A Cozy Bowl of Daal

Now that winter is starting to set in and it's getting colder out, it seems like the perfect time to share one of my favorite warm-you-up recipes, yellow gram daal.

One of my college roommates introduced me to the deliciousness of Nepalese-style daal, and would often make a big pot of it to share when she found out how much I enjoyed it.  When I moved away I got her recipe for yellow gram daal, which is what she made most often and is adapted from The Joys of Nepalese Cooking by Indra Majupuria.  After making it a few times I bought a used and (strangely bound) copy on Amazon so I could try other Nepalese recipes - but the yellow gram daal is still my favorite.

I should make it clear that my recipe is adapted from what is found in this book and probably shouldn't be viewed as traditional Nepalese food, though I did try to stay true to the overall flavor palette (maybe we can call it Nepalese-inspired?)  Some ingredients are easier for me to get than others, so I've substituted a few items (olive oil for ghiu, for example).  I also made a few additions like carrots, spinach, and cayenne for my own tastes.  

The original recipe calls for mung daal, also called mungiko or moong daal.  (Daal, or dal, can be translated as "lentils" or "split beans.")  Mung daal is a yellowish daal that looks like tiny yellow split peas when removed from the green husks.  You can find it in Indian or Asian markets.  I rarely find myself in one of these stores, so I usually substitute masoor daal, which are shelled red lentils that I can easily get at Whole Foods.

Check out this article on Indiaphile if you want to learn more about the different types of daal and see what they look like.

Yellow Gram Daal

Ingredients:

1 cup mung daal or masoor daal

4-5 cups of water (add more or less depending on desired thickness)

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped - or more to taste

2.5 cm piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped - or more to taste

1/2 tsp cumin seeds or cumin powder

~t tsp coriander powder

Optional: dash or two of cayenne powder for more heat,

Optional: handful of frozen chopped spinach and/or finely chopped carrots

Instructions:

Rinse the daal to get off all the saponins (soap-like compounds) and soak for at least an 1 hour.  Drain.  Hint: Mung and masoor lentils are tiny!  Use a colander with a fine mesh when you're rinsing and draining them.

Then, boil the daal in the water with salt and turmeric until it becomes tender and falls apart, becoming thoroughly mixed with the water.

Meanwhile heat the oil and fry the onions until they turn clear.  Add the garlic and ginger when the onions are about halfway done, and fry until the onions turn clear and the ginger and garlic become golden.  Add the cumin and coriander and fry for a few seconds.

Then add all of this to the pot of daal, stir, cover, and let it simmer for awhile (at least 10-15 minutes).  If you are adding cayenne, carrot, and/or spinach, add this to the pot now and cook for at least 10-15 minutes or until the veggies are tender.

Serve hot.  I usually serve over basmati rice or with toasted pita bread, but you can also eat it plain like a soup.

Makes about 4-5 servings.  Enjoy, and stay warm this winter!

Goals for 2015

Gosh, I can't believe we're more than 2 weeks into 2015 already!  Each year I usually set myself some goals (okay, they're really resolutions but we all know resolutions get broken!)  I've spent some time mulling over where I want to take myself this year and what goals to set to get there.  So without further ado...

 1. Blog more often                                                                                                                                                  
I undertook a lot of effort to rename, rebrand, and refresh my blog... and then didn't do much with it.  More blogging this year! 

2. Make more food from scratch                                                                                                                          
I've been trying to make more foods from scratch over the last year or so, in part to challenge myself in the kitchen and in part to eat more nutritious, whole foods and fewer additives and preservatives.  I already make soups from scratch, and I recently learned how to make hummus.  (For the hummus I've been working from this recipe - so much deliciousness!)

Now I want to expand my horizons and make more foods from scratch.  Definitely bread, since we go through a couple loaves a month.  I'd also like to try my hand at applesauce and pesto.  Do you guys have any other ideas on foods to make homemade - maybe something you'd like to see me blog about making?


3. Read at least 30 books                                                                                                                                        
Last year I set a goal for myself of reading 30 books.  I didn't meet it, but that's okay.  I really enjoyed setting aside more time on the weekends and evenings to just read.  I want to encourage myself to keep doing that, so I'm setting myself the same goal for this year.  I'm once again participating in the Goodreads Reading Challenge as I have in previous years - which is an easy way for keeping track of what I read and seeing how "on track" I am for meeting my goal as the year progresses.

