Guests, Ricky Ponting, and a Little Something to Eat with Daal

And a good morning to you.   I've got guests at my place, and I'm taking them to the Victoria Market today, so I've got to make this quick.  Yes, Australia isn't doing very well in the second test of the Ashes,  but I want to give a shout out to Michael Clarke and to Shane Watson.  Good on both of you guys, you've given everyone a little bit of hope!

Ricky Ponting has been coming under fire here in Australia; one headline called him a disgrace.  I've never been a Ponting fan because he elbowed and shoved the young Mohammed Amir in the Australia/Pakistan tests.  Is he a good captain?  Well, the fact that England is scoring runs in the 1000's makes me say:  no, not really.  Morale is low.  Nobody was even watching the match on the huge screen at Federation Square in Melbourne.  Sigh.  Maybe today we'll see some more fighting spirit, and Siddle will get all of the English out 10/15.  Wouldn't that be nice?

Anyhoo, I've got to keep it short today.  Today's little recipe is something very nice called Quick Achaar, or quick pickled onions and garlic.  You put a teaspoon full of this explosively flavourful stuff on the side of your daal (lentils) and take a small amount of it with every bit of daal you take.  This adds another dimension to what is otherwise a rather plain, but good dish.  Here we go on the flavour train!

Quick Achaar
1 onion, chopped extremely finely
1 head of garlic, or about 12 cloves of garlic, chopped extremely finely
2 green chilies, chopped extremely finely
salt
lal mirch (red chili powder)
white vinegar, enough to cover all the ingredients

Put everything together in a bowl and stir.  Let it sit for at least 1 hour before eating so that all the flavours mix.  It's best made 1 day ahead, then the flavour really jumps out.
You can also add some extremely finely chopped fruit to this to add yet another layer of flavour.  I sometimes use in-season mangoes or peaches.

Right, have a good one, enjoy the Ashes today (yeah right if you're an Australia fan), and don't be too hard on Ricky Ponting.  He's not my favourite, but he doesn't deserve to be brutalized in the press.

Toodles.  Happy Cricket, happy eating, and Happy Ashes.



ps Dec 26 can't come fast enough.  I'm having Pakistan Cricket Team withdrawals.  Cricket just isn't as exciting when they're not around.  Love them!