Wanted: dahl recipies

my husband is from india and we eat dal almost every day. we cook ours in a pressure cooker, and with a lot of indian spices.....i'm not sure how you'd make it in a crockpot. it might be too spicy for your dd too.

1 cup toor lentils (you could also use masoor, the small red lentils)
3 cups water (in the pressure cooker....might need more or less for crockpot)
3Tbls butter or ghee
1 chopped onion
1 minced green chili pepper
1 tsp. crushed garlic
2 tsp. cumin seed
1 tsp. mustard seed
1 tsp. red chili powder
1 tsp. corriander powder
1 tsp. amchoor powder (sour mango powder)
1 tsp. garam masala( a lovely combination spice)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
a few piches of cilantro
squeeze of lemon

wash lentils in several rinses of water
soak lentils at least 30 mintues
drain soaked lentils and dump in cooker with fresh 3 cups of water
cook for 3 whistles on the cooker (about 15 minutes) or till very mushy
in large frying pan heat butter or ghee (or canola/olive oil)
add cumin & mustard seeds, let sizzle
add onion & garlic
add all spices and fry for about 1 minute
add onion/spice mixture to cooked lentils and simmer about 10 mintues. simmer longer if you want a thicker dal, add more water if you like a runnier dal.
garnish with cilantro/lemon

*some hindu temples don't cook with onion/garlic, so they may be omitted
the most important spices are the cumin seed, garam masala and salt, others may be omitted or changed in amount added. every recipe for dal is different; some add tomatoes or spinach or both, some use ginger instead of garlic. just play with the ingredients you have and like....i'm sure it will be yummy! (just make sure the lentils are cooked till soft and mushy. we even mash ours up after they've cooked.)

hth,
jenifer

sandrajoon,

not to hijack your question to treelover but...

i have cook and see and i love it. however, i was raised on south indian
food, which is distinctly different from the indian food that people in the us
are used to eating.

just be aware that most of the recipes in that book look and taste NOTHING
like what people are used to eating at indian restaurants.

if you're looking for a south indian cookbook that is americanish-friendly,
you might try something by maya kaimal--i like most of her recipes and
they seem authentic enough. or you could get dakshin, by chitra
padmanabhan, which has never failed me.

if you're looking for an all-around cookbook, try "turmeric trail" by raghavan
iyer, which i love. or you could go for the more mainstream authors,
like julie sahni or madhur jaffrey--their books are pretty useful for general
info.

i bought my copy of samaithu par at amazon.com through indiaclub.com.
you could try going straight to indiaclub.com to see if they have it. they
often have little-known books imported from india and sri lanka.