INDIAN RECIPES OF DAAL

VARAN-a Maharashtrian daal TOOR-DAAL-RECIPE
Varan is a no-frills daal native to the state .of Maharastra, India. The lack of overpowering spices makes this daal a true comfort food. Have it along side plain white rice or chapattis.
For any daals, like a toor daal, or dry beans, or lentil of any type, you're going (to need a Pressure Cooker in the kitchen.The pressure cooker is a really important utensil that you can invest in for your kitchen. It will cut your cooking time in half, if not more.
Do you know why there are some daals which have oil on them, some toor daals which have oil, and some are plain? Well, a while back, especially in India, they used to coat these seeds or daal with castor oil, and that would prevent fungus and bugs from getting into the daal. But I think Edays we don't have those problems, so I would stick to buying plain toor daal that does not have any oil on it.

How to make a Maharashtrian style daal called Varan.:
Ingredients:
1 cup toor daal.
1/4 teaspoon methi seeds, or fenugreek seeds.
1 to 2 green chillis, slit lengthwise.
1 teaspoon finely grated ginger.
1/2 medium onion, finely diced.
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to your taste.
1/2 teaspoon lime juice, or to your taste.
. 5 sprigs of cilantro, chopped for garnishing.
For seasoning, you will need:
4 teaspoons cooking oil.
1/2 teaspoon jeera (cumin).
1/4 teaspoon haldi (tumeric).
1 pinch of hing (asofoetida. )
1 sprig curry leaves.
5 large cloves of garlic, roughly smashed
1 medium tomato, diced
.3 cups waterMethods:
Wash 1 cup of toor daal, until the water runs clear. Soak the toor daal for at least about 15 to 20 minutes, In the pressure cooker, add the washed and soaked toor daal. Add in chopped onions, water, ginger, green chillis, and methi seeds.
Cook this for about 8 to 10 whistles.Keep aside the cooked Dal
For the seasoning.
(In Marathi,it is call ' vagay ', for seasoning. some call it tarkar)
Take a medium size non-stick pan. Put 4 teaspoons of oil,heat it in pan. Make sure the oil is hot. Put in the rest of the ingredients. Let them sizzle around there for a few seconds.Lower the flame.
Add some haldi ; hing, and curry leaves , garlic and stir that around a little bit. Cook the garlic until it gets a little brown.Add the tomatoes. Cook this for about a minute.
Pour the cooked daal in the pan,slowly and careful. Stir thoroughly. Add the salt and lime juice now. If this consistency is a little too thick; add boiled-water in right now. Serve in a bowl.Garnish it with some fresh chopped cilantro leaves or chopped dhania patta.
Varan is ready. Enjoy varan with hot chapatis or rice. It's really delicious either way.

BENGALI STYLE of Toor Dal.[ Orod dal ]:
Ingredients:
1 cup---toor daal.
3 cups ---Water.
2 tsp flat ---Haldi powder..
For Seasoning:
4 tsp oil--.
1/2 tsp-- Jeera seeds
2 nos-- Tej pataa (Bay leaf)
a pinch of Hing powder
2 nos.-- dry red chilli
1 tsp -ginger paste.
2 nos.-- slited green chilli.
1 Tbsp --Sugar
Salt-- According to your taste.
For Garnishing:
1/2 cup chopped Dhania pattaa
1 and 1/2 Tbsp ---Ghee.
Method:-
Wash 1 cup of toor daal, until the water runs clear. Soak the toor daal for at least about 15 to 20 minutes, In the pressure cooker, add the washed and soaked toor
daal and the haldi powder Stir.Cook this for about 8 to 10 whistles.Keep aside the cooked Dal.
For the seasoning.
Heat a kadai.Add the oil.Heat the oil.Lower the flame.Add the seasoning ingredients one by one.Let them sizzle around there for a few seconds.Stir.Pour the cooked daal in the pan,slowly and careful. Stir thoroughly. Add the salt,sugar and Ghee now. If this consistency is a little too thick; add boiled-water in right now. Serve in a bowl.Garnish it with some fresh chopped Dhania leaves.Enjoy with Rice,hot Puris or Parothas

