I know, I know you
must be wondering, what, dal chawal and Diwali?!! Well there are two answers to
that. Firstly, I don't have too much of a sweet tooth and hence voted against
making one. Secondly, we are off to Kerala tonight for a much awaited week-long
vacation and thus I thought it wouldn't be a good idea to cook anything before
that. And so I decided to make the very famous dal chawal, but with a slight
twist! This will be a good wash down after you have had a good rich Diwali
spread of yummy food and delicious sweets and savouries.
It has been a little over a
year since I moved to Bangalore with
my husband. When we moved away from home, we left behind quite a few luxuries
that we did not recognize as such until their loss was felt..immensly! One of those
was the simple pleasure of having food that we grew up with, the simplest of
meals like the Chor, Parippu curry and Meen Vevichathu (rice,
lentils and fish curry; Kerala style). Though I make this quite regularly at
home, the joy of having that cooked, lovingly, by our mothers in exactness to
our preferences is a different feeling altogether. But luckily for us, we get
to go home quite often and I make use of that opportunity to gobble all the
yummy dishes cooked with so much of love! :) Can't wait for our trip home.
My husband and I are
quite South Indian at heart when it comes to a daily meal. But we do love our
chapathis and dals and other North Indian delicacies too. Rotis,
Parathas, chole, dal and chawal, you name it, we like it.
If there is the aroma of a good garam masala in the curry, then we are happy
campers.
Dal is made
differently (even pronounced differently; Dhal in the South
and Dal in the North) across the country. Dal is actually not
so much a South Indian staple, we have Sambhar for that. But
with increasing culinary exposure and interaction, you find some form of it all
over the place. But lovely, fresh aromatic basmati rice cooked along with dals
is a popular dish among the North Indians. And so I decided to borrow the
concept from the North and add a bit of my own flavours to it to make this
yummy dal chawal, the perfect comfort food! It's simple, basic ingredients,
tasty and when cooked with lots of love, tastes awesome! :)
Ingredients
Basmati rice - 1/2 cup
Water - 3 1/2 cups
Ghee/Oil - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Cloves - 2
Green chilli (slit
lengthwise) - 1 (small)
Garlic (finely
chopped) - 5 to 6 cloves
Ginger (finely
chopped) - 1 small piece
Onions (finely
chopped) - 2 (small)
Tomato - 1 (small)
Cinnamon - 1 inch
stick
Bayleaf (tejpatta) - 1
Carrot - 2 (small)
Peas – ¼ cup
Turmeric powder – ½
tsp
Red chilli powder – 1
tsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Salt
Pav bhaji masala – 2
tsp
Tamarind pulp – 1 tsp
Sugar – 1 tbsp
Coriander leaves
Peanuts - 1/4 cup (dry
roasted)
Method
Wash and clean the dal
and keep aside. Wash and soak the rice for ½ an hour and drain and keep aside.
Heat ghee in a
pressure cooker and add cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and cumin seeds. When cumin
seeds crackles, add chopped garlic, ginger, green chilli and onions and saut'e
till onion becomes light brown. Add chopped tomatoes and saut'e till soft. Now
add all the veggies along with masala/spice powders and saut’e on a medium
flame for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the rice and dal and mix well and saut’e for
another 2 minutes on a medium flame. Add 3 1/2 cups of water along with salt
and sugar and pressure cook for 3 to 4 whistles. Switch off the flame and allow
steam to go completely. Once the steam has gone completely, add the roasted
peanuts and coriander leaves and mix well. Serve hot.
And there was lunch in
a few minutes! Piping hot rice doused with the nostalgic dal! Oh it was
heavenly. Wishing you all a very Happy Diwali. Enjoy :)
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