A broad category of pulses-based dishes. This is one of the first things I learned how to make
Recipe:
Ingredients:
Dal of some type: Moong dal for example
Spices - Jeera, Mustard, Dhania powder, Garam Masala, (optional mirchi powder)
Garlic, Ginger and Green Chili
Onion and Tomato of roughly equal quantity
Coriander
Process: 30 minutes
The following two steps can be done in parallel.
Cook
Cook your dal in water after salting it until its soft and can be easily mashed into the water (3-4 whistles for a pressure cooker)
If you want you can add some whole garlic, ginger or green chili to the dal while its cooking (better do a slower non pressure cooker if you are choosing this option)
In the end you should have a thick, but not solid cooked dal mixture, mash in some of the dal into the water but don't mash too much. You should be able to easily smush the dal with your fingers.
Fry
Start by frying your Jeera and Mustard on medium heat (butter, ghee or vegetable oil), as they start getting some colour add in the garlic, ginger and green chili.
When this starts getting some colour add in the onion (diced finely), and salt to taste.
When the onion is fully cooked add in your tomatoes and turn up the heat
Let this reduce a good amount, add in your masalas and mix them well.
Let the mixture reduce more and cook the spices, when you taste it right now it should taste too strongly flavored (maybe a bit too spicy or a bit too much masala), add more masala if it doesn't.
Finally
Mix your cooked dal (with the water) into the fried masala mixture and stir well on medium heat. Bring the mixture to a simmer and let it reduce a little bit, at this stage you can add some butter or ghee and mix it in.
Then turn the heat to low and add some chopped coriander onto the top and mix that it as well.
Optional
Some people like to add a tadka to the end. This can be really nice when reheating food that has been in the fridge for a day or two. Just fry a little butter/ghee with the same spices (and green chili, masala is optional) and then add it on top of the dal and mix it in right before you serve.
Concept:
Dal has main components:
Fat: used during the frying and simmering stage, usually ghee or butter
Cooking Spices: used when you are cooking the dal
Frying Spices: used both during the frying stage and the tadka if you do it
Base: the vegetables you use to give the dal some body (you could also just use water), onion and tomato is the default choice here. I often remove the onion when I'm in a rush and
Dal: the actual pulses you use. Each has their own flavour, you could mix some too but ensure they cook at the same rate. E.g.: Masoor, Moong, Toor, Rajma, some types of Black beans etc.
Other: the little herbs you put on top and the other small things you could do differently.
In the recipe above we cook the dal and then mix it in, however you can think of a slight variation where you soak the dal well (maybe overnight) and then mix the fried mixture into the pressure cooker and let the dal cook in the mixture. I truly believe that Rajma and Chole are just variants of this concept.
Overall this is a wonderful dish if you want to batch cook something healthy and tasty.
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