indian food

Interestingly encrusted salmon

Aneela Mirchandani Californian food, Fish Tags: , , , 1 Comment

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Salmon crusted with cracked black pepper is IN. Open a fancy restaurant, add that dish to your menu, and watch your cash register spin. But what is a few cracked peppers? I pooh-pooh it. Wait, I must catch a breath from laughing. I give you — salmon encrusted with the most interesting crust in the world.

Black pepper does make an appearance. Coriander seeds do as well. And also — that paragon of savoriness — urad dal (Vigna mungo), the platinum-blond lentils that turn red when roasted. Throw in some lemon juice and you have a meal. The fame of this recipe has spread far and wide throughout my home since I came up with it.

The most interestingly encrusted salmon in the world

Ingredients for the spice powder:

  • Half a tablespoon whole black pepper
  • One tablespoon whole coriander seeds
  • One tablespoon skinned and split urad dal

Ingredients for the meal:

  • 3/4 lb salmon steak or fillet
  • salt to taste
  • One tablespoon olive oil
  • Juice of half a lemon or to taste

Method:

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To make the spice powder we need to first roast the seeds. Heat a small thick-bottomed pan on medium heat. Put in the black pepper and coriander seed in one batch. Stir occasionally. In a couple minutes a few will start to pop (stand back). Empty the seeds into a small bowl.

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Next, in the same pan, in goes the lentil. Stir once in a while to ensure even roasting. These will take longer but in a few minutes will redden. Take them off the heat into the same bowl.

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Wait a few minutes for the spices to cool, then grind them up in a clean coffee grinder. The salmon crusting spices are ready. You can save the excess in a clean spice jar, nicely labeled and dated. You will thank yourself later.

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Next let’s prepare the fish. For us, dinner for two consists of a three-quarter-pound fillet or steak of salmon, but feel free to use as much fish as you need. Start the oven at 425 F to preheat.

Place the fish in an oven-safe tray. Make a few deep cuts with a sharp knife. Sprinkle salt to taste. Now spread olive oil over the fish, then lemon juice, taking care to drive some of the salty, oily, lemony mixture into the deep cuts you just made (now you don’t need to wonder why you made them).

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Next comes the spice powder. I use it liberally to coat the fist. Perhaps a tablespoon and a half for a piece this size? The point is really to cover the flesh.

Goes into the oven next. I give it 20 minutes in a 425 F oven, and it comes out medium-well. Your mileage may vary.

This goes very well with patty-pan squash mashed (squashed?) but the recipe for that will come later.

Yogurt Rice — an iterative approach

Aneela Mirchandani Rice, South Indian food Tags: , , , 3 Comments
Yogurt rice

Yogurt rice

A precept that is big in the software engineering world (my other life) is that development should happen in phases, but each phase should be releasable as a full-fledged product.

This precept was very much on my mind as I made yogurt rice for dinner the other evening. I’ll tell you why.

Now yogurt rice (otherwise known as curd rice; mossaru anna in Kannada, daddojanam in Telugu, bagala bath in Tamil) is a South Indian recipe that I hadn’t even heard of till adulthood. But had I ever eaten yogurt rice? Of course! Every single day of my tender young life I had yogurt rice for lunch. Yogurt rice with cauliflower, yogurt rice with ketchup (don’t ask), yogurt rice with papad, yogurt rice with sookha aalu, yogurt rice with pickles. If you pierced my veins you would probably have had thick and pulpy yogurt rice squirt out.

Sorry about that image. Here’s the point I’m trying to make. Short of the fancy ‘yogurt rice’ recipe with every bell and whistle, simply mixing yogurt with rice achieves a serviceable product. While being quite ricey and quite yogurty and cooling, it is its own thing with a very distinctive fragrance. That is your first iterative product — simply mix yogurt with rice. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Iteration 1: Mix it up

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Cook about a cup of long-grained rice with some salt. Let it cool a bit, break lumps with your fingers, then mix in about a cup of plain yogurt nicely. You are done with your first product. This is a great accompaniment to any spicy vegetable dish or pickle. Or heck, dot it with ketchup, scoop up a dot in each bite, but don’t tell people this idea came from me.

