Re: India Chow
Originally Posted by
Mark Kelly
Channa dahl is dried chickpeas, aka garbanzo beans. Urad dahl is, as noted above, a dried bean like a dark mung bean.
In powder form, channa becomes besan flour.
What your recipe is calling for is essentially spiced mixed besan / urad flour: fry or roast the soaked channa / urad until they are crisp, add the spices then grind to make a coarse spiced flour.
What Mark said is what my Mom would say. The only thing to add is that Urud Dal is only dark because of it's skin. The grain itself is white and looks like this when it is split and husked:
Dal by shenoi, on Flickr
The husked white version is the mildest as the skin has a stronger flavor i don't care for. Urud dal is of course the base of vada batter, the core of dosa batter along with rice and often dropped into your tempering oil (tadak) to add a bit of crunch to your bailed lentil dalitoye, my Konkan mother's milk.
My real name is Hemanth and among other things, I like bikes
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