Mung Dal Halwa- instant version

I had been wanting to make mug halwa and as it happened, I can across the version of making halwa using dry dal instead of the presoaked one. Well, we had just had dinner and I felt like eating some dessert and decided to make it as it promised to be quick, and it was. And the family liked it so much that I doubled the ingredients and made it again. I made some changed when I doubled the recipe, so I will give both variations below.

Ingredients 
Without milk- half quantity
1/2 cup moong dal, coarsely powdered
1/2 cup jaggery finely cut.
1/4 cup sugar (It wasn't sweet enough with only jaggery, so I added 1/4 cup of sugar after the halwa was cooked. It melted and made the halwa a little fluid, so I cooked it further till I got the appropriate consistency)
3 tbsp ghee - roasted the mung flour in 2 tbsp of ghee and added 1 tbsp after halwa was cooked
1.5 cups water at room temperature
nuts roasted in ghee for garnish - optional

With milk- half, after doubling mung quantity
1 cup moong dal, coarsely powdered
3/4 cup sugar
6 tbsp ghee - roasted the mung flour in 4 tbsp of ghee and added 2 tbsp after halwa was cooked
1 cup water
1 cup milk warmed for 30 seconds in microwave
nuts roasted in ghee for garnish - optional

Method
Measure out the dal, and then pluse it in the blender till coarsely ground. Heat ghee and dal in a pan and roast it on medium low heat till the color deepens and the dal smells fragrant.  It will take a good 10-15 minutes. Roast dal on low heat if possible, as once it starts to change color it will burn easily. Keep on stirring. Next add sugar or jaggery and stir and let it start to melt for a minute or so . Now add water or the water and milk mixture and stir well. The dal will cook in the liquid and initially look like kheer. It will thicken slowly as the dal absorbs the water. Cook it and keep stirring
Till alll the water is absorbed and thicken it to the texture you prefer. It can be soft or a little dry. Add additional ghee and mix and turn off the heat. Garnish with nuts if using. You can also add cardamom powder. Serve warm.

Tips
I used hot water and warm milk when I made it the second time. It caused the halwa to splatter everywhere and was dangerous. Use room temperature water and milk to avoid this splattering. Adding some ghee during the roasting and topping off with more ghee after cooking allows you to cook the halwa in minimal ghee. You can always use more ghee. 

Multigrain Ladoo/ Laddoo - Multigrain Sweet Balls

This is a delicious and a very healthy sweet. I made this for the first time, about one year ago. I needed a healthy and filling snack which would be easy to store and carry. Also, it needed to be appealing to a child and easy to hold and eat. My daughter enjoys besan laddoo and one day I thought it would be great if I tried to make laddoos with other grains and flours. This recipe was a great success.  My family enjoyed it and I was okay if dinner occasionally constituted of one laddoo and milk.

Ingredients
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup soy bean flour
1 cup mung dal
2/3 cup urad dal
1/2 cup ragi flour
1.25 cups of ghee/clarified butter
2 and 1/3 cup of powdered sugar
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 cup raisins (optional)
1/4 cup blanched and peeled almond slices (optional)

Method
Dry roast the whole wheat flour, soy bean flour and ragi flour separately. The flour should be roasted till it gets a toasted fragrance. The soy bean flour will take the minimum time. Roast each flour and grain separately, as each flour will need different amounts of roasting time. Roast the urad and mung dal till they turn reddish brown, taking care to not burn the grain. Grind each grain, separately into powder. It can be slightly coarse, which will give the laddoo some texture. Once all the flours are roasted and grains have been ground into flour, heat ghee in a pan. The pan should be large enough to hold all the ingredients. The powdered flours approximately amount to about 5 and a half cups. Once the ghee has melted, add the flours and mix them well with the ghee. Turn off the heat. Once the mixture turns warm, add the powdered sugar, raisins and almonds (if using them) and mix well. The mixture should not be cold, else it will be difficult to incorporate the sugar. Mix it well till all the sugar is incorporated into the flour and ghee mixture.

