Toor ki Dal (Sindhi Style) Dad, Mom and I Love

Name: Toor ki Dal (Sindhi Style) Dad, Mom and I Love
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 65 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Pakistani Punjabi, Sindhi & Pashtun
Ingredients: 1.5 cup yellow lentils; 4 tbsp oil; 1 tsp mustard seeds; 1 tsp fenugreek seeds; 1 tsp cumin seed; 15 fresh curry leaves; 3 inches fresh ginger; 2 tsp asafoetida powder; 2 medium green chilies; 2 medium fresh tomatoes; 11.25 cup water; 0.667 cup tamarind pulp; 0.5 tsp red chili powder; 2 tsp turmeric powder; 4 tsp salt

Lentils, green chilies and tomatoes simmered on the stove and spiced with mustard seeds and fenugreek for a Pakistani dal. It comes to the table with cooked long-grain white basmati rice.

1 hr 5 min · Serves 4 · Medium

Method

Start cooking mode

Time: Prep 20 min · Cook 45 min · 65 min total
Difficulty: medium

1
Pressure cook the lentils (toor dal) in a pressure cooker alongwith 6 cups of water until the lentils are tender.
2
Heat oil in a pot on medium-high flame. Once its hot, add mustard seeds, methi seeds and cumin seeds.
3
Allow to splutter and crackle. Once they stop doing so, add in the curry leaves and ginger.
4
Stir-fry for 5 minutes until the raw smell of ginger is gone. Add asafoetida powder and continue to stir-fry for another 5-7 minutes.
5
Toss in the green chillies, mix well and continue to stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes. Then add in the tomatoes and 1/4 cup of water to cook the tomatoes.
3 min
6
Mix well and cook on high flame until the tomatoes are softened. Add salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
7
Mix well. Extract tamarind pulp from tamarind to use as tamarind water. To do this, soak about 3 inches piece of tamarind in 1 cup of hot water.
8
Squeeze to extract the tamarind pulp and let it mix with the water to form'tamarind water'.
9
There is no need to pass this through a strainer- use it directly! Measure out 2/3 cup of tamarind water in a cup and add this tamarind water to the tomato mixture.
10
Mix well and allow it to cook on medium-high flame for 5 minutes. In the meantime, open the pressure cooker (by this time the lentils will be tender and the whistle would have blown) and with the help of a beater/mashing tool, in round circular motions, mash the lentils completely, until they mix with the water in which they were being cooked.
5 min
11
Now add 5 cups of water alongwith the lentil and water mixture that was used to cook the lentils. Add the tamarind-tomato mixture, mixing gracefully, as you sing your favourite kitchen song side-by-side!
12
Allow this to come to a boil. Lower flame and cook for 10 more minutes on a simmer. Remove from flame and serve immediately with cooked long-grain white Basmati rice.
13
Serve hot alongwith low-fat plain yogurt on the side for a complete wonderful Asian-Indian meal in rice and lentil curry heaven!
14
This curry cooks awesome even without the tamarind juice.