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Urad Dal Tarka

Urad Dal Tarka


“U” in our Ingredients Alphabet….

We’re very fortunate to have various Chinese, Polish and Continental stores reasonably local to us. The Continental store is on the way to the doctors and on our way back yesterday we popped our heads in. We’ve been looking for something to take the slot for “U” in our latest bit of food fun and this did the trick.

Urad Dal Chilka are split Black Gram Dal with skins on.

If you have a go at this recipe please note you really won’t need Rice with it. We also roasted a Chicken which certainly wasn’t needed, that’s the foundation of today's dinner. This is a very filling dish in it’s own right and has a really satisfying depth of flavour. We’ve scaled the original recipe to suit two, but they were still generous portions to say this is supposed to be a side dish.

Ingredients:-

110g Urad Dal Chilka
1/2tsp. Turmeric powder
2-3 tbsp. ghee or Sunflower Oil
1 tsp. cumin seeds
2-3 whole dried Red Chillies broken up
1/2 tsp. Chilli powder
1/2 tsp. Dried Fenugreek
1 medium sized Onion, peeled and sliced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and shredded
2 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
2 tomatoes, chopped up

Method:-

(1) Wash Dal well and soak in water for half an hour. Soaking for longer will take the skin off the Dal and is not required.
(2) Drain this water off and rinse the Dal under the tap to remove excess starch.
(3) Add the Dal to a pan of boiling water with Salt and Turmeric and simmer briskly until tender.
(4) You may need to add more water, if the Dal begins to look too thick and dry. This may take 30 minutes or so.
(5) Dals, when ready, should be soft but not mashed and of a custard like consistency. Set aside.
(6) Heat the Ghee or Oil in a frying pan.
(7) Add your Cumin seeds and Fenugreek and fry gentle for a few minutes.
(8) Add whole Chillies and Chillies powder, stir quickly.
(9) Add to the cooked Dal and cover with a lid. This will infuse the flavours into the Dal.
(10) Add the chopped Onion, Ginger and Garlic.
(11) Fry until onions are beginning to turn golden brown.
(12) Add the Chilli powder, Tomatoes etc. and cooked until soft.

We served ours with home made Sag Aloe, topped the Urad Dal Tarka with a Tomato based Chilli sauce and a few Popadums.

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Squid and Laverbread Sauce recipe, eat well on universal credit

There was a comedy of errors type of tale which lead to this recipe. We had what we thought were a couple of Pork Loin Steaks in the freezer. Once thawed it became apparent that this was actually Pork Shoulder trim from our last Sausage making afternoon. By this stage it was too late to slow cook them. So Plan (B) was a quick trip to Home Bargains for a couple of their cheap Rump Steaks. (£2.49 each). Then we thought we’d ‘Surf and Turf’ it with some of the discount seafood items in the freezer. Next we thought we’d ‘Welshify’ it with the remaining by of Laverbread in a tin in the fridge….

Clearly a logical progressing? OK maybe not, but the resulting sauce was spectacular!  

Ingredients:-

200g of Cooked Squid Tentacles, chopped
2 Shallots, finely diced
2 Cloves of Garlic, minced
100ml of Chicken Stock
100ml of White Wine
200ml Milk (Lactose free for us)
3 Tbsp of ground Cashew Nuts
1 Tbsp of Margarine (Dairy free for us)
1 Tbsp of Oil
2 Tbsp of Laverbread
Salt & Pepper to season

Method:-

(1) On a low heat fry the Shallots in the Margarine and Oil until softened.
(2) Add the Garlic and continue to fry for a further 2 minutes.
(3) Season with Salt & Pepper.
(4) Add the Wine and Stock & allow to simmer to reduce.
(5) When reduced by half combine the Milk and Cashew Nut & add.
(6) Allow to simmer until the Sauce thickens.
(7) Stir in the Laverbread and the Squid.
(8) Cook until the Squid is heated through.

Obviously if you are OK with Cream that’s a better option than the ground Nuts, but COVID has left Sue with Lactose Intolerance so we’re having to create sauces etc. both Gluten and Lactose free now.

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