tonse@csa1.lbl.gov (Shaheen Tonse) (06/21/91)
I recently tried an experiment with beef and chana dahl (sorry I don't know the English word for chana dahl,not garbanzo beans, but it is a yellow dahl, quite spherical, and usually split) as every time I ate chana dahl I felt it would be better with meat. 2 cups chana dahl Vegetable oil 3 dried red chilis 1 tsp mustard seed tsp=teaspoon 1 large onion, peeled & chopped 4 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped 1 cubic inch ginger, peeled & chopped 2 tsp coriander (cilantero) powder 1.5 tsp cumin powder salt 1 lb beef (fatty OK), cut into cubes sides 0.75 inches. 1 cup milk 2 tsp tomato paste Wash dahl and let soak for 2 or more hours in 3 cups water. Heat oil in a pot, when hot add red chilis and mustard seed. When seeds pop, add onion, lower heat & cover for 5 minutes. Raise heat, stirring, until onions start to brown. Add garlic,ginger, stir 2 minutes. Add coriander, cumin, and meat. Heat for 5 minutes, stirring. Add 0.5 cup water, 1 cup milk, tomato paste and salt to taste (1 tsp?) (At this point if you were to let it cook for an hour you would get a pretty good beef curry.) Bring to boil, lower heat, cover for 15 minutes. Add dahl and simmer for another 45 minutes. Toward the end you should add water or raise heat, to get the correct water content, i.e. have the sauce just at the same level as the dahl. Tastes good on the first day, even better on the 2nd. Eat with rice or tortillas. Good with Patak's Prawn Balichow too, although they don't pay me for saying that. Enjoy. Shaheen. Er, for all you Americans out there who are allergic to shrimp, please note that prawn=shrimp.