Survival - How to cook Dal
31 May, 2019
Expected reactions : "Wait, Did i just read How do we cook Dal?" "Dal??" "DALLL??//423$?/"
Why Dal?
At some point of your life, if you happen to end up living in a place where you have no other choice other than cooking your own food to survive, would you cook fancy stuff like pazhamporis or chocolate lava cakes as your breakfast/lunch/dinner? No, you wouldn't. Not only would they empty your pockets fast, they would obviously not-at-all fulfill the stuff you need for a good diet.
You would cook stuff that fills the stomach. And the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of "stomach filling" is dal and chapathi. They do the job. Period. Survival is first step so let's get moving!
I have divided the process into two fairly simple phases for ease of remembering .
Phase 1
Ingredients
- Dal : half cup
- Water : 2 cups
- Salt : 3/4th teaspoon
- Haldi/Turmeric Powder : 1/4th teaspoon
(the cup here that I have used is a 'tea' cup, but the ratio is all that matters)
Instructions
- Take the half cup of dal, rinse it thoroughly with water.
- Put the clean dal into a pressure cooker
- Add 2 cups of water
- Add 3/4 tablespoon of salt and 1/4 tablespoon of Haldi powder
- Seal the cooker, light the stove and put it at high seam. Wait till you get one whistle.
- After you get the whistle, turn the stove to low seam and wait for another couple of minutes before you turn it off completely.
That's the end of Phase 1 and you now have some cooked dal. Moving to the next phase.
Phase 2
Ingredients
- Onions : 1
- Tomatoes : 1
- Green chillies : 1 or 2
- Curry leaves : as per your discretion
- Mustard
- Cooking Oil
Instructions
- Cut the onions, tomatoes and the green chillies to small pieces
- Take a frying pan and put mustard seeds, and add some cooking oil
- Put the thing on the stove and let it heat up a bit
- Now add the cut onions, tomatoes and green chillies and curry leaves
- With a spoon, mix them up and let the mixture cook. Add oil if need be
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With that, you'll have a pan of fried cut stuff. And that's phase 2.
Now the final phase
Final Phase
Transfer the contents of the cooker into the frying pan
<img src="https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/32199592/106392318-420b6300-6417-11eb-8862-0f856bdbf919.png alt="transfer">
Continue cooking till you get bubbles.
That's it. You have made the exquisite Indian curry, Dal!
Throw in some chapathis and keep surviving!
Source : amma :heart: