Recipe: Chef Varun's Teekhi Dal Tadka With Walnuts

This tasty dhaba-style Dal Tadka will add chatpata to your week.

Chef Varun Inamdar's dal has a tadka of basic ingredients like jeera, rai, dried red chillies, curry leaves, onions, while onions, garam masala and green chillies add flavour to its body. The surprise ingredient is walnuts.

Akhrot (walnuts), which is often incorporated in Himachali and Kashmiri cuisine, adds additional nutrients to any recipe.

Follow this recipe and in 30 minutes you will have a piping hot dal that can be part of a simple meal of steamed rice, papad and pickle.

Chef Inamdar dabbles in all aspects of food -- he is behind the new menu at Imlee, Bandra, north west Mumbai; chocolate is his muse and he has been called the prince of chocolates for his chocolate artwork (a large chocolate Ganesha and also a six-foor chocolate mannequin ); he has cooked for Narendra Modi, Vladimir Putin, Barack Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy, the Bachchans, the Khans and the Kapoors.

Teekhi Dal Tadka With Walnuts

Serves: 3-4

For the dal

• 1 cup toor dal or pigeon pea lentils or split yellow lentils
• ¼ cup walnuts, roughly chopped
• ¼ cup chopped onions
• ¼ cup chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp chopped green chillies
• 1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tsp haldi or turmeric powder
• ½ tsp red chilly powder
• Salt to taste, around 1 tsp
• ½ tsp garam masala
• Water

For the tadka or tempering

• 1 tsp jeera or cumin seeds
• 1 tsp rai or mustard seeds
• 2 dried red chillies
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 tbsp ghee

Method

• Wash the dal well until the water runs clear.
  Soak in a bowl filled with warm water for 10 minutes.
  Drain the water and add the washed dal to a pressure cooker with 3 cups water, salt, roughly chopped walnuts, chopped onions, tomatoes, green chillies, ginger-garlic paste, red chilly powder, garam masala and the turmeric powder.
  Stir well.
  Pressure cook over medium heat for 2 whistles.
  Take off heat and allow the pressure to release naturally.
  Open the lid and roughly mash the dal, but don't over mash; it should still have a little bite to it.
• In a small frying pan or tempering pan, heat the ghee over medium heat.
  Add the mustard seeds and allow them to splutter.
  Add the cumin seeds, curry leaves, red chillies and fry about a minute more.
  Take off heat and add to the prepared dal.
  Serve hot with rice or rotis.

Varun Inamdar is a chef, food stylist and chocolatier.

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