This is the quintessential Bengali side dish. The ultimate comfort food. It’s on every dinner table…from the most affluent of households to the most modest. When you invite someone near and dear to you, you always entice them with the promise of “daal bhat” (rice and lentils).
I hadn’t realized how extensive the ingredient list was for such a simple dish as daal. Mine is a bit heavy on the garlic (’cause let’s face it…the lentils themselves don’t have much flavor). The tomatoes and cilantro add freshness. To add depth of flavor, daal is traditionally made with panch phoron, added right at the end. Panch phoron is a Bengali blend of five different seeds: mustard, nigella, asafoetida, fenugreek, and cumin. It toasts up in the oil with the fried onion at the end to enhance its flavor. The combination of spicy, licoricey and earthy flavors give it a distinctly Bengali flavor.
Rinse the lentils 2-3 times in cold water. Then, combine with water, garlic and chilli and bring to a boil over high heat (cut a slit into the chili pepper to let some of the flavor out). When it comes to a boil, lower the heat (otherwise it boils over like milk) and bring to a simmer. Spoon off some of the foam on top.
Add the turmeric, salt and tomatoes. Let simmer for about 15 minutes, or until lentils are cooked through. Optional: at this stage you can break up the lentils with a daal ghutni or an immersion blender (taking care to remove the chili and garlic) to give it a smoother consistency.
While lentils simmer, thinly slice the onion and fry until brown over medium heat. Mince the last garlic clove and add it to the onions for the last 30-45 seconds. Finish with chopped cilantro. Taste for seasoning.
[…] would still taste great with just the garlic, salt and pepper. You can serve this with rice and daal. It would also be great on some crusty bread with a little bit of grated cheese (gruyere, fontina), […]
[…] over for a traditional Bengali meal in our tiny Roman apartment, usually consisting of rice, daal, chicken curry and some sort of fried veggie or salad. Then go out for gelato. Yeah, we knew how […]
[…] daal, as is traditionally used in sambars. No coconut or curry leaves. This is basically my usual daal, but with the addition […]
[…] In a large non-stick wok or sauté pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garlic and dried chilis. Cook until fragrant (about 30 seconds – you don’t want it to burn). Open up your windows, too. Toasted chilis make you cough up a storm! Add the sliced gourd, turmeric and salt. Cook over medium high heat, stirring frequently, until cooked through: about 15 minutes. If the veggies start to brown, reduce heat to medium and keep stir-frying. Check for seasoning (salt). Top with chopped cilantro. Serve alongside rice and daal. […]
My mother, who is a great cook, simply gets green with envy at my oven utilization. She boasts to her friends how I simply toss a few ingredients together and put them all into the oven and set a timer on. No babysitting, freeing up your hands and mind to take care of the dishes, clean up a wee wee accident (what? that’s not a constant in your day to day?) or whatever else you might need to do. People in Bangladesh just don’t have ovens (or they didn’t at least when she was growing up), so the only method of food prep she’s ever known was stovetop. Luckily, I grew up in new york. I’ve used my oven to satisfy my sweet (and savory) tooth since I was a kid. So, given the craziness of everyday life here, it’s good to have a few of these marinades up your sleeves that you can prepare the morning of or night before, and toss in the oven half an hour before dinner time. I made these homefries to go along with the chicken. The bag said they’re a good source of potassium. Yay for good carbs! Salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder and olive oil. 425 for 25 min. Wow! The spice mix is a little tricky to put together but I highly recommend it! There is a small amount of nutmeg (compared to everything else in it) but the flavor really comes through! The flavor is more vibrant than any Shan mix you may buy (and minus the preservatives). Just spend a little bit of time one afternoon or evening to prepare the mix and you’ll have access to delicious tandoori chicken any time! I’ve actually had it sitting in my cupboard for a while (over a year) because I wasn’t crazy about the recipe that went with the mix, but I tried my hand at creating my own recipe more recently and I was blown away! I integrated a few tricks I picked up from Smitten Kitchen, namely her recipe for Buttermilk Roast Chicken. One: that 1 tbsp of salt in the marinade achieves the same effect of brining your chicken. Two: a little bit of sugar goes a long way when roasting chicken. I never was a fan of sweet/savory flavor combinations, but the amount of sugar in this recipe doesn’t make the chicken sweet, rather helps keep all the flavors balanced. Another thing that’s helped my cooking recently is raw ginger. I’ve always had an aversion to it. The times I would bite down on a piece while eating haleem. The sharp, unpleasant flavor it adds to drinks. So I kind of carried that into my cooking, only using small pinches of the milder version, ginger powder. But when I started using the real deal, something amazing happened: the foods I cooked reached new heights. Like, can-compete-with-my-mom heights. I used to attribute the difference in our foods to the type of salt we use (she uses table salt, I use kosher or sea salt), thinking perhaps what she uses (or the volume of it) amplifies the flavor in a way that kosher salt doesn’t. But now I really believe ginger to hold the key. It adds a depth, a warmth, that is hard to achieve with black pepper or chili powder. All in all, ginger, nutmeg, tender fall-off-the-bone meat all knocks this recipe out of the park.
I kept the skin on the legs, because I love a good, crispy skin. But this recipe works just as well with skinless.
Make two cuts into the chicken: one at the thigh, one at the drumstick. Place in a gallon zip lock bag.
Combine yogurt, lemon juice, salt, sugar, spice mix, garlic, and ginger in a bowl or large glass measuring cup. Pour over the chicken in the bag and zip shut. Massage the marinade into the meat. Let sit in the fridge for about 8 hours (I did mine in a hurry, about 4 hours, and although it was delicious, it makes a difference in how deeply the flavor penetrates).
Heat oven to 425 Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment or aluminum. Take the chicken out of the marinade, shaking off excess. Spread the chicken out (overcrowding will keep the skin from crisping) and lightly sprinkle some chili powder over the top. Drizzle with olive oil for a nice tan, and bake for 30-35 minutes, depending on the size of the individual legs. The meat should be cooked through, but if your meat isn’t nicely browned, turn the heat up to 450 and bake for an additional 5 minutes. I had some leftover (halal beef) bacon grease from the morning, so I used that instead =)
Serve with naan, home fries, or just a nice salad. Extra points for homemade cilantro yogurt dipping sauce (recipe to come!).