India Chow

[Too Tall]

My neighbor gave me a recipe that I'm afraid is full of mystery. This caucasian can't quite wrap my head around some of the directions so here goes.
He calls it "Eggplant Ajantakka".
1. Shallow fry eggplant chunks than add onions and garnish *powder. That is the story. Below is the garnish powder.

Garnish powder:
1 Chana dal 1 cup + udad dal 1 cup > fry or roast with scant oil than mix with cumin, corriander and chillies (fry all together) than grind in a blender.

Clues appreciated.

[echappist]

My neighbor gave me a recipe that I'm afraid is full of mystery. This caucasian can't quite wrap my head around some of the directions so here goes.
He calls it "Eggplant Ajantakka".
1. Shallow fry eggplant chunks than add onions and garnish *powder. That is the story. Below is the garnish powder.

Garnish powder:
1 Chana dal 1 cup + udad dal 1 cup > fry or roast with scant oil than mix with cumin, corriander and chillies (fry all together) than grind in a blender.

Clues appreciated.

Take the recipe to your nearest grocery store catering to South Asian Diaspora, and the shopkeeper should be able to help you out.

Cumin, coriander, and chilies (I assumed paprika or something similar) are often used in various Indian/Pakistani recipes.

The chana dal part is confusing. Pretty sure that's a dish in its own right. https://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/ch...ipe-chana-dal/

"udad dal" [sic] is urad dal, a lentil (I think dal refers to lentil). https://www.tarladalal.com/glossary-urad-dal-941i

Personally, I'd be flustered by the lack of instruction re: frying. I've gotten into preparing South Asian cooking the last few years, and the frying is almost always done as the or one of the initial steps by frying something like an onion in butter/oil/ghee in the presence of spices. This "opens" up the spices and traps the flavor in the onion, which then delivers the flavor into the actual main ingredient (veggies, meats, what have you).

PS. My wife made a chana dal-ish dish a while back. We got a seasoning pack for some lentils/chickpeas we had. Depending on how you make it, the kitchen could smell downright awful for about an hour (I think this is when she treated the beans with sodium bicarbonate, but I can't recall), but the actual food tasted great.

PPS. Warning: neither I nor my wife is of South Asian descent, but I do have a copy of Indian cooking for Instapots and have been making curries/ biryanis/ what have you pretty consistently the last few years. Your post now makes me want to get some okra curry that we got last time (although I should just learn how to cook the damn thing)

[one60]

Not the answer you were hoping for but we have a friend in Mumbai who is an exceptional cook, she recommends the cookbook from London's Dishoom. Excellent and accessible recipes, some of which can be found via google. We find the biggest challenge is obtaining the various spices...

[Mark Kelly]

Channa dahl is dried chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans. Urad dahl is, as noted above, a dried bean like a dark mung bean.

In powder form, channa becomes besan flour.

What your recipe is calling for is essentially spiced mixed besan / urad flour: fry or roast the soaked channa / urad until they are crisp, add the spices then grind to make a coarse spiced flour.

[Too Tall]

Channa dahl is dried chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans. Urad dahl is, as noted above, a dried bean like a dark mung bean.

In powder form, channa becomes besan flour.

What your recipe is calling for is essentially spiced mixed besan / urad flour: fry or roast the soaked channa / urad until they are crisp, add the spices then grind to make a coarse spiced flour.

Mark nailed it. "channa becomes besan flour" that was the clue I was looking for and saves me from pleading for clues from my generous neighbor.

Fair is fair, he is inspired by my Italian and BBQ cooking and I know that often my assumptions fly right past him. So it is certainly fair that I'm struggling.

Anywho, the dish came out fantastic and will be on repeat. Next time it gets some ground chili peppers (omitted for Mrs. Too) and more cumin.

[Wisco]

Channa dahl is dried chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans. Urad dahl is, as noted above, a dried bean like a dark mung bean.

In powder form, channa becomes besan flour.

What your recipe is calling for is essentially spiced mixed besan / urad flour: fry or roast the soaked channa / urad until they are crisp, add the spices then grind to make a coarse spiced flour.

