Hello,

I am a twenty one year old male and having the most difficult time of learning to cook edible meals. Haha. :O). My problem this time around is getting lentils to cook properly. I can never seem to get them done. At a market quite far from my home I was happy to find some Urad Dal. These are split and say, "chilka" which I believe means with skin. They are still black on the outside. I tried to make Dal Makhani, which is a dish I like a lot, with these. I soaked these split dal over night. Then I boiled them on high, for 3.5 hours on the stove (in a normal pot) with turmeric, ginger and fennel seed as per the recipe instructions for Butter Dal Makhani Number One on this site. I did not add salt as I've read that this can cause some beans to toughen. The problem is that my dal remain "grainy"... they don't soften up. I have also had the same problem with split green peas in a attempt to make a green pea soup in a crockpot. I don't have a pressure cooker. Would that help. I have normal pots and pans and a small crockpot (slow cooker). I would appreciate any advice or suggestions.

Thanks,

Jonathan in Georgia, United States.

Hello Jonathan

Dal Makhani is actually made from whole Urad and/or kidney beans, and not Urad dal chilka.

See recipes; Dal Makhani 1 and Dal Makhani 2

For Urad dal chilka, see; Urad Dal Chilka.

For cooking dals regularly, it is worth investing in a pressure cooker. This saves time, fuel and headache! Apart from dals, you can cook so many other things in it, in so little time.

I can?t understand why you dal chilka took 3.5 hours on high and still did not cook. Perhaps soaking for too long caused this problem, I am not sure! Crockpot is not something I use. I used to have one years ago, but gave it away, because it was just cluttering up my cupboards. You have to be very careful about not cooking kidney beans in it. Slow cooking in it does not destroy the toxins in kidney beans, which required brisk boiling. This can cause serious stomach upset/poisoning.

Hope you learn to enjoy cooking foods from all around the world.

Best wishes

Mamta

Thank you very much for your response. I will continue to investigate this texture problem. I am convinced that the water here can also be a little difficult to work with. I know that it dries my skin and hair out... so I'm not sure if that could be affecting the dal. I have never had a dish quite as "perfumed" as dal makhani. I think it's the garam masala, but then I smell the garam masala and it smells different. Such a popular, but elusive dish for my comprehension. :).

Dal makhani usually has fennel seeds added to it during boiling, which give it a distinctive flavour.

Mamta