Iteration 2: Salad it up

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Now for the second iteration we throw in some crunchy salady ingredients to brighten the flavors. Imagine luscious smooth cooling yogurt rice with the occasional crunchy freshness, perhaps a couple in each bite. Chop up 2-3 scallions, greens and all; and perhaps a quarter of a deseeded cucumber into tiny cubes, and mix it into the yogurt rice.

Iteration 3: Spice it up

Yogurt rice is soothing and cooling. Perhaps too cooling and too soothing? We need to add some sweet, sweet pain. This calls for heat from two sources: green chilies, and ginger. Thinly slice one serrano chili, or a few smaller bird’s eye chilies, or one jalapeno. Also slice half an inch piece of ginger into strips. Mix those into the rice. Still in keeping with the salad theme, we do not cook these last ingredients but keep them fresh.

Iteration 4: Season it up

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Now lets add a tadka. For the non-Indians, ‘tadka’, ‘vaghaar’ or ‘baghaar’ is a very standard method of finishing up many, many recipes: heat a bit of oil or ghee, throw in some whole or ground spices and / or aromatics, let them cook, and throw that seasoned fat into the dish and mix it in. So let us tadka the yogurt rice. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a little pan; when it shimmers, put in the following: a few sprinkles of asafetida; when it foams, put in a teaspoon of deskinned udid dal; when they start to turn reddish, put in a teaspoon of mustard seeds; when they pop, put in about 6 curry leaves. When they shrivel, it is time to turn off the heat and mix it into the rice.

Iteration 5: Fancy it up

What is expensive, nutritious and will allow you to charge 50 cents more for this dish? Cashews! In the same pan as the seasonings, put in a drop more oil, and put in a quarter cup whole cashews to roast. Once they darken in various places, turn off the heat, and mix it into the rice.

Iteration 6: Sweet touch it up

Now for the kicker — the last step that I didn’t even know about when I made this dish, but was told to me by my friend Rashmi after: put in about a quarter cup of pomegranate kernels and mix it in to distribute evenly throughout the rice. Can’t wait to try the 6th iteration of this dish the next time I make it!

Creamy tomato korma with 2 jewels

Aneela Mirchandani Vegetables Tags: , , , Leave a comment
Tomato korma

Tomato korma

My favorite Indian restaurant dish has always been the navratan korma. Creamy and subtly flavored, it is traditionally made with nine separate ‘floaters’ that make up the nine jewels (nav=nine, ratan=jewel). The problems with replicating this dish at home are many and various:

  1. I can never bring myself to put in the sheer amount of butter and cream needed in this recipe
  2. my grinds are never as smooth and as fine as in restaurants
  3. the nut kormas that I have made are, shall we say, lacking in flavor
  4. I never have nine things, all together, in the fridge at the same time, to use in the korma
  5. It goes well with naan but I don’t have a tandoor, so I need a recipe that will go well with rice or roti

Did you think this was going to be just a litany of my troubles? No, Dear Reader, I have found a good substitute! Here it is. A poor man’s korma with two jewels instead of nine, and a creamy tomato base instead of whatever they use. Feel free to up the jewel count when you make this at home. Feel free to take any other ‘Julia Child’ steps, such as peeling and seeding the tomato for a smoother sauce. I certainly didn’t but I’m rustic that way.

