Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Ukkali / Sweet Broken Rice



This is my 25th post, I feel very happy and delighted that I was able to get 25 different recipes in my kitchen notes and share with everyone. It was a flick of a thought to get this idea of saving my recipes in a blog. It also serves as a quick reference. It gives a commitment towards perfection.

Ukkali is one of the popular sweet prepared in the southern part of India. In our community we prepare it for Karthigai Deepam festival. This festival always reminds my mom making kolams using rice flour and also rice flour dough. This kolam is a quite difficult one to draw, but she draws it with good excellence. We get to light beautiful lamps made of mud in between the kolam. It is kind of a nice experience. 

Ukkali
Preparation time - 1 hour
Serves - 4

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 2 cups 
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 11/2 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Cashew - a fistful
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tbsp

Method:

Ukkali


Soak raw rice with moong dal for 4 hours. Grind it smoothly with salt. 

Heat a sauce pan and pour the grounded mixture. Keep stirring it will get hard, now pour 1 tbsp of ghee and then stir. It will start to get separate, in a powder consistency. Now add sugar + remaining ghee cardamom powder + cashew and keep stirring. 
It should be looking separate and not stick in the finger almost in the consistency of Upma. 

You can have it plainly or with warm milk. I like to have with milk.

Note
You can replace ghee with oil (in that case 1/4 oil + little ghee) - sweets wont look good without ghee
You can replace rice with channa dal or moong dal completely
Instead of sugar, you can use 1 cup of jaggery- it kind of gives different taste 


Thanks for reading 
VP

Friday, November 8, 2013

Simple Bottle guard curry


Today was doing things in a little crazy way, dragging the things in and around. I was absolutely not in  mood to do any cooking. Whenever I get crazy I just keep my mind open and check my refrigerator for options. I found that Bottle guard. Hurray !! I thought of making a simple subji for roti .


Bottle guard curry 



Serves - 4
Preparation time - 40 minutes 

Ingredients: 

Whole masoor dal - 1/2 cup ( you can use masoor dal without skin / moong dal)
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
Bottle guard - 1 M
Cumin seed - 1 tsp
Sambhar powder - 1 tbsp
Tomato - 1 big
Red chili - 1 small 
garlic - 2 cloves
Paprika - 1 tsp
Almond powder - 1 tbsp 
Water - 2 cups 
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt- as per taste 

Options : Instead of almond powder, you can use grated coconut or cashew paste or coconut powder)

Method:



Masoor bottle guard curry 

In a pan, heat a tbsp of oil add cumin seeds. (check by adding one seed, if it splutters add remaining) followed by red chiliCut bottle guard and tomato into squares. Wash the dals and keep it separately.

Add tomato and stir it until it becomes soft. Once it gets soft, add sambhar powder. Stir it for a minute, then add Bottle guard + dal + salt + water + oil and close cook the pan on medium low.

After 10 minutes, open the pan add almond powder + paprika and stir and wait till water evaporates. Finally, mash it with potato masher or at the back of the lid. 

Serve with roti

Thanks for reading 
VP



  

Sprouting at Home

Bean sprouts are very popular in the asian cuisine. I live in a place where it can be considered as a mini china town, where in all the grocery store you can find sprouts. ( mainly soy). I have seen people adding alfa alfa sprouts to salad. 
In India, we have sprouts made using whole moong beans, black channa even finger millet (ragi). I made it using the sprout maker. Earlier I used to soak moong dal for 1 one day in water to get sprouts, it gives some kind of bad odor. Hence using sprout maker is the best option. Sprout maker is available in all the Indian grocery store.


