Recipe: Sindhi Dal Curry

Pratibha Karan's Sindhi Dal Curry finds its origins in Sindh, now a part of Pakistan.

No ordinary dal, it features gypsy beans, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, radish, okra, cauliflower and onions, which come together to create a medley of flavours.

"But some of our Sindhi friends make it with just gypsy beans," explains the author of The Book Of Dals.

"It is our favourite for Sunday lunch and is normally accompanied with papad and a dish of fried potatoes called Took in Sindhi."

Sindhi Dal Curry

Serves: 8 

• 200 gm toor dal or arhar dal or yellow split peas/lentils
• 50 gm besan or gram flour 
• 75 gm tamarind soaked in 1 cup water
• 100 gm gawar phalli or gypsy beans
• 1 potato
• 1 large tomato
• 2 brinjals or baingan or eggplant
• 1 mulee or radish
• 6-8 bhindis or okra
• 50 gm cauliflower
• 2 green chillies
• 1 large onion 
• 55 ml oil
• 1 tsp jeera or cumin seeds
• ½ tsp methi or fenugreek seeds
• 3–4 dry whole red chillies
• ½ tsp haldi or turmeric powder
• 1 tsp red chilly powder
• Few sprigs of fresh green dhania or coriander or cilantro, chopped
• 6 cups water
• Salt to taste, about 2 tsp

Method

• Wash the lentils and then soak for 30 minutes.
  Drain them and then boil in a saucepan in 3–3½ cups water till tender.
  Take off heat, let it cool a little and then lightly mash and keep aside.
• In a heavy-bottomed saucepan or kadhai, lightly dry roast the besan till it turns a rich gold colour and emits a lovely aroma.
  Do not over brown it.
  Add 1½ cups water to it and mix well.
  Take off heat and keep aside.
• Wash and soak the tamarind in 1 cup of warm water for 10–15 minutes.
  Mash and sieve the mixture to get the tamarind juice.
  Keep aside.
• Slice off the sides of the gypsy beans to take the strings off and cut all the vegetables into medium–large sized pieces.
  But leave the okra whole, chopping just the stem off.
• Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
  Add the cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, dry red whole chillies.
  When the chillies darken, add the vegetables, green chillies.
  Add the salt, turmeric, red chilly powder.
  Mix and cook for about 10 minutes.
  Add the boiled lentils, besan water, tamarind juice.
  Cook till the vegetables are tender and the dal well-blended.
  Take off heat and add the chopped coriander.
  This dal should have medium-thin consistency.
  Serve hot along with steamed rice, papad and Took, a dish of potatoes cut into medium-thick slices and deep-fried golden brown and sprinkled with salt and red chilly powder.

Excerpted from The Book Of Dals by Pratibha Karan with the kind permission of the publishers Penguin Random House India.