the oil becomes hot enough (there is smoke coming out of it and also, if you drop a teeny bit of dough, it is supposed to bubble), and once the oil is hot enough, you put the poori in.. and then the underneath side facing the oil will bubbled and it will puff out. Once you see the bubbles lesson, you can turn over. Usually takes only a few seconds.....

Tadah! The poori is done:) Then, V let me try to roll the poori and fry it.. too bad though my poori all out of shape one:)

And she let me bring some home for Ace and Max:)

And of cos must have taste test! YUMMY!

And then, V explained to me that indian food is all the same.. if we add more water to get a softer dough, we can make roti and paratha.. (slightly different from the roti prata we have in singapore)

To make roti, you just have to make a softer dough and then roll it out on a flat top with flour sprinkled on so tat it doesn't stick.... and then you pan fry it in teeny weeny bit of oil...

If you want to make paratha, you roll the same roti dough out flat big and put a little bit of oil and then you fold it in so that there are a few layers... and then you roll it out again and then you can panfry it too... she says if you want to make those with stuffing.. you just rolll out and put stuffing in the middle and carefully fold and then you roll again and then it will be paratha with stuffing...

So that was what I had for lunch:)

I saved some and intended to eat it for dinner with Max.. and I made sushi for Ace.. turned out though, that my son loved the channa and wanted to eat too!:)

When we went supermarket shopping, the two boys kept asking me to buy the ingredients to make the poori and channa.. and I briefly read the receipe for Halwa Poori and I am thinking.. maybe.. just maybe.. next weekend I will try to make Halwa Poori for lunch:) Keep my fingers crossed.. hahahaha

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