Review of the Gujarati Toor Dal Recipe
Hi, Ray here again.
There wasn’t a recipe review last week. My girlfriend had seen what I’d written in my review of the Chicken and Mushroom Pulao Curry and she “thought” that I should make it again so that she could see if it was good as I said it was. And so I made the pulao again and, thankfully, it was a success.
This week I scanned the great Curry Focus recipes for a dal recipe to try. The website has some great dal recipes and the Gujarati Toor Dal looked easy and tasty.
I soaked the dal for the required two hours before adding water and simmering for around 25 minutes. I’d previously been told that toor dal should not be soaked for more than two hours because it tends to soften if it’s soaked for too long. The cooking time for the first part of the recipe depends on how gently the dal is simmered.
I then added the tomatoes and spices before adding a small amount of hot water to thin the dal a little.
I coked the mustard seeds and then added the cumin seeds, asafoetida (hing) and curry leaves before covering the pan and moving on to a spectacular part of the cooking, which was where I poured a cup of dal from the main saucepan to the saucepan with the mustard seeds. There was a great hissing noise, a large cloud of steam erupted from the saucepan before I put the lid back onto the saucepan. Very spectacular. I had heeded the warning to be extra careful and had no burns from the experience. I added a second cup of dal to the smaller saucepan but there wasn’t any steam this time.
Then the contents of the smaller saucepan was poured back into the large saucepan and I added the tamarind paste, cilantro and cumin powders and the raw sugar.
I finally gently boiled the dal for 15 minutes until it got to the consistency that I liked.
I timed the basmati to be ready at the same time as the dal and I served up the meal to the waiting diners garnished with the chopped fresh cilantro and with a side plate of roti (which I had bought from a store and all I had to do was quickly microwave them while the dal was finishing its cooking).
And what was the verdict? Just great! This is a truly wonderful dal with a lovely taste. The only thing that the diners had to do was pick out the many curry leaves as they were eating the dal – not too hard a task.
Everyone really enjoyed the dal and it received a rating of 8 out of 10 with a spice/heat rating of medium.
So if you like dal (and I’ve yet to find any curry lover who doesn’t like dal) then you really should try this recipe. You’ll have a delicious meal.