What Mark said is what my Mom would say. The only thing to add is that Urud Dal is only dark because of it's skin. The grain itself is white and looks like this when it is split and husked:

Dal by shenoi, on Flickr

The husked white version is the mildest as the skin has a stronger flavor i don't care for. Urud dal is of course the base of vada batter, the core of dosa batter along with rice and often dropped into your tempering oil (tadak) to add a bit of crunch to your bailed lentil dalitoye, my Konkan mother's milk.

[Too Tall]

Keep talking Wisco.
Fortunately I did have Urad dal on hand because of my (failed) dosa trials. LOL I did make a few really decent Dosas however repeatability would be mostly dumb luck and a few more cursed pans ;)
The dalitoye you speak of is one of my personal comfort foods. I did not know it had a name until you said it and googled: https://udupi-recipes.com/dalitoye-d...yle-dal-recipe

[Wisco]

Keep talking Wisco.
Fortunately I did have Urad dal on hand because of my (failed) dosa trials. LOL I did make a few really decent Dosas however repeatability would be mostly dumb luck and a few more cursed pans ;)
The dalitoye you speak of is one of my personal comfort foods. I did not know it had a name until you said it and googled: https://udupi-recipes.com/dalitoye-d...yle-dal-recipe

My parents are originally from the Udipi area. My dad from a village of a few hundred that farms rice, sugar cane and coconuts. Being Brahmins, they are pure vegetarians with some specific customs of no eggs, fish, or garlic in their cooking. But Indian cooking is a quote diverse thing, so I silently always chuckle about people wanting to eat "curry". I'm happy to see that someone else beside me considers Dalitoye as comfort food. It too is quite diverse in the recipes, but good however you like it. My mom for example makes it quite mild with added chopped green chilies to the cooked dal, plus the tempered red chiles, black mustard and lots of fresh curry leaf. She has a huge curry leaf tree in her back yard in Florida and sends us bags of leaves which freeze nicely.

Oh, and I buy pre-made Dosa mix these days as it's so much easier than wet milling things. One of the local Indian groceries has some in large ice cream tubs in their frozen section. Just thaw, scoop out with a ladle to a hot pan and off you go. Not bad, as you saw from my earlier postings on Dosa.

[Too Tall]

My neighbor, also Brahmin, suggested I buy Dosa mix from the store. Being a stubborn overkill American I scoffed. Now that I'm thoroughly trounced by such a seemingly simple task I see the logic. BTW I have a picture of my neighbor dipping bread into the gravy from the cooker at our annual pig roast. We all lived that day, no gods sought vengeance on our immoral vessel ;) I'm jewish, so it could have been two birds with one smite? Ooooo.

Thanks, I'll visit our local India grocer and ask for the mix. Good suggestion.

[Wisco]

My neighbor, also Brahmin, suggested I buy Dosa mix from the store. Being a stubborn overkill American I scoffed. Now that I'm thoroughly trounced by such a seemingly simple task I see the logic. BTW I have a picture of my neighbor dipping bread into the gravy from the cooker at our annual pig roast. We all lived that day, no gods sought vengeance on our immoral vessel ;) I'm jewish, so it could have been two birds with one smite? Ooooo.

Thanks, I'll visit our local India grocer and ask for the mix. Good suggestion.

I'm similar to your neighbor and went through the Brahmin equivalent of confirmation (Upanayanam or thread ceremony https://vaidicpujas.org/upanayanam/ in India when I was 12, but it was for the family more than for me... another story for another time). But I am not a faithful practitioner unless I'm at the Temple or with some of our relatives. Growing up in America in a multi-cultural neighborhood instead of an Indian immigrant enclave and liberal assimilation-focused parents will do that to you.

