Bara Ghuguni

Sometimes, I feel that our existence is mundane & unworthy of all love. 

Sometimes, I feel worthless.

Sometimes, I feel life is totally useless.

And then....

I immediately realize that I AM WRONG !!

Life is beautiful. It takes us through ups & downs, just to teach us right from wrong, good from bad and most importantly LOVE from hate.

My relationship with Bara-Ghuguni is something similar.. I used to love Bara.. I still love Bara but Ghuguni.. not so much... Why?? Because back home, Bara was a frequent affair but ghuguni was mostly brought from the vendors on bicycles selling "Dahi-Bara-Alum-Dum-Ghunguni". So Ghuguni was like a side-kick. It was never the main hero of my meals. Bara on the other hand.. was like Amitabh Bachchan. Whenever it was made, it was the star of the show. 

But lately, I don't know why.. but Ghuguni has been a staple in our household. It could be because of boredom from other dals or we are just missing "Dahi-Bara-Alum-Dum-Ghunguni" too much that we are trying to get at least some part of that. 

For that, I landed up making Bara & Ghuguni. If you ask me why I did not make Dahi-Bara, the reason is by the time I ground the Bara paste & mixed it, I was tired. :) 

So here goes...

To Make Bara..

• Soak skin-less urad dal (1 cup) overnight
• In the morning, drain all water & make a thick paste (with least water as possible). I used a Indian style grinder.
• Then mix that with 1/2 cup finely chopped red onions (If I'd have measured, it'd have been 2 cups of the urad dal paste/thick batter)
• 2-3 tbsp fine shoji or semolina (for crispiness)
• Fresh pounded black pepper (Yes, fresh being the catch word - do not use the already powdered pepper)
• 2tbsp roughly chopped curry leaves (around 6-8 medium sized leaves)
• salt to taste
• Mix generously with a spoon or your good old fingers & then keep covered until you are ready to fry them (I kept them covered for at least 30minutes, while I made the Ghuguni, rounded up the kids, fed them their dinner & read them a story)
• When ready to fry, heat oil in a deep kadai (Fit for deep frying).
• Oil has to medium hot. Test the oil by dropping a small drop of the batter into the hot oil - batter sinks & comes back up immediately : oil is ready !!
• Then using a spoon, create the desired shape (as you can see, I created elliptical for this meal) & drop into the hot oil.
• Fry on medium heat until Bara is brown in color (like in the picture).
• Serve hot with Ghuguni (Recipe follows next).

To make Ghuguni...

• Soak 1 cup Yellow Peas overnight in more than enough water
• In the morning, boil them with some salt & wee bit turmeric (3 whistles in a 5-lit. pressure cooker is good enough).
• For the ground masala, we will use the odiya-home-staple, onion-ginger-garlic-red chili paste
• In a heavy bottom pan, fry 1/2 cup finely chopped onions along with wee bit of salt & sugar (for taste of course). 
• Once onions are fried, add the ground masala & fry on low-medium heat with sprinkles of water if necessary until raw smell goes away.
• Now, comes the part where some odiya moms might argue about - whether do we add tomatoes in Ghuguni or not.... Well, I have tried both & honestly, adding one red ripe tomatoes changes the game in this curry... So we will add it (Finely chopped or pureed)
• Add Cumin-Coriander powder, Salt & Turmeric (Red chili powder, if you want to use that) and again fry on low-medium heat with sprinkles of water. 
• Once the masala is ready, add the boiled peas along with all the water in which it was boiled in. 
• Give it a good mix & let the curry boil vigorously on medium heat (Covered)
• Once you think the curry has come together, add freshly coriander leaves (finely chopped) and give it a good mix again. Keep covered until ready to serve.