Topic: lentil curry?

[bhamcurry]

My wife and son don't like tarka dal - they find it "too dry".

I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a lentil curry that I could cook instead of tarka dal?

[George]

My wife and son don't like tarka dal - they find it "too dry".

I was wondering if anyone had suggestions for a lentil curry that I could cook instead of tarka dal?

The best lentil dish I have ever tasted was also the very first and is about as simple as it can get - dal soup, specifically as served at a specific Indian restaurant for at least 40 years. I have been trying to recreate the same delicious flavour at home for almost as long. I can get quite close but it's still not as good.  The starting point is red lentils, which turn yellow. Add pinches of salt and turmeric and not much more.

[bhamcurry]

thanks, George 

[Secret Santa]

My wife and son don't like tarka dal - they find it "too dry".

Not being funny but just add water. Any daal can be thick like paste or thin like watery soup, it's just down to the amount of water you add. Can't help feeling I'm missing something in what you want though as the solution is too obvious.

[livo]

The dahl I took away was actually 2 different ones made separately as experimental, and then finally combined. The first was red lentil with mild spice and coconut milk (quite nice) and the second was a 4 lentil mix which my wife said was a bit dry or floury. I allowed both to sit in the fridge for 24 hours before tasting again and deciding to combine them, which gave a nicer dish than either alone.

My next attempt will be to make the dhansak lentil / dhal base without any meat and muck about with that.  What I did find when searching for recipes is that they are all very similar, so the next thing to do would be to search for something that is obviously different in one way or another.

I agree with Santa as well. Several of the recipes I found were indeed very watery / soup like.  This isn't what I was after for my trip away though.

[bhamcurry]

My wife and son don't like tarka dal - they find it "too dry".

Not being funny but just add water. Any daal can be thick like paste or thin like watery soup, it's just down to the amount of water you add. Can't help feeling I'm missing something in what you want though as the solution is too obvious.

I've tried that, they still say it was "too dry". Darn near soup, "too dry", which implies to me that the problem is a texture rather than moisture problem, hence looking for a lentil curry idea 

[Peripatetic Phil]

It would appear that you are not the only one to experience this phenomenon —

by phaeton21
 
My lentils always have a 'dryness' to them, and I don't know why.

Hey folks, I really like lentils but there's an issue I keep having with them, and I don't know why. Even after being fully cooked, they have a weird 'dryness' texture to them. I'm not sure how else to describe it- it's like the legume equivalent to eating some uncooked (but not hard) grain like wheat or oats. I typically buy Goya brand (which doesn't really matter) brown lentils in the usual 1lb bag. My method for cooking is pretty textbook:

    Sort/rinse/drain

    Cover in a few inches of water

    Bring to a boil, put on lid, turn down heat

    Simmer 20-25 minutes (I use a chomp test to tell when done)

    Drain and rinse.

Even when the lentils end up in a soup (i.e., suspended in liquid) or in a dish with loads of fat (i.e., my cheater tikka masala sauce loaded up with heavy cream and butter) they exude this dryness. In fact, leftovers stored in the fridge seem to get 'worse' over a day or so. Meanwhile, if I make the exact same recipe but substitute some form of beans (canned or prepared from dry) it turns out wonderful.

Has anyone else experienced this, and/or have do you have any suggestions? Thanks.

[Secret Santa]

the problem is a texture rather than moisture problem ...

Ah right, that makes more sense. I wonder if this this is similar to people who think coriander leaf is the bees knees while others can't abide it, saying it tastes like soap. In other words no matter what you do they're going to detect something that most other people won't so there's no winning.

Oh, and back to your original question, the obvious red lentil curry is dhansak. Have they tried that? What did they think?

[Robbo141]

My first introduction to dal was in Ahmedabad, India. Dal Makhani is a wonderful, buttery dish of black Urad dal and not dry at all.  I recently made this ‘house dal’ from the Dishoom cook book. It’s an investment in time, takes 4-5 hours but mostly hands off.  In India they cook it 24 hours.
Perfect with naan, although I didn’t have any.


I bet it would pressure cook easily.  Not a ‘curry’ but worth a try.

Robbo

[bhamcurry]

the problem is a texture rather than moisture problem ...

Ah right, that makes more sense. I wonder if this this is similar to people who think coriander leaf is the bees knees while others can't abide it, saying it tastes like soap. In other words no matter what you do they're going to detect something that most other people won't so there's no winning.

Oh, and back to your original question, the obvious red lentil curry is dhansak. Have they tried that? What did they think?

I like dhansak, wife and kiddo not so much. I am going to try making a curry lentil soup at some point just to see if it's an inherent texture thing!