Sprout maker



Method:


Moong Sprouts



Soak the whole moong dal for 6-8 hours . Then transfer it to a sprout maker or you can cover it in a clean wet cloth ( cloth dip it in water and squeeze the water completely) this is supposed to be the ancient method. 
 Leave it in the sprout maker or wet cloth for another 6-8 hours. You can see beautiful sprouts coming out of the moong bean. You can use similar method for finger millet (ragi) , garbanzo beans (channa) or even fenugreek. 
For ragi sprouts dont use the damp cloth, it gets the brown color of ragi and cloth gets spoiled

Steps to use the sprout maker:

  • Wash the sprout maker and make sure it is dry (mainly the bottom level)
  • Strain the soaked moong dal, it should not be watery
  • Add it to the upper level 
  • Leave it for 8 hours in dark space for better sprouts, it takes 8 hours for sprouts 
If you require more sprouting leave it for some more hours in the day time no issues :)


Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Roasted garlic mint and peanut chutney


I am a huge fan of mint, when ever I find fresh mint at the grocery store I grab one. I add it to the pulav or for side dish. Mint chutney is my favorite, my amma used to prepare this most of the time for breakfast since childhood. Peanut give great taste and flavor to this chutney. Garlic provides a stint of flavor, that everybody loves.

Some people dont like the flavor of garlic, in that case it can be skipped. Chutney will taste good even without garlic.

Mint chutney
Ingredients :

Mint - 1 bunch (Small)
Peanuts - 1/2 cup
Tomato - 1/2 M
Green chili - 1
Urad dal /Black gram - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1tsp
Garlic - 2 cloves
oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - as per taste 

rich Green mint :)
Method:

Dry roast peanuts and remove the skin. Cut green chili & tomato into pieces. Grate the garlic.


In a pan add oil, then urad dal. Dal turns slightly brown add the mint leaves. (You should remove the leaves from the stalk, leaves are the only edible part). Saute it till the leaves changes the color to dark green and tomatoes are cooked - water should be evaporated and it should be dry. Allow it to cool.
Grind it adding green chili + mint mixture (urad , mint , tomato) + Peanuts and salt in a blender smoothly.
In a tadka pan, heat a tbsp of oil add mustard seeds after it splutter add the grated garlic. Roast it for a minute. Do not burn it. Now add it to the chutney. 

Enjoy with dosa or roti or even rice. 

Thanks for reading 
VP
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Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Sprouted Whole Green Moong dal curry


Sprouted whole moong bean is a rich protein packed dish. Its easy to prepare the sprouts at home. It is also available at most of the grocery stores. 


  

Moong curry


































Serves - 4
Preparation time - 30 minutes 

Ingredients: 

Whole moong dal (Sprouted :) ) - 1/2 C
Onion - 1 M
Tomato - 1 1/2 M
Ginger - 1 inch 
Garlic - 2 cloves 
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Chili powder - 1 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tbsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Kasoorimethi - 1tbsp 
Oil - 2 tbsp 
Cilantro - a handful 
Salt - as required 




Method :


Cut onion and tomato into finely. Grate the ginger + garlic and keep aside. Heat pan and add 1 tbsp of oil. Add cumin seeds wait till the crackle sound disappear. Add ginger + garlic and fry for 10 seconds and add onions and fry it till turns golden brown. 

Mix the tomatoes, once it gets soft add the chili + coriander + cumin powder and remaining 1 tbsp of oil. Keep stirring on medium until the oil floats on the top. 
Then add the sprouted moong beans and two cups of water, salt and close the pan. Wait till the moong bean gets soft. It gets cooked in 15 minutes. Now open the lid and cook it for 10 minutes until the extra water evaporates. Mash it slightly using back of lid or potato masher for good consistency. 
Crush the kasoormethi between palms and add it . Let it cook for 2 minutes. Switch off the stove and add coriander leaves. 

Serve with roti. 

Thanks for reading 
VP

Note: You can use ginger garlic paste instead of grated ones. I always prefer to use fresh ones, it gives additional flavor. IF you use, ready made paste first fry onions and then saute with the paste for 2 minutes. 
Moong bean can be cooked using pressure cooker separately, If you do no need to cook for 10 minutes. Add it,cook for 2-3 minutes and then proceed with kasoormethi step.






Friday, November 1, 2013

Coconut /Thengai Chutney


This is the most common dish in Southern India. It is in the regular breakfast menu in TamilNadu, for Idly, dosa , Pongal and so on. Every family has their own version of this chutney with + / - of certain ingredients ( but no one can skip coconut :) , just kidding !!). Here is another version of this chutney. 
My hubby and many of his friends like this chutney. They ask for this when we invite them for dinner. 


