Moong Daal Palak

Spinach ( palak) is not only supper rich in iron ( remember Popeye eating palak and getting extra strong ),but supper versatile too.There are a large number of recipes to enjoy palak from creamy soup to yummy combos with veggies,daals ,meat and chicken.

Although thanks to freezers palak is available year round now but fresh palak taste absolute divine despite the fact that weeding,cleaning,washing ,chopping and boiling palak is quite a task.

Since winter is the best time to enjoy the freshest palak here is Moong daal palak which is one of the many yummy ways you can have this iron rich and healthy vegetable as the two perfectly compliment each other.



What You Need:

• Moong Daal : 1 cup ( wash and soak in water for at least an hour)

• Palak : 2 cups ( boiled)

• Onion : 1 medium ( chopped finely)

• Tomato: 2 small ( chopped finely)

• Salt: 1 tsp ( up to taste)

• Red Chili: 1 tsp ( up to your tolerance level)

• Turmeric : 1/4 tsp

• GG paste: 1 tbsp

• Water: 1.5 cup ( more if you want it a bit mushy)

• Oil: 1/2 cup

How To:

• Heat oil in a pan and sauté onions till golden brown. ( pic - 1 )
• Add in GG paste along with all the dry masala,cook for a minute. ( pic - 2 ) 
• Throw in tomatoes and cook till they turn mushy and you end up with a clingy gravy with the oil floating. ( pic - 3a and 3b )
• Add in the boiled palak ( pic - 4 )and sauté till the water dries out. ( pic - 5 )
• Finally add soaked daal and two cups of water.Mix well and let the water boil. ( pic - 6)
• As soon as the water start boiling ,lower the heat to medium ,cover and let cook till the water dries out.At this point the daal should be tender enough to eat and you should be able to see the oil oozing around. ( pic - 7 )
• Moong Daal palak is ready.
• Serve with plain boiled rice or buttered chapatti , a simple onion – tomato salad and raita. Enjoy!

Notes:
1. We like our Moong daal palak a bit mushy as you can see from the picture.. if you like it that way just increase the amount of water say 2 cups instead of 1.5.

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Muqaish Daal

I am a meat lover by default and because of this I am not much of a daal person but when it comes to Muqaish Daal … I just cant resist it.Its simply that wicked !!

One of my friend asked me about the name .No,it has nothing to do with music. Muqaish (a.k.a  Kamdani) is a kind of embroidery where shiny silver flat metal strip is used to place stipples or dots on varying distance resembling the effect of twinkling stars in the sky. Since this daal is cooked in a way that you end up with pearly white separate grains like stipples…hence the name “ Muqaish Daal ”.
This daal is another express meal … ready in thirty minutes flat from start to finish.Did I mention this daal is so tasty that even the hard core meat lovers ( like me ) wont be able to pass it.



What you need :

• Urad ( Mash) daal : 1 cup (washed and soaked in water for an hour)
• Water : 1/2 cup
• Milk : 1/2 cup
• Salt : 1 tsp ( up to taste )
• Clove : 2
• Black cardamom : 1
• Whole black pepper : 5
• Cinnamon : 2 small pieces

Tempering ( tadka or baghar ) :

• Onion : 1 medium ( sliced finely )
• Whole red chili : 5 - 6
• Ginger : 2 inch piece ( cut into fine stripes)
• garlic : 5 - 8 bulbs ( sliced finely )
• Whole cumin : 1 tsp
• Green coriander :  3 tbsp ( finely chopped )
• Oil : 1/2 cup
  

How to :

1. Drain the soaked daal.
2. Mix water,milk and salt. Add in the whole Gram masala.
3. In a non stick pan … add daal and the milk + water mixture.
4. Let boil once on high heat and then cover the pan and let cook on medium to gentle heat till the liquid dries up and the daal is tender but not mushy.
5. Heat oil in another pan. Put sliced onions and whole red chilies and let sizzle for 2 minutes . When the onions begin to get soft and kind of transparent add Green Coriander,Ginger and Garlic.
6. When you see the onions are about to be golden brown add Whole cumin and let sizzle for a minute.
7. Pour the Tadka ( along with oil ) onto the cooked daal.
8. Let cook for two minutes to infuse the tadka .
9. Muqaish Daal is ready .
10. Serve with Nan or roti .

Notes :

• You can use also only water ( instead of half water and half milk) for boiling the daal.
  
• The water ratio depends on the quantity of daal. Both should be equal. 1 cup daal =1 cup water,2 cups daal = 2 cups water etc.
• In the end the daal should be thoroughly cooked and tender but not mushy and each grain should be separate ( it wont be Muqaish daal otherwise ). This depends on the pan and the quality of heat so you have to workout on that.
• There will be a white scum on top while boiling , its normal just leave it like that.It will vanish by the end.
• A dab of butter on top of daal while serving will make it more delicious.

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