Dal-Chawal diaries: Tracing India's comfort food from Kashmir to Kanyakumari

Time of India

2 days ago

The North
CHEF PRATEEK SADHU, founder of Naar
—
India
's first destination restaurant nestled in the hills of Kasauli — says that the hills have an 'interesting' dal culture. It's a contrast to his native Kashmir, where the lentil plays a less prominent role, barring the Kashmiri whole moong, which is cooked with turmeric and a generous dose of fennel powder.
Sadhu says in Himachal, they make rajma madra — kidney beans cooked in yoghurt gravy. According to regional culinary blogs, madra can be made using beans, pulses and peas and is a part of the traditional feast called dhaam. Dogras prepare madra with rajma,
white chana
, rongi, green pea and black lentil. In Himachali households, there's a whole black gram dish slowcooked with no onion or garlic and eaten with makki ki roti. Punjab's maa ki dal is made with onion and garlic. Then there is also the region's famous maa-chhole (black gram and chana). The legendary dal-makhani, born in undivided Punjab, is slow cooked with urad and rajma, along with butter and cream.
CHEF PAWAN BISHT,
who is from Uttarakhand, chronicles dals on his Instagram. He names bhaddu ki dal, bhatt ki churkani, gahat, chainsoo, dubke, pahadi masran dal, among others. 'Cooking in an iron wok or using bhaddu — a thick bottomed and narrowneck vessel made of alloy — and use of organic lentils, Himalayan herbs like jhambu and gandhreni adds to the flavour,' he says.
CHEF MANU CHANDRA, founder, LUPA Bengaluru,
is a classically trained European chef, but he has grown up on
dal-chawal
in his Army household. In central India, he says, the staple is a
moong-masoor
(de-skinned) with jeera, garlic and hing tempering. He also mentions a dal made in his Kayastha household similar to Amritsari sookhi dal — skinned urad cooked like rice, with turmeric and ginger. They'd top it with fried onions, cumin and red chilli tadka.
The North East
DIMAPUR-BASED CHEF JOEL BASUMATARI
says that the dal in his house is always cooked by his wife Viseino. 'Every mom's dal has a different taste, a unique touch. Its simplicity can't be matched,' he shares. There's nothing like a 'typical' Northeast dal, the chef says. Every state has a different recipe, preparation and a choice of dal, 'Even within the tribes, the dal taste will differ,' he adds.
In Nagaland, it is skinned raahar (arhar or toor) dal, mostly not fried but boiled, with bamboo shoots, chilli (Raja mirch), turmeric, salt, with no masala or tempering. It is garnished with local coriander called Burma dhania or sawtooth coriander. In Manipur, meals are incomplete without a dal, says communications professional Nenem Misao, who belongs to the Kuki tribe.
Unpolished skinned masoor is boiled with tomato, onion, garlic and local chilli malchapom, alongwith haldi and salt. A typical table will have non-veg items, boiled vegetables, dal, rice (sticky one) and malchame (chutney). 'Common malchame are made with fermented beans or fish, ankamthu (extract of fermented mustard leaves),' she says. Chutneys are part of all meals in Nagaland too.
In Meghalaya, the Khasi make dai nei iong— black whole pulse (horse gram or urad) cooked with black sesame paste. The dal is boiled and the sesame is added as a paste, along with ginger, garlic and mustard oil paste. Recently, chef Sanjeev Kapoor posted a video of an Assamese dal — masoor cooked with tomato, except he added jeera, which many in the comments insisted had to be the five-spice blend called panchphoraninstead. Some even add the Assamese lemon (kaji nemu) or borthekera (a local berry) for sourness.
The East
FOOD
WRITER KALYAN KARMAKAR, founder, Finely Chopped,
is a Bengali living in Mumbai. He says the appreciation for dal grows as you get older. He counts Bengal's cholar (chana) dal, skinned masoor dal with kalonji and machher matha diye moong dal (moong with fish head) as his favourites, along with Parsi dal preparations—dhansak (dhan or dal with meat) and masoor ma gosh (black masoor and mutton).
ODIA FOOD CURATOR SUJATA DEHURY
