Comfort Food :-)

One of the most delicious meals a Bengali child can be offered in the face of recalcitrance, sounds (to the foreign ear, apprently) not only rather simple, but also a little bit strange. It's boiled rice, boiled potatoes, and boiled red lentils (mushur/masoor daal), mashed together with a little salt, a green chilli, and either a dollop of butter or ghee, or, in true Bengali fashion, raw mustard oil. Try it sometime. It's quick, healthy (despite the high carbs), and really quite delicious.




And then, because I put a little too much water, some draining:



The barely visible glimmer on top of the boiled lentils is the mustard oil :-) Since I make this only occasionally, I prefer to eat it the old-fashioned way, with the sharp pungency of mustard oil flavoured by the slow-kicking heat of two green chillies.