I made the dal makhani after 7 hours of soaking and an hour of boiling the pulses. Alas, it didn’t really turn out like I expected - granted, it’s not a dish I grew up with or ate enough of to be really familiar with. Neither do i have much experience with these ingredients. Bought the wrong kind of urad dal (no skin) and followed recipes with too high a ratio of urad dal:kidney beans to my tastes. The end result was a bit too mushy and bland for my liking although it was no fault of the cashew cream, which I can report to @dumblederp worked well despite all the other problems. It reduced the slimy texture of urad dal and gave it a lovely creamy mouthfeel.
Ended up adding way more spices and eating it with copious amounts of lime pickle. Would try cashew cream again but need to change a few things if I try this dish again.
Not particularly inspiring pics:
Kidney beans I can use in other dishes, but man I have a lot of urad dal to go through.
I’m not too familiar with what sort of grains are needed for what but I heard some kind of dal is used for dosa and idlis? Some recipes use urad dal and they seem to use dehusked.
Great to hear about the cashew cream. Most of my “dal” is based of 1kg dry pulces and 150g spice mix. Sometimes add veggies, sometimes add chicken/stock.
A diced apple or pear and some microwave’d pappadums can zhoozjh it up a bit.
Also, the Instant Pot absolutely smashes out the dry pulces for no fuss cooking.
Hard no on the fruit but the pappadums definitely help. Had a more flavourful side of zucchini dry curry that lifted things up.
I really wanted to get an instant pot but there’s no space in this tiny unit - I barely have space for a microwave; I have to keep putting my rice cooker away and I’ve never even used my toaster since moving here.
When I move to my next long term place I’ll definitely be getting one given how many pulses I eat.
But yeah. Cashew cream for the win. It’s really easy to make too, just hot water, cashews, 15 mins soaking time and a blender.
Nothing still beats my favourite masoor dal though :) the easiest and tastiest, my comfort food
I discovered with microwave pappadums is that if you give them a light painting with oil then they come out a lot better. It’s like they’ve been deep fried. I use the small ones because they’re quicker.
Have already packed away half of today’s big cook up in the freezer. I don’t have much space though… and I’ll need to eat this stuff up eventually. I aim to be out of this place by the end of July. So over all the road noise and dust and not having my outdoor plants…
I made the dal makhani after 7 hours of soaking and an hour of boiling the pulses. Alas, it didn’t really turn out like I expected - granted, it’s not a dish I grew up with or ate enough of to be really familiar with. Neither do i have much experience with these ingredients. Bought the wrong kind of urad dal (no skin) and followed recipes with too high a ratio of urad dal:kidney beans to my tastes. The end result was a bit too mushy and bland for my liking although it was no fault of the cashew cream, which I can report to @dumblederp worked well despite all the other problems. It reduced the slimy texture of urad dal and gave it a lovely creamy mouthfeel.
Ended up adding way more spices and eating it with copious amounts of lime pickle. Would try cashew cream again but need to change a few things if I try this dish again.
Not particularly inspiring pics:
Kidney beans I can use in other dishes, but man I have a lot of urad dal to go through.
I’m not too familiar with what sort of grains are needed for what but I heard some kind of dal is used for dosa and idlis? Some recipes use urad dal and they seem to use dehusked.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2FhCWIBlOWc&pp=ygUJI3VyaWRkaGFs
Great to hear about the cashew cream. Most of my “dal” is based of 1kg dry pulces and 150g spice mix. Sometimes add veggies, sometimes add chicken/stock.
A diced apple or pear and some microwave’d pappadums can zhoozjh it up a bit.
Also, the Instant Pot absolutely smashes out the dry pulces for no fuss cooking.
Hard no on the fruit but the pappadums definitely help. Had a more flavourful side of zucchini dry curry that lifted things up.
I really wanted to get an instant pot but there’s no space in this tiny unit - I barely have space for a microwave; I have to keep putting my rice cooker away and I’ve never even used my toaster since moving here.
When I move to my next long term place I’ll definitely be getting one given how many pulses I eat.
But yeah. Cashew cream for the win. It’s really easy to make too, just hot water, cashews, 15 mins soaking time and a blender.
Nothing still beats my favourite masoor dal though :) the easiest and tastiest, my comfort food
If the rice cooker dies, replace it with an instant pot. IP does great rice.
I should really read some dal recipies and make something specific rather than the flavoured pulces that I’m living off.
I discovered with microwave pappadums is that if you give them a light painting with oil then they come out a lot better. It’s like they’ve been deep fried. I use the small ones because they’re quicker.
My cousin uses a quick spray of oil before microwaving them and they definitely come out primo.
that looks delicious 😊
Freeze?
Have already packed away half of today’s big cook up in the freezer. I don’t have much space though… and I’ll need to eat this stuff up eventually. I aim to be out of this place by the end of July. So over all the road noise and dust and not having my outdoor plants…