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

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

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:

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