The Spice Center

Dal palak is an Indian dish made with spinach, lentils, spices and herbs. My recipe goes in 6 simple steps :-
1) Mix and soak Toor Dal, Chana dal and Masoor dal in the proportion of 1:1:1 for about 4-5 hours.
2) Pressure cook the lentils with some turmeric, salt and oil.
3) Finely chop 1 onion, 1 tomato, 250 grams spinach, 1 inch ginger, 14-15 cloves garlic, 2 green chillies.
4) Add 2 tbsp ghee in a pan and add 1/2 tbsp cumin seeds, 1 tea spn asafoetida, 3 red chillies, ginger, garlic and onion. After the onions are cooked add tomato and add dry spices (1-2 tea spn red chilli powder, 1 tea spn garam masala and salt.
5) Put the pressure cooked lentils in the pan and add water. After the ingredients come to a boil add the finely chopped palak. Cook for 10-15 mins.
6) Tadka - Add 4-5 tbsp of ghee/butter to another pan and add 1 tbsp of cumin seeds and 1 tbsp of kashmiri red chilli powder. Add the Tadka to the boiled boiled lentils.
Serve it with Paratha/ Naan! Do add some lemon juice!

Ras Malai - One of the most famous Bengali dessert. This is made by curdling the milk with vinegar to make chena. The water is then strained and the chena is mashed till it becomes smooth. Once the chena reaches the desired level of smoothness, it is made into small flat balls and boiled in sugar syrup for 10-12 minutes. Once done, rest them in thickened milk or rabri. Refrigerate for 2 hours, garnish them with nuts and serve chilled.

Medu Vada - Crispy, fluffy & delicious donut shaped lentil fritters served with sambhar & coconut chutney from South Indian Cuisine. Made by soaking lentils, grinding them to make fluffy batter and lastly shaping small portions of the batter & deep frying.