Panchratna Dal

Five dals in equal quantities, and the name counts them.

Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains dairy (butter).

Ingredients

• 60 g toor dal
• 60 g urad dal
• 60 g moong dal
• 60 g chana dal
• 60 g masoor dal
• 60 g butter
• 3 green chillies, slit
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds
• 4 cloves
• 4 cardamom pods
• a 4 cm piece of ginger, grated
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1.2 litres water

Method

1. FIVE DALS IN EQUAL QUANTITIES, AND THE NAME COUNTS THEM. Its article explains the name from the Sanskrit panch for five and ratna for jewels, and then gives the composition without hedging: EQUAL QUANTITIES of toor dal, urad dal, moong dal, chana dal and masoor dal. Sixty grams of each. That is the dish -- not a dal with a few others thrown in, but five in the same measure, and the reason it is worth the trouble is that they cook to different textures. Toor and chana hold their shape, moong and masoor collapse completely, urad goes sticky. One pot, five results.
2. THEY ARE SOAKED TOGETHER AND THAT IS ITS ARTICLE'S ORDER. The mixture is first soaked in water to soften the lentils. Half an hour is enough for this mix; the fast ones do not want longer.
3. THEY ARE COOKED TOGETHER TOO, NOT SEPARATELY. Fifteen minutes pressure-cooked, which its article specifies, or forty-five in a pan. Cooking them apart to protect the quick ones defeats the point: the collapsing dals are what thickens the ones that hold.
4. THE FLAVOURING GOES IN AFTER THEY ARE COOKED, WHICH ITS ARTICLE ALSO SAYS. The cooked dal is THEN flavoured with butter, chillies, cumin, cloves, cardamom, ginger and garam masala -- so the whole spices meet the dal at the end rather than boiling with it.
5. THE WHOLE SPICES ARE BLOOMED IN THE BUTTER FIRST. Cumin until it darkens, then cloves and cardamom for twenty seconds, then poured over.
6. MOTH DAL IS A LEGITIMATE SUBSTITUTION AND ITS ARTICLE SAYS WHICH WAY ROUND. Some recipes substitute masoor for moth dal, moth being harder to find in some places. So masoor is the common stand-in, not the original.
7. IT IS THICK BUT POURABLE. A litre and a bit of water to three hundred grams of dal. It thickens as it stands, so judge it slightly loose.
8. SALT GOES IN AT THE END. Earlier, and the chana and toor take much longer to soften.
9. ITS ARTICLE SAYS IT GOES WITH A FLATBREAD. Chapati, as on its own page.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes