Bhaja Moong dal - Potluck party, cyber style December 28th 2013

   For this month of potluck party, I was paired with Sutapa.  I was too happy because I am an dal or gravy-aholic lady.  In this blogging world, we can see many bakes, many goodies  or many virtual treats, but when it comes to your home-cooking, making gravies or dal for dinner becomes an wondering part of life because breakfast and lunch preparation gets over my morning itself.  And for me, I simply quiz what to cook up, with my refrigerator and provisions shelf wide open  :D  :D   This potluck party, very clearly compensated my thought :P  

Bhaja moong dal, an bengali dal is an rich and exotic dal.  'Bhaja' means 'fry' and so moong dal was fried with ghee before pressure cooking and tempered with spices and coconut.  When I prepared, I can notice a pleasent aroma and taste, unlike other dal preparations.  So, thanks to Sutapa for introducing such an nice dal to us, I enjoyed them thoroughly with roti. 

Tomato chutney - Potluck party, cyber style

    When I first looked into my partner's(Sutapa Ghosh) dish, I was happier  thinking that making chutney would be easier. Alas, this tomato chutney cooked in bengali style is not  an easy one.  The important ingredient required was ammsattva or mango leather which I had hardly heard off.  At this time, Sutapa Ghosh of sutapasindian blog suggested other names of ammsattva.  In Andhra pradesh, these ammsattva or mango leather is called as Mamidi Tandra or mango jelly.

      According to wiki, they are fruit leather, mixed with concentrated sugar solution, sometimes also an chemical called potassium metabisulphite and is poured over bamboo mats.  The texture of prepared mamidi tandra is unique because it is  made by consequent layering (only after before added layer dries away) over a period of month.  Over ripe thotapuri mangoes are specially used for this purpose.