4. Stretch and do yoga more often                                                                                                                       
I may have mentioned in here in the past that I have fibromyalgia.  For me, stretching and gentle yoga are by far the best types of exercise for managing my symptoms.  But I've been very lax in getting my movement on and I can feel the consequences of worsened pain, stiffness, and weakness the last few years.  So even if it's just 5 minutes a night or 1 good session a week, I need to do more.

5. Work on my Book of Lore & Craft                                                                                                                     
I bought a new Book of Lore & Craft (what most people call their Book of Shadows) early last year, and after it sat unused for many months I finally cleansed, blessed, and dedicated it at Samhain.  Right now it just has the dedication written in it, but I intend to add much more to it this year.

6. Get married!                                                                                                                                                          
Jack and I have been engaged since Yule 2013.  It's going to happen this year!  We're going to have a private courthouse ceremony soon, once we get our plans finalized.  I'll be sure to share photos and such in here once we finally tie the knot :)

I am a giant leprechaun!

I almost forgot to post about St. Patrick's Day!  So here I am, albeit a few days late.

I'm a European mutt, but the majority of my ethnic heritage is Celtic - mostly Irish, but also Scottish, English, and French (the French, plus much of my German heritage, is from Alsace-Lorraine).

Funny story about my heritage, actually.  My last name is considered a tribe from Northern Ireland, but it's actually Scottish in origin (or possibly Saxon English - the origin is disputed).  The clan originally live in Britain, where they were "Reivers," a raiding clan along the Scottish/English border.  They were later ceded land in northern Ireland by the king.

Many pagans choose not to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, or they choose to mourn/honor the "snakes" (Irish pagans) that were "driven out" (probably killed) by St. Patrick's crusade to Christianize Ireland.  There's a good breakdown of the issues with St. Patrick's Day over at the Domestic Pagan and PaganCentric.  I've never been much for the ridiculous trend of making all sorts of unnaturally green food and adorning everything with leprechauns and shamrocks. 

Seriously, green beer should be outlawed.  It's a crime against hard-working real beer everywhere.

When I was growing up, my mom would make roast pork butt (it's the butt of the shoulder, for those wondering why I would eat a pig's ass) with cabbage and potatoes.  I also made potatoes colcannon a few years ago.  I wanted to make it again this year but did not have the time to go to the store to buy the needed ingredients. 

My ancestors/heritage are really important to me on both a personal and a spiritual level, and I've found it problematic to ignore a day that celebrates my heritage.  So this year, I decided that from now on I would honor both my Irish heritage and my pagan heritage on St. Paddy's Day.  So Friday night I wore my shamrock earrings for my Irish ancestors, a snake armband for my pagan community, and had a couple of (real) beers for both.  Okay, and some green pie too.  But it's lime pie, so it's supposed to be green, so it's okay.  And so tasty.

I hope everyone had a wonderful St. Paddy's Day, whether you celebrated it or not.  Now go have a good Irish beer, and if you like, raise a toast to your ancestors.  Slainte!

Now that's more like it.  Best beer in the world!

Borders raid, the second

Okay, I admit it. I went back to Borders today to see if there was anything left worth buying. With the going-out-of-business sale almost over, I figured there would be scant few books left. There were still a decent number of books, though I only found 2 pagan-y books, both not of interest.

I ended up finding 2 books that interested me, and I figured at 70% off I wasn't risking much by buying them. The first one is a novel called Blind Sight by Meg Howrey. According to the liner notes, it's about a teen learning the difference between truth and belief, using the tropes of an earthy spiritual mother and a glamorous Hollywood father.

The second book is a cookbook called Recipes for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet by Raman Prasad. It's all sorts of recipes that are grain-free, lactose-free, and sugar-free. Good stuff for detoxing, which I know is helpful for my mental and physical health. I've also been reading and hearing a lot about how gluten and casein are inflammatory proteins, and they can aggravate - and sometimes be the cause of - all sorts of physical and mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, celiac disease, and fibromyalgia (to name a few). I think it would be of benefit to me to try reducing the amount of gluten and casein I ingest to see if it helps.

 

I probably won't be going back to Borders before it closes for good. There wasn't much else I would want to peruse. Also, all the empty shelves make me a sad panda.