Urad Dal
Posted by Natalie in Uncategorized
This dal recipe comes from my mother-in-law and is as close to perfect as I’ve ever come with making Indian food at home. For me, Indian food is one of those things that is generally always better in restaurants, for some reason despite how closely I follow a recipe it never turns out quite right in the end. While many Indian recipes seem to be fairly straight forward, I was always suspicious that there was a secret ingredient I didn’t know about that was present in Indian cooking, which was preventing me from being able to enjoy making a recipe at home that would not disappoint.
After much hesitation I finally tried this recipe from Sat’s mom a few years ago and have been making it ever since. It truly does not disappoint and was almost perfect the first time I made it. Despite the fact that I have almost constant access to some of the most amazing home cooked Indian food I have ever had, I still make this recipe at least once a month. I generally serve it simply with some homemade roti, or if I’m feeling fancy basmati rice and buttermilk are also wonderful accompaniments.
Urad Dal - Recipe adapted from my mother-in-law. Serves 4.
I made this recipe in my slow cooker this time around, but you could just as easily make this in a pot in the stove. The cooking time will be much less, about 2 hours at a gentil boil should do the trick. If you do make it on the stove, I would suggest making it the day before you intend to eat it as the longer you allow it to simmer the more intense the flavors will be.
1 1/2 cups dried urad dal (black lentil), thoroughly washed
4 medium sized tomatoes roughly chopped, skins on
1 medium onion, diced
1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, diced
5 garlic cloves, diced
2 tablespoons turmeric powder
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon dried red pepper powder
1/4 cup unsalted butter
salt to taste
fresh coriander, finely chopped
Place the dal, tomatoes, onion, ginger, garlic, turmeric powder, garam masala, red pepper and butter into the pot of your slow cooker and cover by about 2 1/2 inches of cold water. Place your cooker on high heat and cook for 4 hours. After 4 hours you’ll want to check the seasoning and add salt to your taste and turn it down to the low setting and cook for an additional 4 hours or until the dal reaches desired consistency.
You will have to adjust the amount of water you add to your liking. If you like a thicker dal as I do than the above quantities will work just fine. However, if a more liquid dal is to your liking you may want to add another half cup or so of water from the get go and perhaps reduce your cooking time by an hour. The lentils are fully cooked after the 4 hours on the high setting, the additional 4 hours on low is what really makes all the flavors come together.
