Dal Fry
Dal fry is a very popular dish to be served in all the Indian restaurants across the world. What is Dal fry? Basically its a Indian lentil soup. There are different ways you can make Dal fry. Traditionally, Dal fry is made with mixture of various dals/lentils like toovar dal, chana dal, urad dal, yellow moong dal and moong split dal along with various spices. Dal fry usually has a medium to thick consistency, so that you can eat it with rice, pulav or for that matter naan or paratha.
Growing up in Gujarati family, I ate Dal fry only in the restaurants. After marriage and moving to USA, I could not find that authentic taste of Dal fry that I used to get back home. The scenario changed after this small little joint opened in Edison, NJ called Khasiyat(my second home). Their specialty is stuffed parathas and their thali/platter comes with different dal along with punjabi curries and stuffed parathas. My husband and my kids started enjoying their dal very much. I took it up as challenge to make Dal fry home and after many tries, I have come up with following recipe. Its delicious and will sure remind you of authentic taste of back home! Do try it out and let me know…
Dal Fry
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp moong dal (skinless yellow gram)
- 2 tbsp tuvar dal (split pigeon pea)
- 2 tbsp chana dal (split bengal gram)
- 1 tbsp urad dal (skinless black gram)
- 1 tbsp moong chikla dal (split green gram)
- salt (to taste)
- 1 tsp haldi (tumeric powder)
- 4 medium tomatoes, roughly pureed
- 3 medium onions, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 inch ginger
- 7-8 garlic cloves
- 2 green chillies
- 3-4 dried red chillies
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/4 tsp hing (asafoetida)
- 2-3 cardamom seeds, crushed
- 1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
- 1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
- 1 handful chopped coriander
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 3/4 tsp amchoor powder
- 1/2 tsp kasoori methi, roasted and crushed
- 1 small charcoal (optional)
- 1/2 tsp ghee
Instructions
- Wash twice and soak the dals in a cup of water for 30 minutes. Pressure Cook the dals with some more water added about ½ cup, salt to taste and ½ tsp haldi for 4 whistles on high, then leave for 2 minutes in medium flame.
- Heat up ghee in a pan. Crush up ginger, garlic and chili using a mortar-pestle(this is very important. By crushing ginger-garlic-chilies in mortar-pastel gives a unique texture and flavor). Add the cumin seeds to the ghee, once sizzles add the bay leaf, dried red chili, hing, along with the crushed ginger-garlic-chilies mixture.
- Saute for a moment, add the cardamom, crushed coriander seeds, chili flakes. Cook for a minute.
- Add the onions, ¼ tsp salt and cook till brown. Once starts leaving fat and is brown, add the tomato puree, salt to taste and cook for 10-12 mins or until starts leaving sides and fat.
- Once done, add a handful of chopped coriander, cumin powder, garam masala, kashmiri red chili powder, coriander powder, amchoor and kasoori methi. Mix well and cook for another 2-3 mins.
- Add the cooked dal, and cook for 3-4 mins.. Make sure the dal is not watery, It should be of thicker consistency. Add ½ cup water(if needed), mix well and cook for 5 mins. Switch off the flame.
- Heat up a charcoal on open flame until fiery red. Place a small stainless steel bowl in the dal and make sure it stays and does not sink, put in the hot charcoal and pour in a few drops of ghee. Quickly cover the pan. This will bring the real dhaba/restaurant taste, the smoky taste. Let this be like for 10 mins. If you don’t like the smoky flavor, you can omit this step.
- Take the bowl out, mix the dal and relish with rice, pulav or for that matter naan or paratha.
Nice recipe…
Thanks dear. I’m glad you liked it.