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Thursday, January 12, 2006

Sabut Masoor Dal

I am of the humble opinion that good food belongs to two different categories...simple , wholesome , easy to make, yet delicious .This is food one can make daily and make sure the body and soul are both satisfied. The second category is food that requires a whole bunch of ingredients, time , finesse .The end product is delicious too but also exotic and mostly a visual stunner.Fulfilling for the eyes too.

I like to dwell in both the categories. Depends on my mood, time and the occassion . On a daily basis I really like to keep it short and simple .Coming to which "DAL", is simple .

Dal is known by many names...lentils, legumes and pulses.And then there are tonnes of different kind of daals . Pulses have been around and used as food for thousands of years. The lentil was probably one of the first plants ever to be domesticated by humans. Most pulses prefer warm climates but there are varieties which grow in temperate regions.The awesome thing is that they are rich in proteins and vegetarians dont need to worry too much if they just eat their dals.

The various dals I know of are moong dal(dhuli and sabut), arhar(toor or tuvar dal), chane ki daal, ma ki dal, masoor dal (sabut and dhuli) and urad dal . When a dal is "dhuli"it simply means that the skin has been taken away and the seed is split and exposed and when its "sabut " it means that the whole seed in intact in its covering .

I recently made sabut masoor dal .Masoor dal is also called "Egyptian lentils" and is dark brown in color.Its difficult to look at those dark ,non-descript seeds and beleive that they could turn into such a delicious lentil soup.(if you decide to cook sabut daal ,please remember these seeds take longer to cook because they are whole. )

Alright, lets get started without much ado.

You need :
250 g. sabut masoor dal

For Tempering/baghar/tadka
(this is basically just seasoning the dal by with spices and other ingredients )
1 tsp. ginger paste
1 tsp. garlic paste/crushed garlic
2 tbs. (vegatble/sunflower/canola)
1 large onion finely chopped
1 large tomato finely chopped
1 level tsp. chili powder/flakes
1\2 level tsp. ground coriander-
salt to taste
1 level tsp. garam masala
2-3 tbs. finely chopped fresh coriander leaves for garnish

This is how you cook it
Pressure cook the dal , using approximately a half a litre of water .(You can add the salt right now or later after the dal is cooked.Usually it takes about 15-20 minutes in a pressure cooker. You may have to add more water if the lentil is not tender yet and cook for further 8 to 10 minutes). Let the pressure whistle blow about 3-4 times on medium to high heat

Take the dal of the stove and take a pan .Heat the oil and add the ginger paste, garlic, onions and fry them till they become transparent .Then add the tomatoes and fry them till they start losing their moisture and become soft.Now add the dal (if the dal is not dilute enough , you can add more water to get a consistency you want).Add salt, dhania powder and chilli flakes /powder.Stir and cook for few more minutes.

Take off the stove .The dal is now ready .As a finishing touch add the garam masala and garnish with the chopped corriander .

its Yummy :)

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Change of plans. Will make daal.

Yaar, kam se kam banane to do. Haven't even bought meatballs and there's already paneer and daal!

I like this pace though :)

Meenal Mehta said...

sudip

cool , this is easy and should be made together with the paneer bhurji ....

with rice or roti ..both should work well

later
-m

Swamy VKN said...

Hey Meenal: Per your own words so simple, wholesome, easy-to-make, and yet delicious. We adore this recipe and are going to see the result. Hey Meenal, it is one of the best recipes with dals. Thanks for it.

sailu said...

I couldnt agree with you more,Meenal...simple,healthy,exotic,delicious and a vistual treat...that's how food should be..:)

Ashwini said...

wow this looks good. is this similar to what is called ma ki dal in north india? or am i just confusing my dals coz i love em?

Meenal Mehta said...

thankyou gangadhar ,

where did you notice the ingredients you mentioned ?:)

Meenal Mehta said...

hey vkn ,

iam glad you like my choice of words ..do try it out and let me know how it was

Meenal Mehta said...

yes sailu..my two different categories

Meenal Mehta said...

ashwini,

this is not ma ki dal..ma is dal is more longer and black .this dal is dark brown and is rounder , flatter :)

hope that clarifies your confusion ..

i love different kinds of dals too

Admin said...

Linked you...

Tina Jennifer D'Silva said...

Hey Meenal...

Well.. Have tagged you for the 7 Meme...

For further details..visit..

www.tinascooking.blogspot.com

Sury said...

Hi Meenal, some great recipes you have here! Linked you to our blog.

Happy cooking :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Meenal, I am tagging you for a 5 Meme! if you would want to do it!can check on this link.
http://mtastes.blogspot.com/2006/01/its-meme-time.html

Kay said...

Meenal, I could never figure out a way to make whole masoor dal delicious. It always turned out so-so. Will try this to see if this is THE way to cook it. Thanks for recipe!

Meenal Mehta said...

hey Anthony,

thanks

Meenal Mehta said...

hey tina ,

thankyou for tagging me..Ima confused whether I should do the 7 or 4 or 5 meme list :)

Meenal Mehta said...

thankyou sury

linked you too

Meenal Mehta said...

hi lera ,

thankyou for tagging me

Meenal Mehta said...

kay ,

hello and welcome to my blog .

There are various wasy to cook masur dal.This is just one of them.Let me know how it came out .

Meenal Mehta said...

gangadhar,

thanks ..I read your post , this looks like a different tag

I will respond soon;)

Anonymous said...

Dear Meenal,

I love to experiment with cooking and I am currently in the "Indian food" phase. I found a bag of lentils at the grocery store - they have a green/brown skin and are yellow/orange on the inside. Is this the dal recipe you have featured?

If not, can you please help me identify what dal this is? When I was rinsing it, some of the skin washed off. Please also tell me if I need to peel off the skin before using it.

( P.S. I do not have a pressure cooker)

Thank you,
Ima

Unknown said...

hey meenal,
i just have to say thank you for this awesome recipe. i am gujurati and gujurati cooking usually does not include masoor ki dal, but i've heard so much about it and wanted to try it out. this was my 1st time making this dal and thanks to your recipe it tastes yummy. i can live on this dal with some rice for days. thanks a lot
jigna

Anonymous said...

this is an awesome recipe...thanks for posting it.

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