One of Jenna's favourite dishes is this Indian curry "Dal Tadka" we get from a local restaurant. "Dal" literally meaning lentils and "Tadka" describes a method of tempering or blooming spices in oil.
I stumbled across this article today.
https://www.seriouseats.com/what-is-tad ... nk-baghaar
It's a technical look at Tadka.
Indian cooking isn't the only cuisine where "tempering" or "blooming" is a thing, but what's unique is you prepare the spices separately from the dish, and add the "Tadka", which sort of infuses the dish with another layer of flavour. Yum!
I was planning on making my usual Lentil Coconut Curry this evening, but I got inspired, an decided to go with a Dal Tadka.
I used this for reference, bumped the recipe to "9 servings" or "1.5 cups of lentils".
https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/resta ... dal-tadka/
In the later half of the article there are instructions for making the curry in an
Instant Pot instead of a traditional pressure cooker.
Lentil details and tweaks:
- I washed the lentils in the pot before cooking. Added water, swished around for a bit with my hand, drained, repeated until I was satisfied with the clarity of the water (2-3 times).
- Recipe called for 4.5 cups of water, but I opted for 4 cups since I tend to like thicker curries and sauces. The results were thicker than the Dal Tadka we get from our local restaurant.
- I didn't have any tomatoes, but I had an open can of Tomato paste. I used that, then added a bit of fresh lemon juice at the end.
- I used a couple Jalepenos instead of green chillis. Wasn't very spicy. Could have safely used more.
- I went with Hungarian Paprika instead of Kashmiri Chilli powder. I thought I had Kashmiri Chili powder, and I mistakenly thought Kashmiri was very spicy, but the article suggested otherwise. I have more spice tolerance than Jenna so I decided to play it safe with Paprika.
- The recipe forgot ginger! I keep a jar of ginger in the fridge. I added some after cooking, and it did the trick.
- I added some dry Fenugreek leaves after cooking. I add them to everything Indian I cook.
Tadka details and tweaks:
- I used Ghee as my oil (clarified butter). It added a lovely buttery taste to the finished dish.
- I was sure to keep the temperature at medium to be sure the spices didn't burn.
- I didn't have dark mustard seeds, but I had lighter (milder) mustard seeds. Used about double the amount of seeds.
- I roughly crushed some of the cumin and mustard seeds in my mortar, to have a mix of whole and crushed.
- Fried the garlic for a few minutes.
- I didn't have the red chillis they asked for, but I had dry Mexican Arbol chillis and dry curry leaves. I used those. I used ~20 curry leaves and roughly 3 seeded Arbol. I didn't notice much spice, so I could have used more Arbol.
- Per other advice I read, I added the chillis and curry leaves then immediately took them off the heat, letting the residual heat finish them. No complaints.
Mixed the Tadka into the lentils, stirred in some Cilantro to finish. Yum.
Served with Basmati rice.
We usually enjoy Nan bread with our curries from the local restaurant, but the other purpose of this meal was to make some lunches Jenna can take to work. I've been struggling to find a straightforward way to prepare Basmati rice, and I sort of face-palmed after googling this.
https://www.teaforturmeric.com/perfect- ... ce-cooker/
i.e. Use a rice cooker as if it was white rice.
Okay so I didn't exactly do that, but I did the following:
- Added 2 cups of basmati rice to the rice cooker. Added water, washed the rice like I washed the lentils (stir with hand, drain murky water, repeat until water reasonably clear).
- Once washed and drained, added 4 cups of water, and salt. Stirred and tasted water (salt confirmed).
- Cooked on the "White Rice" setting.
- After about 35-40 minutes I opened and checked the rice. It was done, so I shut it off. I think my rice cooker goes for 45-50 minutes on the white rice setting.