Creamy tomato korma with 2 jewels

Ingredients:

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  • 2 tablespoons ginger-garlic-chili paste
  • 2 cups tomato puree, made by simply halving about 5 tomatoes and giving them a spin in the blender
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 black cardamoms
  • 4 green cardamoms
  • 1 small stick cinnamon
  • 4 cloves
  • 2 tablespoons ghee
  • 1 tablespoon dry fenugreek (methi) leaves or half a bunch fresh
  • A pinch of nutmeg, grated
  • Salt to taste
  • quarter cup heavy cream or milk
  • Jewel #1: half a pound of paneer, cubed into small cubes
  • Jewel #2: Big handful frozen peas
  • (other possibilities: chopped pineapple; cashews; green beans, in inch-long pieces; carrots, cubed; cauliflower florets; slivered almonds; bell peppers)

Method:

Heat the ghee in a thick-bottomed pot on medium heat. When fully melted, throw in the whole spices — the cloves, cardamoms, cinnamon, bay leaf. They need to cook for a minute, then in goes the ginger garlic paste. Let it sizzle and look ‘cooked’ which is one step before looking ‘browned’. At this point put in the tomato puree and an additional cup of water.

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Bring this mixture to a boil and let it roil away gently for about 10 minutes. It will reduce some and its lusciousness will be greatly enhanced. At this point add the salt, fenugreek leaves, and grate some nutmeg in. Let it cook to meld another five to seven minutes. All this cooking can be done at medium heat.

Tomato korma, the base is cooked

Now the jewels go in. There is no need to thaw the peas before adding them in. The peas can go in first, then the cubed paneer. If you have other ‘jewels’ that need to be cooked to fully enjoy them, I suggest you precook them by blanching or microwaving, with some salt, before popping them into the sauce to finish off.

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In any case my jewels did not need much cooking. Once the peas thaw they are quite done, and the paneer just needs heating through. This happened in another few minutes.

What is a korma without cream? So just before serving, lower the heat, add the quarter cup of cream and gently stir in, adjust for salt, and serve with some nice long-grained rice.

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(This recipe is one of the 1000 found in this book.)

Rustic ginger-garlic paste with optional green chili

Aneela Mirchandani Basic methods, Spice pastes Tags: , , , , 9 Comments

I have a bone to pick with most ginger garlic pastes — one normally uses a blender to make them, so one needs a simply giant amount of ginger and garlic to make the blades go, and, one has to use water to make it slushy.

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But who wants slushy ginger-garlic paste while cooking? And, who wants a simply giant amount of paste situated in the fridge, week after week, slowly oxidizing, and stinking up the air each time you open the fridge?

I often resort to the blender method, but I do believe this method is way superior — here we use the mortar and pestle. Aside from looking decorative, you make only as much as you need, and seriously, it doesn’t take that long.

No precise ingredients in this one. Use as much as you think you will need.

Step 1: Peel, destem and chop ginger, garlic, and chili. No need to go super fine.

Step 2: Place all ingredients in the bowl of a mortar (or is it pestle? I can never remember).

Step 3: Sprinkle with a bit of salt and wait a few minutes. Salt has three functions here. If you use kosher or sea salt, it will add a bit of roughage, all the better to grind with. Second, salt draws out moisture, and once again, this helps the grinding. Third, salt actually starts to cook certain foods. You can notice this specially with garlic — raw garlic has a sharp and aggressive taste; but if you salt it for a few minutes, it mellows out considerably, just like it does with cooking.

Step 4: Pound away with the pestle (or the mortar, I can’t remember which is which). It will not be a super smooth paste, but that’s where the rustic charm comes in.

Sookha aalu, Indian home fries

Aneela Mirchandani Roots and tubers Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

All right, Americans, I will admit it, you are better at naming recipes than us Indians. The dish called ‘sookha aalu’ which is made in different guises all over India means nothing but ‘dry potato’. Descriptive, yes, but lacks a certain punch.

Some American marketing geniuses

American marketing geniuses

Then the American marketing geniuses come in, and decide that any recipe name is improved by bunging in the word ‘home’. And on top of that, they came up with the word ‘fries’…. “Guess what guys, we won’t include the word ‘potato’ at all…a light touch…a bit of indirection.”

Genius! Home fries. My point here is that India has legions of most excellent sookha aalu recipes and really they are almost exactly what people in America recognize as home fries, except with Indian spices. Here is my version, and it is most delectable.

