Monday 30 May 2011

A recipe from one friend to another... Sunil's Dahl

I learnt this recipe from a friend a very long time ago.  We've always called it Sunil's dahl in our house, although I think it's possibly a simplified version of Kashmiri red kidney beans.  I remember he came from a family of rather amazing cooks and had a nice repertoire of simple tasty dishes.  A firm favourite on many a hungover morning were pittas stuffed with scrambled egg, chilli, onion, tomato & coriander.  I think his sister still runs the consistently good 'world food' restaurant, Cachumba, in West Didsbury. 

I don't see him much these days, but I make this dish all the time, as it's ridiculously easy, nutritious and tastes delicious.  It often forms part of my thali platters at home as it's a nice simple element, freeing up time to spend on a more complex one.  After Saturday's thali night, I promised my friend Lisa that I'd blog this recipe, as her lot rate this as their favourite dish.  Typical!  I spend hours on other elements, and the one that takes 10 minutes gets dish of the day.  A lesson to be learned there perhaps! 

Sunil's dahl  -  serves 6
  • Kidney beans, 4 cans, thoroughly rinsed
  • 2 very large white onions (or 4 medium) - finely sliced
  • 3 tbsp ghee
  • 2 heaped tsp garam masala
  • 1 heaped tsp cumin powder
  • 3 inch piece of fresh ginger - fined chopped
  • 1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder (hot variety) - finely chopped
  • 2 large red chillies (milder variety) - finely chopped
  • 1-2 small green chillies (hot variety) - finely chopped
  • 2-4 tsp salt (to taste, but be generous)
  • Roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves
  1. Saute finely slice onion in ghee until nicely softened and translucent.  Then add spices and cook for 3 mins.
  2. Add ginger and chillies and fry gently for 5 mins.
  3. Add kidney beans and 3 pints of water.  Bring to boil and season with salt to taste, but it needs plenty of seasoning so be generous. 
  4. Simmer for 2 hours.  The longer the better.  Just add more water if it gets too thick, and more seasoning if required.  You want a nice rich gravy like sauce.
  5. Sprinkle with large handful of fresh coriander and serve with soft chapatis or steamed rice.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Jackie, i was wondering if you could put the recipe for the Pad Thai that you did on Mchef up sometime, please. Great blog!

    Karen

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  2. Thanks Karen. I'm planning to blog about pad thai very soon.

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  3. I've adjusted recipe shown since first published... I underestimated amounts for quite a few elements. Oops! Sorry. Will try harder next time :o)

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  4. This recipe is an example of how something you do from your head needs checking on paper - several times! My friend Lisa told me it just tasted bitter and nothing like the version she eats at my house. So I made the dish last night and checked/measured what I was doing. Turns out I don't use nearly as much spicing as I first thought. It's meant to be quite a mellow dish. Secondly, if you don't cook it for long enough, the spices taste bitter and uncooked. I tasted it at one hour in and it just wasn't right. It's the kind of dish you see bubbling away for hours in a punjabi kitchen, so I think perhaps the cooking time is also essential. It requires water adding during simmering so it can keep reducing and cooking the spices and onions into a lovely rich gravy. I have adjusted the recipe above. Let me know how it goes...

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