Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook





Toor dal simple recipe

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On 17/12/2007 04:12am, Felafelboy wrote:

Before I get my pressure cooker, I thought it wise to do a trial run and see what the experience of making a dal really is, the long hand way. I'm embarassed to say that he closest I have come to making dal is customizing canned lentil soup by adding my own ingredients to it. (I have also made the Middle Eastern "majadara" from scratch, but the magic of making that did not intrigue me as much as how dals are created to produce the final product. With a "majadara", the end product is easy to disect. Not so with a tasty dal - my first experience of tasting it was to view it as some yellow glop, only to be transported into another dimension in its taste!)

So, I took out my old (at least several years old) and unopened bag of what looked like toor dal (not yellow split peas - I have those, too, also unused!!), remembered the basic ingredients for a simple dal, took out my 3 qt. pot, and got to work.

The attempt at making my first dal worked! The end product came close to tasting what I have had at a temple for its vegetarian offering to the community. I used 4 cups of water for 1/2 cup of toor dal. I had to keep the simmering going for at about one hour and fifteen minutes for the toor dal to absorb the water. I did removed the cover lid a few times to swirl the dal. I also added turmeric and a little bit of salt at the beginning of the boiling.

Towards the end, I heated some ghee (next time I will try olive oil -MAMTA - I have read in various sources to use sunflower oil - what is so desirable about sunflower oil over the other oils, such as canola, light olive oil, or high oleic safflower oil, all of which are somewhat neutral tasting - sunflower oil I believe is higher in polyunsaturated than monounsaturated oil) in a separate frying pan, and added to it grated ginger, cumin seeds, and a small amount of hing. After two minutes or so, I added some ground coriander.

The dal by this point was very thick, like a porridge, which is the way I like it. I tasted it and determined that it needed more salt. I added the spice mixture (tarka?) to it, mixed it around, and now it came to life. I thought some cooked mustard seeds might be nice and added them. Also added some fresh chopped cilantro and stirred it all around. Adding some boiling water to thin out the creation finished the production.

Next time I may want to add some red chili pepper flakes. I can't think of anything else, other than some chopped tomatoes to embellish this. I didn't know whether coriander was needed. The only spice ingredients I saw as being essential were the cumin seeds and the hing. The grated ginger I thought might help with the digestion as well as adding a nice flavor. Is coriander an essential ingredient to these kinds of dals? Do most of the dals use these basic spices?

I measured from the end of the first cooking step, that the initial 1/2 cup of toor dal had expanded to 1 1/2 cups. So, it seems that 1/2 cup of the water was absorbed during the cooking time.

If a pressure cooker was used, I assume that instead of using 2 cups of water for the 1/2 cup of toor dal, I should use maybe 1 cup. The other steps are still the same, right? Only add the salt and turmeric at the beginning, and after the pc lid is removed do the other spices get added in, and perhaps the dal is allowed to simmer some extra minutes.

Since I had never done this before, I wanted to see, first of all, if the recipes I had read, in fact, were going to produce a result that tasted like what I had experienced before at temples and restaurants. And second, I wanted to see how much room they would take up in a pot.

For a 2 serving dish (and tonight I was eating after many hours of abstinence, so I did finish off 1 1/2 cup worth of dal!), I figure the result will barely be 1/4 of the way up a 4 qt pressure cooker' height. That does give me plenty of extra room, even with starting with 4 cups of water for a ONE cups worth of toor dal.

What I still wonder is, if the height filling restriction for a pressure cooker is 1/2 for liquids, and 3/4 for food, how does this apply for a mixture of both, in the case of food being added to a liquid for making soup? Would the 3/4 height restriction apply?

If I make a vegetable broth or a simple soup, and just want enough for just 2 to 3 servings, I am beginning to think that a 4 qt pressure cooker size just might suit me. (I am not concerned with not having height size to make puddings, cheese cake, and some of the other things that a larger pot would allow me to do. I would only use the pc for dals, basic broths, and cooking beans. Perhaps some biryanis, too.)

And to conclude, while the dal was very good for a first attempt, and also very filling, the effort did take me at least 1 1/2 hours, with most of that time due to the time taken to slowly "melt" down the dal. Perhaps because the toor dal was so old that it took that time for the dal to absorb the water. The recipe called for a cooking time of only 20 to 40 minutes.

