I have been tweaking the dal recipe for several years now and I am finally getting that taste I am after.  txt attached

I went Indian/Pakistani last weekend. Badaami Murgh (almond curry chicken) and Dal Tadka (curried lentils). I have been tweaking the dal recipe for several years now and I am finally getting that taste I am after. The chicken recipe I have never changed from the original (unusual for me).

I have recently discovered that a pressure cooker is an excellent way to to cook lentils.  Some of the Indian dal recipes I have say sumat like "Cook for 3 whistles". So what the heck is a whistle?  The traditional Indian pressure cooker is of a different design than we use here in the U.S. or in Europe.  Western cookers rely on a constant venting of steam and a constant pressure, whereas the Indian counterpart builds up pressure and vents it off in one dramatic whistle every few minutes.  Here is what I found out to convert the recipes to the style of cooker that I use.

http://missvickie.com/library/whistling.htm

The formatting is buggered at the end of this article.  A clean .doc of it is attached.

Bottom line, here is my conversion:

From article, 1 whistle equals about 3 minutes.  But first whistle does not count.  Start the count after 1st whistles. So if a recipe says "3 whistles".  That would 12 minutes  (3 + 3x3) = 12. Start counting when rocker starts to rock. 

Here is my version I have been tweaking for a few years.  It originated from a Julie Sahni recipe.  Last year I applied some tips from Tayyabs in Whitechappel (my favorite BIR). Recipe attached. Link to photo album below.  These pics are from a previous batch.  I have since changed the order of a few things around, but this album still gives a good representation of the process.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.403612206316737.100752.100000038825169&type=1&l=8ce2c91a82

Cheers,

Todd K.

No we don't all really talk like that, nor do we all own an oil well and ride horses.  Now that I got that out of the way...

My name is Todd.  My first serious foray into Indian curries was thru Julie Sahni's books.  I used to travel in the UK frequently so had the opportunity to try many curry houses.  Mostly in the London and Humberside area.  I found a few that were noteworthy, but was underwhelmed by most of them.  There is one stand out though.  Tayyabs in Whitechappel.  I absolutely love this place.  Punjab Pakistani if I am correct.  This is the taste I aspire for when I cook Indian/Paki.  About a year ago I found a recipe from Tayyabs and used it to tweak my vindaloo recipe that I have been working on for the past several years (attached).  I hope to learn a few tricks here and maybe even share something ya'll find worthwhile. (I do say "ya'll" alot).

Cheers,

Todd K.