Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Sure, they will probably be less mushy but I have had Indian dals with similar lentils. I usually have regular green or red lentils here and tend to use them interchangeably. The flavor is the same but the texture is a bit different. You may need to adjust the amount of liquid but you can do that by eye.

Mary

PS Go to bed now.

Wide awake, but now it's allowed...the sun is up.

Thanks for the info...will make soon.

Amy

I really dislike fenugreek and leave it out of recipes all the time. To a purist I'm like those folks who don't like spicy chili.

Becky -- Have you ever tried the leaf? It's more mellow than the seed.

I just bought a whole jar of fenugreek seeds for something, and I will never use it all if I live to be 100. I'd be happy to send you a care package.

Amy,

Until a store opened near me, with great buys on dal and Indian spices, patelbrothersusa.com was my favorite online source, with incredible prices on the spices (pun intended). A close second was ishopindian.com. Both have great dal prices, and even getting several 2 and 4 lb bags, the shipping never ended up being excessive, as in some sites.

Patel Brothers was the first place I found that oval shaped coriander - Dhana - mentioned in Cradle Of FLavor, that has such a delicious flavor.

BTW, another use I found recently for fenugreek was in a delicious Thai curry powder (from that book Southeast Asian Flavors, mentioned in a previous thread). I do not make many curry powders, but this looked interesting, and fugured it would be better than a storebought, esp. added to a Thai curry paste! Turns out the fenugreek adds an interesting hint of maple, which is very good, since many things have this flavor when palm sugar is added to them.

Dave

Dave -- I have a Patel Bros. near me. In fact, I was just saying the other day that I need to get over there. Anything besides the dhana that you would recommend?

Many thanks for the recommendations Dave.

SilverSage, I'll trade ya...what would you like from my neck of the woods. I've got plenty of snow...

Amy

Hold that snow until July, then ship it down here!

PM an address and I'll split this jar with you.
Kathy

Amy,

Moong dal may be hard to get your hands on, but Masoor Dal shouldn't be; it's what's called "red lentils". I thought I'd put that note in the recipe, but apparently forgot.

Sounds like you have your fenugreek seeds on their way.

The other thing I'd suggest mail-ordering (or I could send you in trade for something) is sambar powder. This spice mix makes a delicious dal, and covers all the "exotic spices" required.

I've never made dal from French lentils before. I think it would work fine, but since you generally cook dal into mush, most of the distinctive texture of the French lentils would be gone. If you can get them cheap, though, why not?

One can also make dal from blackeyed peas. I'll try to find a recipe ...