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Learn Bhatia cooking

Kitchen skill 4 of 15

Dals and pulses

Vilowrunoo: churning

Say it: vee-low-run-nu · Hindi: manthan

Dar and poath (dal curries) are at the heart of a Bhatia meal, and whole pulses go into kadi, maghamethi and lobia. The steps are usually the same: soak, cook until soft, then mash or churn to the texture the recipe wants. Churning, vilowrunoo, was once done with a mandiro, a wooden churner; a whisk or a mixer does the job now.

How to do it

  1. Wash the dal in a few changes of water.
  2. Soak it: about 30 minutes for tuvar dal, an hour for whole moong (overnight for kadi), 3–4 hours for lobia and overnight for chickpeas.
  3. Cook it in water on a medium flame, or in a pressure cooker, until a grain crushes easily.
  4. Mash it lightly, or churn it coarsely, then thin it with water to the consistency the recipe asks for.

You’ll know it’s right when

  • A grain squashes easily between finger and thumb.
  • A poath pours and flows without being watery.

Watch out for

  • Mashing too much: most of these dals are kept slightly coarse.
  • Throwing away the cooking water. In Kadi, the moong water is the stock.

Tips

  • Cooking with the dal’s own cooking water instead of plain water improves both taste and nutrition.

Practise it

On the path to learning Bhatia cooking.

Tuvar ji PoathPigeon pea (toor dal) curryStage 1: The everyday mealNaram KhichadiSoft rice & split green gram porridgeStage 2: Sakhree classicsMaghamethiWhole green gram & fenugreek curryStage 2: Sakhree classics

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