While the rest of India has their quintessential daal and roti, you will find a hyderabadi relishing the favourite comfort food – khatti daal and chawal. This daal serves not only as the ultimate accompaniment for dry meat preparations like shaami kabab, tala huwa gosht or pathar ka gosht, but is also a favourite for friday afternoon meals and the most craved for food (just daal and chawal) after days of bingeing on dawat ka khana like during weddings or festivals.
The khatta (sourness) of this daal is so important that you will find the hyderabadi’s calling the daal without this sour element as meethi (sweet) daal although there is nothing sweet in it. The source of this sourness? yes you guessed it right.. its preferably the all important imli (tamarind) but there are also other ingredients used though on a lesser basis, like lemon, amchur, or karonde.
Enjoy it simply with warm boiled rice and a dollop of ghee or add whatever dry curry you like ranging from sabzi to shaami kababs.
| Prep Time | 45 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Passive Time | 20 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 1 cup Tuvar daal (split pigeon pea), washed and soaked for few minutes
- 2 tbsp chana daal (split bengal gram), washed and soaked for a few minutes
- 4-5 large green chilis
- 3 large tomatoes
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1 tsp tumeric
- 2-3 tbsp salt (to taste)
- 20-30 grams ripe tamarind (dried)
- 1 bunch coriander
- 1 bunch curry leaves
- 1/4 cup sunflower oil
- 4-5 tbsp cumin seeds
- 4-5 cloves garlic (sliced)
- 4-5 leaves curry leaves
- 2-3 dried red chilis
Ingredients
For the Tempering
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- In a pressure cooker place the lentils, tomatoes, green chillies, ginger garlic paste, turmeric and salt. Add about two cups of water, keep the weight and cook on high heat for two to three whistles, then reduce and cook for about 15-20 minutes until the lentils are mushy and all other ingredients are well softened.
- Meanwhile, soak the tamarind in some water until softened.
- Open the pressure cooker and mash the daal with the 'daal ghotni' or you can use a potato masher until its a smooth paste.
- Sqeeze out the tamarind water and add it to the daal. add more water to the tamarind if there is more pulp left. Add plain water if required to make a thin consistency. This daal is quite watery.
- Add the chopped coriander and also drop in the curry leaves bunch tied togehter securely and boil the daal on high heat so the tamarind is well cooked. Adjust seasoning.
- Meanwhile heat oil until quite hot and all the tempering ingredients. fry until fragrant taking care not to burn. Immediately add this flavoured oil to the boiled daal and quickly cover. Turn off the heat and let it rest. Stir and mix well before serving.
Instead of tamarind you can also add the juice of two or three lemons.
If using amchoor (dry mango) or fresh unripe mango. Add about 2 tbsp of amchoor pieces or 2-3 large slices of unripe mango into the pressure cooker in the beginning.