Sookha Aalu, Indian home fries

Ingedients:

  • 1 large red potato or 2 medium or several small.
  • salt to taste
  • half a teaspoon mustard seeds
  • half a teaspoon red chili powder
  • half a teaspoon coriander powder
  • 1 teaspoon dry mango powder (aamchur) or substitute with lime juice
  • 2 tablespoons oil

Method:

Rinse the potato and remove the eyes. Microwave it for 5 minutes or so, or long enough to almost cook it right through.

When it comes out of the microwave, wait till it is cool enough to handle, and cut it into pieces. First, Do Not Peel. If you do you will regret it. The crisped up peel is definitely the most appealing part of this dish.

Next, think about the shapes of the pieces. You could do cubes, if that is your fancy. Don’t make them bigger than about half an inch in width. Or you could do slices, about eighth of an inch thick. Either way works, but choose a method and stick with it, unlike me, I chose slices, then switched to cubes, then had a bit of a hodge podge.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan. When it shimmers put in the mustard seeds. When they pop put in your cut up potato. Stir them around on medium-high heat. Sprinkle salt over in two stages — once, after you have tossed the potatoes with the oil, and next, after  a few minutes, and more stirring.

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You will see them begin to crisp and brown in a few minutes. Keep stirring once in  a while, and cook in all for about ten minutes. Towards the end of cooking time, sprinkle on the chili powder, the coriander powder and the dry mango powder. Adjust for salt and you are done.

Introducing the Eggnach

Aneela Mirchandani Eggplant, Greens, Sindhi food Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Eggnach with roti

Eggnach with roti

My People — the Sindhis — have made a lot of contributions to world culture, but I must say this ranks as an important one. Sindhis discovered that spinach and eggplant, when cooked together, meld well, marry well, and make a tasty nutritious brew.

Not only is this technique explored in the very famous Sai Bhaji, but in this rather less well-known dish as well. It goes well with rotis, but would go on the side of rice very well too, if you have some plain yogurt on the side. A very nice accompaniment would be yellow rice — cooked with some garlic, salt and turmeric powder (recipe forthcoming).

I found this recipe in this book and as usual made some modifications.

The Eggnach — eggplant and spinach dish

Ingredients:

  • 1 bunch spinach
  • 1 regular-sized eggplant
  • 1 medium tomato or 2 small ones
  • 4-5 cloves garlic
  • half and inch piece ginger
  • 2 serrano chilies or several smaller birds-eye chilies
  • half a teaspoon coriander powder
  • half a teaspoon cumin seeds
  • half a teaspoon red chili powder
  • salt to taste
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 tablespoon ghee (optional)

Method:

Rinse and chop the vegetables.

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Chop the garlic, ginger and chili. Give them a pounding in a mortar and pestle after sprinkling a bit of salt on it to add a bit of roughage and to draw out moisture.

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A note about salt: it draws out moisture! This is an incredibly useful fact that helps out in various ways. In this case, I pound it with a bit of salt, so that the paste self-makes itself, without adding even a splash of water.

Salt also pre-cooks food as it draws out the moisture, at least that is how I think of it. If you mince garlic, and salt it, in 10 minutes you will see that it has turned mushy and wet, and by the way, the taste of the garlic will not be as aggressive as when it is raw.

So anyway, getting back to our job. Pound those guys to get them to paste up. You don’t need to go the extra mile, just a simple smashing will do.

Heat oil in a thick-bottomed pot. When it shimmers, throw in the cumin, red chili powder and coriander powder. Now enters the garlic/ginger/chili paste. Let it sizzle. Now in tumble all the vegetables, chopped. Salt them, stir them around, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes on medium first, then, when it comes to a boil, on medium-low.

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Everything you have in there is quite mashable by this point. So attack it with a potato masher or simply the back of your spoon.

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Eggnach mashed

If you like, top it with a teaspoon of ghee, and possibly a sprinkle of lemon juice, and you are done.

