DAHL

[cubgirl]

I am new around here but would like a good recipe for Dahl, if someone could help me please.

Thanks

[Milagai]

I am new around here but would like a good recipe for Dahl, if someone could help me please.

Thanks

←

What kind of dal? Dal is just a generic word for split

lentils/legumes...

What did you have in mind?

Milagai

[cubgirl]

I am new around here but would like a good recipe for Dahl, if someone could help me please.

Thanks

←

What kind of dal? Dal is just a generic word for split

lentils/legumes...

What did you have in mind?

Milagai

←

I have had it made for me by a Malaysian lady using red lentils, lots of lovely flavours, thick soup texture. I am willing to give anything a go.

[Milagai]

I have had it made for me by a Malaysian lady using red lentils, lots of lovely flavours, thick soup texture.  I am willing to give anything a go.

←

if you google for "masoor dal" (=red lentils) and recipes you'' get tons...

here's one:

http://www.indianfoodforever.com/daal/masoor-dal.html

does that sound anything like what your friend made?

you can vary the texture by how much water you add...

milagai

Edited March 29, 2007 by Milagai (log)

[v. gautam]

Cubgirl,

Welcome, Swagatam. Hope you stay around for a long time.

Please go down 4 topics in this forum to Vegetarian Food: For a beginner, post #8, for a start.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...0entry1368005

Let us know how we can help, don't hesitate.

gautam

P.S. The various regions of India treat dal, which is an accompaniment to lots of rice or wheat or millet flatbread/doughballs, quite differently.

For example, in Bengal, among certain groups, dal is very lightly flavored, and eaten with rice and vegetables.

in another part of india, dal may be much thicker and more heavily seasoned [either with spices or ghee], and be the major accompaniment to a flatbread or doughball baked in embers.

In yet another region, like Gujarat, split pigeon pea dal, may be cooked and tempered with mild seasonings, then little diamonds of whole wheats dough may be cooked in it [like flat noodles], and topped with ghee.

In southern India, split pigeon pea dal rules. When boiled with plenty of water, a tasty clear supernatant rises above a thicker bottom layer. Some of this thinner fraction with a little of the thicker is combined with sharp or other distinctive flavors like lemon, ginger, garlic, black pepper, tamarind etc. to create a thin decoction called rasam that is eaten with rice, a side of vegetables, and sometimes plain rice+ yogurt.

While, the thicker fraction [not excluding some of the thinner] is cooked with one or more vegetables in a number of variatiions that may be called sambar, or other names etc. depending on the spices and techniques used. This with rice is one course. Rice with rasam, veg., plain yogurt generally follow, and complete the meal in many vegetarian circles.

And there is more to the world of dal.....!

more styles, dry cooked, pastes, etc. etc.

Happy exploration.

Alford and Duguid also have some good red lentil recipes, BTW, in their book on rice.

Edited April 1, 2007 by v. gautam (log)

[cubgirl]

I have had it made for me by a Malaysian lady using red lentils, lots of lovely flavours, thick soup texture.  I am willing to give anything a go.

←

if you google for "masoor dal" (=red lentils) and recipes you'' get tons...

here's one:

http://www.indianfoodforever.com/daal/masoor-dal.html

does that sound anything like what your friend made?

you can vary the texture by how much water you add...

milagai

←

Fantastic, you have been most helpful. Cheers Bev

[cubgirl]

Cubgirl,

Welcome, Swagatam. Hope you stay around for a long time.

Please go down 4 topics in this forum to Vegetarian Food: For a beginner, post #8, for a start.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...0entry1368005

Let us know how we can help, don't hesitate.

gautam

P.S. The various regions of India treat dal, which is an accompaniment to lots of rice or wheat or millet flatbread/doughballs, quite differently.

For example, in Bengal, among certain groups, dal is very lightly flavored, and eaten with rice and vegetables.

in another part of india, dal may be much thicker and more heavily seasoned [either with spices or ghee], and be the major accompaniment to a flatbread or doughball baked in embers.

In yet another region, like Gujarat, split pigeon pea dal, may be cooked and tempered with mild seasonings, then little diamonds of whole wheats dough may be cooked in it [like flat noodles], and topped with ghee.

In southern India, split pigeon pea dal rules. When boiled with plenty of water,  a tasty clear supernatant rises above a thicker bottom layer. Some of this thinner fraction with a little of the thicker is combined with sharp or other distinctive flavors like lemon, ginger, garlic, black pepper, tamarind etc. to create a thin decoction called rasam that is eaten with rice, a side of vegetables, and sometimes plain rice+ yogurt.

While, the thicker fraction [not excluding some of the thinner] is cooked with one or more vegetables in a number  of variatiions that may be called sambar, or other names etc. depending on the spices and techniques used. This with rice is one course. Rice with rasam, veg., plain yogurt generally follow, and complete the meal in many vegetarian circles.

And there is more to the world of dal.....!

more styles, dry cooked, pastes, etc. etc.

Happy exploration.

Alford and Duguid also have some good red lentil recipes, BTW, in their book on rice.

