The Kitchen

The Kitchen [Click image to enlarge] ---------------------- ---------------------- COMMENT DIY:  Pakora, Jeera Rice & Dal Makhani. Pakoras were on the lame side, but still tasted good. First time I've used besan (otherwise known as 'gram flour,' or chickpea flour).   Checking out all the mysterious products in the Indian grocery was fun. Henna was tempting.  Had urge to darken my hair.  But I wasn't sure.  Wasn't brave enough to try henna.  Maybe next time I'm down there, as I've got a small list of things I need. Inspired by this pakora recipe, but I otherwise did my own thing ... which might explain why my pakoras aren't 100%. I was just getting rid of the vegies I had on hand:  most of the red cabbage I had went into my mix, along with potato, carrot, parsley, onion.  All grated.  Not sure if that makes a difference, or if it is better to cube things.  Was grating the cabbage in the food processor thingy, so I just kept going with all the ingredients (because I'm lazy). Mine turned out sort of gluggy  :( Obviously the consistency wasn't right.  Maybe cubing would be better? Began with too hot oil but then wound up turning it down too low. They were all eaten, so the pakoras were still good.  But I might need some practice with these. The best was probably the Jeera Rice.  Yuummmm! Think I like stove-top rice better than rice-cooker rice, in terms of the clean-up.  The non-stick rice-cooker pot is a pain to clean without damaging the surface ... so the clean-up is way too fussy for me.  With the stove-top rice, I can scrub the stainless steel pot like a madwoman, and there's no problem.  Also, there's surprising little stuck on the bottom, whereas use of the rice-cooker leaves quite a bit of residue. The Dal Makhani  was quite nice, too.  The lentils I used were what I had lying around, but I'm not sure what kind they were, as I didn't keep the labels.  Took me forever to boil them, as I don't have a pressure cooker.  Kind of irritating, as I didn't know what it was that I was boiling, so I could at least look up the time factor. Pressure cooker's on the wish list.  It would probably pay for itself quickly, as it's not much more than the cost of some take-way food. Caution:  don't eat the cooked whole dried chillies, unless you really like hot food ... lol.  One was enough to bring tears to my eyes and make my nose run.  Felt like it had taken a layer off my tongue.  Meal was a hit.  But the kitchen is a disaster zone that needs cleaning, and I'm wiped out from all that unfamiliar cooking and coordination (plus face stuffing).  Find timing things really stressful.  It's probably my least favourite kitchen thing -- the timing.  If I was on my own, I'd probably eat just one thing, so there's nothing to time. The pakoras are sort of addictive.  Want more.