For LeftyMom - curried vegetables & dahl - with several pictures

How To Cook Indian style by billyskank

I promised LeftyMom yesterday I would give her the recipe, and so here it is. I'm not sure if this qualifies for white trash cooking, but here goes. :D

The veg I am cooking are potatoes, cauliflower and broccoli, but you can of course use any veg you like. The only consideration is the relative cooking times, because you want all the veg to complete at about the same time, as near as possible. Potato is almost always in there, and this always wants to go first.

"Dahl" means split beans. I am using mung dahl, but again you can substitute anything you like: urd dahl, pinto beans, black eye beans, anything you like. Larger beans require a longer cooking time of course, and may need soaking overnight beforehand. The cooking time for mung dahl is about an hour, and you can get away without soaking them.

"Hing" or compounded asafoetida is the Magic Ingredient. It's like MSG for Hindus, and it is used by Hare Krishnas to enhance flavour because they don't eat onions or garlic. If you have an Indian grocer that is frequented by Hindus you will probably be able to get some (it comes in a yellow pot), otherwise I doubt you will find it. In which case, you can use garlic powder instead.

Where I have given quantities without qualification, I mean for one person. Multiply as appropriate.

Ingredients

Mung dahl
Potatoes
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Sunflower oil (or any other oil of your choice)
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds
Ground turmeric
Ground cumin
Ground paprika
Chilli powder or ground cayenne pepper
Garam masala
Hing (compounded asafoetida) or garlic powder

Since the dahl takes longest to cook, we start with this. You don't need much: say about 1/5th pint per person. First, give it a bit of a wash: just soak it for a few minutes in water, and give it a little stir. While it was soaking I used the time to peel and dice my potatoes. After a few minutes strain off the dahl and rinse it a bit.

Cooking the dahl

Pour a very small amount of oil into a smallish pan and put a low heat under it. Shake a very small quantity of mustard seeds into the oil and wait for them to start to pop. You may want to cover the pan because they tend to get a bit lively. When they start popping, shake some cumin seeds into the pan along with them, a little bit more of these than of the mustard seeds, but still not very much. Cover the pan again and wait for the cumin seeds to turn black and start popping as well.

As soon as the cumin seeds start to pop, tip the strained dahl into the pan. Things may seem to go mental when you do this and it might smell like burning, but don't panic. Pour water into the pan, about five times the volume of dahl you have, and turn up the heat. Wait for it to come to the boil, stirring occasionally to unstick anything from the bottom.

When the dahl comes to the boil turn down to a simmer and add some salt - as much or little as you like, really: if you err on the side of caution you can always add more later. Add about 1/4 tsp of turmeric, about the same amount of ground cumin, a dash of ground paprika for colour and as much chilli/cayenne as you like. (It works without, too). :) Also add a shake of hing or garlic powder.

By this time, my dahl was looking like this:



There is nothing left to do with the dahl except let it simmer until the dahl is cooked and has absorbed most of the water. If it seems to be running dry, feel free to add more.

Cooking the vegetables

Once the dahl is simmering away, I started with the veg ("subji" as an Indian would call it).

Everything that an Indian cooks always starts with a chaunce. We even did it with the dahl, although I didn't call it that. It's where you fry the spices in oil to cook the seeds and let the flavours come out a bit before adding the rest of the ingredients.

To start, pour a good quantity of oil into a larger pan and put it under a low heat. Add a small amount of mustard seeds (somewhat more than before) and wait for them to pop just as before. Add cumin seeds (again more than before) and wait for these to pop also. If you were using fresh chilli, ginger and/or onion, you would fry these now. Feel free to use any of these if you like.

Add the diced potato, keeping it over a low heat, and stir regularly until the potato begins to turn translucent. Then add about 1/3 tsp of ground turmeric. At this point my veg looked like this:



As you can see, I used a little too much oil. ;)

You want to wait until the potatoes have cooked enough that you can add the rest of the veg and have it all complete about the same time. I usually end up overcooking the potatoes. Keep stirring while you wait.