Coconut chutney

Serves - 4 

Preparation time - 10 minutes 

Ingredients :

Coconut grated - 3/4 cup or 1/2 cup small pieces
Roasted gram dal/ pottu kadalai - 1/2 cup 
Green chili - 1 
Ginger - 1/2 inch 
Small onion - 1 
Salt - as per taste 
Water - 1/2 cup

Seasoning: 

Oil - 1 tbsp 
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp 
Curry leaves - few

Method: 

Coconut chutney

Add the coconut, roasted gram dal, onion, ginger, green chili with salt and water. Grind it smooth. 

You can use red chili for the red version of this chutney 
I used 1 spring of coriander for the green version of this chutney. 
In a tadka pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds after it spluttering sound ceases add urad dal until brown add hing and curry leaves and pour and mix in the chutney. 

Note : Add it after  tadka gets cold, otherwise it may lead to tiny explosions and it can hurt.  






Semolina (Rava) Pongal





I love rava in any form. Rava dosa is my favorite. Every time I go to a restaurant I pick rava dosa. My hubby used to comment on me for selecting the same thing every time. Rava Upma, Rava kesari are most common dishes in southern India. I love rava upma which my mom makes. Only after marriage, I miss many dishes my mother prepares. I try all the things she makes but couldn't bring level of taste in it. Ofcourse, its mom's preparation- It has always got a special place.
Semolina (I used the rice semolina) are nothing but the broken parts of rice kernels. I has got its presence with different wheat and rice combinations all over the world. 
Rava pongal I first experimented it after marriage for breakfast without vegetables , it was good. But,My hubby insisted the food should contain vegetables, being vegetarian we have got limited number of food that gives the essential nutrients. 

Ahhh... He is correct right !!!. 

So this makes a cute history for this new version of pongal. Isn't it :)


Rava Pongal



Serves - 4
Preparation time - 40 minutes 

Ingredients :

Idly rava - 1 cup
Split moong dal - 1/3 cup
Carrots - 2 medium 
Green Beans - 5 
Green Peas - 1/2 cup ( I used frozen)
Potato - 1 small 
Green Capsicum - 1/2 
Ginger - 1 inch
Oil - 1 tbsp 
Ghee - 2 tsp 
Salt - as per taste 
Water - 41/2 cups

Seasoning :

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp 
Whole pepper corns - 5 
Cashew nuts - handful (broken)

Method :


Vegetable Semolina Pongal

Roast the rava in ghee or oil ( I used ghee) till it gets hot. Transfer it to a plate and allow it to cool.
Wash the moong dal and keep it aside. Cut the carrots into small squares, Beans,capsicum and potato. 
Chop the ginger into small pieces. 

In a sauce pan, add the moong dal + all the vegetables (carrot + beans + peas + capsicum+potato) and 2 cups of water and salt. Close the pan and allow it to cook for 10 minutes.
Note: the dal produces foams and bubbles while boiling so keep it half open. Be careful as water flows out and may switch off the stove. So stand nearby and keep stirring in-between.

After it the vegetables and dal has got cooked, add the rava. Keep stirring while adding the rava as it can form lumps. I added 2 1/2 cups of water along with rava as I used Idly rava which is very coarse. You can adjust water based on the type of rava. 

In a tadka pan, heat oil and once it gets heated up add one cumin seed. Check if it splutters, add the remaining , then pepper corns, ginger and stir for a minute. Finally, add cashews and keep frying until it turns brown. Make sure you do not burn the cashews.

It tastes great with coconut chutney or Idly sambhar. 

Enjoy with any kind of side dish of your choice and do share if you find any interesting combination for this pongal. We had it with coconut chutney

Thanks for reading 
VP




Thursday, October 31, 2013

Carrot Chutney


Carrots are rich source of Vitamin A, it has got slight sweet taste which attracts people of all ages. We can bet not even a single person can hate carrot. It tastes great in raw form or in poriyal,sambhar ,as a sweet or even cake.

