Toor daal

You can find these glossy oil-coated split pigeon peas in most supermarkets here in London.  Many recipes exist as the lentil is used both in the north and the south of India.  I've seen different spellings on recipes that reflect the language or dialect spoken - tuar, toovar, tur, and its also known as arhar dal, but the most common spelling and word is toor, so I'll stick to that here.

I have used 2 different recipes frequently.  One was told to me by my mother, and the other is one I used to use from the side of the lentil packet! I copied it down because I realised I might one day have to get a different brand, or the manufacturers might change the packaging!  I have another recipe stashed away that's a Parsi recipe which I'll add to this blog at some point in the future.

This daal is usually a medium thickness and served with rice.

My Mum's version:

1 cup of toor daal

handful of redskin peanuts (unsalted)

1 whole tomato

1/4 teaspoon of turmeric

salt to taste.

Add the above to a small pressure cooker.  Add 2 cups of water and give pressure for 7 minutes.  Allow the pressure to release naturally to avoid it spitting and frothing at you, and then open the lid.  Now you need to add some jaggery/gur to the dal, to taste.  I have used muscavado sugar in place of this, but it doesn't have the complexity of flavours and is much sweeter than jaggery.

While the lentils are cooking, make a tarka (tempering) of 1tsp mustard seeds, 2-3 sliced garlic cloves, a pinch of asafoetida, a few curry leaves, 1 whole green chilli and one whole dried red chilli.

Add the tarka to the lentils and garnish with chopped coriander leaves (if you hate me.)

Serve with simple steamed basmati rice and a smile.

Packet side recipe

228g oily toor

114g chopped yam or sweet potato

75g redskin peanuts

2 tbsp ghee

1/4 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp asafoetida

3 chopped plum tomatoes

1 tsp ginger paste

1/2 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp turmeric

salt to taste

1 tbsp jaggery

juice of half a lemon or 1 tbsp tamarind paste

Wash and drain the lentils.  Place in a pan and add 750 ml water, the peanuts and the yam.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 15 mins.  

Heat ghee and fry cumin until brown.  Add asafoetida, tomatoes, ginger and chilli powder and fry gently.

Add this to the dal mixture.  Stir well and simmer until the grains and yam are soft and fully cooked.  

Add water if needed, but be sure to cook it in.  Finally add the lemon or tamarind  and jaggery and stir well.  

Serve with rice.