When you judge the time is right, if you have loads of oil left in the pan (like I did) then chuck the rest of the veg in and fry it a little bit to soak up the oil. I did this, and after a couple of minutes constantly stirring, my veg looked like this:



If you didn't use so much oil, you should straight away pour in some water: about 1cm depth in the bottom of the pan. Turn up the heat to bring to the boil and then turn straight down again to a simmer. Then add the rest of the veg.

In the meantime, the dahl was coming along nicely:



Do stir the dahl occasionally just to make sure nothing is sticking. It shouldn't, but you should keep checking it to make sure it has enough water. Feel free to give the dahl a taste to see if it needs anything.

I then poured water into the veg, about 1cm depth in the pan as I mentioned. You may have done this already. When the veg is simmering away in the water, add the garam masala*. This is a mixture of spices, so don't be afraid to go wild. Also add a shake of paprika and again as much or as little chilli/cayenne pepper as you like. Add salt to taste.

At this point my veg looked this this:



Now we just wait for everything to cook. It'll take between 10 and 20 minutes. If either the dahl or the veg finish first, just turn out the light, cover and leave it. In the meantime, cook your rice or whatever you want to go with it. If you do rice, I heartily recommend basmati: American long grain just isn't as good. (Sorry).

Eventually it is all done, and everything looks like this:




I served it Bengali style, with the dahl poured over the rice:



It tasted scrummy. :9

Hope this gives you some ideas! :D

* Actually I used Schwartz pilau rice seasoning instead of garam masala, which turns out to be a great masala for cooking with as well as just flavouring your rice, but I notice that it isn't vegan friendly (it contains milk derivatives).

Other than that, it looks really good.

Urd dahl is better though, IMO.

You should have your own cooking show. :D

:loveya: Thanks. :)

:hug:

Thank you, billyskank. :-)

I'm getting ready to make curried chicken tonight. :9

:hi:

I'm soooo hungry now. And I'm 2 hours away from having my dinner.

Nice post, billy.

:hi:

Indian cooking is soooo good for vegetarians. :D

I just got back from the store, so I won't be able to get the stuff to make it tonight though (that's okay, I'm busy tonight.) If they don't have the compounded asofetida at the food co-op we have several indian groceries around here so I shouldn't have any problem tracking some down.

I love Indian food. :9 You're absolutely right about the Basmati rice, too. It's much more flavorful and the texture is nicer.

I hope this has given you some ideas. If you like to use onion you probably won't require hing, although you can't really use onion in the dahl (that would be kinda odd). Sikhs and people who eat loads of onion and garlic never bother with hing.

Basically there are two golden rules:

(1) Always fry your seeds first.

(2) Err on the side of caution when adding ground spice. You usually need less than you think.

Apart from that, you can pretty much do whatever you like.

If you want, I'll post instructions later on how to make kick-ass samosas, from a recipe given to me by a Sikh friend's mum. I need to make some next week to take in to work in celebration of my birthday next weekend.

:hi:

Yes! I :loveya: food.

I've made them before but it's been a long time. I'd love to know how you prepare them.

This is awesome! :9

you'll fit right in with us over there! :hi:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=236

.. I love Indian food and there are some good restaurants and Indian grocers around here but mine and wife's efforts at cooking our own have not come out that great.

Maybe we needed the hing :)

all the effort you went to in posting it :hi:

I have worn out my copy of Madhur Jaffrey's World of the East cookbook. It is falling apart :-(.

Now I want sag paneer, or maybe just a fried sausage with curry sauce!

I made this last night and in a few short hours I will be eating it again. (leftovers!) :9 This was an easy, quick recipe. I had no mung beans so I susbstituded chick peas. The flavors are beautiful all together and I felt better (if that makes sense) after eating such a healthful meal.

:thumbsup: :thumbsup:

I love Indian food but don't know much about cooking it. The recipes and tips are very helpful! Thanks, Billyskank! :)

:*

This is actually sort of an old favorite of mine, but I haven't made it in a long time. Thanks for the reminder!

Not sure where I can buy asafoetida these days, though. Then again the neighbors did seem to get a little upset when I cooked with it, back in the day. It is rather...pungent. But delicious!