Dal Makahini take 2
Well, I decided to revisit my Dal Makahani recipe the other day. There were things that went well... and things that went less than well.
Red Lentils
I decided to go ahead and actually cook these ahead of time. This was useful to some extent. I may have over cooked them. I am not sure to be honest. The skins peeled off, I know that for sure.
1 cup of red lentis. Picked over and soaked for about 30 minutes. 2 cups of water + lentils in a pot. Let it come to a boil, turn it down and keep a vague eye on it. There are likely better ways to do this, but this was my bumbling method.
Paneer
I had some 2% milk that was a couple of days past the expiration date. I decided to turn it into Paneer. I failed at draining it enough. I also forgot to rinse the lemon juice off of it. I tried to fry it in a skillet. That failed to work as anticipated, but the cooked paneer tasted better than the uncooked, so I decided to cook all of it. The goal was fried golden cubes. I ended up with something that looked like ricotta cheese. Opps. I'm going to try draining it better.
basically... heat milk until it boils. Add lemon juice (or buttermilk... perhaps I should have gone this route). Let it separate into curds and whey. Strain the whey from the curds (so, while coffee filters will work, so will paper towels and life is easier with the paper towels)
Saucey, Sauce
1 small onion
2 cubes of garlic
2 cubes of cilantro
1 can Red Pack -- Petite Diced -- with Green Chilies
.25 tsp fenugreek
.5 tsp ground ginger
1 tbs turmeric
.25 tsp Hungarian half-sharp paprika
.25 tsp Hungarian sweet paprika
2 tbs Fage 0% Fat Yogurt
for those joining us for the first time... anything that has a tsp or tbs in front of it is something that I am guessing at the measurements for. It might be a little more or a little less. I cook a lot by feel.
brown the onion, add garlic and cilantro. Wait a bit. add the seasonings. The above is my best guess. Do what feels right. Add the rotel. Let it heat up and meld. ..
put into food processor. Add the yogurt. Blend and taste. Put the rotel mixture in the pot. Let it cook. Add the red lentils.
At this point, I attempted to fry the paneer. This failed in general, but since it tasted better after it had been spun about the skillet, I did that for all of the stuff that I put in the mixture.
So, we ended up adding some cooked cauliflower to the 2nd servings that we had since it didn't really have the right mouth feel (nothing to chew on really). That was pretty tasty. I am not sure if I am going to keep the lentils the same or switch to brown lentils (or swap out half or something). Might try it with chicken at some point. I'm not sure what the best plan is for that though. Perhaps marinate the chicken in the sauce and then cook it in the oven to bring everything up to temp/cook the chicken.
If I had had the frozen ginger, I would have used that. I was limited by what I had on hand. It worked, but fresh/frozen is always preferred.
Red Lentils
I decided to go ahead and actually cook these ahead of time. This was useful to some extent. I may have over cooked them. I am not sure to be honest. The skins peeled off, I know that for sure.
1 cup of red lentis. Picked over and soaked for about 30 minutes. 2 cups of water + lentils in a pot. Let it come to a boil, turn it down and keep a vague eye on it. There are likely better ways to do this, but this was my bumbling method.
Paneer
I had some 2% milk that was a couple of days past the expiration date. I decided to turn it into Paneer. I failed at draining it enough. I also forgot to rinse the lemon juice off of it. I tried to fry it in a skillet. That failed to work as anticipated, but the cooked paneer tasted better than the uncooked, so I decided to cook all of it. The goal was fried golden cubes. I ended up with something that looked like ricotta cheese. Opps. I'm going to try draining it better.
basically... heat milk until it boils. Add lemon juice (or buttermilk... perhaps I should have gone this route). Let it separate into curds and whey. Strain the whey from the curds (so, while coffee filters will work, so will paper towels and life is easier with the paper towels)
Saucey, Sauce
1 small onion
2 cubes of garlic
2 cubes of cilantro
1 can Red Pack -- Petite Diced -- with Green Chilies
.25 tsp fenugreek
.5 tsp ground ginger
1 tbs turmeric
.25 tsp Hungarian half-sharp paprika
.25 tsp Hungarian sweet paprika
2 tbs Fage 0% Fat Yogurt
for those joining us for the first time... anything that has a tsp or tbs in front of it is something that I am guessing at the measurements for. It might be a little more or a little less. I cook a lot by feel.
brown the onion, add garlic and cilantro. Wait a bit. add the seasonings. The above is my best guess. Do what feels right. Add the rotel. Let it heat up and meld. ..
put into food processor. Add the yogurt. Blend and taste. Put the rotel mixture in the pot. Let it cook. Add the red lentils.
At this point, I attempted to fry the paneer. This failed in general, but since it tasted better after it had been spun about the skillet, I did that for all of the stuff that I put in the mixture.
So, we ended up adding some cooked cauliflower to the 2nd servings that we had since it didn't really have the right mouth feel (nothing to chew on really). That was pretty tasty. I am not sure if I am going to keep the lentils the same or switch to brown lentils (or swap out half or something). Might try it with chicken at some point. I'm not sure what the best plan is for that though. Perhaps marinate the chicken in the sauce and then cook it in the oven to bring everything up to temp/cook the chicken.
If I had had the frozen ginger, I would have used that. I was limited by what I had on hand. It worked, but fresh/frozen is always preferred.