Sookhi Moong Dal 

1 1/4 cups moong dal

2 inch ginger

1 green chilli

Jeera seeds

Hing

1 tsp red chilli pwdr

Haldi

Salt

2 tsps lemon juice

Coriander leaves

Soak moong dal for half an hour.  Boil dal w/salt and haldi till it is just cooked but not mashed.

Drain excess water.

Heat oil.  Add jeera, hing, chopped ginger and green chilli.  Then add red chilli pwdr and cooked dal.  Mix and season with lemon juice and salt.

Cook till dry.

Palak Moong Chilka 

Serves 4

250 gms palak, chopped

1/2 cup moong chilka dal

1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped

1 onion, finely chopped

Jeera seeds

1/2 tsp garam masala

1 tsp red chilli pwdr

1/2 tsp dhania pwdr

1/4 tsp amchoor

Salt

Mix together dal, palak, ginger, salt and 3 cups of water and pressure cook.

Heat oil.  Add jeera, then fry onion.  Add pwdrs and saute for a minute.  Add to dal.

 Week 25 - Dal dhokli

Ingredients (4-6 servings)

Dal

2 cups toor dal
1 tsp salt
4-5 pieces kokum
1 tbsp grated jaggery
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
10 curry leaves
3-4 cloves
1/4 cup coriander leaves with stems

Dhokli

2 cups atta

1 tbsp oil

1/2 tsp red chilli powder

1/4 tsp hing

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 tsp ajwain

1/2 tsp salt

Tempering

1 tsp ghee

1tsp mustard seeds

2-3 dried round, red chillies

1/4 tsp methi seeds

1/4 tsp hing

Method

Soak dal for about an hour.  Pressure cook with salt and 10 cups of water.  The dal should not be too thick, whisk until smooth.  Keep on low heat.

Sift flour onto a large plate and make a well in the center.  Pour oil into well and mix into flour.  Add remaining ingredients for dhokli and knead into a firm dough with 1/2 cup water.

Roll out into thin rotis.  Cut into diamond shapes and gently immerse them in the dal.

Temper the dal.

Add kokum, jaggery, spice powders and curry leaves to dal and stir.  Lastly, add cloves and coriander leaves.

 Week 21 - Kadala curry

Recipe from Venkatesh Bhat

Note:  Do not add mace and nutmeg - too many spices

 Week 18 - Dry masoor dal curry

https://thesaffrontouch.com/2020/07/07/pendpala-a-dry-masoor-daal-curry/

Week 4 recipe - Yellow moong and peanut soup

• Moong dal, 300 gms, washed and cleaned
• Veg stock, 1.2 l
• Coconut milk, 200 ml
• Oil, 2 tbsps
• Brown sugar, 1 tsp
• Roasted peanuts, 2 tbsps, crushed
• Green chilli, 1 deseeded and finely chopped
• Tamarind paste, 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder, 1/4 tsp
• Mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves, 6
• Coriander leaves
• Salt to taste

1. Put the moong dal in a pan and cover with the stock and bring to boil.
2. Reduce the heat and simmer for 35 minutes or until the dal is softened and slightly mushy. Add coconut milk. 
3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan on medium heat and add mustard seeds. Add curry leaves and chopped green chillies.
4. Stir in the tamarind paste, sugar, turmeric powder in 100 ml water and bring to boil. Add the peanuts and salt and allow to simmer for 2 minutes.
5. Add to the dal and stir. Sprinkle the coriander leaves. Reduce the heat to low and gently fry for 20 seconds.

The soup was delicious. Good choice Amma. 

Black Dal

Got this recipe from a friend of mine.  This is how I make it now - it comes out really well.

2 1/2 cups whole urad dal
Handful rajma

Cook rajma separately.  Saute half onion, 1 1/2 tomatoes and 2 inch piece of ginger.  Blend with the cooked rajma into a fine paste.  Pressure cook the urad dal.  Heat some oil in a saucepan, add the paste and saute until raw smell goes.  Add garam masala, chilli powder and salt.  Once the paste is cooked, add the urad dal and let it cook for some time.  Add butter at the end.

Panchmel dal

Last time V came to India she bought lot of cookery books. S had jotted down  few recipes that she found interesting and after much begging and pleading, she agreed to give me a copy. This Rajasthani dal recipe is a favorite of mine. As the name suggests, this is made with 5 dals. I did not have green moong dal so today I made the dal with just four lentils.

Panchmel Dal

1/4 cup split channa dal
1/4 cup toovar dal
1/4 cup green moong dal (split green gram)
1 tbsp urad dal
1 tbsp whole moong

1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp haldi
1 tsp coriander power
1/2 tsp garam masala

3 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 green chili slit
hing
2 tsp tamarind pulp
oil
salt
juice of 1/2 lime (optional)

Clean and wash the dals. Add 3 cups water and pressure cook for 3 whistles or till the dals are cooked. In a small bowl, combine the chili powder, turmeric powder, dhania powder and garam masala and 2-3 tbsps of water and mix. Heat oil in a pan and add the cloves, bayleaves, cumin seeds, green chili and hing. When the cumin seeds splutters, add the masala mix and saute for 1-2 minutes. If it gets too dry, add few tsps of water. Add the cooked dal, tamarind pulp and salt and simmer for 5-6 minutes. This dal is very thick. If you want thinner consistency, you can add more water. Finally, add lemon juice and mix well. Serve hot.

