Chana Dal

This is a nice Chana Dal that my husband likes very much with chapati. When small, this chana dal and chapati featured quite often on the breakfast menu at their home. And tastes from childhood usually makes for a favorite meal. At home, we don't make this often because this dal irritates my stomach and I cannot eat more than a spoon or so. So every time I make this I have to make some other side dish for me and that is not something I look forward to.

Though different from tuwar dal, it may not be easy to distinguish the two immediately. Chana dal is more curvy than tuwar which is more flattish. I remember this incident years back, when I went to the store to buy stuff mom wanted. One of the items was tuwar dal and I went to the stack of dals and was flummoxed when I saw so many types. I did not really recognize one dal from the other and hence picked a pack of dal and asked a staff which dal it was. He said it was arhar dal. Since it wasn't tuwar I asked him what were the other dals they stocked and since I did not hear tuwar dal I came out of the store without buying any dal. I did not know then that arhar and tuwar was the same until mom told me and then she showed me the two dals and taught me to recognize both.

 

Ingredients
Chana dal - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1
Tomato - 1
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Coriander pwd - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - 1 tsp
Green chilli - 2
Turmeric pwd - 1 tsp
Red chilli pwd - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt as per taste

Wash the chana dal and soak it in water for half hour to one hour. Then pressure cook it in 1.5 cup water for 2 whistles. The dal should be cooked just right without turning to mush.

Chop the onion, tomato, green  chillies and coriander leaves and keep aside.

Heat the oil in a kadai or pan and when hot add the cumin seeds. When the cumin splutters, add the chopped onion and saute till golden. Add the chopped green chilli and tomato and saute. Saute for a few minutes and add the coriander, turmeric and red chilli powders and saute. Add the boiled chana dal with the water and let it all boil together. Add salt and more water if required. Check seasoning and adjust if required. Add the coriander leaves and let it all come together. 

 

This Chana Dal goes well with both chapati and rice.

Masaledaar Dal / Lentil Fry

Dal Fry

This is a Dal / Lentil fry that is apt for those cold afternoons when something nice and spicy is needed to warm ourselves. Pair it with rice and a papad and make a meal of it curled up on your sofa. Or water it down and have it hot as a soup. Dal is an integral part of Indian meals and is made in so many different ways across the country. India has different varieties of dals / lentils and each of them can be made in so many ways ways and with different seasonings changing the taste completely. Dals / Lentils are also paired off with vegetables, meat and other dals / lentils to create different dishes and tastes.

This dal fry is my husband's favorite amd looks forward to my making this and sometimes time permitting makes it himself. I do not make it often because I feel the other dals I make take lesser amount of oil / ghee than this Dal Fry. The other ways I make tuwar dal requires oil / ghee only for the tadka whereas in the Dal Fry enough oil to fry the onions is required. But guess it's ok when this Dal Fry is made once in a while.  

Ingredients

Tuwar Dal - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1.5
Tomato - 1
Garlic - 4 cloves
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - 1/4 tsp paste
Turmeric pwd - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli pwd - 1 tsp
Green chilli - 2
Coriander leaves - 2 to 3 sprigs
Oil - 2 tbsp oil / butter
Salt as per taste

Crush the cumin seeds, julienne the garlic cloves, slit the green chillies and chop the onion and tomatoes.

Wash and clean the tuwar dal and add 1 cup water and pressure cook for 3 whistles.

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a saucepan and when hot add the crushed cumin seeds. Stir it and add 3/4th of the chopped onions and julienned garlic and saute till the onions are light golden in color. Add the chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and the green chillies and saute till the tomatoes turn mush. Add the cooked dal in along with 1 cup of water and little salt and mix well. Let it boil and check for salt and add some if necessary. Add the tamarind paste and the chopped coriander leaves and stir in and give it one boil. Take off the heat and keep aside.

 

In a separate pan add the remaining oil or add some butter for that extra taste. When hot add the remaining chopped onion and saute till light golden. Add a pinch each of turmeric and red chilli powders and mix and then take it off heat and add it to the prepared dal. Keep covered till ready to serve.

Serve hot with rice and papad.

Dal Tadka / Lentils with tempering

from my husband - The dal is a staple in the Indian diet and is made in various forms in various parts of the country. In its function, it is both nourishing and comforting. In character, it is democratic and nationally unifying. Its make-up varies in flavor from bland to severely spicy, in taste from tangy to sweet, in consistency from soup-like thin to gruel-like thick.

 

Here, we will take up a style of dal, supposedly the UP style. I say supposedly, because I am not absolutely sure in that I have never had this in UP, but my neighbors where I grew up, made it this way. They were from UP and their cuisine was unique - we were entreated to a whole new spread - Pulao, Chhole, Poori, Kachori, Sabzis, Curries, Dal, et al.

 

Use of ghee, hing, jeera, and not using onions and many more such specific methods seemed very different to us, more so, because our idea of anything north Indian was more Punjabi in nature with onion, tomato, garam masala, etc. Since they hailed from the UP heartland and were pure vegetarians, we took their cuisine to be representative of UP vegetarian from places like Aligarh, Moradabad, Bareilly, Mathura, Agra, Chandausi, and such, and distinctly not Mughlai or Awadhi.

Ingredients
Tuwar dal / split Pigeon peas - 1/2 cup
Tomato - 2
Coriander leaves - 5 to 6 sprigs
Turmeric pwd - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli pwd - 1 tbsp
for tempering
Ghee / Clarified butter - 1 tbsp
Jeera / Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Hing / Asafoetida - 2 pinches
Wash and soak the dal for an hour. Drain the dal and add 1 cup of water and pressure cook for 3 whistles.
In a pot / saucepan add 1/2 cup water and put it on heat. Chop tomatoes and add it into the pot with salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder. Cover with a lid and cook. Add the dal, coriander stalks and leaves and 1/2 cup water and cover and cook. Take off the heat when the dal and tomatoes have cooked and mixed together. Check for salt and add a little if required.

Heat a pan and add the ghee / clarified butter. When hot, add the jeera or cumin seeds and let them splutter and add hing or asafoetida and take off the heat. Pour this into the pot of dal and cover immediately with the lid. When ready to serve, mix the tadka / tempering into the dal and pour out into a bowl.

Lentil / dal is a very healthy food full of proteins and dietary fiber. This recipe for Dal Tadka uses tuwar dal which contains folic acid an essential vitamin for women especially during pregnancy.

Simple Dal / Amti

This recipe is for a simple dal or amti for those lazy afternoons when all you want is a bowl of steaming hot rice with dal and a dollop of ghee on top. Add to this sabzi, a little achar and a papad and it makes a complete meal. India has many versions or ways of making dal, in fact each state may have multiple versions of dal. The best thing about dal is that it can be made simply with very few seasonings or elaborate and rich with herbs and spices. The best thing about dal is that it is a poor person's as well as a rich person's food. It can be had as a soup, as part of a main course and as dessert.

Ingredients
Dal - 1/2 cup
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - 2 pinches
Green chilli - 2
Jaggery - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 3 to 4
Salt as per taste
Ghee - 1tsp
Wash and soak the dal for 30 minutes. Add turmeric to the dal and pressure cook for 3 whistles. Take the dal out once the pressure is released and heat once again with asafoetida, salt, slit green chillies, jaggery and curry leaves. Let it boil a couple of times. Check the taste for salt and other seasonings. Once done take it off heat.

When ready to serve add the ghee to the dal and its ready to be taken to the table.