 

Simple dal series – Part 3, tuar dal with spinach

Aneela Mirchandani Pigeon peas (tuar dal), Vegetables Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

(Part 2 of this series is here.)

Here is the pigeon-pea, which has nothing whatsoever to do with pigeons, except that they are both full of protein:

Pigeon pea, tuar dal

Pigeon pea, tuar dal

Tuar dal

Tuar dal

And here is some dementia-fighting spinach:

Spinach

Spinach

And this is what you get when you marry them: spinach dal.

Spinach dal

Spinach dal

Eat enough of this, and you will be lifting weights while remaining completely undemented. But that’s not all. Spinach is a good choice to put into any dal, because it melts in, rather than remain in bits. Whether your intention is a soupy dal or more of a porridgy one, spinach fits right in.

Spinach with tuar dal

Ingredients, for boiling:

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  • Half a cup tuar dal (dehulled and split pigeon peas)
  • spinach — one bunch (use half a bunch if you want it more yellow than green)
  • 5-6 cloves garlic, smashed
  • 1-2 serrano chilies
  • half a teaspoon turmeric

Ingredients, for seasoning (all of these are optional, but do try to use at least one spice):

Seasoning spinach dal

Seasoning spinach dal

  • 1-2 tablespoon ghee
  • sprinkle of asafetida
  • half teaspoon mustard seeds
  • half teaspoon cumin seeds
  • half teaspoon fenugreek seeds
  • half teaspoon or to taste red chili powder
  • salt to taste
  • Half a lime or lemon squeezed

Method:

Rinse and soak the dal in hot water for an hour or more. It will double in volume, or more. Put the drained dal in a thick-bottomed pot along with the turmeric, garlic, and chili. Add two and half cups water and bring to a boil.

Now. I say this with every dal recipe but it bears repeating. When dal first comes to a boil it will froth up with the rage of a volcano. Let it do so while the pot is uncovered. This way you can watch and the foam is not likely to end up on your burner. Once the foam has spent itself, partially cover, turn it down to simmer for an hour and half.

In the middle of cooking time, put in the washed and chopped spinach. Cover and cook on until the dal grains are soft. Give the soupy stuff a whisk with a whisk or a swoosh around with one of these, a mandheera. Add salt and keep it on a low simmer.

Spinach dal before seasoning

Spinach dal before seasoning

Now for the seasoning. Heat the ghee on medium high heat. By the way this is one dish where I do recommend ghee rather than oil because it enhances the flavor in a very nice way. Of course oil would work too.

When the ghee is completely melted, throw in the seasonings in this sequence: first, the asafetida and the red chili powder; then the cumin seeds; when they sizzle, the mustard seeds; when they pop, the fenugreek seeds. Don’t cook these longer than about 10 seconds, because they will turn bitter if so.

Turn off the heat and pour into the dal. Stir, stir, stir. Simmer for a few minutes to meld the flavors. Squeeze some lemon/lime juice to it to brighten the flavor.

I love this dish with rice but other people recommend rotis. I never would, so there.

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Rice with spinach dal

In which the Manchurian Cauliflower gets brainwashed by the Californians

Aneela Mirchandani Cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, chuoy, Indian Chinese Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment
Gobi Manchurian with fried rice

Gobi Manchurian with fried rice

There is a famous dish in India called Cauliflower Manchurian, which no actual Manchurian person would probably recognize. For that matter, those actual Manchurian people, from the mythical land of Manchuria? They probably wouldn’t call themselves Manchurian either. This is an ancient term that I believe came from the tribe of Manchu, but then became a generic term for a region around the north east of China, and a part of Mongolia. As far as I could determine, it is now used to refer to only two things: The film/novel ‘The Manchurian Candidate’, and this dish — Gobi/Cauliflower Manchurian.

A long time ago a Chinese community that had settled in eastern India created this dish, with Chinese ingredients but an Indian sensibility. They were either from the ethnic Manchu tribe, or perhaps they picked a word that suggested something vague, like ‘from yonder eastern lands’?