My mom used to prepare carrot poriyal for my lunch. Its easy to prepare during the morning rush hours. Here in US, I could find carrots in all colors white, purple or yellow. Though the other color ones are not as sweet as the regular orange ones, I like the orange ones. After marriage, I came to know about carrot sambhar or rice. My hubby loves both. I have carrot cake in my to-do list, which I have to definitely give a try once

Carrot chutney is a unique recipe, the sweetness gets masked by the addition of garlic and onions.It tastes great with idly or any kind of dosas.


Carrot Chutney

Serves - 4
Preparation time - 30 minutes

Ingredients :

Small onions - 5 or Medium onion - 1
Carrots 2
Red chili - 1
Garlic - 1 big clove
Salt - as per taste
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few

Method:


Carrot Chutney



Chop onions roughly and carrots into big squares. Cut garlic into big pieces. Tear the red chili into half.
In a pan heat a table spoon of oil , add garlic then red chili once it turns big, include onions fry for a minute. 
Then add carrots and keep frying. Close cook for 5 minutes. It will get cooked. 
Allow it to cool, then grind it with salt. 
In a pan, heat a table spoon of oil. Add mustard seeds, once it splutters, then urad dal. 
Urad dal turns slightly brown then add curry leaves and mix it with chutney. 


Enjoy with idly or dosa.

Thanks for reading 
VP




Thursday, October 24, 2013

Vegetable stew


I get lazy somedays to cook, those times I become really picky and select easy things to cook. I prepare this stew during those time. Its healthy and very simple to cook. Both of us ( me and my hubby) love chappathi. Most of the days in a week I prepare chappathi for dinner. This stew tastes great for chappathi. You can have with plain rice or simple pulav like peas pulav or paneer pulav or even dosas.

You can pressure cook or cook in a sauce pan. I usually decide by looking the vegetables. If they are fresh, It does not require any pressure cook. 

Mixed vegetable stew


Serves - 4
Preparation time - 40 mins 

Ingredients :

Carrot - 1 big
Green beans - 7
Baby corn - 10
Pumpkin - quarter
Green Peas - a handful (frozen)
Tomato - 1.5 (big and juicy)
Ginger - 1 inch 
Sambhar powder- 1tbsp
Almond powder - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp 
Oil - 1tbsp
Salt- adjust to taste 
Curry leaves - few 

Method:

Vegetable stew

Chop the carrots, beans, baby corn into julian cut. Wash the green peas, I used the frozen one. Chop the tomatoes finely and pumpkin into squares. Grate the ginger and keep aside.

In a sauce pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds. After it splutters, add the urad dal and curry leaves ( if u want, I didn't add curry leaves). Urad dal turns slightly brown add ginger. Fry ginger for a minute, then add tomatoes. Once it turns soft, add sambhar powder and fry for 2 minutes. 

Now add the chopped vegetables (carrot + beans + pumpkin + peas + baby corn) and salt. Now close the pan and cook for 10 minutes. Keep stirring in between.

Finally add the chopped coriander for garnishing. I did not add that. You can add the vegetables of your choice, it can be either cabbage, chayote, cauliflower or egg plant. 

I like this crunchy, you can mash it finally using a potato masher. 

Enjoy !!

Thanks for reading 
VP








Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Avocado chapathi


Avocado tastes great while having it in any dish, it could either as guacamole, or plainly on salads. 
Mixing avocado with chappathi flour tastes really awesome, it gives a wonderful aroma while cooking. It has numerous health benefits. I guess this is another fruit claimed to be a vegetable due to the addition in salads, tastes in all forms in cooked or in raw forms. 

The vegetable stew provides a wonderful accompaniment for the chappathi. It tastes heaven, the method for preparing stew is very simple. I really get lazy some days to cook, in that time I prepare this stew. You can cook this in pressure cooker or in the sauce pan. It mainly depends on the status of the vegetable. If its a fresh one, it can be cooked in the sauce pan.


Avocado roti Vegetable stew




Avocado Roti

Serves - 4
Preparation time - 10 + 1 hour (dough should sit for soft rotis)
Count - 13 rotis 

Ingredients :

Chappathi flour - 3 cups 
Water -  2 cups 
Avocado - 1 ripe 
All purpose flour(maida)- little
Salt - as per taste 
Oil - 1 tbsp

Method: 

Avocado Roti


In a bowl add the flour, avocado peeled (peeling method), salt and oil. Mix the flour with avocado. Try squeezing the avocado and thoroughly mix with flour. Now add water and kneed the dough, bring it to the consistency of chappathi dough. Cover it with paper or foil and let it sit for 1 hour. 

