GREEN MOONG DAL DIM TARKA

 

MY THUMBS ARE ALWAYS UP FOR DAL PROTEIN; MAY BE BECAUSE I LOVE MY LENTIL CURRIES?

I do not know about other Bengali Families; but in our family; dal / lentil / pulses / legumes had / have always played a major role. I love dal from any cuisine. In most of the Indian restaurants here, I cannot have the fish & mutton dishes; they smell. I enjoy the different kinds of DAL / LENTIL CURRY, they have in offer. I pair it with either the different breads they have in offer or with the kinds of jeera / cumin rice! My inability to adapt to the sea fish and the meat variety coming from Australia is one major reason why we do not go out for family dinners or lunches. At least, the rest in the family think I cook decent; even good Indian food and we need not eat them outside of home. They will never agree to visit a restaurant for vegetarian food. Whenever we go out to dine; we go for Oriental or Western. Rest of the time; I take the full liberty to roam around the island and have my choice of food; I keep the price limit within 10$-11$! What I do not do is trying to cook restaurant style food at home. Except in case of family Bengali recipes; I draw ideas from around and cook stuffs in my own way! There is no question of cooking restaurant style food in a homely kitchen like mine.

LOVING TO EXPERIMENT WITH LENTILS; I AM FAR BEYOND COOKING ONLY BENGALI DAL!

Authentically, Bengalis would never use garlic and onion in moong dal / SPLIT SKINNED YELLOW DAL; we either have it's un-roasted form with bitter gourd and bottle gourd or either of the one; we roast it and cook in different ways with fried fish head; with various vegetables like broad bean, radish; topped with coriander. Usually, BENGALI CUISINE would not use tomato, garlic, onion in MOONG DAL. BENGALI DAL dishes are meant to go with rice! I take a break from the usual here; may be because I, the boy love our DAL CURRIES; may be because the man prefers non-Bengali lentil curries over the Bengali kinds; may be because we all love different kind of breads; I do prepare FUSION LENTIL CURRIES at home taking full liberty of how to cook them. I get home the dal / pulse varieties, I never had seen before. When at Mustafa Centre; I just stare at the LENTIL SECTION; its amazing! It feels like getting home all the varieties at a time. What I do is; keep 4-5 variety of them in stock. Truly, if we prepare a dal beautifully, in a sincere manner; it can be catchy and not be only a filler to the main meat and curries!

WHAT IS TARKA DAL OR DIM TARKA DAL? 

We know about it and having the kinds since childhood when the family did not start cooking similar kinds but used to get it from the nearest dhaba. Our parents did not know what dining out is; but they used to love DHABA FOOD and totally relied on them on our tours of India. Nearest to our DumDum Home had a few smaller dhabas and often the parents would pick up TARKA DAL AND RUMALI OR TANDOORI ROTI; may be on Friday nights. I specifically remember, they packed it in earthen pots; "matir khuri" we call it. There was no question of anything going stale; everything got sold like hot cakes. I remember how these dhaba stalls were grazed to the ground, the lorry drivers were seeking asylum in our neighbourhood. If you are an 80's Indian tween or teen, you know this all. But the dhabas use Black Whole Urad Dal and a bit of this GREEN MOONG for their TARKA DAL. For many years, I knew "tarka" might be a kind of legume Bengalis do not eat; I did not know for long "tarka" means "phoron" or tempering, though we had to study Hindi for few years. Anyway, My tempering of this dal; GREEN MOONG DAL DIM TARKA may be different from what is done in the dhabas. You can see I have even added curry leaves in the tempering. What I can guarantee is taste, flavour with the added goodness of eggs! See, we enjoy the humblest of the meals to specific restaurant food. My lunches are usually stay overs of fish or vegetables; I would not call them leftovers.

INGREDIENTS : [FOR THE EGG TARKA]

EGG : 3-4

SLICED OR CHOPPED ONION : 2-3 TBSP

CHOPPED GREEN CHILLI : 2 TSP

CHOPPED GINGER : 1 TSP

CHOPPED GARLIC : 1 TSP

CHOPPED FRESH CORIANDER : 2 TBSP

CURRY LEAF : A HANDFUL

DRY RED CHILLI : 2-3 HALVED

CUMIN SEED : 1/4 TSP

ASAFOETIDA : 2 PINCH

CRUSHED BLACK PEPPER : 4-5 PINCH

SALT : AS REQUIRED

OIL : 2 TBSP + 2 TBSP

INGREDIENTS FOR THE DAL :

THE TEMPERING

GREEN MOONG DAL / GREEN MOONG BEAN: 1 SMALL TEA CUP

TURMERIC POWDER : 1/2 TSP

RED CHILLI POWDER : 1 TSP

SALT : AS REQUIRED

SUGAR : 1 TSP [OPTIONAL]

PROCEDURE :

We will wash and soak the green moong dal in hot water for 2 hours. 

I do green moong dal / bean two ways. Some days, after the soaking period, I boil the dal in a vessel adding the amount of water required to get the lentils soft but let it remain whole. Some days, I  use the pressure cooker to boil the dal. What you see is boiled in a pressure cooker and mashed.

So, after the green whole moong has soaked for the required amount of time; we will take it in a pressure cooker and to it add 2-3 coffee mugs of water, salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder.

We will give a stir and tightly close the lid. We will pressure cook at minimal heat up to two whistles. We will let the lid open. We will lightly stir the dal adding the sugar to it. We will transfer it to a serving bowl.

We will heat oil in a wok and temper it with the asafoetida, cumin seeds and halved dry red chillies. We will give a stir and add the washed and sliced or chopped onions.

We will fry it until light brown. Halfway to it, we will add the green chillies and curry leaves; fry for 2-3 minutes. We will add the coriander leaves, give a stir and take down.

We will heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok; add the washed ginger and garlic mince. We will stir cook it for 2-3 minutes sprinkling a bit of salt to it.

We will beat the egg with a pinch of salt and crushed black pepper and add to the wok and stir cook for 3-4 minutes scrambling the eggs. We will add the cooked onion mix to it and fold in well.

We will add the stuff on top of the dal and definitely mix with the dal before serving it with a variety of breads and flavoured rice varieties.