I have never really thought about seasonal foods. The reason could be because we have only one season with three varieties.

We have Summer, Peak Summer and ‘Not so hot’ Summer. And that covers all the 12 months of the year.

But if you strain your brain, then you will find patterns that you have been doing all your life and yet never realized it.

Peak summer means ice cream and juices. And a lot of yogurt based curries too – not only because yogurt is cooling, but also because it turns sour faster in summer. Water melons and Mango also mark the beginning of Summer here.

There is no concept of winter foods, since there is no winter. Yet the rest of the world celebrates different food for different seasons. So join me this week as I share with you some of the seasonal foods.

Kick starting this week of Blogging Marathon with fresh green garlic chutney and a dal with green garlic tempering. I bought this from (yes you guessed it right!) Ahmedabad during our BM 25 Meet.

Fresh green garlic is available only in winter there and I had never seen it before. I prepared this meal in February but kept it in the drafts sections since Valli mentioned seasonal foods for BM 27.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page to know the seasonal foods other participants are posting today.

Recipe Source: Tri Daali Dal and Green Garlic Chutney from Ribbon’s to Pasta’s 

For the Chutney:

Ingredients:

• Fresh green garlic      :         250 gms
• Green Chillies             :         4
• Salt
• Ghee                             :         2 tbsp

Method:

1. Wash and clean the garlic. Grind it along with the chillies and salt.
2. Heat ghee in a pan, bring it to smoking point and turn off the heat. Add the ground garlic paste to it and cover the vessel with a lid.

For the dal:

Ingredients:

• Split green gram                        :              1 cup
• Bengal Gram                               :              1/4 cup
• Split black gram (black urad) :              1/4 cup (I used moong dal, since I didn’t have this!)
• Tomato                                        :             1 big, chopped into chunks
• Green Chillies                             :             2
• Ginger                                           :             1″ piece
• Turmeric powder                         :            1/4 tsp
• Salt

Tempering:

• Ghee                                            :          3 tbsp
• Fresh garlic                                :          a handful
• Coriander leaves                      :            handful
• Hing                                           :            a pinch

Method:

1. Wash and soak the dals together for an hour or so. Add chopped tomatoes, chopped chillies and ginger, turmeric powder and pressure cook with enough water (to cover the dals plus one inch more).
2. Pressure cook for two whistles and then reduce the heat to minimum and cook for another 5-10 minutes. The dals should be cooked thoroughly. Mash with a ladle for everything to mix. You may have to add some water and boil the dal, to get it to the correct consistency.
3. In a separate small pan, heat ghee. Add hing and fresh green garlic and let it sizzle. Take off the heat and add it to the dal. Add handful of coriander leaves too and cover with a lid until its time to serve.