Maharashtrian Meal!!!

Yesterday morning both of us felt like eating proper meal, we were really bored of pizzas, pastas, or any other substitute for a wholesome meal. So I made a proper Maharashtrian style lunch comprising of Chapatis/ fulkas (poli), sabzi (bhaji), daal (aamti), rice (bhaat), chutney. For desert we galloped black current ice-cream stacked in the freezer!!


For the Chutney
3 medium size green chilies
3 tbspn. Of raw mango finely chopped
3 tbspn. Of groundnut powder
2 to 3 curry leaves
1 ½ tbspn. Of jaggery
Salt to taste
1 tbspn. Oil
½ teaspoon of mustard seeds
A pinch of hing

Method
Grind the chillies, raw mango, groundnut powder, curry leaves and jaggery together in a mixer till a fine paste is formed. Add salt. Mix well. Keep aside. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds and hing. Switch off the flame after the mustard seeds sputter. Pour the hot oil on the paste made earlier. Your sweet n spicy chutney is ready!

For the Sabzi (I made French beans)
500 Gms of beans finely chopped
1 ½ tbspn. Gram seeds
1 ½ tbspn. Oil
1 tspn. Red chilly powder
1 tspn. Cumin & coriander seeds powder
½ tspn. Turmeric powder
A pinch of hing
1 tspn. Mustard seeds
1 tspn. Sugar
Salt to taste
Grated coconut for garnishing

Method
Soak the gram seeds in water for 20 to 25 minutes.
Heal oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, hing & turmeric powder. After the seeds sputter, add the chopped beans. Mix well. Sprinkle a little water. Cover it. Let it cook for 2 minutes. Uncover it, add soaked gram seeds, chilly powder, cumin & coriander powder, salt & sugar. Mix well. Cover it. Stir fry in gaps while cooking it for further 3 to 4 minutes. Garnish it with grated coconut. Serve it with Chapatis.

For the Daal (Aamti)
5to 6 tpsn. Toor daal
1 ½ tbspn. Oil
½ tspn. Turmeric powder
1 tbspn. Jaggery
1 tspn. Chilly powder
5 to 6 pods of garlic crushed
½ tspn mustard seeds
½ tbspn. Tamarind
A pinch of hing
Salt to taste

Method
Cook the Toor daal fully, till it can be smashed with hand in a pressure cooker. Add salt to taste and ½ a tspn. of jaggery. Mix well Keep aside.
Soak the tamarind in water, remove the extract. Keep aside
Heat oil in a pan. Add crushed garlic. Sauté till dark brown. Add mustard seeds, hing & turmeric powder. Immediately add the cooked toor daal. Don’t add the all of it. Keep aside a ¼ part of the whole quantity. Mix well. Add chilly, tamarind extract water, salt and jaggery. Let it boil for further 1 minute. Your daal is ready.
If you don’t like the flavour of the garlic, you may avoid it. It tastes lovely even without it.
While serving, pour some of the plain daal kept aside earlier on the rice, pour the aromatic homemade ghee on it along with some fresh lemon juice and salt. That’s the way maharashtrians eat it! After the plain daal is mixed well in rice, pop some in your mouth, I bet you will love it. Only after tasting it, add the main daal on it and savour the food. It needs to be really hot when you eat it!

For salad I just chopped tomatoes, sprinkled some bleck pepper & salt.