Jill's Chana Dal

by mcgraff

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Jill's chana dal is a simple, healthful and tasty recipe to prepare the popular chana dal in the traditional Indian way. Jill's chana looks great and is also quite quick to prepare.

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Jill's Chana Dal recipe - How to make Jill's Chana Dal

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Preparation Time: 3 hours Cooking Time: 1.5 hours Total Time: 2704 hours 30 minutes 5

Ingredients

Ingredients:
1 cup chana dal (split Bengal gram)
7 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper , turmeric powder (haldi) , cumin seeds (jeera) powder
1 tbsp tamarind (imli) pulp or 1 tbsp lemon juice and 1tsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds ( rai / sarson)
1 clove of garlic (lehsun), chopped

Method

Preparation:

Chana dal is the larger of the skinned, split, yellow dals you will find in an indian grocery -- it closely resembles the yellow split peas found in western supermarkets, and in fact these yellow split peas make an acceptable substitute.
Measure the dal into a bowl and sort through it to remove any unskinned (dark) dal, small stones or other debris.
Soak the chana dal in 4 cups water for 2-3 hours, then wash under running water and drain.
Bring 3 cups water and the salt to boil in a medium-size pot.
Add the chana dal and wait for the water to begin its second boil, then cover the pot.
In a separate small pot or frying pan, heat the vegetable oil over low heat and add the mustard seeds and chopped garlic to it.
When the oil gets hot, the mustard seeds will begin to pop (really, and they may spatter a bit).
When they have ceased popping, add the oil mixture to the simmering pot of dal.
Immediately cover the pot and keep covered for 2 minutes while the dal continues to simmer.
Then remove the cover and stir once with a spoon to mix in the new ingredients.
Cook uncovered for another 5 minutes and the dal is ready to be served with rice or bread.
Taste to correct seasoning (i.e., salt; also, i tend to increase the amounts of all spices a bit, keeping proportions the same).
This dal is fairly thick in consistency and should not be made thinned with water.