Before I start to give you this recipe for this dish I want to inform you this is not even sambar. I didn’t even add sambar masala. If you will like sambar please look at older posts. For those that want to see a newer dish which is an original done by me then you would love this post very much.
I really enjoyed this too and I wanted to get out of the grinding of masala and wanted to use whole masala instead and I am not a bit disappointed. You will definatly need a pressure cooker for this too either a stovetop or an electric multi functional like my instant pot duo crisp and the like.
What I do is called a reverse tarka which is made before you put the dal and it is the opposite of adding the tarka to cooked dal and this way makes it truly a one pot meal along with the 1/2 cup of vegetables of choice which can be either fresh or frozen. It also involves 1 cup of beans or lentils of choice. There are many such as moong, toor, mash, chana, masoor, val dal, black eyed peas, horse gram, cow peas, chickpeas, crowder peas, purple hull peas, lima, pigeon peas, the dal can be either whole or split. Soak these in the refridgerator overnight.
Other beans like any type of white bean, myocoba, pinto, any type of red bean, adzuki, fava, roman, cranberry, black, pink, etc…. The random vegetables that can be used are carrots, any type of green, tindora, guar beans, peas, corn, mixed, celery stalks or root, any type of squash including zucchini and yellow squash, jackfruit, mushrooms of any type, lotus root, eggplant, ridge gourd, okra, 1 leek, parsnip, banana flower, 1 bell pepper of any color, 4 radishes sliced, 1 bulb of either fennel or anise, several drumsticks which is an Indian vegetable, 1 bunch of asperagus with the bottoms cut, these can be bought at various places depending on where you buy them.
They can be found at regular markets especially in my neighborhood I can find everything here. These can be found at a lot of Indian and Pakistani grocery stores.
Now to start the reverse tarka you can add to stovetop pressure cooker or to instant pot and the like on sautè function on high. Add 1/4 cup of oil of corn, canola, vegetable, sunflower, safflower, peanut, olive, avocado, grapeseed or add 3 tbs of dalda ghee.
To this add 1 tsp of either macadamia nut oil, flax seed, mustard, coconut, almond, sesame oil, butter ghee or 2 pats of butter. Add to this hing, 4 curry leaves, whole masala only 1 pinch of seeds of mustard, cumin, shahai zeera (caraway), fennel, kalounji, black cumin, dill, fenugreek, either 1 whole round red chili or Kashmiri chili crushed 1 small broken pices of amchur and stir. The only thing that gets crushed in mortar and pestle are the chilies you are using, a small pice of amchur and the bullion cube. Sometimes bullion cubes gets hard like a rock.
Add either 1 onion or shallot or 4 green onions either sliced or chopped, 4 cloves of garlic, let this brown and add 1 pinch each of red chili powder, turmeric and 1 tomato and cook until mushy. Deglaze the inner lining of the instant pot or the like and stovetop pressure cooker with 1/4 of water.
Add either 1 bullion cube crumbled or add 3 dashes of of either adobo, goya sazonador or seasoned salt or 1 pinch of vegtea seasoning or pink salt. Add 3 dashes of maggi or knorr aroma, add veggies of choice such as if you want to add carrots then add carrots or any other vegetable and pair it with the type of bean or lentil of choice such as black bean or perhaps another bean or lentil you may like.
Add 4 cups of water and place lid of whatever type of cooker you are using and making sure it is tight and secure. If you are cooking on stovetop, til the float pops up wich is your safety and cook for 15 minutes for dal or for harder beans like horse gram, fava, chickpeas or pidgeon peas or other types of beans need 30 minutes or more to cook and needs to be repeated again even after the stovetop pressure cooker releases its pressure.
If using beans that takes longer to cook just set the timer to stovetop pressure cooking for 30 minutes and when time is up in either case in this method go and shut the heat off and let the pressure escape on its own. when the float lowers usually means it is time to open the pressure cooker and take one bean out and try it to see it is soft and then taste it if not then repeat for another 30 minutes. If cooking lentils you may or may not have to repeat for another 15 minutes. Just be vigilant.
When time is up go and shut off the heat. Now back to the instant pot duo crisp and similar items, all you have to do is when you are done with your reverse tarka and cooking the tomato and adding the random bean and pairing it with a random vegetable and adding water then you stir and turn off the instant pot by taping the cancel button which turns it off. Now add the same water just like you would do for stovetop pressure cooking, Use the pressure cooking lid that comes with your instant pot and the like models and add the requiered amount of water, close your instant pot and the like and select pressure cook on high.
It is 15 minutes for lentils and for harder beans it is between 20 to 25 minutes. The beauty of this one here that there is no babysitting this cooker that you simply can go about your business and do other things you want to do around the house. When it gets full of pressure that the float will go up automaticlly and start counting down then you hear a noise then you know time is up and it shuts off by itself. You then can press the quick release button and the pressure will escape faster.
Honestly I wish Instant Pot will pick me up and sponsor me because I truly love their product. If they did it would be so nice and let me know how this worked for you. This is really yummy with either naan or rice.
