Happy 76th Independence Day to all my readers! Today we are celebrating 75 years of independence and that is such a remarkable thing. the first jubilee day I had witnessed in my lifetime was the 50th year of Independence - the golden jubilee year. Back then we didn't have all the hoopla around the celebrations on social media. The only faithful media that we had was the Doordarshan and newspapers delivered to us the various news and images of the celebration. I tried to recollect what I was doing on this day back then, mostly like every year I think we had gone to school for the flag hoisting. No clear memory of the day that I can recollect. But this year the multi faceted celebrations started much ahead of 15th August. There were so many events and activities organized across the country. Hopefully if I get to see the next jubilee year, I would be recollecting more memories from this day than the 50th year celebration. 

While this day is meant to remember the sacrifices of the freedom fighters and looking forward to the new India in coming years, still a holiday on Monday gives us one more reason to celebrate and appreciate this day. Beautiful weather coupled with a much needed long weekend was just the thing I was looking forward to. And after a longtime I thought let me also pen down a recipe that I recently tried out. 

You can understand from some of my recent blogs that I am still into the Kahsmir mode, capturing all my tour diaries day wise. It gives such an adrenaline rush to be able to edit the travel pictures while revisiting the memories captured in each frame. I also realized that editing nature photographs are much more challenging than food photographs at times. The subject and light conditions outdoor are so dynamic that to bring the right amount of drama to any travel picture means a lot of hardwork on the editing table, because they were captured spontaneously. While when it comes to food photography, all the activities starting from what to make, cooking, plating, setting up the scene and then post editing, everything is calculated, measured and at times a little monotonous. I think that is the reason of late my food blogs have taken a back seat. It doesn't mean I am not cooking new stuffs these days, it just means that I am trying to enjoy the cooking and eating experience more than trying to capture every second of it. 

So after coming back from Kahsmir I started trying out different Pahadi recipes - from Kahsmir, Himachal or eastern states. I found that people in the mountains cook much more healthy meals than we city dwellers. Their food most of the times had less oil, less frying and a whole lot of more flavors. It is so interesting to be able to cook some unique dishes from the hills. While the taste may not always be 100% authentic but it is giving me a refreshing change in the regular menu. One such thing that I had learnt from Harish Bali's (Visa to explore) vlogs is Bhatt daal or bhat dal. I think he was travelling to uttarakhand in one of the videos where he spoke highly about how delicious this dal was. These beans dominate kitchens in the Garhwal and Kumaon regions of the state. Kala bhat or black soybean belongs to the leguminosae family. Soybean has seeds of many colours; the black one is rich in iron and protein. They are cholesterol-free, but contain linolenic acid, which has been found to prevent heart disease. I had tried looking for this daal locally but I got a different variant of black daal. So the next best option was to look up in Amazon and I got what I needed. Most of the variants I found on Amazon were the organic variant as this daal is still not mass produced for the cities. 

Bhatt ki dal is an iconic dish and a traditional Kumaoni recipe from Uttarakhand. I tried to make this Bhatt ki daal in a very simple way with very less masala and it turned out to be super yummy. I feel it is much tastier than the normal Rajma you et in the cities. It pairs superbly with steamed rice, jeera rice, rotis and even bread or pavs. Check out this yummy recipe below:

Ingredients :

• Bhatt/Bhat/ black Soyabean Dal - 200 gm
• Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
• Garlic Cloves - 10 fat crushed/chopped
• Bay Leaf - 1
• Tomato - 1 medium chopped
• Black Pepper  - 1 tsp crushed
• Garam Masala powder - 1 pinch (optional)
• Green Chili - 2-3 chopped
• Butter - 1 1/2 tsp
• Refined Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - as per taste
• Sugar - as per taste
• Warm water - as needed

Garnish (optional):

• Chopped Onion 
• Chopped Coriander leaf Onion 
• Chopped green chili
• Lime wedge

Procedure:

1. Soak the Bhat dal overnight. Wash and drain the water. 

2. Switch on the heat. Place a pressure cooker on the stove and add butter. 

3. When the butter melts add the bay leaf, pepper powder, garlic, onion, tomato, green chili one by one. Fry for a minute till fragrant. 

4. Add soaked bhat daal and required amount of warm water. Add garam masala, salt and sugar. Note here sugar is just to balance the taste, the cooked beans should not taste sweet. Also note that this recipe does not need turmeric as it will clash with the natural flavors of Bhat daal.

5. Put the lid on and cook it for 10-15 whistles or enough time needed for the beans to get soft. Once done let it rest till the pressure dies and then open the lid. With a spatula give a nice stir or two and slightly mash a handful of the beans. This would help in increasing the consistency of the beans gravy.

Note: It took me quite a number of whistles to get this daal soft. If in a hurry there are two quick fixes for making the daal soft, either you can add a pinch of baking soda to the daal when you are cooking it, or place a steel spoon inside the daal. Both helps the daal getting cooked in fewer whistles. 

6. Once the daal has reached its desired thick consistency, add a knob of butter and give it a good stir. 

Garnish and serve it with rice or rotis and enjoy.