Do Ki Dal-Version 1/Mixed Dal/Pigeon pea & Black Lentils simmered with onion, tomato, green chili,garlic & ginger.

Daily meals should be simple, nutritious and satiating but no one talks about flavors... ofcouse every day meals can be as flavorful as those served at your favorite restaurants and the best flavors can only be achieved by using right ingredients in correct portions and adding them during the cooking process during the right time, this is exactly what the budding chefs are taught at the culinary schools. Talking about chefs and restaurants reminds me of my favorite dal makhani/ kali dal, which is laden with butter and cream and calories, which ofcourse we can have occasionally but we all know how we miss those flavors and aroma of our favorite dish, so what to do?!! ... fool our senses... yeap you're reading right we can surely fool our taste buds by fooling our olfactory nerve endings located in our upper part of interior nose which detect flavors. Using right seasoning achieves that.
So today thinking of my favourite dal makhani I decided to fool my senses and eat right, ofcourse without missing out all the fun. I used Ghee for tempering which gave dal right aroma and seasoned it in such a way that it right flavor. 

        Low calorie mixed dal served with rice steamed with cinnamon and cloves....now thats healthy!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup toor dal/pigeon pea lentils
1/4 cup whole urad dal/black lentils
1 1/2 tbs chili-ginger-garlic paste
1 tbs ghee/clarified butter for tempering
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1 medium sized onion chopped finely
2 tbs tomato paste/2 medium sized tomatoes finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric powder/haldi
1 tsp red chilli powder/kashmiri lal mirch powder
salt to taste
1-2 cups of water
handfull of chopped coriander leaves

Method:
Pressure cook the lentils/dal and keep aside.
Add ghee to heavy bottom pan and add cumin/jeera, once they start crackling add asafoetida and onions.
Saute for about a minute or two and add in tomato paste/chopped tomatoes and green chili-ginger-garlic paste. Let this sizzle for around 2 minutes.
Then add in turmeric and red chilli powder. Cook for a minute or so.
Add the cooked dal after mashing them a little with the back of a ladle.
Add water to adjust the consistency of dal, we don't want dal to be as thick as dal makhani rather. I almost added 1 & 1/2 cups of water to achieve the consistency shown in the snaps. So adjust water according to your needs.
Add salt to taste.
Let the dal sizzle for 5 more minutes then turn off the heat
Garnish it with chopped coriander/cilantro

Serve it with steamed rice or as a side dish along with paratha, naan or chapati of your choice. Goes along with any stir fried vegetables and chapati too.

Tips:
Serving this dal with rice steamed with cinnamon and cloves gives it nice additional aroma.

Dal Makhani (Kali Dal)

Ever thought of a dish which you used to love as a kid / otherwise came across and as time passes you move places, see things, learn, watch and grow intellectually, that kid within you keeps searching for that taste that is registered in your mind, may it be "Maa ke haath ka so n so dish" or "Mirch Masala (name of the restaurant) ki Masala chaas" or some road side eatery dish. This happened to me when P and I had gone to Mauritius, it was the day before our departure from Mumbai to Mauritius and we were staying at Intercontinental, The Lalit, Mumbai, it was during our lovely lunch we had ordered Kali dal along with rice, paneer curry dish, garlic naan etc. I shall never forget the aroma and buttery texture of that dal which I felt at the very first spoonful of it, ever since then I have tried to hunt down the recipe for that perfect dal. So my quest landed me at this recipe which I found at one of the best blogs,  www.vegeyum.wordpress.com. The author has similar experience with dal and had got the recipe from one of the chefs at Oberoi Bangalore. So I decided to give it a try and check the results.
Going through the recipe I learnt it calls in for almost 100 gms of butter + 50 gms of ghee and 30 ml of cream, which I didn't have courage to pour in as you know its not good health wise, So I modified and adapted the recipe as per my needs. Though I have added more than usual amounts of butter and cream otherwise this recipe can't be called Dal "Makhani", which literally means buttery.
Well this recipe is a keeper, I should say its almost there in sense of my quest for that perfect kali dal. I shall be sticking to it for a long long time.

