Moving into a new home or setting up a new kitchen after renovations? Chances are you might have only one makeshift functioning burner until all your appliances are sorted out in the kitchen. Missing out on a warm, homecooked meal is real trouble on such days. But what if it were possible to prepare dal tadka and rice simultaneously on just one burner, quite hassle-free?
Warm dal tadka and rice, served with a dollop of ghee and a side of pickle and roasted papad is perhaps the best comfort food one can dream of. Easy and quick to prepare, this is a fuss-free, hassle-free, heavy-duty free meal that can be cooked efficiently, especially on those days when your kitchen and pantry are very sparsely stocked.
And when one moves into a new home or is setting up a new kitchen following elaborate renovations, a warm meal of dal tadka and rice can just be the homely comfort that makes this new space feel friendly and familial. But chances are, that in such situations, one might just have a lone working burner or a single makeshift cooktop upon which to prepare meals.
Still, what if it were plausible to simultaneously cook warm dal tadka and rice on the same burner? Well, this can be done easily, with just a little bit of culinary tact, some carefully timed cooking and a whole lot of efficiency.
Wash the rice thoroughly in a steel vessel until the water runs clear. Add a cup of water to the rice and keep aside.
To prepare the dal, add the tomatoes, onions, washed toor dal, garlic, green chilli, turmeric, red chilli powder, salt and water to a vessel. Stir lightly.
Place a small trivet or stand inside the cooker. Keep the dal vessel on top of it. Cover it with a flat lid or a plate and place the rice bowl on it. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook on medium flame for 4-5 whistles.
Once done, take the pressure cooker off the burner and allow the pressure to release gradually.
Now, heat oil in a tadka pan and add cumin and mustard seeds to it until they splutter. Now add curry leaves and red chilli powder.
Pour the hot tadka over the cooked dal and mix well. Garnish with coriander. Serve warm with rice.
1 While cooking on one burner, it is essential to sequence the cooking. Start by preparing dal and rice in the pressure cooker. Use the TTK Prestige Svachh Popular Spillage Control Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker to quickly and efficiently cook dal and rice.
2 As the pressure releases from the cooker gradually, make the tadka on the same flame. To do this, go for the TTK Prestige Hard Anodised Cookware Tadka Pan, which heats oil quickly enough so the condiments added to the tempering can infuse the spontaneous tadka effect into the dal.
3 Once the tadka is poured over the dal, if there is a need to reheat the lentils, transfer the dal into a TTK Prestige Omega Die-Cast Plus Aluminium Non-Stick Kadai so it can be boiled a little before serving.
4 Another alternative to cook the one-burner rice and dal is to prepare the rice first and then cook the dal tadka directly in the pressure cooker. A TTK Prestige Nakshatra Hard Anodised Spillage Control Pressure Cooker has a surface wide enough to cook the dal hassle-free.
5 To cook the dal and rice in separate containers in the cooker rack, the TTK Prestige Separator offers three fuss-free vessels that can be stacked on top of each other to prepare the one-burner dal tadka and rice.
Stainless steel vessels, generally available in sets of three or four are excellent alternatives to cook dal and rice in the pressure cooker. This is because the stacking rack which comes with this set prevents the cooked rice or dal from sticking to the bottom of the vessel that is on top.
Absolutely. In fact, chances are that the pressure cooker will provide a fuller cook to the onions and tomatoes, softening them enough so they release their aromas and flavours better into the dal.
Definitely. Once the dal and rice are cooked, place a separate kadai on the single burner and add the dal to a tempering of mustard and curry leaves. Allow this to boil for a few moments so the tadka integrates fully into the dal.
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