Don't know why, but was reminded yesterday of how tasty the chhilka daal that Mummyji cooked back home used to be! And so, I decided that I'm gonna make some chhilka daal for me. Well to be honest, taste was not the only inspiration - I had read that chhilka daal has infi proteins and supplements the carbs that we get from rice. Besides, cooking relaxes the mind. So with so many things going for chhilka daal, I thought of giving it a try.
So as soon as I returned from office and had got comfortable, I decided to cook some of chhilka daal. (For novices, the recipe is easy - take a cup of chhilka daal and add water upto 1.5 cm above the daal surface... ). I did what it took... added the namak, haldi, mirch... set the cooker on the gas-stove and waited patiently for the cooker to blow the whistle. It all looked fine and I was already feeling hungry. (t = 0 )
Eons had passed and I could feel that my beard had grown by over an inch in that time - but there was no whistle! The cooker was just making a zzzz...zzzz..zzzz sound.. seemed that the whistle would be coming anytime now.. but it didn't. I stood in front of the cooker waiting patiently.. heeding to the advice of Mummyji: 'cooking requires patience'. I solemnly repeated these words to myself.
All of a sudden, there was a whistle... albiet a softer one.. and puzzled the physicist in me. I saw that the cooker had turned a bit black and that all activity had suddenly subsided. Lemme admit that I was scared of it blowing on my face :D so very cautiouslly (like a seasoned accident site insurance surveyer) I switched off the stove and put it under cold running water. Then, followed the algorithm that Mummyji had tought me to open the lid. And lo, the daal was ready! But had turned a tad black in color - now is chhilka daal same as kaali daal?? I stood wondering.
Suddenly, I noticed that the innocent looking lid had a hole in it! The safety-valve had given way to the steam, I concluded. Mummyji never mentioned that chhilka daal cooking involved blowing of the valve...nor did she mention that there was no whistle in the process. I felt dumb and untrained.
But not be let down by this slight hiccup in the overall scheme of things, I took out the portion from the top (essentially, the topmost later), and fried it utilizing the experience I had in this business. In the meantime rice was already ready (I have already mastered this art).
That rice, chhilka daal (or kali daal or whatever it was!) together with aam ka achaar was probably the tastiest food I have had - sounds almost blasphemous but it tasted better than the one cooked by Mummyji :D
After the deal was done... and as I lay stretched in front of the TV in contentment, still relishing the taste, and switching the channels mindlessly, my curiosity went back to the safety-valve. So, I fished out the pressure cooker manual and read out the relevant to myself (aloud):
'The saftey valve blows up when either the water is in-sufficient or the whistle is clogged. Kindly replace the damaged valve with a new valve.'
I picked up the lid and turned it around and found the culprit red-handed - the 'chhilka' from the chhilka daal had clogged the whistle. Suddenly, it all made sense to me!
And that my dear friends, was the learning for the day: Whenever you cook chhilka daal wash it suffcient enough to remove all the losely held chhilka from the daal. This will avoid the whsitle from getting clogged and eventually, the valve from blowing.
1 comment:
I have had such unusual failures myself. I once burnt Maggi which is not ludicrous unless you know that it is supposed to be a 2-minute affair.
Then once I was trying to cook eggs and rice. when I had served myself eggs, I realised that I had not started rice. so, I put the eggs back in the pan and treid to keep it warm (eggs taste horrible once they go cold) by continuously stirring it for another 15 mins when the rice was being cooked. Eggs could easily be tasted to be overcooked.
woes of a bachelor who all of sudden has to live by himself.
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