Soak over night/min 6 hours
1/2 cup whole urad dal / black lentils
1/4 cup Rajma / red kidney beans
1/4 cup Channa dal / Bengal gram dal

Pressure cook soaked grains along with
1 inch ginger peeled and grated
2–3 big garlic cloves
2-3 green chillies
salt to taste
Make sure that there isn't excessive water in dal, if so drain and reserve (just in case you need it). Roughly mash the cooked dal with ladle, but be careful not to be over zealous.

For tempering heat
2 tbs ghee in a seperate vessel and add
1/2 tsp methi seeds / fenugreek seeds and
1 tsp cumin seeds / jeera once they start to sputter add
3–4 big garlic cloves crushed and chopped along with
1/4 tsp asafoetida cook for 30 seconds and add
2 tbs tomato paste (diluted with 2-4 tbs of water) or 1/2 cup thick tomato puree (I added tomato paste as it gives that distinct red colour to dal, also add more if you prefer a tangy dal. P doesn't like much tangy taste in dal and veggies so I have adjusted the taste accordingly.)

Add this tempering mixture to the cooked dal, mix well. Add 1 tsp red chilli powder (I used kashmiri lal mirch), 3-5 tbs butter and 3-5 tbs cream. Bring dal to a boil and let it simmer gently for 20 minutes / till dal acquires a buttery texture.
Serve warm with jeera rice or plain steamed rice or enjoy it with roti, paratha or naan of your choice.

Tips: Add 1/2 tsp garam masala for that nice aroma. Also, best way to serve this dal in its full splendor is to serve it with a dollop of butter. :)

Urad Dal Hara Masala/ White lentils cooked with ginger, garlic and green chillies

How can we vegetarians, fill in our protein needs?!! Anyone's guess, turn to lentils. Urad dal cooked with all green spices, by green spicies I mean real fresh grown ones... which include green onion, green garlic (dont sweat if you dont have green garlic, add in normal garlic pods as I did), green chillies and ginger and the result is tempting garlicy aromatic dal.
We gujju's love this dal with bajri rotla/ bajre ki roti. Besides this I love this dal as a sippy side dish and goes great along with any sukhi sabzi  and roti.
Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup urad dal/white lentils, pressure cooked and lightly mashed
3 green chillies slit in half
1 inch piece of ginger chopped
5 pods of garlic chopped
2 green onions, including the greens, chopped
salt to taste
1/2 tsp mustard seeds/rai
1/2 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
2 tbs oil for tempering
pinch of asafoetida
handful of chopped fresh coriander, for garnish.

Method:
Heat oil in heavy bottom pan and add oil, once it starts to smoke add in mustard and cumin, let them crackle
add in asafoetida. Now add all chopped greens and saute for 1 minute.
Add in lightly mashed urad dal and salt to taste.
Add in 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water and bring it to boil.
Garnish it with chopped coriander and serve hot.

Tips:

This dal goes well with jeera rice and as well as any kind of parathas.

Mag/Saboot Mung/Green Bean Dal

Mag or Saboot mung is highly nutritious in terms of dietary fiber and protein. As in India, Chinese and Indonesian cuisine uses this green gram pulse in variety of dishes starting from snacks to desserts. Actually wide spread use of this pulse is found all over south east asia.
Today I've prepared a very healthy and filling Mung dal.

Ingredients :
1 cup green gram/mag (washed, soaked for 30 mins and pressure cooked for 3-4 whistles)
1 medium sized onion chopped length wise
3 green chillies slit
1 tbs ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp turmeric
1 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 pinch asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 cumin seeds
salt to taste
1 tbs oil for tempering
2 tbs coriander chopped finely
2 sprigs curry leaves

Preparation Method :

Pressure cook the gram and keep aside
In a heavy bottom pan add oil for tempering, once hot enough add mustard seeds and cumin seeds. Once they start to crackle add asafoetida, curry leaves, slit green chillies and chopped onion.
Saute for 2 mins.
Now add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and ginger-garlic paste along with some water.
Saute for 1 min.
Then add cooked green gram. Adjust the consistency of it by adding a little water and let it come to a boil.
Turn off the heat and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with rice or chapati, this dish goes nice with aloo paratha and koki too.