On 17/12/2007 06:12am, Mamta wrote:

This recipe of Tuvar or Arhar Dal should answer most of your questions. This also gives you a few different 'tarka options'.

You might also like to see Steve's Tarka Dal 1 and Highleyboy's Tarka Dal 2.

Mamta

On 17/12/2007 07:12am, Felafelboy wrote:

In the original post, the phrase, "sunflower oil I believe is higher in polyunsaturated than monounsaturated oil" should have been entered as

"polyunsaturated than monounsaturated FAT" (not "oil" as I incorrectly posted).

Seems like the ratio of water to dal in the recipes for pressure cooking this that you provided the link to is 3 to 1.

I think you said in previous posts, Mamta, that you don't do soups in a pressure cooker, so I will seek elsewhere to see if the height restriction for filling up a pc with liquid and food for a soup is at the 1/2 or 3/4 level.

Recent recipes I have read for soup don't seem to be that time consuming, and for food that might take longer to cook, such as squash, could be partly done in the pc and then transferred over to another stock pot and then pureed in with an immersion blender. A simple broth is what would be nice to make quickly.

On 17/12/2007 11:12am, Mamta wrote:

You sure I said that about making soups in a pressure cooker? I use pressure cooker all the time to make soups! If I said that I don't, then it has to be a mistake! In fact, I just made what you may call a 'pot-luck' or 'a bit of this and a bit of that' soup, which I usually make to empty out the vegetable section of my fridge before a shopping trip :-)! Pressure cookers are excellent for making soups.

Mamta

On 17/12/2007 02:12pm, Lapis wrote:

the difference between a fat and an oil is only its state, that is, whether it is liquid or solid. All animal fats and vegetable oils are fatty acid esters of glycerol (glycerine) so it doesn't matter where the fat/oil comes from except, animal fat tends to have higher amounts of unsaturated fatty acids (exceptions are palm oil and coconut oil...solids at room temperature, so maybe they should be called fats!) and of course the cholesterol content of animal derived fat. There is no cholesterol in vegetable oils.

As a good tip is an inexpensive (and good tasting) omega three source. An admixture of 50/50 rape seed oil and olive oil (any kind) will provide all your daily requirements of omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acid (esters).

If you require any more explanation, please feel free to ask, only too willing to help.

On 18/12/2007 05:12am, Felafelboy wrote:

From what I have read, monounsaturated oils are favored as a healthier oil for use than the polyunsaturated. Therefore, oils like olive oil are favored over corn and soy oil and some of the others. Sesame oil, while not have as heavily overbalanced in polyunsaturated fat as corn oil and some of the others, is sometimes not favored for this reason, although Ayurvedic thought does recommend it for certain individuals and occassions, and is believed to be very healthy.

I like the taste of sesame oil for my stir frys and sauteeing. To be on the safeside tonight, I made baingan bharta from scratch for the first time, and used canola oil for the sauteeing of the onions, and all the other ingredients and spices added later. I had thought of using ghee or coconut oil, and even though they contain a high amount of fat, and are considered healthy according to ayurvedic thought, I had used ghee the other night for the toor dal, and thought to give myself a break from that amount of fat by using canola oil. It had a neutral taste, so it didn't interfere with the flavor of the other ingredients. (I still have a ways to go to get this version close to what I have at restaurants!! It was tasty but not what I wanted to duplicate. At least I had control over the ingredients used. At restaurants, I cross my finger regarding the kind of oil use and its freshness.)

The oils I see recommended for recipes include ghee, coconut, sunflower, and canola. I'd think that perhaps light or extra light olive oil might be decent for use, since most of the olive oil flavor is gone. I think sunflower oil has a fair amount of polyunsaturated fat. (Mustard oil and some others are less frequently mentioned due to their use in smaller regional areas of India, or at least that's what I've read!)

Sorry Mamta ... I can't locate your post about the soup thing. You may have, in fact, said that you occassionally use it. I was left with the impression that you don't use it often for soups. (Would the 4 qt pressure cooker size be ok for soup for 4 to 6 servings?) I assume that you use a pc of at least a 6 qt size for soup, but I wonder if you just wanted to make a smaller amount, not to be saved for days, if you might use one of your smaller pressure cookers.