←

Yes, I will be around for a while I am sure. Thanks for your help. Bev

[Bond Girl]

I just boil some dal (what I use depends on my mood) with water and a pinch of tumeric until it gets soft. skimming the white stuff off the top occasionally. Then drop some mustard seeds in a bit of oil, throw in some chopped onions, finely minced garlic and grated ginger, and ground dried chili. Add a bit of ground cumin, tumeric and coriander seeds. fry it until it is fragrant. scrap the whole mixture into the lentil. cook it some more until the flavors melts together. Season with salt to taste. Add chopped green chili and cilantro.

When I want fusion food, I'll add either grated lemon peel to the dal or chopped meyer lemon confit. It's not authentic but it gives the dal a bit of twist that is very nice.

[v. gautam]

I believe you instinctively have gravitated to an authentic and usual custom of enjoying dal with rice, in Bengal.

A freshly-cut wedge of lime, Rangpur lemon, or less commonly, wild lime, Citrus hystrix [used in Thai cooking; I avoid the 'k' word], is sqeezed with thumb and fingers in a characteristic fashion [remember, we eat with our hands!!] simultaneously to release the juice as well as the rind oils [where all the delicious aroma resides], after the rice and dal have been mixed in together.

This is savored by itself, or with small amounts of side dishes expressly cooked to accompany this first course, e.g. dry cooked greens, or a melange of mixed vegetables.

Incidentally, many Bengali dishes, main courses, stews/jhols, fish, meat or vegetable etc. are prepared with the understanding that they will be accompanied by a squeeze of citrus. The exceptions are dishes prepared with mustard paste.

g

[waaza]

Namaste Gautam

Is mausambi juice used in Indian dishes, or just as a lovely drink?

cheers

Waaza

[v. gautam]

Punah Waazaya ca: and namaste to you

My horizons are limited to Bengal, where I believe mosambi and its juice is treated exclusively as a fruit, never used in marinades or in sweet dishes.

Botanically, and to many palates, mosambi seems identical to the sweet orange as understood in the USA, very much like the juice oranges of Florida in taste, except with a thicker and green rind.

I should add that in my formative period, 1950-70, mosambi was an expensive luxury, up there with apple, pomegranate and grape. Perhaps for this reason, in addition to their native virtues, these fruit were considered to be especially therapeutic and commonly sold outside hospitals.

Most middle class folk got to taste these fruit only when they were in hospital, recovering from something serious, when visitors would purchase a mosambi or a single pomegranate, and leave them to be juiced and fed to the convalescent.

The tangerine, however, growing in the Himalayan midhills in North Bengal, is more accessible to common people. In Bengal, it finds its way into several interesting dishes.

Its zest and essence are favored in the famous Bengali sweet called sandesh, which iprepared from chhenna or precipitated casein/curdled milk, comminuted under pressure and gently cooked with refined sugar to a certain consistency.

In the olden days, dried tangerine peel occasionally used to be eaten with paan or betel leaf; this is rare today.

Peeled tangerine segments with their juice vesicles are mixed in after milk has been reduced by slow simmering and has been sweetened with sugar. This is called Kamala lebur paayesh, and is a special and expensive treat reserved for special occasion during the winter.

Tangerines, as far as I know, are not used in any traditional savory preparations indigenous to West Bengal although there is a meat dish using it that is probably entirely derived from the royal kitchens of the Muslim courts. I am not sure about this.

However, Chitrita Banerji, in her Bengali Cooking, records two instances of Muslim Bengali cooking in Bangladesh where tangerines are used in ways unfamiliar to West Bengal Hindus :

1) with the fish, climbing perch, Anabas testudineus, p. 169

2) tangerine-flavored sweet rice, served as dessert, p. 171

g

Edited April 22, 2007 by v. gautam (log)

[Bond Girl]

Wow, that is fascinating Gautam. When I first made dal, I had jars of lemon confit in my pantry because a friend had send me a bag of meyers the day before. So I thought the chopped peel with its sweet and tartness cuts the velvety texture of dal and create a nice counterbalance. I've even thin it into a sauce recently to go on top of delicate white fish. A sacriledge, no doubt, for many of my Indian friends. But, a very delicious one.

Edited April 23, 2007 by Bond Girl (log)

[v. gautam]

As far as West Bengal is concerned, the cooking of the Rarh (most of west-central Bengal west of the River Ganga) gentry is void of chili heat and has a distinctly sweet edge even in savory dishes like dals, vegetables and fish (save that cooked in mustard paste or 'black spice'=cumin, coriander, black pepper).

This sweetness can be quite heavy-handed in some localities, say the 'old' families of north Kolkata.

Therefore, the tartness of citrus added in to the individual diner's taste, plus the element of the slightly bitter rind oils of the citrus peel provides the necessary balance.

I would aver that you certainly have navigated your way to the taste palette/ palate of the Rarh gentry [and from what little I know, the vegetarian cuisine of Gujurat, who also like a touch of sweetness in their dals and such that can stand a hint of citrus and peel].

g