Naked Dal

Hello boys and girls!

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What do you think you're doing? Put that away! One glimpse of the 'N' word and it's got you all worked up! (No, not that 'N' word! Only 50 Cent uses that one!)

Hello again boys and girls!

Now, I know I'm only 3 posts old but I can sense that you've missed me! (especially you, wink, wink, nudge, nudge!)

I hope you (and your kitchen) have recovered from your burns and blisters after what has no doubt been a weekend of culinary brilliance and are raring to learn something new.

Let me paint you a picture. You're out for a meal. You want some good old fashioned desi grub. You've ordered your spicy tikkas. You've ordered your hearty rogan josh. You've ordered butter naans as warm and soft as sheets fresh out of the dryer on a cold winter's day. You've got drool on your trousers because you've been imagining all this food and forgot to close your mouth. But what you don't have is the holy grail. The one thing that makes all meals complete. You oft find it lurking in the background. Maybe it's already sitting in the middle of your food laden table. Quiet. Inconspicuous. Delicious in ways that only it can be. 

I'm speaking of course of dal. Dal. Yellow or green or brown or black, dal has always got your back!

So I'm sure you're wondering, 'Naked Dal? Since when has dal been, well, not naked?'. Everyone knows how versatile dal is. From vadas to dhansak, dal is an integral part of Indian cuisine and can be made in more ways than I care to count but I figured we'd start with the basic, no frills, all flavour, 'naked' dal.

You will need the following:

Toor dal                              1 glass (because toor dal is my favourite)

Mustard seeds                     1 tbsp

Green chillies                      depending on how brave you are

Garlic                                 3 (or more) cloves

Haldi                                  pinch

Salt                                    to taste    

Coriander (dhaniya) leaves

Ghee                              

 

Prep:

1. Locate your pressure cooker and blow the dust off it (Try not to let the dust go up your nose!).
2. Dump the dal in the pressure cooker and wash it 2 or 3 times in cold water.
3. Locate the mustard seeds from the dusty depths of your kitchen cabinet.
4. Chop the green chillies.
5. Chop the garlic cloves.
6. Roughly chop the coriander leaves.

Method:

1. Turn the gas on and bung the pressure cooker on the burner.
2. Add water to the cooker so that the dal is submerged under about 2 fingers of water.
3. Boot your laptop to Google what 2 fingers of water means.
4. Discover what 2 fingers of water means.
5. Hurl mental curses at me.
6. Realize your dal is starting to stick to the bottom of the very hot pressure cooker.
7. Quickly add water to the cooker.
8. Add the haldi and a sprinkle of salt.
9. Struggle with the lid of the pressure cooker for a few minutes.
10. Consult with your roommate on how to close the damn thing.
11. Finally mange to lock the lid in.
12. Crank the burner up to about medium (unless it was already there).
13. Wait for the pressure cooker to whistle.
14. Take a walk around the house.
15. Come running back when you hear the first whistle.
16. Gaze sadly at the yellow dal water coming out of the whistle and realize you might have put in a little too much water.
17. Wait for another 3 whistles.
18. Reach for the burner to turn it off and decide to wait for another whistle for good luck.
19. Receive whistle with an ear to ear grin.
20. Turn off the gas and wait for the rest of the steam to escape the cooker.
21. Turn on another burner.
22. Pop a pan on the burner.
23. Add 2 tbsps of ghee to the pan.
24. Tell your roommate about how your mom cooks dal in ghee.
25. Reminisce.
26. When the ghee is hot, toss in the mustard seeds.
27. Screech and jump back looking for a lid to foil the popping seeds' bid to freedom.
28. Add the garlic and chillies and move them around for a minute with a wooden spoon. 
29. Turn off the burner.
30. Realize that the steam hasn't all left and attempt to manually release it.
31. Use fingers to pull the weight up.
32. Burn fingers.
33. Use spoon instead.
34. Unlock the pressure cooker lid. 
35. Turn the burner on.
36. Add water to the dal if it's gone too thick. If it hasn't cooked all the way through, splash in some water and give it another whistle or two.
37. If it's too runny, crank the heat up until some of the water evaporates.
38. Mix in the contents of your pan.
39. Cook for a few.
40. Turn off burner.
41. Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves.
42. Take the dal to the table.
43. Stuff face.
44. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Grown-up dal with tadka and masalas soon!

Tip: If your roommate has bought some of those sad red lentils you don't like, and you don't want to throw them away but you'd rather die before you ate them, add in a 1/4 glass with every glass of toor dal. It's virtually undetectable and adds to the flavour. Also, the number of whistles you wait for depend on the quality of the dal, the amount of water and the size of your cooker, if your dal is over or under cooked, adjust the number of whistles in your next attempt.

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!