RCP: basic dal or Using Asafoetida

So I came across mention of this in a thread one day. I'm still not sure I understand this spice but here's a basic dal I came up with that worked well with some Indian Butter Chicken and Naan I made for dinner tonight.

1 cup green lentils
olive oil
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp curry powder ( I used the whole foods Muchi Curry)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp asafoetida
1/2 tsp salt (too little should have used 3/4 or 1 full tsp salt)

Soak the lentils for a couple of hours changing the water now and then. Add about 5 cups water to the drained lentils and bring to a boil with 1/4 tsp tumeric. I added the tumeric at this point because some recipes said to others did not. Not sure if it makes a difference. Simmer for about 1/2 hour. Check to see if its as thick as you want it, some like a soup, I wanted a side dish so I took the cover off and simmered until it was as thick as I wanted it. Meantime chop the onion and dice the garlic. Saute the onion in 2 or 3 tbl olive oil until golden. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the other 1/4 tsp turmeric, spices and salt and cook for another 2- 3 minutes. Add the onion/spice mixture to the dal and mix and heat through.

The Asafoetida adds a woody/spicy slightly astringent flavor that I found intriguing. Wife and sons liked. Daughter did not care for it. Everybody liked the chicken and naan.

Hi Howard

I have a few Indian cookbooks and have cooked various Dhal recipes.

Yours is different, from memory I would say that most often I start out with hot fat, and put chopped onions and the spices into the hot fat before adding the wet ingredients and simmering. I remember mustard seeds popping and the colors of the powdered spices staining the chopped onion.

I think we've discussed "hing" here before. It can be quite stinky in high concentration, and people vary in sensitivity to it, kind of like TCA in corked wine. Some find TCA disgusting at levels that others can't even detect. Same for asafoetida. I use it mostly in south Indian recipes with curry leaves and vegetables. I don't think I have ever used it in a lentil Dhal.

Are you happy with your recipe or should I try to dig up another to try?

Frank

Hi Frank,
Thanks for your comments. I'm always happy to try a new recipe so if you've got a couple I'd love to see them. I'm very new to Indian cooking and really don't know much about it except that I love it. I think the thread about Vindaloo that veered off into asafoetida is what prompted me to investigate a little. The little bit of web-searching I did though did suggest that asafoetida (also known as hing, Devil's dung, stinking gum among other names) is commonly used to prepare dal. It's supposed to help with the flatulence that comes with legumes. But what do I know?

Regarding the sequence, several recipes called for boiling the dal then combining with onions and spices that had been fried in fat. Some called for pureeing part of the lentil preparation. I like lentils, I like spices so I put them together. While not authentic I liked the result, too, but like I say, I'm always open to new recipes. Also, I have a good friend who is from Pakistan and I have several friends who are Indian. In the event that I cook for them (these guys don't cook) I'd like to make something authentic.

Apparently the Dhal vs Dal spelling is also not resolved as it results from phonetic spelling of the word from the Hindu language.

Hi Howard

Well, at first I could only find the recent cookbook by Madhur Jaffrey, "Indian Cooking" and she has a few "Dal" recipes that look a lot like yours. When I get time I may type in one of those so you can see how close you are. It took me a while to find my older cookbooks. The older books uniformly use Dhal or Dhall and of course the aspirated "D" is a separate letter in Hindi and other languages that use the Devanagari alphabet, so in the subcontinent it's clear. I suspect that Jaffrey and other more modern authors are simply trying to make things easy for English speaking readers. Here:



Because Google works in any alphabet some day I can try searching for Dal and Dhal in devanagari and clear things up definitively. But it's too late to embark on that project tonight. Mac OS-X basically comes with all alphabets built in, if you can figure out where to find them.

PS. OK, looks like "Dal" is right in Hindi. This is from the Wikipedia page, see the small curlicue "D" at the start (left) of the word.



Frank

Hi Howard

and of course the aspirated "D" is a separate letter in Hindi and other languages that use the Devanagari alphabet, so in the subcontinent it's clear. I suspect that Jaffrey and other more modern authors are simply trying to make things easy for English speaking readers. Here:



Because Google works in any alphabet some day I can try searching for Dal and Dhal in devanagari and clear things up definitively. But it's too late to embark on that project tonight. Mac OS-X basically comes with all alphabets built in, if you can figure out where to find them.

PS. OK, looks like "Dal" is right in Hindi. This is from the Wikipedia page, see the small curlicue "D" at the start (left) of the word.



Frank

Of course...

I don't know anything about this. I don't even know what an aspirated D is. But this is why I love this site. Where else can I learn so much about the food I like?

Pedantry R Us.

Frank

Pedantry R Us.

Frank

That's too harsh I think. I'm not kidding when I say that's why I love this site. Try going to a party sometime and having a long conversation about whether or not the method you use to cook dal/dhal/dhaal/etc is authentic. If the people around you stop to roll their eyes before moving to the other side of the room you're doing pretty well. Here, it's normal.

So, what's an aspirated D?

Kind of "du-huh" instead of just "duh." If you can say "hard-hat" that's an aspirated "d" in the middle. And that's how I thought Dal was pronounced for several years. I've astonished some of my Indian students by pronouncing "Bhagavad Gita" correctly.

