A Shortcut to Dishoom’s Buttery Black Dal in Under an Hour
For those times when you can’t make it to the beloved London restaurant but want lentils stat
Leading up to a trip to London, I asked the chefs, food writers, cookbook authors, and foodie friends in my social circle where they go to eat. I got a long list of places to pin to my Google Maps, but there was one place that nearly every one of my trusted sources recommended enthusiastically: Dishoom.
Opened in 2009, the restaurant is an homage to the Iranian immigrant-owned all-day cafes of Bombay. The Dishoom team have created a constellation of stylish, hip restaurants with decor that makes you feel as if you’ve landed in the swinging ’60s version of Bombay, now known as Mumbai. They serve Indian food that’s so delicious, Londoners willingly queue up for hours.
From the pakoras and bhajis to the moreish Ruby Chicken, our meal at Dishoom turned out to be one of the best of our trip. Among all the spice and color on our overloaded table, the creamy, buttery black dal stood out to me the most. Not at all like the Southern Indian red lentil dal I was accustomed to, the thick, rich, stew was the one dish I pined for when I got back home.
Fortunately, Dishoom published a cookbook called Dishoom: From Bombay with Love, so I snapped it up to relive the meal, especially that simple black dal. It turns out it’s not so simple. The headnote warns you that the restaurant cooks theirs for 24 hours to make the tough little black lentils break down to creamy luxuriousness. The recipe for home cooks requires 4 to 5 hours. I’ve made it many times and it’s awesome, but sometimes I want a bowl of lentil soup without being tethered to the stove for that long.
Then, an epiphany! On a recent trip to my favorite Indian grocery (Apna Bazaar in Beaverton, Oregon, is my happy place), I noticed bags of a split, skin-on black dal right next to the whole black lentils that require so much time. Would those machine-split beans deliver the same creamy goodness? I had to find out.
Because the split dal cooks in a fraction of the time required for whole lentils, I was able to skip the original recipe’s 2- to 3-hour simmering step. Next you’re supposed to add the garlic, ginger, tomato puree, and spices; because the dal simmers for hours, the raw taste of garlic and ginger dissipates with time. Since the split lentils took only 45 minutes cook, I was left with a harsh, raw garlic flavor. So in my next trial, I sauteed the garlic, ginger, and other aromatics first, then added the lentils and water, more like a traditional soup recipe. That tweak mellowed the flavors nicely.
Click on article for full recipe.