Then take a fistful of the mixture and roll it between the palms of your hands to roll it into small balls. Store in an airtight container. These do not need refrigeration, however you can  store them in the fridge if any remain after a couple of weeks to keep them fresh.

Tips
If you store the laddoos in the fridge, warm them up in the microwave for 5-10 seconds before eating. You can switch out the whole wheat flour with besan/chickpea flour. Or you can even add in besan as an additional flour. You can adapt this recipe by trying out different proportions of the various grains or flours. Just make sure that you roast the flour before using it in the laddoo. It can be made gluten free by substituting the wheat flour with chickpea flour.

Mung Dal with Garlic

Sometimes one comes across a dish in their life that stays with them forever. The taste and fragrance of the food gets so deeply embedded in your mind that just a whiff of a similar smell and it can take you back to the first time you tasted it. This dish for me is this particular prepartion of mung dal (split yellow mung). I still remember the first time I tasted it. I was a kid in school and had accompanied my parents to a place near Nashik (a city in Maharashtra). For the week that we were there, we lived in the guest house which had a large dining hall. We had to go to the dining hall for every meal and I was absolutely fascinated by the place. It was large, had lots of tables and the plates and bowls used to always be arranged on the tables, but were always kept inverted. We needed to place them back in the upright, correct position and then the servers would come out and serve us the food. I can't remember a lot about the trip, but the memory of this dal is deeply entrenched in memory and my senses. Ever since I started experimenting with recipes, I have been trying to determine the right ingredients and proportions, so that I could taste it again. And I finally got the exact taste last week!!  I am delirious with joy that I was able to recreate the recipe. While it is extremely simple, it is delicious and the perfect comfort food to take me back into the cosy comfort of childhood.

Ingredients
1 cup mung dal - split, peeled yellow mung dal
a pinch of asafoetida/hing
1/2 tsp turmeric
2-3 tsp oil
1/4 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
3 large garlic cloves, finely sliced
1 green chilli, slit lenghtwise into two
10 curry leaves
1/4 cup cilantro/corriander leaves, chopped
3-4 cups  water
salt to taste

Method
Wash the mung dal three times and then add two cups of water, asafoetida and turmeric to it. Pressure cook it if possible as it will be the fastest method to cook ot. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you can boil it on the stove top till it is cooked through and is soft and mushy. You may need to add more water if needed.

In a deep pan, heat the oil, add the jeera seeds. Once they start to crackle, add the curry leaves. Then add the garlic and green chilli and let that fry for a minute. We don't want the garlic to start turning brown. As soon as the garlic looks cooked, add the cooked mung dal. Then add water. Add at least 1 cup of water. You may want to add more water if you want a thinner consistency. Add salt. Bring the dal to a boil. Turn off the heat and immediately add the cilantro leaves. Serve hot with rice or roti/chapati. You can also serve it as a lentil soup. It is just delicious on its own.

Tips
If you are not pressure cooking the dal, you can soak it for an hour before you cook it. That will reduce the cooking time. You can also use dry red chilli instead of green chilli, but that will change the taste of the dal slightly. Mung dal thickens up as it cools down and you may want to add additional water to thin it out while reheating.

Daal Baati (Dal Bati) - Recipe for the dal

For information related to Dal Baati and the recipe to make Baati, see my previous post. The dal for the dal baati recipe is unique because it is made using urad dal. While I know that urad dal is a key component of idli and dosa batters, I haven't really seen it used as a main ingredient in too many dal recipe. The freshly baked, ghee dipped baati, is broken down into small pieces in a bowl and then piping hot dal is poured over it. The result is absolutely lip smacking. If you make this dish often, it is best to cut back on the amount of ghee that is used after the baking process to prevent those calories from adding up. But it is absolutely okay to indulge once in a while!

