{"id":36143,"date":"2013-10-23T07:10:27","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T14:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ecurry.com\/blog\/?p=36143"},"modified":"2013-10-23T07:10:56","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T14:10:56","slug":"tetor-dal-lentils-with-bitter-melon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ecurry.com\/blog\/soups-and-salads\/soup\/tetor-dal-lentils-with-bitter-melon\/","title":{"rendered":"Tetor Dal: Lentils with Bitter Melon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I have a bitter-sweet<\/em> relationship with this recipe. “Bitter” already appears in the post title, but why sweet? It has to do more with my emotions than the taste. This is one of those recipes which are cloistered in typically Bengali homes. Almost protected. It rarely makes it way on the table on gorgeous occasions, festivals or in restaurants. But it coddles and soothes the yearning souls\u00a0of my kind on an everyday basis.<\/p>\n

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A typical Bengali meal is long and elaborate. The symphony opens with something bitter<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/em>, <\/strong>cleansing and preparing the palate for more to come. I grew up in a home where bitter gourds or Neem leaves were naturally a part of the meal. These vegetables were never treated to reduce the bitterness. Instead we were taught to appreciate and accept them as they were. I loved them when I was little and that spark has not diminished. So when the karela<\/em>\/bitter melons\u00a0in\u00a0\u00a0my backyard took over the entire boundary of my vegetable garden this year,\u00a0I was overjoyed.<\/p>\n

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\"Bitter<\/p>\n

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The fresh green Karela with rounded and smooth spikes made music in my heart.<\/p>\n

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\"bittermelon-karela-2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

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There were more sweet notes to add. My cousin was visiting and it was time to indulge into the long traditional spread of meals which I have not had for years. We cooked and we ate, bringing back\u00a0memories of home: uninterrupted relish!<\/p>\n

Yellow mung with bitter melons is a very traditional Bengali recipe. This recipe belongs to the first course of a Bengali lunch. The presence of the bitter melons enhances the flavors and the addition of the bottle gourd to this dish helps neutralizes the bitterness to a more subtle taste with beautiful complexity of flavor and texture.<\/p>\n

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\"Moong-dal-with-Karela-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

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The subtle and\u00a0unique flavors of Bengali cuisine, like any other archetypal regional Indian cuisine, \u00a0makes it a bit of an acquired taste for food aficionados. Probably that is one of the reasons\u00a0that\u00a0certain\u00a0conventional recipes like this one remain insulated \u00a0between walls.\u00a0Nor many\u00a0efforts\u00a0have been made to\u00a0disseminate them. However with the steady wave of the blogging community, these recipes now are coming to light.<\/p>\n

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I am not sure if I can ever inculcate the love of these treasured recipes in my children. They are the children of different time and place and I am at\u00a0fault for not cooking these often enough. But I\u00a0want to document \u00a0these recipes and the feelings before they disappear at the turn of another generation.<\/p>\n

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