Duncan’s Barley
Dal Recipe
(You can also make Kicheree by
substituting Rice for the Barley)
1. Rice Cooker
Start
with a Rice Cooker with a Steamer Insert (I use a Lotus Foods-brand Rice
Cooker, $80, solid stainless steel, purchased from the At Home Store in
Fairfield, Iowa). There’s also a Stainless Steel Rice Cooker available at the
MUM Bookstore, and at Everybody’s, for $70. The
Miracle Exclusives Rice Cooker is available from Amazon.com for $60 plus shipping.
All of these are very similar; stainless steel throughout, same warm/cook
switch, same steamer tray.
2.a Recipe (based on 1 cup dry ingredients—modify all amounts
based on amount of dry ingredients)
2.b. Quantity
Makes 48 oz (approx. 4-6 servings)
2.c. Ingredients and Preparation
·
1/2 cup hulled barley (organic
preferred, from Whole Foods, $2/lb. You are not recommended to use “Pearled” Barley,
which has the nutritious and fiber-filled barley hull removed.)
·
1/2 cup split mung dal (organic
preferred, I get mine from Everybody's in Fairfield, Iowa in 25-lb bags for ca.
$75 plus shipping. It lasts forever.) [Dal is a high-protein Legume like Peas
or Lentils. It is very popular in India; there are many types of Dals available; I like Mung Dal.]
·
Put the barley and dal in the cooking
pan. Add water and swirl around the water to wash the dry ingredients. Then
pour the water out. Repeat 2-3 more times or until the water is clear, not
cloudy. Pour off the clear water.)
·
Add 4 cups of pure good-tasting water
to the rice cooker pan. (If you can plan ahead, set aside the water and grains
to soak overnight; this step is not critical, but nice. It makes the cooking
time shorter and is said to reduce the gas in the dal.)
·
Add 2 tbsp oil (prefer extra virgin
olive oil, or grape seed oil, or sesame oil, or ghee (clarified butter). This
oil is the secret ingredient that helps stop your rice cooker from making a
mess on the counter and the floor when the dal/rice/barley boils and threatens
to overflow.
Add the cooking spices/herbs:
·
¼ tsp of Asafoetida (aka Hing), ground
fine (I get mine from Everybody's in Fairfield, IA. This is a pungent
ingredient made from a crystallized plant sap that adds a lot of flavor with
just a little bit added.)
·
1-2 tsp ground Turmeric powder (a few liberal
shakes)
·
1-2 tsp each of dried chopped Chives,
dried Basil, and dried Cilantro (a few liberal shakes)
·
(optional) 1 tsp ajiwan
seeds
·
3 bay leaves
3. Cooking
·
Plug in the Rice Cooker. Turn the
switch from warm to cook on the rice cooker (with the Lotus, flip the switch
down).
·
Add the steamer insert on top of the
cooking pan. Wash and dice up your favorite vegetables.
Some of My Favorite Vegetables:
·
Add the steamer insert on top of the
cooking pan. Wash and dice up your favorite vegetables.
·
A couple of carrots, diced small
(always)
·
Some stalks of celery (very good, diced
small) (often)
·
½ a head of cauliflower, diced small
(sometimes)
·
A stalk of broccoli or cauliflower, diced
small (sometimes). Dice up the tender part of the stem (closer to the florets) into
small pieces.
·
1/4-1/2 pound of asparagus diced small
(delish) (sometimes)
·
A couple of small potatoes diced small
(instead of the cauliflower/broccoli) (sometimes) (starchy, but tasty)
·
5-15 Brussels sprouts (diced smaller if
large) (a nice variation instead of broccoli) (sometimes)
·
Greens like chard or bokchoi
(excellent, finely chopped). (sometimes)
·
Green Beans diced small (sometimes)
·
Da Add the steamer insert on top of the cooking pan. Wash and dice
up your favorite vegetables.
·
ikon Radish (sometimes, finely chopped)
·
Etc. etc. Pick your favorites, try them
out.
Go and meditate (or whatever).
45 minutes to 1½ hr. later, it's almost ready. After it
finishes the main cooking cycle, it automatically switches to warm. So, no burnt cooking pan, and no burnt food. You can leave
it to cook further for up to an hour after the 45-minute cooking phase finishes
with no bad results. Unplug the Rice Cooker. Stir the Barley Dal, stirring up all
that’s sticking to the bottom of the pan.
