Adventures with International Cuisine

About a month ago, my Mom bought a couple of packages of besan at one of her local buy-things-for-cheap stores. She didn't know what it was (and neither did the store owner), but she figured for the price 4/$1, she wouldn't be losing much if it ended up being something she didn't like.



When she got home, she googled 'besan' and found this website that features a darling lady giving a tutorial on how to make besan puda. Check it out, she's great & the recipe is super easy.



Baby J & I are here at Mom's house this week (since my early morning scripture class is on spring break & Mr. H requested some quiet time this week to study for his Master's program COMPS testing...which he passed this morning!!!) & we were ready for an international food adventure.



Yesterday, I was put in charge of making besan puda. I watched Manjula's online tutorial (from the above link) & I was ready to go!

I mixed together the besan, rice flour (made with rice ground in a small coffee grinder--the genious goes to Mom for that idea!), water, and cumin. Then I shredded the zuchinni and added the salt.

Here is my puda patty on the skillet:



While I was making besan puda, Mom was busy making a variation of this red lentil soup, split pea soup, and tabouli (which has more than 3 spellings, by the way) for our fabulously delicious lunch. Here's the tabouli salad (she used boiled wheat instead of bulgar) :

A friend was invited, the table was set, and we experienced an afternoon FAR AWAY from our actual location in Middle Tennessee... & Baby J had his first serving of split peas: YUM!

It was delicious!

Thanks, Mom for the awesome meal...and thanks, Manjula for introducing me to besan puda. I can't wait to make it again!

5 things I learned yesterday

1. I can conquer the world now that I have a dry erase board* in my house.



2. Fels Naptha (see first laundry detergent recipe) can be CUT with a knife instead of grated with a cheese grater. (I also learned earlier this week that they DO sell it at the Kroger here in town. YAY!)

Cutting the soap shaves off tons of time in the prep (haha, get it?), turning this recipe into a time efficient winner! Make your own in MINUTES! Just cut...
...then blend in a processor...and TA-DA. All done! All you have to do now is mix with the other ingredients.

3. Grinding wheat is way more fun than it was when I was a teenager.

(I think I hated the cleanup part)

4. I can make my very own wheat bread from scratch...without a mixer!**

5. If you mix mashed peas with mashed bananas, the almost-9-month-old will eat them up!

(This was Mr. H's clever idea!)

*A purchase I made this week to assist in my new morning ritual: teaching seminary (Church youth studying scriptures from 6:30-7:20 every morning before school) in our home.

**To those of you who have been baking bread from scratch for years--I applaud you. I am just now awakening to my inner homemaker. Any tips, ideas, recipes are welcome!