Funny story, the last time I went to India with my parents I flew home with my Dad through Detroit. After we landed and cleared immigration, we both looked at each other and said, "Let's get a burger"... and went to the McDonalds near the Middle of the main terminal. Definitely not Brahmin approved

[Chik]

I'm similar to your neighbor and went through the Brahmin equivalent of confirmation (Upanayanam or thread ceremony https://vaidicpujas.org/upanayanam/ in India when I was 12, but it was for the family more than for me... another story for another time). But I am not a faithful practitioner unless I'm at the Temple or with some of our relatives. Growing up in America in a multi-cultural neighborhood instead of an Indian immigrant enclave and liberal assimilation-focused parents will do that to you.

Funny story, the last time I went to India with my parents I flew home with my Dad through Detroit. After we landed and cleared immigration, we both looked at each other and said, "Let's get a burger"... and went to the McDonalds near the Middle of the main terminal. Definitely not Brahmin approved

A bit OT, but I've gone past McD in India a few times and wondered what kind of meat is used for the burgers. Is it lamb?

[Wisco]

A bit OT, but I've gone past McD in India a few times and wondered what kind of meat is used for the burgers. Is it lamb?

I have never actually eaten at a McDonalds in India, but my understanding is that only meat-based burgers offered nationwide are a chicken burger and a fish burger. They also have an aloo (potato patty) and paneer (cheese patty) burger as well. Lamb or mutton would be acceptable to some in the North but never in the South, but I read that McD could not source enough/sufficient quality so they chose not to make a lamb burger for sale in India. Plus I believe the majority of their sales are the potato-based vegetarian items, so why bother with lamb.

[Chik]

Thanks. Makes sense.

[Too Tall]

@Wisco I'm about to whip up a batch of dalitoye. How important is Asofoetida. I've got some and have avoided it because the nose is really strange. A: get over it B: I'm not alone.

[echappist]

Also piling on @Wisco, which local shop would you recommend? And while we are at it, any good recipes for okra?

For the latter, the recipes i use tend to come out watery. Perhaps i should add cashew flour?

[Too Tall]

Also piling on @Wisco, which local shop would you recommend? And while we are at it, any good recipes for okra?

For the latter, the recipes i use tend to come out watery. Perhaps i should add cashew flour?

There is no cure for Okra other than batter, fry and give to some unsuspecting rube.

[echappist]

@Too Tall, oh no, that surely can't be?

One of the local Pakistani restaurants does a pretty good take on it. It's actually an off-menu item, but I asked the owner if he serves Okra, and he said he did. Who knows if it's "authentic", but it certainly came out better than my previous attempts.

[Too Tall]

@Too Tall, oh no, that surely can't be?

One of the local Pakistani restaurants does a pretty good take on it. It's actually an off-menu item, but I asked the owner if he serves Okra, and he said he did. Who knows if it's "authentic", but it certainly came out better than my previous attempts.

I'll admire your adventures with Okra from a window seat ;)

[Wisco]

@Wisco I'm about to whip up a batch of dalitoye. How important is Asofoetida. I've got some and have avoided it because the nose is really strange. A: get over it B: I'm not alone.

This is getting to the point where I may have to ask my Mom to sign up to the VSalon, as I am just a conduit to what she has taught me.

Get over it: Asofoetida or "hing" is not essential, but I think it should be. Dalitoye and most other Indian pulse (lentil) dishes need some sourness to balance the grain. That could come from tomato, tamarind water and/or hing. Hing also adds a mild onion/garlic taste which acts as a backbone to your other spices by providing umami notes. Yes it's a strong smell, but it mellows quickly once cooked, especially when in the presence of fat like ghee.

Like 1/8 a teaspoon into the cooking water for the lentils, so some recipes have you add to the oil/ghee used for tempering.

[Wisco]

Also piling on @Wisco, which local shop would you recommend? And while we are at it, any good recipes for okra?

For the latter, the recipes i use tend to come out watery. Perhaps i should add cashew flour?

Spice the shit out of it and you can have fun. I don't eat Okra unless it's Indian style. This recipe is similar to Mom's treatment where you split them open, spice stuff, then fry

https://ministryofcurry.com/stuffed-okra/

Key direction: "Add the stuffed okra pieces to the pan, sauté slightly and allow to cook over low heat. Do not over stir, as stirring frequently may make the dish sticky. Note: A non-stick frying pan works really well for this recipe."