Make the dough into  cylindrical shape and cut into 13 equal parts. Roll that into ball. Dust it with all purpose flour and roll it into shape of a tortilla. 

Heat the tawa or skillet and place the rolled chappathi dough. Once it starts to bubble flip it and apply oil on the corners. Cook until it turns golden brown on both the sides. 

Chappathi is ready to serve. 

Enjoy with vegetable stew or any other curry of your choice. 

Thanks for reading 

VP
 











Morkali / Rice cake


Morkali  is a rice cake one of the main ingredients in the More (butter milk). In traditional south India, this is prepared using sour butter milk, the butter milk will be kept unused for 2 days and the sourness makes this recipe to even taste better.
Due to the hot tropical climate, it gets soured quickly. I prepared it with fresh butter milk as in US, getting the butter milk to sour is quite impossible at this place.

We generally make plain morkali, with simple seasoning. I tired this healthy version by adding grated carrot and fenugreek leaves, it turned out well.
Rice Cake

Serves - 2
Preparation time - 60 minutes 

Ingredients : 

Idly rice - 2 cups 
Butter milk - 1 cup 
Oil - 5 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch 
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tsp
Red chilies - 2 
Turmeric - a pinch 
Carrot - 1 grated
Fenugreek leaves - 1 cup
Curry leaves - few
Salt - as required


Method: 

Rice Cake

Soak idly rice for 4 hours. Grind the rice with salt. The batter can be watery. Pour the batter into a bowl and mix it with butter milk. 
In a pan, preferably non-stick heat 2 tbsp of oil. Add mustard seeds, once it splutters, add urad dal and channa dal. After it turns slightly brown, add hing, red chilies,carrot and fenugreek leaves. Stir it and allow the it to get cooked. It should be crisp or mushy. 
Now add the batter and keep stirring. Keep the stove on medium low and keep stirring. The batter will turn thick. Add the remaining oil and keep stirring. Press the batter with a finger, if it does not stick then its cooked.
Take a plate and apply oil, add the cooked cake and press it evenly. Allow it to cool, once its done cut it using knife.

Note: Apply oil on knife, it cuts finely only after it cools completely.

Enjoy plainly or with any pickle. 

Thanks for reading :)
VP




Semolina / Rava (Cream of Rice) idly

Rava or Semolina is the broken rice, it is used for making idly , dosa or even made as cake. I love the rava kesari which my mom makes, it is one of the common sweet made in south india. Rava upma is a widely known breakfast. But this is a different style of preparing idly with rava. This is done by soaking rava in yoghurt. 
It tastes fantastic, I am a huge fan of yoghurt in all forms. During my college days, my friends used to make pranks on me for bringing yoghurt rice for lunch everyday :)


Rava Idly

Serves - 4
Preparation time - 60 minutes

Ingredients: 

Idly rava - 2 cups 
Yoghurt - 1 cup 
Water - 1 cup 
Salt - as required 
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Turmeric - 1 tsp 
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp 
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp 
Cashew nuts - few
Black pepper corns - 5
Oil - 5 tbsp 
Carrot - 1 
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few

Method:


Rava Idly

In a pan add rava and 3 tbsp of oil and roast it for 5 minutes. Allow it to cool . Mix it with curd. Now add water and salt stir it nicely. Allow it to get soft for 1 hour. You can even add yoghurt if its sour for better taste. Chop the ginger finely. 
Note: If you're adding buttermilk keep stirring while you add to avoid the formation of lumps. 
In the pan heat oil, add mustard seeds once it splutters. Add urad dal + channa dal + black pepper corns then add ginger. 
After 1 min add cashew and curry leaves. When cashew turns golden brown switch off the flame. 
Mix it with the rava+yoghurt mixture. Add coriander leaves and grated carrot. 

