About My Husband

Prologue by my husband Sandeep 'mashoor'

"Basically I love food, not just to eat but love to do everything about food

To think, to read, to view, to listen, to smell, to cook, to serve, to imagine, to explore, to ‘dream’, to understand its historical aspects and different foods of different ethnic groups, to know science of cooking, to search hotels, restaurants offering good food; in short all about food

I was very thin long back. Although I belonged to well to do family in Thane, Mumbai (खाते पिते घर का) but I had not developed my ‘taste’. Later on my passion to learn Urdu took me to Qasim Shaikh who became my close friend. Qasim introduced me not only to Urdu literature but to many Muslim delicacies such as Biryani, Dabba Gosht, Reshami Kabab, Afalatoon and so on. He taught me to enjoy food in perfect combination of food items of complimentry taste. His company made me realize immensejoy even in small things such as eating curd and sugar at Brijwasi, Thane. He truely developed a ‘kahavaiyya’ in me.

Gradullay I travelled from just exploring in kitchen to have complete possession of kitchen. Women get this knowledge passed on by their mother and could easily know many referal tasks in the process. I did not learn from my mother but ofcourse observed her cooking. Observation, trial and error were the methods through which I became a cook. I relied on ‘Annapurna’ by Mangala Barve and eventually cookery shows, columns, blogs on internet, clips on Youtube, short cookery courses done after settling in Pune all contributed in this creative journey.

I enjoy cooking by all senses. My joy doubles if people like my preparation. This joy made me understand that I can ‘express’ through this. One of the forces behind this blog is ‘Preeti’ (wife is formal relationship but a closest friend of mine). Sometimes I used to publish snaps of my recipes on my facebook profile and used to get good response. But once Preeti published it under the title ‘My Husband’s Recipes’ and she got action packed response. Therefore she insisted on starting a blog by same name.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Bisi Bele Bhath



Bisi Bele Bhath is delicious rice from Karnataka. Although a single dish, it is a complete meal. Bisi-bele-bhath translates hot-lentil-rice. We can get bisi-bele-bhath in aunthetic Udupi restaurants. The masala for this is now available in the market. Ready-to-eat sachets are also there. The traditional preparation is quite elaborate but the recipe I arrived on is not tedious at all, I tried to make it simple of course not affecting the taste.
I use MTR brand of this masala and it gives a good taste. For bisi bele bhath, we need rice and toor dal in same quantity. Cook the rice and dal together by adding salt in a pressure cooker. We need chopped vegetables mainly beans, tomatoes, carrot. Also add green peas. Boil the Vegetables in water.
Fry the cashew nuts on ghee/oil in a pan. Add chopped onion and fry it well. Put curry leaves and MTR masala. Add dal and rice and mix it well. Add vegetables with the remaining water. Add taste and tamarind sauce. Put some jaggery and let it steam. हा भात ओरपून खाता येईल इतपत पातळ (पळीवाढा) शिजवतात. This is served with fried rice papad or Karwari wadi (वडी) which adds on the taste.