Before I owned the crockpot, I was a snooty Indian homemaker who thought the best food can be created only on stove top. But my husband was determined to make my life easier and introduced me to the crockpot or slow-cooker as many call it. Apart from being very convenient, I soon discovered that not only does the food taste great but also this is a very healthy way of cooking meals.
There is an old-fashioned way in Indian cooking on the ‘chullah’ which is an earthen oven and traditionally, meat or daal used to be cooked on it for hours. I have heard stories from my dad that the aroma from such cooking would fill the entire streets and was enough to have envious neighbors. For my crockpot, I decided to use similar recipes as chullah-cooking.
I started with a simple yet delicious daal recipe. The good thing about slow-cooking is that you do not have to pre-treat the daal, which means you do not have to think about it before. You can just put it on when you have some time on your hand and you have a healthy dish ready by next morning. However, it is key to use fresh ingredients, for example, dried lentils and fresh vegetables, as opposed to canned lentils/beans and frozen vegetables.
Ingredients:
Black Urad daal or try whole lentils– 2 cups washed
Water – 10-12 cups (A very important ingredient and the proportion varies with expertise and different cookers)
Chopped onions – 1 big
Fresh Ginger-garlic paste (or grated) – 1
Chopped tomatoes – 2 medium sized
Green chillies – 7-8 small
Cilantro leaves chopped (optional) – 1 cup
Dried methi/fenugreek leaves (optional) – 1tbsp
Salt
Oil – 4tbsp
Salt to taste
A pinch of sugar
Cumin powder – 1tbsp
Corriander powder – 2tsp
Garam Masala – 2tsp
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Paprika/black pepper – 1 tsp
I mixed the above ingredients and cooked over night in the crockpot. In order to ensure that the dish does not burn due to lack of moisture, I covered the pot with an aluminum foil to prevent moisture from escaping and then put the lid on. Slow cooking it for 7-8 hours was good enough. Before serving it the next day, I added a dollop of butter and it was good to go!
As a mommy, it felt good to serve this hearty dish to my little one… the fact that she did not even taste it, was not in my hands. ☺
I need to try this..I hate to cook everyday..If I can cook this overnight it is like an advantage with me too, with 2 kids running around..
ReplyDeleteMine didn't turn out as in your picture... there was sooooo much water left in the crockpot... Should I have left the top off so the water evaporates?? Please clarify...
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: Can you let me know the quantities of lentils and water used? There are different ways to cook in a crockpot. You can use excess water (about 4-5 times that of lentil) and leave it overnight. The lids of crockpot are usually loose so steam escapes. If you would like to be conservative using water, maybe you can just use water upto 3 times of lentil quantity but keep the pot covered with an aluminium foil and then covering with the lid. This will prevent the steam from escaping. I typically recommend using the crockpot during daytime so it can be monitored and you can adjust the amount of water (throwing off any excess water halfway or adding if needed).
ReplyDeleteClarification: I typically recommend using crockpot during day time during the first few times :)
ReplyDelete