101 Ways to Make Dahl

The spice vendor at the market recently convinced me to buy his mixed dahl.  The mix consists of a variety of different lentils and small beans and looks very colorful in the re-used peanut butter jar on my shelf.  I asked him how to make dahl when I bought it, “just to be sure I am doing it right.”  Actually I’ve made dahl soup, the spicy yellow concoction usually served with rice, many times – to varying degrees of acceptability – but this has become a bit of a hobby for me and I’m looking for the recipe I like best.

Mixed Dahl on the shelf

The thing is – everyone makes dahl a little differently.  Even at the same restaurant the dahl will be different on different days.  Although this makes it hard to recommend a restaurant based solely on the quality of their dahl, I’ve never had a bad one and I rather enjoy the variety.

I’m in pursuit, not only of the perfect dahl, but of perfection in all of my Indian cuisine.  I am relatively new to this kind of cooking because for most of my life Indian food was something you would order at a restaurant, not cook for yourself at home on par with kung pow chicken, tom yum soup, tempura shrimp and other things that ordinary Americans don’t know how to cook.  Now that I’m attempting to make Indian food on a more or less daily basis I have two stipulations: (1) it must be delectable (or close – based on my tastes) and (2) it should be less than 50% oil – or at least – healthier than the stuff at most of the restaurants.  I realize, of course, that these are are competing aims – but not only am I a perfectionist, I’m picky. 

The difficulty of the task at hand, however, has not stopped my experimenting.  And I must say that I make a lovely bhindi curry (okra) with optional nutrella (soy chunks).  My vegetable pulau is also pretty great and I recently made a wonderful palak paneer – with the paneer from scratch.  This actually might sort of be cheating since palak paneer isn’t a dish that’s usually cooked in Fiji.  In fact, most of the Indo-Fijians I’ve asked haven’t even heard of paneer, though maybe it’s something lost in translation. 

That’s another thing I find interesting and fun – Indian food in Fiji is nothing like Indian food in America – or – at least – there are striking differences. Of course there are differences based on vegetable availability (I’d never heard of taro leaves being used in Indian cuisine in the states) but there are other differences, too.  For example naan is pretty much non-existent here, but is ubiquitous at home to the point that many Americans don’t realize there are other types of bread in India.  Here everyone eats rot – which – if you have to forgo naan – is probably the best thing and in some cases it’s even better than naan since it can be used as a wrap like a tortilla.  One of my new favorite things is to go to an Indian restaurant and order the vegetable curry half rice and half roti and make burritos out of whatever shows up – usually it includes tomato chutney which could sort of compare to salsa.

Taro leaf curry, dahl, tomato chutney, rice and roti ready to be made into burritos!

And this is just the tip of the iceberg!  Living in a traditional Fijian village I am not exposed to as much Indo-Fijian culture and food as I would be if I lived in (or near) a settlement.   I have to rely on other volunteers to invite me to their homes and introduce me to their friends or make some Indo-Fijian friends in town.  Having experienced Diwali I realize I have heaps more to learn.  Indian snacks and sweets, too!  But that’s a whole other ball game – one of overindulgence, pleasure and pain – and can be saved for another time.