One of my Christmas presents (that I asked for) was this beautiful shiny pressure cooker - ultra-modern and very slick. I am totally in love with it. You should see how it cooks chicken and beef, like a dream. No more checking to see if the insides are cooked, the meat literally flakes apart in your mouth, it’s so nummy.
But I am looking for a good recipe for dahl (Indian style lentils). So I start searching. I found one online that looked promising - the person had sort of cobbled together their own recipe, and prefaced it with funny commentary and a cute story about being afraid of the pressure cooker. I too, was afraid of the pressure cooker - my aunt’s, which whistles, and which you have to watch VERY VERY CAREFULLY or it will explode and cover your ceiling with whatever food you cook (no kidding, that’s what my aunt said!) Mine is much more sophisticated.
So I read this article, and the funny commentary, and scroll down…and wait. Where’s the recipe? Are you kidding me? She hasn’t posted the recipe!
Yup, that’s right, her cute little story (which immediately did a 180 to annoying) was all she had posted! Oh, and a lovely picture of how the dahl came out. So I am somehow supposed to extrapolate how she made the dahl. I am not psychic and am only an average cook and cannot just make things up out of the blue. NEED RECIPE.
Anyway, long story short - anybody got a good recipe for dahl in the pressure cooker? I only like urad dahl (black lentils) so please no split-pea stuff, I hate that. Also am looking for recipes for mutton or lamb, and kala chana (the little black chick peas) if anyone has one. I haven’t had those in years and I miss them so much.
fine bits of food, which can be produced when beans or lentils disintegrate, can clog a regulator port. using lower volume can help prevent this.
old cookers may have one ‘safety plug/release’ and one open regulator port. if the regulator port gets plugged then the safety plug will release with spewing.
new pressure cookers may have a baffle to keep the regulator port from becoming easily plugged. it can still get plugged with a high volume.
no recipes.
We’ve done pretty well by just using regular recipes (for dahl, lamb stew, or just about anything else), but adjusting the cooking times downward by about 75%. Our pressure cooker came with a small recipe book with various cooking times for various types of beans; just pick a bean/lentil of a similar size and go with that cooking time. IME most lentil-sized things take 15 - 20 minutes on high pressure, but it’s not like an extra 5 minutes will overcook your dahl. One beautiful thing about the pressure cooker is that it’s difficult to burn things, because there’s almost nowehere for the liquid to boil off.
Also, our manual suggests adding a teaspoon of vegetable oil if you’re cooking something like grains or beans that’s likely to foam up and clog your steam port.
Here is something you can do with any dal - Tur or Arahar (Pigeon peas), Masoor (pink dal - but turns yellow on cooking) and whole bunch of legumes.
Just don’t mix them to begin with - because they have different cooking time. The pink ones cook fastest and most delicious (and have a ton of good protein too!)
Cook the dal first. Then, in a small wok put in 3-4 spoons of oil - anything thats neutral in flavor. Add in a spoon or so of cumin seeds (jeera) and after it has popped, add in some chopped onions, chopped garlic, chopped ginger, couple of slit green chillies and saute them until the onions are almost turning brown.
Add it to the cooked dal - season with salt and enjoy. Put in a bit of butter for a creamy taste - if you want. Top it with chopped cilantro and a squeeze of lime or lemon for more flavor.
You can also saute the onions separately until they brown and add it in.
You can also experiment by adding in dried mango powder (for tartness) and asafoetida(hing) - this has a very strong flavor in the oil after the cumin seeds have popped.
As a variation, you can try mustard seeds instead of cumin and put in some curry leaves at the same time - for a completely different flavor.