On 18/12/2007 01:12pm, Mamta wrote:

Hello felafelboy

It is difficult for me to say what size you need, take a look here; http://www.gopresto.com/recipes/ppc/howtobuy.php?PHPSESSID=6d4888

If you were going to have only one pressure cooker, I would say that do't go for a small size. You can cook lees in a large one, but not more in a small one. Probaly an 8 qtz one will be okay for you, but this is so much personal choice, you have to go by your gut feeling.

Mamta

On 20/12/2007 04:12pm, Tani wrote:

Go and buy a medium sized one felafelboy. I have one and use it all the time. I even made jam in it this time.

Tani

On 24/02/2008 03:02am, Felafelboy wrote:

Am posting on this thread due to the subject of toor dal.

My topic here is ... OOPS!

First attempt at making toor dal using my 4 qt pressure cooker was less than satisfactory to say the least. I was trying to duplicate what I did in my normal stock pot.

What I wanted as a final product was something of porridge consistency, or at least with a combination of beans and mush. What I got after 10 minutes were yellow beans in the same shape I started with and about the same amount of water (2 inches above the dal) that I started with.

I had to use a ladel to remove most of the liquid, and continued pressure cooking the dal. After another ten minutes, no change had happened. I continued boiling and simmering the remains with the lid slightly off the pressure cooker. After another 30 minutes or so, I was finally left with m ore of a porridge consistency. It seemed that the water had to boil for a longer time for the dal to absorb the water and break down into the porridge product I wanted.

I hadn't made this dish in a long time and forgot that I didn't need to pre-soak the dal. I soaked them overnight (8 hours), and was left with 2 cups of dal from the 3/4 cup that I started with. I added them into the pressure cooker with 6 cups of water (3 to 1 ratio). I thought 10 minutes of pressure cooking would do the job. It didn't. (The only other ingredients I had added to the dal prior to the cooking was some tumeric and one bay leaf.)

Could the faliure to break down have been due to the presoaking for 8 hours, so that during cooking, the dal was not absorbing any more water?

(Mind you, this dal was several years old, which is why I thought it helpful to presoak them overnight. The presoaking though resulted in their expansion and absorption of water. The pressure cooking may have cooked them after the initial ten minutes, but they didn't break down into the porridge consistency I wanted. Is this consistency only possible by continuing to simmer without the pressure cooking technique? My desire to get this done in 10 minutes turned into a very long adventure this afternoon!!

If such beans are presoaked, would it have been more appropriate for me to use a water to bean ratio of something more like 1/4 cup for the 2 cups of dal (the pressure cooker useage guide refers to using 1/2 cup for every 5 minutes of pressure cooking. I thought ten minutes, that is, a few minutes past the 7 minute guide for cooking toor dal, would break down the dal to more of a porridge consistency.)

I had read that when cooking, you should cover the beans by 2 inches, but in this case, it looked like all the water was in its same volume state. Reasonable to assume that was the case because the beans being presoaked simply was not absorbing any more?

And if this is the case, wouldn't this action be the same for other beans that require presoaking, thereby absorbing water, and then perhaps not absorbing any further water? This result today confused and disappointed me!!

On 24/02/2008 04:02am, Mamta wrote:

Hello Felafelboy

I am not sure what went wrong here, Arhar or tuvar dal is one of the easiest to make. Dals remain okay for a few years, may be it was the long pre-soak, though I am not sure why. Take a look here for making Tuvar dal. This is one of the commonest dal I make, I have never had the problem you describe. If soaked for an hour, it cooks in pressure cooker within 2 'hisses' or 2 minutes.

Mamta

On 24/02/2008 08:02pm, Felafelboy wrote:

Yes, the last time I made it in a stock pot, it came out great and was easy to do. That's why I was so surprise by the problem I had with the pressure cooker, although I did not presoak the dal when I used the stock pot.

All I can think of is that the 8 to 10 hours of presoaking that resulted in the dal expanding from 3/4 cup to 2 cups resulted in a lack of water being absorbed by the dal.

By the way, I did a search for yellow split peas and chana dal, since I have a package of yellow beans that looked something like the yellow version of green split peas but wasn't sure if that's what they were.

A site called angelfire.com has a beautiful picture for the product produced for chana dal, found at http://www.angelfire.com/country/fauziaspakistan/chanadal.html

I read that chana dal should be soaked for one hour and another pressure cooker site says that yellow split peas need NOT be soaked. (I thought chana dal and yellow split peas were different, but according to this website, they are the same. Tur dal look like smaller versions of chana dal/yellow split peas. It's not easy to tell the difference at first glance!) I am very leery now about soaking beans/legumes that look fragile as now I know that by absorbing water prior to cooking, that it may affect the finished product.

