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Food & Wine Ground >> Cooking Indian dal at home
| 6/18/12 8:17 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67553 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
"Dal" is a word for lentils/beans, and there are many, many different types of dal, and even more ways to cook them. This is one of 2 dal dishes I cook. It is made with massod dal, which looks like this dry:  mixed 50/50 with mung/moong dal, which looks like this, dry:  |
| 6/18/12 8:28 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67554 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
First, the prep work. I am making about 6-7 cups, so I will use 2 cups of the dal mix; 1 cup of masood dal and 1 cup of moong dal. I put them in a large strainer and wash them to get dust off, and look for small stones. Then I chop up 2 medium/small medium red onions. Now normally I would also chop up a head of garlic, and a 2 ounce piece of ginger root and make a ginger garlic paste in my food processor, and chop up 2 medium tomatoes, but that would take another half hour and I am impatient tonight, so I'm using store bought ginger garlic paste and canned organic diced tomatoes. All the ingredients assembled:  So that's my pressure cooker in the back, a Hawkins Futuro 5 liter cooker. Then there is the chopped onions in the bowl, the washed dal in the strainer, jar of ginger garlic paste in the back, then the seeds: mustard, fennel, cumin, and fenugreek, and the spices: dal curry mix, garam masala, and powdered red pepper (all commercially ground and packaged). |
| 6/18/12 8:30 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67555 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
First step in cooking: a little canola oil in the bottom of the pressure cooker, and add the seeds: Put the heat on medium high until they start popping, then I mix in a pinch of the garam masala. |
| 6/18/12 8:31 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67556 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
Once the seeds start popping, it's time to add in and fry the onions: I fry them until they start to carmelize |
| 6/18/12 8:34 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67557 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
Once the onions have cooked down and started to carmelize, I add in the tomato Here I used one can. They're diced into kind of large pieces, so as it heats up I mash it with my silicone spatula. |
| 6/18/12 9:46 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67558 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
Next add in the ginger garlic paste (2-3 tbsp), 4 tbsp dal curry mix, a tbsp of garam masala, and 1/2 tsp red pepper powder. The red pepper is Indian red pepper, and it seems to be MUCH stronger than cayenne pepper. 1/2 tspn makes this dish vindaloo-hot.  Stir it all up, then put on the lid and put it on full heat. |
| 6/18/12 9:49 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67559 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
Once it starts venting, I turn the heat down to about 2.5 (out of 10 on my dial). Cook for 20 minutes.  that's steam coming out, there |
| 6/18/12 9:51 PM | |
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Edited: 06/18/12 10:44 PM Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67560 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
All cooked, 35 minutes later (20 minutes cooking, 15 to cool) I also made quinoa. It actually tastes similar to basmati rice.  THE FINISHED PRODUCT! 
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| 6/20/12 2:48 PM | |
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Jons Forsberg
Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 12472 |
up, and subbed for future reference ;) |
| 6/20/12 4:25 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 67583 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
I just showed it to my Indian co-worker who gave me the recipe for it (which I slightly modified) and she said it looks like it came out perfect. She also said the heat (spiceyness) is coming from the garam masala powder, that there is some hot spice in that. I was trying to figure out why my food keep coming out so hot. It's fine for me and my son, but others in the family don't like it that hot. It was pretty good, and I like it more than Indian restaurant food because many of those places tend to have pretty sketchy health code compliance, plus they charge a ton. At the Indian store I go to, the 2 lb bags of lentils are around $2, no matter what kind. I also make a version of dal makhani (black lentils and red beans) that is really good, but it uses butter and cream, so not as low fat, low cal as this dish. It also takes more than twice as long in the pressure cooker because the dal are not split like these. |
| 6/20/12 4:32 PM | |
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Jons Forsberg
Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 12476 |
do you just serve that stand alone? for some reason the more I look at it I think it would be perfect with a serving of shrimp. |
| 7/3/12 4:30 AM | |
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runster
5
Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 2915 |
cool stuff, i like lentils and will make this one day soon. |
| 7/3/12 11:24 PM | |
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crobrun
5
Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 3038 |
I may have missed it, do you add the lentils in the step where you add all the spices (after the tomatos)? |
| 7/19/12 2:36 PM | |
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Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 68120 |
^ yes. But not long after, especially if I have already pureed the tomato. If it's diced tomato I let it cook down and mash it a bit. |
| 7/20/12 7:48 PM | |
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Bitters
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Member Since: 4/8/08 Posts: 1612 |
hmm, will have to try this weekend potentially |
| 10/30/12 9:56 PM | |
Rouge Mod
236
Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 105861 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
Nice! |
| 10/30/12 10:54 PM | |
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Edited: 04/18/13 12:28 PM Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 69781 |
I've tweaked this a bit and only cook it on the heat for 15 minutes instead of 20 now. The lentils come out a little more firm and less like a mush.
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| 11/3/12 5:45 AM | |
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MojoJojo
49
Member Since: 5/15/07 Posts: 1220 |
That looks delicious, have to try that sometime. |
| 11/3/12 7:47 PM | |
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Rouge Mod
236
Member Since: 1/1/01 Posts: 105920 Mixed Martial Arts LLC, Moderator |
I need a pressure cooker |
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