My South Indian mother-in-law makes this rustic and hearty North Indian-style kali dal which is a creamy buttery lentil dish made with whole black urad dal and rajma (red kidney beans). I’m always surprised at how truly North Indian this comforting dal tastes, as if it somehow arrived out of a cold winter evening in…
Tag: dal
Kattu, toor dal with garlic
In the winter, Agastya starts sniffling. One sniffle turns into the next and we start on a progression of back-to-back colds. Sometimes they start with a fever, sometimes with runny sneezes and sometimes with a bad cough. They last a week, sometimes two, and a new cold often starts before the old one finishes. I…
Sambar
Every Sunday, my parents and I would go to eat dosa, or crispy South Indian rice crepes at the Super Snack Bar in Alipore, which seemed at the time a long drive from our home in Calcutta’s Ballygunge neighborhood. My dad loved dosa, and since he was frequently away on business trips, I looked forward…
Pappu Charu
“What will your mother-in-law say? You don’t even know how to boil dal,” my mother would fret during my growing up years in Calcutta. Strangely, she never actually required me to enter her kitchen or help with chores in any way. “No, no, go study,” she would say. Perhaps we both had an inkling of…
Calcutta Chow 