Tadka Dal

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! A few years ago, when I hadn't quite popped my cooking cherry, I moved to Northern Ireland for a project. As is the norm, I was booked into a hotel for the first two weeks by my company until I could find a place of my own. The good thing about living in a hotel for any period of time is that you don't have to pick up after yourself. Now I'm borderline OCD but even I have days when there just isn't enough time in the morning to put everything back where it belongs or place toiletries at right angles and whatnot, so it's nice to come back to a made-up hotel room at the end of the day. The not so good thing is, after day 4, you have a food conundrum. Do you order the overpriced room service? Or do you get off your bum and walk across the street to the Chinese place or perhaps, a little farther down to the bar and grill?

Fortunately for me, I had a friend (and soon to be future roommate #1) on the same project, living not far from my hotel along with another 2 people (one of whom, would become roommate #2 and the other, refugee #1) and the culinary prowess of roommate #1 was quite remarkable so a fatherly invite to dinner could not be passed up on. So after 5 days of eating out, I headed off to dinner to my friends place in the early hours of the evening. Once I got there, I was buzzed into the building and greeted at the door with a bottle of Corona and a Wii controller. Before I could murmur my thanks, I was led to the living room and was soon involved in a heated game of Wii tennis where several mothers and sisters were fondly remembered as we cursed, grunted and perspired our way through several sets of hell until we finally collapsed on the couch, suckling on the mouths of the beer bottles for dear life. While we were dancing this rather ungainly tennis tango, roommate #1 was in the kitchen doing what he did best. Sipping whisky and making dal. A wonderful dal with garlic, chillies, onions, tomatoes and a whole lot of love. I was fortunate enough to get to watch him cook this dal on several occasions before I tried it for myself and despite what we Indians call, 'haath, haath ka farak', it was still special. And in case you're wondering, 'haath, haath ka farak' is the subtle difference between the same food cooked following the same recipe by different people. (Also, if you didn't already know, you can get just as good game results on a Wii by sitting on your couch flicking your wrist.)

Today's recipe, as you have doubtless guessed, is my take on that superb tadka dal.

For Tadka Dal, you will need the following:

Toor dal                                1 cup (Because toor dal is my favourite.)

Onion                                   1 medium

Tomato                                 1 medium to large

Jeera (cumin)                       1 tbsp

Green chillies                        2-3

Garlic                                   2 cloves

Dhaniya (coriander) powder   2 tsp

Red chilli powder                   2 tsp

Jeera (cumin) powder           1/2 tsp

Haldi                                    pinch

Salt                                      to taste    

Coriander (dhaniya) leaves

Ghee                              

 

Prep:

1. Dump the dal in the pressure cooker and wash it 2 or 3 times in cold water.
2. Chop the onion.
3. Chop the tomato.
4. Chop the green chillies.
5. Chop the garlic.
6. Roughly chop the coriander leaves.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung the pressure cooker on.
3. Add water to the cooker so that the dal is submerged under about 2 fingers of water.
4. Pinch in the haldi and a sprinkle of salt.
5. Slap the lid on and crank the burner up to high.
6. Wait for the pressure cooker to whistle 4 times.
7. (In the meantime) Turn on another burner.
8. Bung a pan on.
9. Splash in some ghee. (Who am I kidding? A lot of ghee!)
10. Count to 20.
11. Toss in the jeera.
12. Roll in the chillies.
13. Add in the garlic.
14. Pop in the onion.
15. Cook until translucent. (The whistles should be on their way about now.)
16. Add in the tomato.
17. Sprinkle on the dhaniya powder, red chilli powder and jeera powder.
18. Cook until the ghee separates from the tomatoes. (Keep an ear out for the whistles.)
19. Cook another few minutes.
20. Turn off the burner.
21. Turn the pressure cooker off if it's had it's 4 whistles. 
22. Wait until the residual steam leaves the pressure cooker.
23. Unlock the pressure cooker lid. 
24. Turn the burner on.
25. 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 let it simmer or give it another whistle.
26. If it's too runny, crank the heat up until some of the water evaporates.
27. Mix in the contents of your pan.
28. Add salt to taste and cook for a few.
29. Turn off burner.
30. Sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves.
31. Stuff face.
32. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

 

Tip: Accompany your dal chawal with a sookhi sabzi for a winning combination!

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