Lentils / Dals
Dals provides the necessary proteins and dietary fiber for a balanced diet and are low in fat. In North India it is the main course of lunch and served with vegetables and chapattis, in southern India it is regularly eaten with rice and primarily used to make sambar combined with vegetables and tamarind.
In Indian household dal is eaten almost every day, but you will never be bored eating them because to make it interesting there are lot of variations are made and lot of different recipes are used by mixing the dals and adding different tadka and spices.
Lentils or dals come in many varieties and are cooked with many flavors. They can be liquid like a soup or thick like a stew. Each region in India has its own favorites and cooking methods. But most Dal recipes are quite simple to prepare. The standard preparation of dal is boiling the dal with water, turmeric and salt and then adding a cumin seed and asafetida tadka at the end of the cooking and before serving add hot oil tadka.
Lentils like beans generally take long cooking time, but cooking with pressure cooker is convenient and can save you a lot of time.
1. You do not need to soak dals for long time and they are cooked much quicker.
2. You do not need to add lot of water.
3. After cooking if you cannot wait for pressure to goes down then just take the
pressure cooker in the sink and run the cold water pressure will go down
immediately and you can open the cooker
However, if you are not using a pressure cooker, here are some tips:
Tips for cooking without pressure cooker:
1. Soak the lentils for few hours before cooking, especially whole black urad
dal need to be soaked overnight.
2. Add salt after lentil are cooked, with the salt it takes longer to cook.
3. When you are boiling take bigger pot because you need to add more water and
when lentils start boiling white cloudy foam will form on the top and it will
start spilling out and the stove will be a mass.
4. With the cooking spoon try to remove the foam from the top as it is building.
5. To break some of the foam add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil when start boiling
the dal.
6. After water start boiling and it stop foaming reduces the heat to medium low,
cover the pan and cook.
7. Slow cooker can be used for cooking the lentils.
Power soaking the dals:
Some dals are hard and they take long time to soak and cook and you have to preplan but do not worry follow the following instruction to soak the dal quickly.
1. In a pressure cooker add dal and wash, changing water several times until
the water appears clear and then add 6 to 8 cups of water to 1 LB of beans
(2 cups)
2. Boil the dal for 2 minutes, turn the stove off. Cover the lid of the cooker and
let it stand it for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the kind of dal you are going to
cook.
3. Drains soak water and rinse dal.
Tadka: (Tadka)
Tadka or tarka is a dal garnishing also known as baghar or vaghar. Tadka consists
of various spices and ingredients. The ingredients in the tadka for each variety of
dal vary by region and individual tastes. In north India tadka generally the
combinations of cumin seeds and asafetida and before serving hot oil tadka
which is made by Ghee and red chili powder is added to dal. Lemon juice or
mango powder (amchoor) is also used to in hence the flavor.
There are common tadka ingredients are used all over India such as mustard seeds, mango powder (amchoor) onion, garlic, tomatoes, ginger, coriander leaves, ginger, tamarind, curry leaves, coconut and Sambar powder. There is innumerable variation and one can create their own individual taste.
Tips for Tadka:
Prepare and add onion tadka and cumin seeds and asafetida tadka separate, because it gives more flavors to dal.
Thank you