Dhal – Chaval: The essentials of life.

Roti, Kapada aur Makhan (Food, Clothes and a House) was newly independent India’s formulae for strong and vibrant nationhood.

Fifty odd years on, the young 20-30 something Indian software engineer/ business professional living in Bangalore has kapada covered by Raymond’s suitings and is makhan-ed in clutches of Aunty Rosie’s “Tarun-Ill-take-half-your-salary-you-don’t-need-so-much-anyway” PG Acco (Paying Guest Accommodation). But Roti is another story, decades of maternal fawning, the magical appearance of masala tea and Andhra chicken roast at the dinner table has created a generation of culinary ignoramuses, who couldn’t boil a pot of water without burning it.

A generation that fends for itself in an alien town on a diet of Maggi Chicken Malasa Noodles – 2 Minutes to cook and enough chemicals to kill, Fanu’s Mambo Sheek Kebab Rolls – great to eat, spiced with a generous sprinkling of the Iqbal’s ball scratch, the list goes on. And sorry to burst your bubble, but Old Monk Rum does not give you any immunity to the Delhi-belly that will most certainly follow. Suffice to say that our stomachs are the Promised Land for every stomach bug in the universe - I speak from experience.

Junta, you need to learn how to cook. As we are starting simple, you wouldn’t invite a date over with this first lesson (Though I can tell you she will be freakin’ impressed. Especially if you keep your kitchen clean.)

Dhal-Chaval (Lentil Stew and Rice)

Your Spice Cupboard
Ginger Paste
Garlic Paste (Now available in bottles even in India boys, fantastic isn’t it.)
Mustard Seeds (Kadige in Malayalam, Sarsoon in Hindi)
Mangel Powder (Don’t know what it is in Hindi think its Haldi but don’t hold me to it, in English - Tumeric)
Chilli Powder
Jeera (Fenel Seeds in English)
Cinamon Sticks ( I just asked my cousin what this stuff is called in Malayalam and she said “Write it in English if they don’t know what it is tell them to go and ask their mothers”)

Chaval
Get a rice cooker it is a good investment. But you can do it the hard way too.

Fill a saucepan with the amount of rice that you want don’t put in more than half the saucepan, the rice will flow over as it cooks. Wash the rice, and then fill the saucepan with water. There is a secret to cooking rice just right, dip your forefinger in the water until it touches the top of the grains, the water should be just over the first ring on your finger. This trick works with cooking rice in a rice cooker too. Cook on a low flame in the saucepan and check on the rice every ten minutes, don’t let it burn.

Dhal

Ingredients
500gms Lentils (The orange coloured lentils are the best and fastest to cook)
Oil - as much as you like
1/2 Onion
1 Tomato
Curry Leaves (Karivepillai, available in any Indian Spice Shop in Australia. Don’t bother if you don’t have them.)

If you want to be adventurous

In Australia, I sometimes add Frozen Spinach or Frozen beans.

Wash the lentils and fill the saucepan with water. You can add as much water as you like depending on whether you like a watery or a thick stew. I personally, like my dhal a little thick so I fill the water to about 11/2 rings of my forefinger from the top of the dhal – I add more water as it cooks if it needs it. Boil the lentils on a low flame with a pinch of Mangel. If you are adding spinach or beans cook them with the lentils. They most often don’t even need to be defrosted.

Allow the lentils to cook and turn into a yellow mushy paste.

Heat the oil in another saucepan, add a half teaspoon of mustard seeds, the same measure of fennel seeds, half a sprig of curry leaves and a few small pieces of cinamon sticks. Enjoy the fragrance of the spices as they combine and quickly follow with the diced onion. Allow the onions to brown a bit and then add a half teaspoon of ginger paste, garlic paste, mangel, chilli powder to taste (I add a half teaspoon). Allow this to cook for a bit, not too long don’t let it burn.

Add the tomato allow the mixture to cook until the tomato loses a little bit of its firmness. Add this mixture to the dhal. Add salt to taste. Cook the dhal for another 5 minutes

Music

Cooking can be a meditative experience. I like to create the mood with music. My current favourites:

Norah Jones – Come away with me
Dido – Life for Rent
David Grey – White Ladder

Serving Suggestions
Make a salad accompaniment, diced onions, cucumber and tomatoes dressed with pepper, salt, sugar and vinegar. Serve with some Mango Pickle (Devine!) and finish off with a little bit of yogurt, rice and salt.

Maybe sometime I’ll talk about cooking meat to go with the dhal and rice.

Dhal is a highly versatile food and can be eaten with rotis (Indian Bread), or even regular bread. I love eating a few slices of bread, tomato sauce and dhal, this my friends is an acquired taste. When I was studying in Australia, all we knew how to cook was Dhal and its spicy south indian variant sambar, Murali and I would cook enough for three days and stretch the yellow liquid out for another day by adding hot water to it. At the end of 6 months I didnt want to see another drop for dhal again for a long long time. Moral: I know this is good stuff but dont over do it.

Finally!
If you can afford a cook, go for your life. Harish and I did for a year and it was fantastic to come home to hot chappatis every evening. Chokkamma and Shoba, Siva’s wife and mother of Siva’s son respectively are great friends – they would come home every afternoon, collect the keys from Harish’s aunt next door and chatter away the local gossip while they cleaned our house, made our dinner and packed it away in hot-cases ready for the evening feed.