DAAL---PULSES

DAAL--(PULSES)
The word dāl derives from the Sanskrit verbal root dal- 'to split'.
The word dal can at times be used in a disparaging fashion as some use the label "Dal Khor" (literally dal eater in Persian) .Daal is a popular dish among Vegetarenian.
Various kind of Pulses are grown in India.
They are made in two Common varieties
Split and whole pulses.
Although dal generally refers to split pulses. Split pulses as dhuli dals. Whole pulses are known .as sabūt dals.The hulling of a pulse is intended to improve digestibility . But as with milling of whole grains into refined grains, affects the nutrition provided by the dish, reducing dietary fiber content. Pulses with their outer hull intact are also quite popular in India and Pakistan as the main cuisine. Over 50 different varieties of pulses are known in India and Pakistan
Dal (also spelled Dahl or Daal, or Dhal) (In Hindi, Marathi, Konkani ,Gujarati its Dāl, Nepali: Daal, Bengali: ডাল, Kannada:- Bēḷe,: Dāl, Malayalam:- Parippu,: ଡାଲି Daali, Tamil: Paruppu, Telugu: Pappu, Dāl, Urdu: ÏÇá,: Punjabi: Dāl (Gurmukhi))
Daal is a preparation of pulses (dried lentils, peas or beans) which have been stripped of their outer hulls and split. It also refers to the thick stew prepared from these, an important part of Indian, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, and Bangladeshi cuisine. It is regularly eaten with rice and vegetables in Southern India, and with both rice and roti (wheat-based flat bread) throughout Northern India and Pakistan.
From daal ,various soups are prepared. With these pulses one can make chatneys,dips,dumpling,boris,fried vadas or with vegetable vadas.or pakoras and pan cakes.One can cook with rice and mixed vegetables ,its call khichri. * Sweet Potato dal - Another variation of the dal using sweet potato in addition to lentils.Todka is another tasty daal-dish. Dhoklas and Bengali-Dhokas are also made.
Dal is a ready source of proteins for a balanced diet containing little or no meat. Sri Lankan cooking of dal resembles that of southern Indian dishes.
* Toor dal : - Tūr ḍāḷ in Marathi; in Gujarati; Arhar dāl or Tuvar dāl in Uttar Pradesh,ହରଡ ଡାଲି Harada Daali in Orissa, in Bengal Adahar (Bengali:অড়হর ডাল); Togari bele in Kannada; Kandi pappu in Telugu; തുവര (തുമര) പരിപ്പ് Tuvara or Tumara parippu Malayalam; and Tuvaram paruppu in Tamil - i.e. yellow Pigeon peas; available either plain or oily. It is the main ingredient for the famous South Indian recipe called Sambar (pronounced as Saambaar).
* Chana dal - Chholar dal in Bengali;ବୁଟ ଡାଲି Buta daali in Oriya, Shanaga pappu in Telugu; Kadale bele in Kannada; കടല പരിപ്പ് Kaḍala parippu in Malayalam;and kaḍalai paruppu in Tamil - i.e. split Chickpeas without seed-coat. Chana dal is produced by removing the outer layer of Kala chana (black chickpeas) and then splitting the kernel. Although machines can do this, it can be done at home by soaking the whole chickpeas and removing the loose skins by placing the chickpeas between two towels and rubbing with a rolling pin.
* Yellow split peas - While not commonly used on the Indian sub-continent it is very prevalent in the Indian communities of Guyana and Trinidad, and was formerly popular amongst Indians in the United States. There, it is referred to generically as dal and is the most popular dal, although masoor dal and toor dal are also used. It is prepared similarly to dals found in India but also may be used in a variety of other recipes.
* Kala chana - small Chickpeas with brown skins - Koṇḍai Kaḍalai in Tamil. In the US and Canada it is known as Desi Chickpea and the variety most used is called Myles. It is very disease resistant.
* Kabuli –chola-dal - known for its black coat, it is an average size chickpea. It grows naturally with the black coat (not roasted as some believe), and it is said to be nuttier in flavor.
* Mung dal - Pesara pappu in Telugu; Payaru or Pāsi paruppu in Tamil); Hesaru bele in Kannada; ମୁଗ ଡାଲି Mooga Daali in Oriya and Cheru Payaru in Malayalam - i.e. Mung bean. It is the main ingredient for the preparation of the South Indian curry called Rasam.
* Lobya Dal Black eyed beans Kidney Beans rajma. Best served with plain pilau rice.
* Urad dal - Uṛad dāl in Hindi; ãÇÔ Māsh in Urdu and Panjabi; Uddina bele in Kannada)Kolai Urad bean is sometimes referred to as "Black gram". It is the main ingredient of the South Indian dishes: Idli and Dosai. It is also one of the main ingredients of East Indian (Oriya, Bengali, Assamese) dish Pitha. Punjabi version, Dal makhani.
* Masoor dal - Red lentils.
* Rajma dal - Kidney beans.
* Mussyang - dals of various color that are found in various hilly regions of Nepal.
Dal in Bengali; ବିରି ଡାଲି Biri daali in Oriya; Minumulu, Minapa pappu, or Uddhi pappu in Telugu); and Uḷuttam paruppu inAAL Tamil; and ഉഴുന്നു പരിപ്പ് Uzhunnu parippu in Malayalam.
VARIOUS-RECIPES OF PREPARING DAAL:-
Most dal recipes are quite simple to prepare. The standard preparation of dal begins with boiling a variety of dal (or a mix) in water with some turmeric, salt to taste, and then adding a tadka (also known as tarka, chaunk or baghaar or vaghar or thalimpu) consists of various spices or other flavourings fried in a small amount of oil) at the end of the cooking process and added to the daal-dish. The ingredients in the tadka for each variety of dal vary by region and individual tastes.
The raw spices (more commonly cumin seeds, mustard seeds and/or asafoetida; sometimes fenugreek seeds and dried red chili pepper) are first fried for a few seconds in the hot oil on medium/low heat. This is generally followed by ginger, garlic and onion, which is generally fried for 10 minutes. After the onion turns golden brown, grounded spices (like turmeric, coriander powder, red chili powder, garam masala, etc) are added. The tadka, or spice-infused oil, is poured over the cooked dal and served with roti or over Basmati rice.
In some recipes, tomatoes, tamarind, unripe mango, or other ingredients are added while cooking the dal, often to impart a sour flavor. Some preparations call for mashing the cooked dal a bit with a hand masher or spatula.