Chana dal fry

Chana dal fry, also called chana dal tadka, is the North Indian way with split bengal gram: the dal is cooked on its own, folded into a fried onion-tomato masala, and a hot tadka is poured over it at the end. It is nuttier and heavier than the toor dal in a dal tadka, and because the grains hold their shape the finished dish is thick enough to scoop up with roti rather than pour over rice.

Three things decide whether it works. The soak: an hour in warm water lets the grains cook through without turning to paste. The pressure cooking: 3 to 4 whistles on medium gives dal that mashes under a finger but is still whole. And the masala: onions browned properly and tomatoes cooked until the ghee separates, before the dal goes in. Skip any of these and you get either hard grains or a khichdi-like mush.

The tadka is ghee, cumin and hing, with a broken dried red chilli and a little Kashmiri chilli powder stirred in off the heat for colour. Hing is chana dal's traditional partner. Groundnut oil can replace the ghee in the masala. The same cooked dal takes other finishes: fried coconut slivers, raisins and a pinch of sugar take it towards a Bengali cholar dal, and a handful of chopped spinach added with the tomatoes makes chana dal palak. The dal itself, its names and its nutrition per 100 g are covered in our chana dal guide.