In any case, this is one of the most famous Indian Chinese dishes, served in restaurants, and also recreated in many homes, including mine as I was growing up. I recently remembered this dish and made it at home to go with fried rice. As is my wont, I modified it; it is already a hodge-podge between Indian and Chinese, and I added Californian to the mix — what that means, is that instead of deep-frying the cauliflower, I microwaved and roasted it, in order to make it somewhat healthier. This made enough for dinner for two, with no leftovers.

It got high marks from my foremost customer and critic, my husband. So here goes:

Californian Cauliflower Manchurian

Ingredients:

  • Half a cauliflower, cut into half inch wide florets
  • 3-4 cloves garlic
  • half an inch piece of ginger
  • 1 serrano green chili
  • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • half a cup chicken broth
  • 1 tablespoon chili sauce, like Lee Kum Kee or Sriracha
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 tablespoon Ketchup or Worcestershire sauce
  • salt to taste
  • 2-3 tablespoons oil

Method:

Cheddar cauliflower

Cheddar cauliflower

Rinse the cauliflower florets. Set them in a plate and microwave on high for 3 minutes. This will get them cooked on the inside and avoid the need to deep-fry. Next, for surface browning, rub salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil over them, and pop into a 425 F oven for 20 minutes, turning once in the middle. In retrospect I should have broiled it for the last 5 minutes to get it even browner.

Minced ginger, garlic, chili

Minced ginger, garlic, chili

Meanwhile prepare the sauce. Mince garlic, ginger and chili and keep aside.

Liquid ingredients for manchurian

Liquid ingredients for manchurian

In a bowl, mix the chicken broth, soy sauce, chili sauce, cornstarch and ketchup or Worcestershire sauce.

Heat two tablespoons oil in a wide pan. When it shimmers, put in the garlic, ginger and chili, to saute them gently. By this point the cauliflower should be ready and browned, put it into the pan and stir the seasonings with it. Doesn’t hurt to adjust the cauliflower for salt at this point, even though the salty soy sauce is yet to come, one wants the cauliflower to not be bland in itself.

Cauliflower sauteing

Cauliflower sauteing

Now it is time for the liquid mixture to be poured in. Stir, stir, stir to coat the florets. As it comes to a boil, the cornstarch will congeal and make the mixture shiny. You want it to go all over the cauliflower.

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Your dish is ready, but you need garnish. This is what I used for garnish: sliced chili in some white vinegar, heated for 20 seconds in the microwave.

Chili vinegar

Chili vinegar

We had it for dinner with this lovely fried rice with purple cabbage, the recipe for which will have to come some other time.

Fried rice with purple cabbage

Fried rice with purple cabbage

Taro the terrible

Aneela Mirchandani Roots and tubers, Sindhi food Tags: , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments
Kachaalu took

Kachaalu took

Today more Sindhi food — a snack, this time, called kachaalu took.

Here is taro. It is a root or tuber, grown underground in the tropics all over the world. Also known as arbi, colocasia, kachaalu, dasheen.

Taro root

Taro root

This is one scruffy guy, as you can see. You are more likely to find it in a vegetable police lineup than in the vegetable swimsuit catalog. But I’m always happy to find it on my plate.

If you read the Wikipedia article I linked to, you might notice one thing — the countries where taro is eaten are all third world countries. This is telling. I don’t know what it is telling me, but perhaps that taro is not glamorous?

In reality this is a pretty healthy vegetable. Its leaves are large and heart-shaped, and can be eaten simply as greens or rolled around a filling. The tuber can be fried, boiled, mashed, sauted, roasted, baked, sauced, or microwaved (as we will see below) in endless variations. But whether you eat the leaves or the tuber, it must be cooked before eating, because it is somewhat toxic when raw.

