Zucchini & Chana Daal Curry

Sometimes a recipe just falls into your lap. This one, for a perky Zucchini and Split Chickpeas or Chana Daal curry, emerged out of the blue — but not unexpectedly. That’s the main reason why, in case you’re wondering, I’m sharing yet another Daal recipe today, so soon after my last post for Ghee Daal. I simply have to. True, as one of my subscribers wryly pointed out, I won’t deny that a Daal may produce certain bountiful side effects on one’s digestion, if you know what I mean. (I’d say LOL by way of emphasis, but I’m not sure if that would be recommended in this context). Nonetheless, my point is that finding this recipe confirms what I just love about this food group: its variety. Truly. There are endless combinations and variations, each kind of Daal offering you a different kind of flavour, texture and taste. Dive into Daal and you’re spoiled for choice. 

What’s more, you can play around with a recipe if you like, tweaking it to your personal style and preferences, and most importantly, substituting certain ingredients depending on what you have in your pantry, or can shop around for, especially during these difficult times. In fact, it was while talking about these specifically difficult times that this recipe so deliciously fell into my lap. 

I was chatting on the phone to my cousin, an excellent home cook who loves making a hot meal for her family every day, and we were rambling and venting a little, in turn, you understand, as we often do, but more so since March this year, (no prizes for guessing why) about: 1. our respective levels of sloth, and 2. how and where on our already well endowed geography we’ve been piling on the pounds, not to mention 3. that there has been a total abandonment of attention to our roots (unless you’re as bald as an eagle, you’ll know what I mean) since social distancing became desirable human behaviour. It was while we were chafing at our new survival strategies, and wondering when we would meet again for coffee at our regular Mississauga haunt, that I heard her pottering about with pots.

What have you been cooking, I asked and she said she had just made Split Chickpeas or Chana Daal, with Lauki or Opo Squash, also known as Bottle Gourd. It’s light green in colour, shaped somewhat like a low-hipped bottle, hence the name. My cousin said she’d got the recipe from her aunt on her last visit to see her parents, not very long ago.  It made my mouth water. And I hadn’t even started cooking.

I looked in my pantry but nope, I did not have Bottle Gourd. I did have Zucchini, which is quite similar, juicy and mild in flavour, so I asked her and she said it was a great substitute. An added advantage, because I am all for making delicious food in as efficient a way as possible, is that you don’t have to peel Zucchini. With Bottle Gourd, one usually peels the skin. (Bangladeshis make a Bharta or mashed dish, a kind of hash, with the skin; I have the recipe, and it is on my list of things to post). If you happen not to have either of these vegetables, why not explore and innovate — try spinach, or maybe green beans. Let me know how this dish turns out if you do!

My cousin’s recipe calls for the ingredients to be curried with an intriguing mix of spices in such a delectable — but trust me, quick and easy — way that you end up with a dish that is stunning. It is not soupy, (like Ghee Daal), instead, it has a more substantive consistency; yet it is not dry in the least. It can stand alone, as a main dish, or work as a substantive partner to another. You can eat it with rice, breads, as a vegetarian meal, or introduce it as a wonderful addition or accompaniment to various main courses, fish, shrimp, meats, chicken.

I started cooking around 11 a.m. and by 12.30 (brunch time) I was sitting on my high rise balcony overlooking a park, with a pair of curvaceous towers eyeing me from across the skyline, a generous helping of Chana Daal in a bowl before me, and a warm, gentle September sun. I mixed in a small portion of plain boiled rice, to give the dish more substance, but you could heat up a naan on a tawa or griddle and make it go all crackly, or not. Squeeze a wedge of fresh lime, as I did. Either way. Bliss.

I must add that I’ve changed this dish a little from the original recipe in terms of spices. My cousin made it with mustard seeds or rye; I didn’t have any and so I used Bangladeshi Five Spice Mix, Panch Phoron, instead, and it worked really well. I imagine you could get great results if you substituted rye with whole cumin as well. Also, I was supposed to fry the first lot of spices with onions and remove them, then add the other masala, but I forgot and kept going. No harm done, I think. 

What you might not want to change, I’d say, is the Daal. Chana Daal or Split Chickpeas, is one of two types of chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans: Desi and Kabuli. Chana Daal is split Desi chickpeas. (If you want to know more, take a look at this site). In any case, Chana Daal  has the kind of consistency that allows you to cook it through without it going all mushy like a puddle. The beauty of this dish it that it has a nicely cooked gravy, with a curry or saalan flavour and texture, and the Daal is tender but firm to the bite. 

Okay, ’nuff preamble. With grateful thanks to my cousin, here’s the recipe. Go for it!

 

Photo Credit

All Photos by: Almas Zakiuddin SOME RIGHTS RESERVED