says that the first formal restaurant in Odisha bore the name of an iconic dal dish, Dalma. It is a nourishing dish with dal and local vegetables all cooked in cow ghee, with freshly roasted cumin-red chili powder, crushed ginger and bay leaf. While a regular dalma is quite simple, the temple version has grated coconut, urad dal crunchies called naadi — making it thicker and adding a sweet note.
The West
RUSHINA GHILDIYAL, FOUNDER OF A PERFECT BITE CONSULTING,
who has researched on how India eats dal, reckons that as you move from North to South, there's a preference for split and skinned dals. The use of gram flour, especially in Rajasthan, is common. 'They also use chillies extensively, as it works as a cooling agent,' says Ghildiyal. The iconic Rajasthani addition to the dal roster is the Panchmel dal — a part of the signature dal-baati-churma dish. It mixes five lentils — Bengal gram, black gram, green gram, pigeon peas split and skinned, and moth bean split.
SHEETAL BHATT
, A CULINARY CHRONICLER AND FOUNDER, THEROUTES2ROOTS.COM,
says that in Gujarat, a traditional meal is incomplete without the khatti-meethi dal made with skinned toor. Bhatt says that there's no set recipe for the dal that uses jaggery for sweetness and tamarind for sourness, adding, 'Recipes are heirlooms. You will know the khattimitthi dal by the way it smells. The dal tells you when it's done.'
The amti dal from Maharashtra uses split and skinned toor with a very sambarlike masala and kokum as a souring agent. Legend has it that the cook for Chhatrapati Sambaji Maharaj ran out of kokum and added tamarind and thus the sambar was born.
The South
CHEF CHALAPATHI RAO,
based in Hyderabad, puts the spotlight on the dalcha or lentil-based stew that originated in Hyderabad, which uses chana dal mixed with vegetables like pumpkin and bottle gourd or with meat. 'For gosht dalcha, you use the rib cage meat and eat with baghara rice (tempered rice).'
No dal from Andhra and Telangana is more famous than the pappu. You can make a tomato pappu, palak pappu, amaranth pappu — depending on what you add to it. Rao says that Andhraites also use gongura and even seasonal chiggur (tender tamarind leaves) leaves to make the pappu. CHEF REGI MATHEW, a Kerala native known for his restaurants in Chennai and Bengaluru, has launched a new space in New York called Chatti — a space that offers the flavours of Kerala's toddy shop cuisine. He says that the sambar is the quintessential southern dal — common to all southern states.
'On the face of it, they are called the same but once you eat it, you know they are distinctly different dishes,' he says. While all the sambars use pigeon pea (toor) as the base, the flavour profile is quite distinct. The spicy Andhra sambar, thanks to the liberal use of red chilies and tamarind, also uses vegetables like yellow cucumber, bottle gourd, and pumpkin. In Kerala, the sambar will have an addition of coconut or 'varutharacha' masala —roasted coconut and spices. The Tamil sambar is more tangy with roasted spice mix and dal. The Karnataka sambar is characterised by its sweet taste thanks to the addition of jaggery.
Mathew says if you are looking at an iconic dal from Kerala, it has to be parippu —which is the first course of the Onam Sadya. Moong (or even toor) is cooked to softness and ground coconut masala is added to it. For spices, it only uses turmeric, coconut, salt and jeera. The other Kerala staple, Mathew notes is — a rice porridge with whole green grams stir fried with coconut, curry leaves and green chillies.
LEELA PRABHA, CO-FOUNDER OF MALGUDI MYLARI MANE
in Bengaluru, which specialises in North and Central Karnataka food, says besides the 'sweet sambar' that varies in sweetness in different regions of Karnataka, what gives the dals a distinct taste are local spices — especially bydagi chillies. She notes that bassaru or upsaaru is a popular recipe from Karnataka, and is prepared using toor, green gram, horse gram, beans and greens like Amaranthus and dill. It's served as an accompaniment with ragi mudde (ragi balls) or rice. Locally sourced greens can also be paired with lentils. 'There's also koli bassaru prepared with chicken and lentils like chana, green gram and, of course, the
Mysorepak
, which is also made of gram flour,' she adds.