And you sound like you think being a pedant is a -bad- thing? I wear it as a badge of honor...

Frank

[Jenise]

Aren't you adventurous--never have never cooked with asafoetida myself. Now you have me wondering about it. Love dahl, though. First time I ever had it in an Indian restaurant, it was served over steamed white rice. I had yet to have red beans and rice so the notion of serving a starch with another starch was completely novel to me at the time. Tell us more about the "Indian Butter Chicken".

I made dal (dahl dhal...you know..) last night-- with red lentils...and the recipe I followed did cook the spices with onion and then some garlic and ginger first...Then you add the lentils and the water..

Most lentils don't require soaking. I rinsed, but it didn't take long to cook them soft..

I think the clearest way to describe the aroma of asafoetida is that it is a bit like smelly feet.

This may be off putting but there are other foods with that smell, including some very good French cheeses.

Still, you should know what you are getting into. Where I live in New Jersey is not far from "little Bombay" on Oak Tree Road so I have no problem with Indian ingredients. And as I think I mentioned, when I have used asafoetida it has always been in conjunction with fresh curry leaves, which seem to have a similar scent. Southern Indian cooking uses those two spices along with urad dal or other small lentils/peas which are used as a flavoring ingredient in cooked cabbage or greens. The kitchen smells of that stuff for 2 or 3 days after you cook with it...

Frank

"The kitchen smells of that stuff for 2 or 3 days after you cook with it..."

I've got a pretty good nose but it's not an exquisitely sensitive one. For example, I can tell a heavily corked wine but I'm sure I've had corked wines that I didn't recognize. The asafoetida does smell to me but I did not think offensively so. Maybe 1/4 tsp isn't enough to overwhelm? The house always smells like Indian food for a day or two after cooking it. I happen to love the smell. My friend from Pakistan tells me that not everyone does. When he first came to this country, he lived in a cheap apartment and his neighbors did not appreciate the entire building smelling like a Pakistani restaurant for days after he/his family cooked.

Speaking of wine... since my family doesn't like things really spicy hot, I was able to drink a Minervois red with this meal that actually complemented the food extraordinarily well. It was a 2003 Courbissac Minervois and the spices in the food just sang with the syrah.

Aren't you adventurous--never have never cooked with asafoetida myself. Now you have me wondering about it. Love dahl, though. First time I ever had it in an Indian restaurant, it was served over steamed white rice. I had yet to have red beans and rice so the notion of serving a starch with another starch was completely novel to me at the time. Tell us more about the "Indian Butter Chicken".

Apparently in some parts of India (southern I think- Frank?) the lentils are the vegetable, not really considered starch.

As far as the Indian Butter Chicken goes - it was really fun to make. You toast a bunch of herbs, grind them, mix with yoghurt and use that as a marinade. It's a recipe I got from a newsletter I get from Indianfood.about.com. I'll post the recipe and a link separately.

Most lentils don't require soaking. I rinsed, but it didn't take long to cook them soft..

Hi Barb,
I got conflicting information regarding soaking the lentils and since I don't know what I'm doing I thought I'd err on the side of caution. Some recipes said to soak others said it was unnecessary.

Howard,

That's a good basic dal recipe.

Most dal recipes that I've seen start with one or more split, hulled lentils:

toor dal = pigeon peas
masoor dal = red lentils
mung dal = mung beans
chana dal = chickpeas
urad dal = small black beans (also called "black gram" in some Indian recipe books written in English)

There are many others. Green lentils are closest to masoor dal.

Regarding soaking: It's not strictly necessary with the split, hulled dals. You just wash the dal and simmer it until soft and starting to break apart. With unhulled dals (such as the green lentils you used) I'd opt for soaking as you did. Soaking and changing the water also helps cut down on the digestive gas problem that can occur with dal dishes, just as with other dried bean preparations.

Regarding the fried spice mixture: A mixture of spices such as black mustard seed, cumin, asafoetida, garlic or onions, briefly browned in a bit of oil, is common in most dal recipes. These ingredients play an anti-gas role. This spice mixture is called a chaunk or tarka and, depending on the recipe, is either added at the start of cooking or right near the end.

Regarding asafoetida: It can be very stinky and overpowering if used in excess and adds a distinctive and wonderful flavor when used in moderation. A little goes a long way. 1/4 tsp seems rather a lot for the asafoetida preparation that I use--I'd have expected 1/8 tsp. Asafoetida is the dried resin of various plants of the fennel family. It's nearly always sold in powdered form, very much cut and diluted down. Unfortunately, the potency of asafoetida varies from brand to brand, so you have to be careful with it.

-Paul W.

Thanks Paul - that's good info to have.

I went back and added chana dal (chickpeas) to the list.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

As far as the Indian Butter Chicken goes - it was really fun to make. You toast a bunch of herbs, grind them, mix with yoghurt and use that as a marinade. It's a recipe I got from a newsletter I get from Indianfood.about.com. I'll post the recipe and a link separately.

Thanks, I'll be looking for it. Would make a nice menu deviation for us--much as I love Indian food, I don't cook it as often as I should.