Dalma

Ingredients:

100gm pigeon pea /arhar dal (harada dali)

50gm raw papaya (kancha amrutabhanda)

50gm striped pear gourd / parwal (potala)

50gm Potato (alu)

1 big Onion (piaja)

3-5 dry Chilly (sukhila lanka)

½ Tea spoon Mustard (sorisha)

1 Tea spoon cumin seeds (jeera)

2 bay leaves (teja patra)

½ Tea spoon turmeric powder (haladi gunda)

3-Tea spoon of any refined cooking oil (refine tela)

½ Tea spoon Cumin seeds powder (jeera gunda)

½ Tea spoon Chilly powder (lanka gunda)

Salt to taste (luna)


Method:

Wash each vegetable in ample amount of water. Cut them into small pieces. Put arhar dal, all vegetables, salt, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder and 3 to 4 cups of water in a Pressure Cooker and put it on medium flame. After one whistle switch off the gas. A little later as the pressure of the cooker comes down, open the lid. Now heat 3 teaspoon of oil in a frying pan. Add jeera, mustard, bay leaves, chopped onions and 3-4 dry chillies. Fry till they turn golden. Now add all this to the boiled dal and vegetables of the pressure cooker and stir well. Add jeera powder and chili powder. Close the lid and heat further for 2 minutes. Your dalma is ready. Tastes best when served hot. Can be served with rice or chapati also.


Variations:

What is mentioned above is a simple recipe of Dalma. You may further make variations of the same by adding / replacing the vegetables with pumpkin, brinjal, plantain, and yam etc. A little scrubbed coconut may also be added. Using desi ghee (gua gheea) instead of refined oil lends subtle flavour to dalma. Also find another variety of dalma elsewhere on this page, where moong dal is used instead of arhar dal.