Black Channa Curry

I got this recipe from a friend. I have slightly modified the recipe to shorten the cooking time. In the original recipe, spice bag filled with spices is used and later discarded. Tea leaves are also added to the spice bag but in this recipe, I do not use tea leaves and I just add the spices directly to the chickpeas.

Black Channa Curry

2 cups kabuli channa (chickpeas)
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tomato
1 clove garlic
1" piece ginger
1/2 tsp red chili powder
salt to taste

Dry roast the below ingredients till almost blackened. Cool and grind to a powder. Keep aside.
2 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp anardana
1" piece cinnamon
4 cloves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
4 black cardamoms
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 bay leaf

Soak chickpeas overnight. Drain water. Put in a pressure cooker. Add 4 cups fresh water, 1 tomato slit in half, ginger, and whole garlic clove. Pressure cook to give 2-3 whistles. After the pressure drops, open the cooker. Add salt, powdered masala and mash the channas a bit. Again pressure cook to give 2-3 whistles. Heat oil in a kadai. Add onions and fry till caramelized. Once the onions are blackish brown, add chili powder, and the tomato and the garlic cooked with the chickpeas. Just mash it well, add to onions and saute for few seconds. Drain the chickpeas but do not discard the liquid. Add this to the onions. Keep the flame on medium high and let the chickpeas cook for some more time, 15 minutes or so. If the curry gets too dry, add the reserved liquid. Remove from flame and garnish with tomatoes. Serve hot with rotis or puris.

Notes: Instead of adding the powdered masala to the chickpeas and pressure cooking it again, you could just fry the masala with the onions. Caramelize the onions, add the powdered masala and fry for few minutes. Add chickpeas and proceed as given above.

Everyday food - Dal

I can eat dal and rice/roti everyday with no complaints. Last week I tried two new dishes, one with moong dal and the other with channa and urad dal. 

Moong Dal
I got this recipe from my sister. This time, I did not take the easy way out and cook the lentils in the pressure cooker. I followed the recipe exactly and cooked the lentils on the stovetop. The dal was yummy!



1 cup moong dal
2 tbsp oil
1 onion
2 medium-sized tomatoes, chopped
2 green chillies
1" piece ginger
few curry leaves
few coriander leaves finely chopped
pinch turmeric powder
salt
2 cups water

Wash the dal and soak it in 2 cups water for about half an hour. Finely chop the onions, green chillies, ginger and saute on a medium flame. Once the onion turns golden brown, add the soaked dal with the water, curry leaves, salt and turmeric powder. Cook on low flame. When it is half done (about 15 minutes), add tomatoes. Blend well. In another 10 minutes the dal should be fully cooked. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Dal Methiwali
One more recipe from my sister. I think she got this from some magazine and I had it for a long time but never got around to making it until now. In the photo, the dal does not look very appetizing but the dish was actually pretty good.

1/3 cup channa dal
1/3 cup urad dal
2 cups water
1 small onion
1/4" ginger
salt  to taste
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsps dried fenugreek leaves
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp ghee or butter
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
pinch hing
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 dhania powder
1/4 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp lemon juice

Wash the dals, and soak in 2 cups water in a large heavy bottomed saucepan for 30 minutes. Chop the onion, and ginger finely. Add to the soaked lentils along with salt, turmeric powder and dried fenugreek leaves. Bring to a boil over high heat, cover, reduce the heat to low and cook for about 45 minutes or until lentils are cooked. Or you could just pressure cook the lentils to two whistles. Keep aside. Chop garlic finely. Warm ghee in a small kadai. Add the cumin seeds and hing. When cumin seeds splutter, add the chopped garlic and cook until lightly browned. Remove from heat and quickly add the chili powder and dhania powder. Stir for a second and pour this into the lentil mixture. Mix in the garam masala and lemon juice.

Rajma

An easy half-hour recipe for Rajma adapted from Madhur Jaffrey.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups dried red kidney beans, preferably a mix of light and dark (I used two 14 oz cans of dark kidney beans)
Salt to taste
3 tbsp oil
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh ginger
1 1/4 cups peeled and chopped ripe tomatoes
2 tsps ground corainder
1/4 tsp chilli pwdr
2 tsps ground cumin
1 fresh hot green chilli, finely chopped (optional)
1 tbsp amchoor or 2 tsps fresh lemon juice

Soak the beans overnight and cook. Add the salt to the beans and stir to mix.

Put the oil in a wide medium pot and set over medium high heat. Add the onions. Stir and fry until the onions are a rich, reddish-brown color. Add the garlic and stir a few times, then add the ginger and stir once or twice. Add the tomatoes, coriander, cumin, chilli pwdr, and green chilli. Stir and cook over medium heat for 5 to 6 mins, or until the tomatoes are slightly reduced. Stir in the cooked beans and their liquid as well as the amchoor. Note: If using canned beans, add veg stock instead of water. Turn the heat to low and simmer gently for 10 mins to marry all the flavors. Can mash some of the beans for thicker consistency. Serve hot.

Serves 4 to 6