The recipe below is eaten as snack either with dinner or before. Traditionally this recipe uses the double-fry method, but to make it somewhat healthier, I use the microwave and get quite comparable results. I also shallow, not deep, fry.

Kachaalu took

Ingredients:

  • A few tubers of taro
  • some salt
  • some oil
  • red chili powder
  • dry mango powder, substitute with lime/lemon juice

Method:

Rinse the tubers to get the lose dirt and hair off. Set them in a plate and microwave for about 5-6 minutes or until softened. Wait for them to cool until you can handle them, then pull the peel off. Now slice the tubers into quarter inch thick slices.

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Heat the oil in a non-stick pan. When it shimmers it is time to lay the slices down. Sprinkle with salt as they are cooking. Also press down on each slice with a spatula to a) get it to be in full contact with the hot oil, and b) flatten out a bit to be in even more contact.

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Pretty soon a delicious aroma of browning will arise, most reminiscent of bacon cooking. When you detect browning on the underside (this will take about 3 minutes on high-ish heat) flip each slice over

Sprinkle this side with salt as well. Flatten each slice with a spatula once again. In three more minutes, they will be browned on both sides.

Remove the slices to a plate and sprinkle with red chili powder and dry mango powder (aamchur). The latter adds a very necessary tang to the dish, so if you don’t have it, use lemon or lime juice instead.

I challenge any greasy-spoon diner to compete with this in sheer sinfulness!

Kachaalu took

Kachaalu took

Simple dal series — Part 2, yellow moong dal with roti

Aneela Mirchandani Mung beans (moong dal) Tags: , , , , , , , , 3 Comments
Moong dal

Moong dal

(Part I of the series is here)

(Part 3 of the series is here)

Most Californians know of this tiny bean — moong, or mung — in the form of sprouts in their ‘Californian’ sandwiches that they ask to have left out. Or the translucent tails thrown on top of their pad thai. But there is much more to the moong bean, so much more!

Moong dal

Dehusked, split moong dal

In India moong dal in its dehusked, split form is the ultimate comfort food. Creamy and inviting, it is also extremely simple to make. Often yellow moong dal with rice is a baby’s first grown up meal. It goes equally well with rice or roti, but needs a slightly wetter preparation for rice. This recipe is about the moong dal that goes with roti. It makes enough for a dinner side for two, and is easily multiplied.

Garlicky yellow moong dal

Ingredients:

  • Half cup dehusked and split yellow moong dal
  • 3-4 large cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 serrano or other hot green chilies, minced
  • Curry leaves if you have them, about 6
  • half a teaspoon turmeric
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • salt to taste

Method:

Rinse the dal and put it in a pot with the turmeric. Add one and half cups of water and bring it to a boil.

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The thing to note while boiling any dal is that as it comes to a boil, the stuff will foam up very suddenly and squirt all over your burner. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to run to the kitchen to the sound of yellow liquid sizzling all over my burner, and had to tamp down the foam by stirring it. So either leave the lid off while you bring it to a boil, so you can watch, or leave it partially uncovered. Once the the foam has spent itself, it is fine to mostly cover the pot with a lid, and turn it down to a simmer.

Moong dal, cooked

Moong dal, cooked

This dal will take about 45 minutes to cook. Towards the end of cooking time you can cover it with a lid fully. You can test a grain by squishing it between your finger and thumb. Add salt, turn it off or leave at a very low simmer.

Serrano chilies, one freak, one not

Serrano chilies, one with a freakish cowlick

Meanwhile prepare the garlic and chili for the seasoning. Heat oil in a small thick-bottomed pan. When the oil shimmers, put in the garlic, chili and curry leaves.

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Cook at medium heat till the garlic starts to shrivel and the chili and curry leaves look blistered. Turn off, pour the contents of the pan into the dal, and stir nicely. As you stir, the grains will break up further and become quite creamy.

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This dal, if eaten with chapatis and a simple fried vegetable is an unexpected slice of heaven. To garnish, I usually sprinkle dry mango powder or red chili powder on individual portions.