Subru Uncles Toor Ki Dalsindhi Style Dad Mom And I Love And Recipes

Steps:

• Pressure cook the lentils (toor dal) in a pressure cooker alongwith 6 cups of water until the lentils are tender.
• Heat oil in a pot on medium-high flame.
• Once its hot, add mustard seeds, methi seeds and cumin seeds.
• Allow to splutter and crackle.
• Once they stop doing so, add in the curry leaves and ginger.
• Stir-fry for 5 minutes until the raw smell of ginger is gone.
• Add asafoetida powder and continue to stir-fry for another 5-7 minutes.
• Toss in the green chillies, mix well and continue to stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes.
• Then add in the tomatoes and 1/4 cup of water to cook the tomatoes.
• Mix well and cook on high flame until the tomatoes are softened.
• Add salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
• Mix well.
• Extract tamarind pulp from tamarind to use as tamarind water.
• To do this, soak about 3 inches piece of tamarind in 1 cup of hot water.
• Squeeze to extract the tamarind pulp and let it mix with the water to form'tamarind water' (that's what I call it).
• There is no need to pass this through a strainer- use it directly!
• Measure out 2/3 cup of tamarind water in a cup and add this tamarind water to the tomato mixture.
• Mix well and allow it to cook on medium-high flame for 5 minutes.
• In the meantime, open the pressure cooker (by this time the lentils will be tender and the whistle would have blown) and with the help of a beater/mashing tool (we use what we call a'mandira' in Hindi. This is a long wooden spoon with a round base that we use for mashing lentils, bananas, etc), in round circular motions, mash the lentils completely, until they mix with the water in which they were being cooked.
• Now add 5 cups of water alongwith the lentil and water mixture that was used to cook the lentils. Add the tamarind-tomato mixture, mixing gracefully, as you sing your favourite kitchen song side-by-side!
• Allow this to come to a boil.
• Lower flame and cook for 10 more minutes on a simmer.
• Remove from flame and serve immediately with cooked long-grain white Basmati rice.
• Serve hot (we serve it immediately because it doesn't taste very good once it gets cold) alongwith low-fat plain yogurt on the side for a complete wonderful Asian-Indian meal in rice and lentil curry heaven!
• My brother, Manav, says that my wud-be hubby is a lucky man cos I'll cook this for him and oh my, my bro adores this curry!
• Please note: If you have a sore throat, a running nose, fever, cough and cold, then PLEASE omit the tamarind altogether because using tamarind juice in this recipe when you have a bad throat, will only make your throat worse. This curry cooks awesome even without the tamarind juice. Enjoy!

Steps:

• Boil the potatoes in plenty of water until tender, drain and keep aside.
• In the meantime, heat oil in a pot.
• Add fenugreek (methi) seeds and allow it to crackle.
• Once it stops crackling and turns lightly golden brown, add cumin seeds and allow to crackle.
• Once it stops crackling, add 10-15 fresh curry leaves, green chillies and ginger.
• Mix well and stir-fry until the raw smell of ginger is gone.
• This takes about 5 minutes.
• Then add gramflour and stir-fry it for 20 minutes, mixing it continuously, on low flame, until it is no longer raw taste-wise.
• (Note: Use 5 tsps. heaped of gramflour).
• Add the remaining 10 fresh curry leaves alongwith asafoetida powder.
• Stir-fry for 3-4 minutes on high flame.
• Stir in water, turmeric powder and red chilli powder.
• Add tomatoes, yam and flat Indian beans (guavar).
• Bring to a boil.
• Lower flame, add 4 tsps.
• of salt and mix well.
• Allow the curry to come to a boil twice (two times) again.
• In the meantime, soak the ladyfinger with 1 tsp.
• of salt in 1 cup of tamarind water (see the following steps to know how to make it).
• Bring this to a boil.
• This step is done so as to ensure that the ladyfinger will not break while cooking in the curry.
• (This is a special tip passed on to me from Subru uncle!).
• Add all the chopped vegetables now alongwith the ladyfinger mixture (add the water as well in which you boiled the ladyfinger), mix well and boil for 30 minutes.
• In the meantime, soak about 3 inches of tamarind in 1 cup of hot water and squeeze out the pulp from the tamarind as nicely as you can.
• Measure out 1 cup of this pulp.
• This pulp is what I call'tamarind water'.
• Note that the consistency of this tamarind water should be such that it consists more of tamarind and less of water.
• Now add this tamarind water to the curry.
• Boil for 30 minutes.
• Remove from flame, garnish with corriander leaves and serve hot with cooked long-grain Basmati rice and/or low-fat plain yogurt for a complete meal in Asian-Indian curry and veggie food heaven!
• Please note: When we prepare this curry at home (every Friday for lunch this is a staple in my home!), we do not use carrots and white pumpkin, that's why I have mentioned these as optional ingredients.
• You can use them if you wish to.
• ENJOY!