Day 10: Bheja Fry and two other fries

Today was a bheja fry day for me. I was almost certain that I wouldn’t be able to goto Bahraich for this Holi. Thanks to some insensible agitators and the ‘ignorant by choice’ persons in Government, opposition and media.

For the 9^th consecutive day, rail services are severely disrupted on Delhi-Lucknow route due to an agitation in support of a senseless demand of reservation in central jobs by a community.

The govt is mum, opposion is mum and media is mum and now my mum is also mum as she will be celebrating(?) second consecutive Holi without any of her sons.

Anyways, only the vernacular media is covering this story which has affected thousands of travelers.

So these reasons were enough to make my Bheja Fry.

What could I do now. After not doing anything for long(or better say not able to think of doing anything) I decided to do two more Fry. This time it was Dal Fry and Aloo Fry. Perhaps these two fries help to cool my Bheja.

The aloo fry is basically fried potatoes in tadka of Jeera, saunf, rai, onions and Kasoori methi.

The Dal fry is basically Moong Ki Daal with haldi fried in loads of desi ghee with jeera, hing, onions, tomato and garam masala.

Since I was in a bad mood, I was prepared for a YUKK type of food. I don’t know how the food turned out to be … actually .. awesome. With due respect to my wife and mummy, I somehow felt I just had the most wonderful ‘Moong ki Daal’ ever. Or it was just I was too hungry.

You gain experience by mistakes and I had my share of them too: Yesterday I made Sooji ka halwa(sugarfree and with added protein powder) for dinner and breakfast and then my experiencelessness(yes, this is a word) began to show. The end product was sufficient enough for my friends and then I had them for my lunch also. A halwa day I would say.

Now today also I did the same mistake, the volume of the dal was enough for 4-5 persons. :( The rice was, however, just ok. The aloo methi was tasty but the oil in it was just double. Aahh.. The initial excitement seems to be over and looks it would take me ages to learn how much ingredients to take for a particular dish.

Wanted to make rotis but aahh.. the bheja fry had sucked me from inside and couldn’t gather courage for the Rotis. Rice is good dear. And when it is India-gate basmati, then it has to be good.

Remembered a song from a hindi movie of 70’s. “Daal Roti khao, prabhu ke gun gao”.

Those days Dal roti meant having very simple food (or say ordinary). Now when we bought Arhar ki Daal for 110 Rs/kg late last year, I looked back and thought, “Zamana wakai mein badal gaya hai” . In our office cafeteria, Dal fry and roti is a delicacy at Rs 100 per plate(approx). Seems the humble Daal has come a long way in these years, enough to fry our pockets at times.