Foreign Wali Life

This is one of the favourite dish of my grandfather. I also loved this dish minus the dudhi. As a child, I was a fussy eater. Still I am, but now I can try different cuisines and vegetables. My husband was asking me to make channa dal for a long time. So I thought why not make a tried and tested combination. This is a healthy combination- dal is a rich source of protein and dudhi is rich in dietary fibres. Long list of health benefits of dudhi, so one should try to include it in our meals.   This is a typical gujrati meal. Shaak is a guju word meaning sabzi in hindi and vegies in English. Dudhi means lauki in hindi and bottle gourd in English. It is bottle gourd curry. Adding some jaggery or sugar is a must if preparing in gujju style.   Ingredients 1/2 cup Split bengal gram (Chana dal), soaked for at least an hour 2 cups Bottle gourd (Dudhi, ghiya, lauki) Water as per your requirement 1 Medium sized chopped tomatoes 1” Gr...

  I had Maa Ki Dal in a restaurant in Singapore. I first thought this is Dal Makhani but it tasted different. It tasted good not buttery and went well with both roti and rice. I was eager to recreate this at home. This is a Punjabi dish made with whole black lentils and tempered with onion and tomatoes. I like this with rice but it goes well with roti and naan. In north Indian restaurants you would have generally ordered Dal Makhani, which is also made with black lentils. Traditionally this is made with black lentils, kidney beans and chana dal and loads of cream/ butter is added. So whenever at home I prefer making Maa Ki Dal but I will surely post restaurant style dal makhani recipe soon. Ingredients 1 cup Whole black lentils (sabut kali urad dal) 3 cups Water 1 Medium sized chopped onions 2 Medium sized chopped tomatoes 2-3 Grated Garlic 1” Grated Ginger 2 Chopped green chillies Salt to taste 1 TBSP Oil 1 TBSP Ghee (optional) ½ Stick...

My husband, Devdeep, had gone for a week to India on a business trip. I was all alone at home. Staying alone is always an issue as I was raised in joint family. Week days were still okay as most of the time was spent in office. So for the weekend I decided to go to Melaka. D was at his sasural (in-laws place) sleeping peacefully at the time I called him to inform that I was going to Melaka. After having my breakfast, I left for Melaka. Malacca, or Melaka as the locals fondly call it, is a Malaysian city located about 150 kilometres away from Kuala Lumpur and is the capital of the State of Malacca. I took a bus to Larkin Sentral from Queen Street at around 12 o clock. Generally the buses are crowded on weekends unlike this Saturday. Immigration was also fast and smooth both for Singapore and JB. I reached Larkin bus station at 1.15 PM and bought a single way bus ticket to Melaka. I couldn’t find a vegetarian stall in the hawker centre near the bus station so I h...

The plan to go to Kukup was a surprise. My husband’s friend, Manish, was supposed to drive to Johor Bahru for CNY dinner with his wife Sana. So we asked them for a lift to JB. Saturday when thEy came to pick us up that time he said we will be driving to Kukup. Although they had been to Kukup few times before but still they decided to show us this beautiful place.    Kukup is a small fishing village in the Pontian district. We drove from Singapore to Kukup via Tuas check point. I was excited as this was the first time I will not have to get down at both the check points. The immigration was smooth because of Chinese New Year. Kukup is around 60 km from Tuas check point. It took us around one and half hours to reach. The drive was pretty as greenery is ubiquitous. On our way we saw a lot of fruit farms specially durian and makeshift stalls selling them. The fruits are cheap as compared to Singapore. After reaching, we parked at a huge parking lot which was free and we...