It is said that when Mughal Emperor Akbar wanted to meet the third Guru of Sikhism, Guru Aamr Das, he was asked to eat the langar first. The Guru had a rule - anyone who wanted to meet him would have to sit down for the langar, with everyone, irrespective of which rank he belonged to. Not only Emperor Akbar happily obliged to sit down for the modest meal with commoners, he was also rather impressed by it. For the uninitiated, langar is a meal prepared in community kitchens of Gurudwara, that is served to everyone without a fee.
Class and boundaries cease to exist when both the rich and poor sit down on the floor to savour a simple meal of dal, roti, chawal, raita or everything that is prepared in the kitchen with the spirit of ‘seva’. If you’ve ever had langar, you’d also agree that the homely, simple flavours of the dishes are absolutely unmatched, more so when it comes to the langar wali dal. Dal is wholesome and nourishing as it is, but the way it is prepared in langar is something we’d all like to mimic at home as well, right? Chef Kunal Kapur took to YouTube to give us some tips to ace this dal.
- The langar wali dal is made with a combination of lentils depending on their availability in the community kitchen. So, it is entirely up to you which pulse you choose to work with.
- Make sure the lentils you use - be it black urad or masoor - are washed properly to remove the extra starch.
- When you pressure cook the dal, the amount of water to add should be 3x the dal.
- Add a little bit of salt to the dal and boil until you hear 2-3 whistles.
- To prepare the tadka or the tempering, take some butter in a kadhai, let it melt, add some cumin, ginger, and garlic, and cook on low flame until the garlic is nice and brown.
- Then add onions, roast the onion too until it is slightly brown but not completely brown.
- Then, add green chillies (slit horizontally) and chopped tomatoes, and cook them well.
- The powdered masalas - like turmeric and red chilli powder - should be added towards the end.
- It is best to not add more spices, you do not want to overwhelm the flavour of the dal with too many spices.
- Cook the masalas well. You can add a bit of water too, to prevent the masalas from burning.
- Add the boiled dal to the kadhai, and mash it lightly using the ladle.
