Punjabi Dal Crostata

At some point of time in everyone's life there comes a day when 4 different members of the family want five different things for a meal & taking into account Murphy's law, its usually on days when a.) the weather outside is frightful
and
b.) the kitchen pantry is running with a bright orange neon equivalent of a 'low fuel' light,

On one such occasion I was stuck in the middle of making (or rather making do with ) Masoor dal when my 5 year old declares that he wanted Pizza. The good news was that I did have a pack of frozen Pizza dough, but the bad news.. just enough cheese & Pasta Sauce for one 6 inch roti sized pizza. Once thawed, it only makes practical sense to use it up ASAP & out of this necessity came this culinary invention.

Crostatas are basically just rustic free form tarts. One of the best descriptions i read about the dish were from this blog http://joycooks.blogspot.com/2009/06/crostata-di-marmellata.html
The take home message: Crostatas are tarts filled with anything you had left over & a lot of love...

My version is a savory crostata filled up with the Masoor dal subzi I'd made for supper with a bit of left over Paneer thrown in.

Ingredients:

For the Filling (a complete recipe for Masoor dal ):

1 cup Masoor dal ( or Puy lentils)
1 large onion, diced
1/4 tsp turmeric
2-3 cardamom pods

For the Masala:
1 pod garlic
2 inch piece ginger
1 tbsp Coriander seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
2-3 dried Red chillies
1 tsp garam masala

Salt to taste
1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
2 tbsp oil or ghee

To assemble:
store bought pizza dough
slices of Paneer cheese
melted butter
nigella seeds
chat masala & chopped cilantro for garnish

In a pressure cooker combine Masoor Dal and onion, turmeric and cardamom pods with 2 cups water & cook till soft. Set aside
blend the ginger, garlic, red chillies, coriander, cumin and garam masala into a paste. In a skillet heat the oil/ghee and add the paste & cook till the raw smell disappears. Add the crushed tomatoes & salt and cook for ~ 5 minutes.
Add the cooked masoor dal, lower heat & simmer for ~ 10-15 minutes till the flavors are well combined.Ensure that the dal is thick and not runny if using for the crostata. you do not want the liquids from soaking into the dough.

Roll pizza dough into a 6" circle.

line the centre (~ 4inch circle) with slices of paneer cheese and sprinkle with chat masala,

Spoon a tablespoon of masoor dal filling over the paneer.

You may add some extra slivers of Paneer over the dal if desired.

Bring the edges of the dough towards the centre, pinching it together to form a tart.

Brush with melted butter & sprinkle with nigella seeds

Bake in a 350 F oven for ~ 15 minutes till the edges & base are golden brown.

Cut into wedges & serve with a Tall Glass of Lassi... (or Lager!)

Unusual Ingredients - Unripe Blueberry Achar

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I seriously feel like this scene from the movie 3 idiots .. remember this one? The way I kept racking up drafts and eventually stopped doing that as well. Lulled into complacence by the quick high from Instagram posts. Recipe measurements hastily scribbled into a Moleskine notebook faithfully depending upon my moods. The truth is that I keep over thinking the backstories needed to make the post more interesting while in reality the truth is that ideas and inspirations just occur spontaneously (like little itches , sneezes or twitches) whenever the opportunity happens to strike. Some really cool ideas that scare the beejeezus out of me and yet prove to be utterly delightful and simple in the end. Others, that seem so trivial that I feel it wouldn't be worth crowing about -- even if there are enough other recipes in that genre that get so much publicity simply because the author happens to have the right marketing knack. So in the past 4 years that I've been

Product Review: Ninja Mega Kitchen system and a recipe for Masala Dosa

One of the biggest reasons for attending conferences is the priceless experience of meeting fellow bloggers and get an invaluable exposure to all things culinary. This includes vendors with new products to savor and get inspiration from. I had no complaints about whatever appliances I had for making traditional Dosa (Traditional South Indian rice & lentil crepes) batter, a sturdy tabletop stone grinder that you could add the Urad dal, turn the timer on , and 30 minutes later, come back to a container full of fluffy, batter with the consistency of whipped egg whites. The The cons of this is the cleaning up, of the various parts, the roller, the grinding bin, the multiple trays on which the rollers need to be placed while transferring the rice & lentil batter, the invariable drips of thick batter on the counter.... you get the point, It takes quite a bit of time. I was pleasantly surprised when the appliance company, Ninja asked me if I'd like to try any of their

Fanny ChakrabartiFebruary 1, 2011 at 9:59 PM
is this 'chilke walla' masoor dal? i'd like to try it as alternative stuffing for a paratha - it looks real cool and nutritious too....
SrivalliMarch 6, 2012 at 3:13 AM
This is really very creative!..I would love to have that bite..:)

Panfusine

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