Ingredients
1 cup urad dal
4 tbsp split mung (yellow mung) dal
3 tbsp chana dal (yellow split pea)
3 cups water
a pinch of asafoetida powder
2 tbsp ghee or oil
1/8 tsp cumin (jeera) seeds
2 black cardamom (badi elaichi)
2 bay leaves (tej patta)
1 inch cinnamon
2 cloves garlic, crushed or finely minced
1 inch ginger, finely grated or ground
1/2 cup red onion diced
2 tomatoes diced
1-2 green chillies
red chilli powder to taste
salt to taste
1 tsp dhania (corriander) powder
1 tsp garam masala (optional)
1/8 tsp turmeric
additional water to thin out the dal
cilantro/corriander leaves, chopped for garnishing

Method
Mix the three dals together and add water to it. Add asafoetida and cook. See tips on alternatives of cooking dals. The dal mixture should be cooked through and soft. In a large, deep pan, heat the oil or ghee. To this add jeera, black cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaves. Cook these till you can smell the spices. Take care to prevent them from burning. Then add the green chilli, onion, ginger and garlic. Cook these till you do not get the raw garlic smell. The onion should be at the slightly browning phase. Then add the tomato and cook till the tomatoes are cooked through. Then add the turmeric, dhania powder and garam masala. If you want the dal to be spicy, you can add red chilli powder at this stage. Cook the spices for a couple of minutes and then add the cooked dal mixture. Add some water to thin it out a bit. The consistency should not be too watery. It should be like a thick soup. Turn off the heat when the dal boils. Garnish with chopped cilantro/corriander leaves.

Tips
The fastest method to cook dals is using a pressure cooker.  If using a stove top cooker, cook it for 5 or 6 whistles and if using the Instant Pot, 12 mins on manual mode, at high pressure. Let the pressure release naturally. However, if you do not have a pressure cooker, pre-soak the dal in warm water for a couple of hours. Then add water to the soaked dal and cook till soft. If spices being friend initially burn, it is best to start again with fresh oil. Burnt spices add a bitter taste and can potentially alter the taste of the entire dish. The list of ingredients may look daunting, but most of these should be easily available in your Indian grocery store.

Dill and Split Mung Stir Fry/ Shepu Chi Bhaaji

This is a nutritious and delicious recipe. It is also one of the only recipes I know which uses dill as the main ingredients and not as a spice. Dill has a strong licorice like flavor and also a strong spicy fragrance. This is a Maharashtrian delicacy. For many  people it is an an acquired taste and there are some who find that dill tastes too sharp and spicy. I hadn't ever eaten it while in India, but when my husband asked me to make "shepu chi bhaaji (dill curry)", I called up my Mom and sure enough, got the recipe from her. I tasted it and to my surprise I liked it. I make it frequently now and it's a great addition to my green vegetable list.

Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
1/8 tsp mustard seeds
1/8 tsp cumin seeds
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1-2 dried red chillies (to taste)
a pinch of asafoetida powder/hing
1 medium red onion, diced (about half cup)
1 cup split mung/moong (yellow mung dal)
1 bunch of dill leaves (about 2 cups)
water
salt to taste

Method 
Soak the mung in water. The water should cover the mung completely. If the mung is peeled, soak for at least 15 minutes, if you are using mung with the peel, soak for about an hour. Drain the water before you begin the cooking process.

Heat the oil, add mustard and cumin seeds. Once the mustard seeds crackle, add the hing powder, red chillies and garlic. Add onions and fry them for a few mins. Add the soaked mung seeds in with about  one tablespoon of water. Stir and cover till the dal is cooked through. Stir every couple of minutes, so that the dal doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. Next, add the dill leaves. Stir and let it cook for a couple of minutes till the dill wilts and is cooked through. Add salt to taste. Serve hot with chapati or as a side.

Tips
You can use the thin stalks of dill, and you do not have to separate the leaves which are very thin and pin like. Just cut off the thicker, fibrous stalks. The dill leaves will shrink in volume as they cook down, so be prepared for the overall volume to be around the same as the mung that you use.