4. SPICING
Into a small frying pan (non-stick), put in 1-2 TBSP Extra
Virgin Olive Oil. Put on low to medium heat.
Put in the whole spices you want to fry, including:
·
1 tsp whole Cumin seeds (a few shakes)
·
1 tsp whole Coriander seeds (a few
shakes)
·
2 tsp whole Fennel seeds (a few shakes,
then some more shakes)
·
(optional) 1 tsp ground ginger powder
·
(optional) 1 tsp ground fennel
Then add the ground spices:
·
1-2 TBSP Maharishi Ayurveda Vata, Pita
or Kapha Churna (seasoning). This is a spice/herb mixture with calming (vata)
cooling (pita) or stimulating (kapha) qualities. I mostly use Vata or Pitta
Churna. (Available from the Health and Wholeness Store in Fairfield, Iowa, ca.
$15 for the 8-oz. (large) size plus shipping. (You can also buy generic Pitah,
Vatah, and Kaphah spice mixtures at Everybody's, Fairfield, IA.) (Note: Vata
Churna Ingredients: Cumin, Ginger, Fenugreek, Turmeric, Turbinado Sugar, Salt,
and Asafoetida (Hing) in a Rice-flower base; Pitta Churna Ingredients:
Coriander, Fennel, Cumin, Turbinado Sugar, Cardamom, Ginger, Turmeric,
Cinnamon, and Salt. Kapha Churna Ingredients: Ginger, Pepper, Coriander, Turbinado Sugar, Turmeric,
Salt and Cinnamon.)
·
(optional) 1 tsp ground Amchur (Green Mango Powder)
·
(optional)
1/8-1/4 tsp of Rock Salt (i.e. Pink Himalayan Salt Crystals, fresh-ground).
Heat the spices until you smell their aroma (they will
brown). Then pour the cooked spice mix into the Barley Dal. Stir. You can even
spoon some Barley Dal into the fry pan to soak up the last of the spices and
oil, then put it back into the whole.
Now, stir in the veggies. You're ready to eat, or to scoop
it into a wide-mouth food Thermos (I own two 24-oz. Thermos-Brand Stainless
steel wide-mouth food thermoses (I got the latest one from Amazon.com) and head
to the office. The Barley Dal with Veggies recipe described above fills them
both up neatly.
5. Notes
5.a. Notes on the Grains you Use
·
You can vary the grains. For instance,
you can substitute Organic Brown Basmati Rice for the Barley. Since the dal takes 45
minutes to cook, I use a matched grain that also takes a similar time to cook.
(This is why I don’t use Quinoa or White Basmati rice.) Wild rice is wonderful
as well; it also takes about 45 minutes to cook. (I’ve tried 1/3 cup dal, 1/3
cup brown rice, and 1/3 cup wild rice—it came out great! I’ve also tried 1/3
cup dal, 1/3 cup brown rice, and 1/3 cup barley—again, delicious!). ¼ cup wild
rice, ¼ cup dal, ¼ cup pearled barley, and ¼ cup brown rice was quite good,
also.
5.b. Notes on the Legumes you Use
·
You can use Split Peas or Split Lentils
or other types of Dal instead of Mung Dal. I just really like the taste of Mung
Dal. The grain provides the texture; the legume provides the soup-like quality.
5.c. Note on Dal Boiling Over
·
Dal has a tendency to boil over and make a mess on your stove
or countertop when cooked by itself in a rice cooker with lid on (or in a pan
on the stove for that matter). Ways to prevent this: 1) Cock the lid of the
rice cooker or pot so that the dal doesn’t boil over. 2) Put 1-3 TBSP of oil
into the Dal at the start of cooking 3) Put vegetables
(or whatever) in the steamer insert above the cooking pan. This will prevent
the overflow altogether. 5) Put the Rice Cooker onto a plate or large
deep-sided glass or ceramic deep-dish pie pan so that, if there is any
overflow, it ends up on the pie pan and not on your counter 6) Don’t cook the
Dal all by itself—the addition of Barley and/or Rice and/or Wild Rice seems to
prevent or at least reduce boil-over.
c. 2013 by Duncan H.
Brown (Article can be freely shared as long as you
acknowledge me as the author and/or point back to www.duncanhbrown.com.)