In idly pot, boil water and pour this in the idly mould. Stir before you pour on every idly mould in the pan. After you see the steam coming out of the pan, open the lid and prick it using fork. If the fork comes out clean, the idly is ready to serve.
Note: while checking the idly, keep the stove on low flame to avoid the steam flashing on you.

Allow it to cool, then remove the idly from mould. Or else, it can break.

Enjoy with coconut chutney or tomato-thokku.

Thanks for reading :)

VP









Friday, October 18, 2013

Elephant Yam - Peas curry


I found elephant yam in the grocery store, immediately bought one :). Its one of my favorite vegetable. I still remember the days having yummy yam fry, one of my mom's exclusive preparation. But my family is not very fond of having fry.So,I thought of trying this unique combination for chappathi. It turned out really well and tastes really good with chappathi. Yam generally have wonderful taste when cooked. 


Yam Peas Curry

Serves- 4

Preparation time - 30 minutes 

Ingredients: 

Elephant Yam - 1 small 
Peas - 1/3 cup (frozen)
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 2 cloves
Onion - 1 medium 
Tomato- 11/2 medium 
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Red Chili powder- 1/2 tbsp
Coriander powder - 2 tbsp 
Turmeric - 1 tsp 
Paprika - 1 tsp 
PavBhaji/Garam/Kitchen king masala - 1/2 tbsp 
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - as per taste 
Coriander leaves - little (chopped finely)

Method :

Yam Peas curry


 Chop the onions, tomatoes finely and yam into squares. Grate the ginger + garlic finely. 

In a pan heat oil and add one cumin seed. When it starts spluttering, then add the remaining. Fry the ginger + garlic for 1 minute and add the onion. Add little salt so that onion doesn't get soggy.

Add the tomatoes, fry till it get soft. Now add the turmeric+ paprika+red chili + coriander powder and fry till the oil separates on medium low. Mix the yam + peas + salt + masala and 2 cups of water cover it with lid.
It will get cooked in 10 minutes, but keep stirring in-between. After that open cook the pan until the water evaporates.

Switch off the stove and mash this little using potato masher. Finally add coriander leaves. Serve with roti or rice. 

Thanks for reading :)

VP



Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Pumpkin - Whole masoor dal Curry


I have had pumpkin as sambhar or as dry curry. I like the slight sweetness of the pumpkin and its attractive color. Whole masoor dal has wonderful nutty taste, unlike the regular dal which gets mushy when cooked for more time. This is kind of a different try. 

Pumpkin masoor curry

Serves : 4
Preparation time : 30 minutes 

Ingredients :

Pumpkin - 2 cups 
Whole massor dal - 1/4 cup 
Onion - 1 (medium)
Tomato - 1.5
Ginger - 1.5 inch
Garlic- 2 pods 
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chili powder - 0.5 tbsp
Coriander powder- 1.5 tbsp
Amchur powder- 1 tsp
Pavbhaji masala/Garam masala/kitchen king masala- 0.5 tbsp
Milk - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp 
Salt - as required 

Seasoning :

Coriander leaves - little chopped 

Method:


Pumpkin masoor curry
Chop the onions,tomatoes finely. Grate the ginger and garlic (both can be mixed)

Cut the pumpkin into cubes. Wash the masoor matki(whole masoor dal) thoroughly with water.

Heat the pan and pour oil. Put one cumin seed when it splutters, the oil is ready. 

Put the remaining cumin seeds wait till the splutter sound vanishes. (btw maintain the stove on medium low). Now add the grated ginger + garlic fry it for a minute. Add onion and add little salt (to prevent the onion turning mushy), saute it until it turns golden brown. 

Add the tomatoes keep stirring until it gets soft. Then add red chili + coriander powder + masala powder+ milk, stir it and keep in low flame. Oil will appear as floating on the surface. 

Now add the pumpkin + masoor dal and add 2 cups of water + salt. keep the pan closed with lid and it will get cooked in 10-15 mins. Remember to stir in between. After pumpkin gets cooked, keep the pan open for the water to evaporate until you get the consistency of your choice. I kept it for 5 minutes on medium-high flame.

Enjoy with roti, plain rice or any vegetable pulav. 

Thanks for reading :)