On 25/02/2008 06:02am, Mamta wrote:

Chana Dal is split, skinless Bengal Gram

Tuvr or toor dal is smaller than chana dal and sold in tqo ways; one is covered in a film of oil and other is plain, looks very similar to chana dal, but smaller

Yellow split peas are waht they say they are-split peas.

Dry peas come as green dry peas or dry yellow/beige peas.

If you move up this thread and go to my post on 13/5/2006, 05:43pm, titled 'Which dal is it?', you will find a few pictures. Otherwise, you get good pictures on spices of India, each one of my recipe gives a link to this site.

Mamta

PS I don't think soaking was the problem. Well soaked tur dal cooks very fast, almost like red lentils.

On 28/02/2008 08:02am, Felafelboy wrote:

If presoaking wasn't the problem, then why do you think that the ten minute pressure cooking didn't result in the 6 cups of water being absorbed by the tur dal, but continuing to cook in a somewhat loosely covered lid with boiling water did after 30 plus minutes? It's almost like the dal needed much more time to have the water break down the cells and be absorbed to create the more mushy porridge like consistency I got the first time I did this dish in a stock pot, not pressurized, and not presoaked!

I will review the pictures of the different kinds of spices to familiarize myself with the dal kingdom.

On 28/02/2008 08:02am, Felafelboy wrote:

Mamta, there has to be an easier way to locate that "What dal is it?" thread.

The search function for this message board searches for recipes not for thread titles or words within threads. Thread titles as listed in response to the page number listings are not necessarily in linear chronological order. I thought I could just find the threaded date by moving up from one page to another. Since you have a record of the date and time, do you also know what page number in the message board listing it's under? If not, when I have more time in the future reading through more of the subjects on this message board, I will uncover it in time, but unfortunately, this board doesn't seem to be set up to search for words or to search by date.

Thanks. I thought I could easily get to the thread by scanning through pages 17 to 22. Seems like the threads on those pages are close to 5/13/2006.

On 28/02/2008 08:02pm, AskCy wrote:

The forum was set up as more of a help out with the recipes site and wasn't really meant to be a giant reference manual.

Usually anything relevant to the recipes will be addressed straight away and changes made, recipes add, errors corrected etc.

Thats why there isn't a facility for searching topics, headings, titles, comments, people,etc... where would you start.. Someone would want to be able to search for their own posts by name, others would want keyword search from all the text, another would want title searches etc.. would be a lot of work for Pete and Kavey who are already mowed out with their other job as well as looking after this site.

Sorry I can't be of more help but as you say there is only one real way to find them and thats manually go back and look. I do find if you can remember a title (or some of it) using CTRL + F to bring a search box for the page your on can sometimes speed things up.

Steve

On 28/02/2008 09:02pm, Askcy wrote:

think I've found it and brought it to the top of the page (well near as this post will now drop it down)

Tarka Dal

Steve

On 01/03/2008 02:03am, Felafelboy wrote:

Before I delay my reply for too long, I wanted to thank you for taking the time to research the location of the requested information and to provide it.

That link contains alot of information and when time allows, I will read most if not all the information. Thanks for caring!

(a return gift for your time ... I came across an interesting site called cuisinecuisine.com while googling the meaning of what I thought was a cooking term, that had some interesting cooking/storage tips. Perhaps you have heard of this one ... for storing cilantro and mint leaves ... cut them and put them in an ice cube tray filled with water, freeze, and use the frozen cubes in a cooking curry dish as needed ... the water will cook/boil off leaving the cilantro and/or mint!! Courtesy of cuisinecuisine.com)

On 01/03/2008 10:03am, Kavey wrote:

Felafal boy,

Yes that's quite a common way of storing fresh herbs in freezer. I have mentioned it myself in one thread or another, couldn't tell you which one though. But thanks for sharing it again as some readers may not have come across it.

Mum is on holiday so may not have access to internet for few more days.

On 01/03/2008 03:03pm, Askcy wrote:

Kavey, thats not a prompt for me to find that one as well is it?.. lol

Steve

On 01/03/2008 04:03pm, Askcy wrote:

On 01/03/2008 10:03pm, Kavey wrote:

Steve, darn but you're GOOD!

Nah, wasn't a prompt, more an indication of MY laziness!

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