This dish has been a favorite in my family for ages. It is really yummy and wholesome if it is made correctly. I always try to eat healthy and encourage everyone to do the same. I really enjoy good food and healthy food at that too.
Anyway I am going to show you how I made this dish. Best of all no meat is used in this dish so my vegitarian and vegan readers can really enjoy this dish.
I did all of the prep work before I did all of this cooking. I washed and soaked 1/4 cup of chana ki dal. These are the big yellow lentils. I washed peeled cut and deseeded 1 kadoo which is an opo squash also called bottle gourd. I added 1/4 cup of olive oil to my pressure cooker. I cut 1 onion or shallot in to half moon slices then added it to the pressure cooker. I added 2 each of cloves and kabab chini with 1 pinch of cumin to my mortar and pestle and gound it in to a coarse powder. I set this aside for later and proceed with the rest. I did all of this while browning the onion or shallot. I add 2 cloves of garlic, 1 pinch of cilantro, 1 small piece of ginger washed, peeled and cut in to tiny pieces in the pressure cooker.
I cooked until the rawness went away and added 1 pinch of each hing, pink salt, turmeric, red chili powder, Garam Masala, plus the contents of the mortar and pestle in to the pressure cooker and stirred. I added 1 green chili deseeded and cut in to tiny pieces, 2 aloo bukhara which are the tiny sour plums. Without this added there is no such thing as kadoo and chana ki dal. I add 1 tomato and cook it down until it is a mushy consistancy. I add the kadoo and the chana ki dal. I stirr and add 1 quart or 1 liter of water to the pressure cooker.
I closed the pressure cooker and turned on the heat to high and let the pressure build. The safety button goes up and then turned down to medium heat. It gets cooked for 15 to 20 minutes. The heat gets turned off and the pressure cooker sits there so the pressure can escape. The safety button is lowered and then the cooker can be opened because there is no more pressure left. If the kadoo and chana ki dal is a little hard add 3 cups of water and turn the heat back on and let the pressure build again and once more safety button pops up, let it cook for another 10 minutes then turn off the heat once more and let the pressure escape once more before opening. However I got a small kadoo and it was more lovely.
So here it goes so please enjoy this with sheermal, taftan or naan.
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