Cooking for Beginners recipes, structured

Bisi Bele Bath

Rice, toor dal and vegetables cooked past the point of separateness, held together by a roasted masala and finished with ghee-fried cashews.

Prep
25m
Cook
50m
Total
1h 15m
Serves
6
Effort
Involved
Scale
6
Units

Method

Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.

1 cup Cook the rice and dal together until neither holds its shape 30m Deliberately overcooked. Distinct grains are a fault in this dish, not a virtue. Fold the rice, dal, vegetables and masala together, loosen with hot water, and pour the tadka over 8m It should fall off the spoon in a sheet. It thickens hard as it stands, so err loose.
3/4 cup
5 cups
1/2 tsp
1 tsp
2 Simmer the vegetables with tamarind until tender 15m Cook them apart from the rice or the acid keeps the dal grainy.
100 g
1
1/2 cup
1/3 cup
1 tbsp
2 tsp
1 cup
3 tbsp Dry-roast each spice separately until it smells toasted 10m Separately, because chana dal takes four times as long as coriander seed to colour. Grind the roasted masala fine 15m Grind while still warm and it powders instead of turning to paste.
2 tbsp
1 tbsp
8
1/2 tsp
4
3cm piece
2
1/4 cup
3 tbsp Fry the cashews and seeds in ghee until the nuts turn gold 4m
1/3 cup
1 tsp
15
1/4 tsp
1 to 2 cups
Read left to right: ingredients merge into steps, and the rightmost cell is the last thing you do. Steps account for 1h 22m of hands-on and cooking time.

  1. Cook the rice and dal together until neither holds its shape

    30m
    • short-grain rice 1 cup
    • toor dal 3/4 cup
    • water 5 cups
    • ground turmeric 1/2 tsp
    • sesame oil 1 tsp

    Deliberately overcooked. Distinct grains are a fault in this dish, not a virtue.

  2. Simmer the vegetables with tamarind until tender

    15m
    • carrot 2
    • French beans 100 g
    • potato 1
    • green peas 1/2 cup
    • tamarind extract 1/3 cup
    • jaggery 1 tbsp
    • salt 2 tsp
    • water 1 cup

    Cook them apart from the rice or the acid keeps the dal grainy.

  3. Dry-roast each spice separately until it smells toasted

    10m
    • coriander seeds 3 tbsp
    • chana dal 2 tbsp
    • urad dal 1 tbsp
    • dried red chillies 8
    • fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp
    • cloves 4
    • cinnamon 3cm piece
    • marathi moggu (optional) 2

    Separately, because chana dal takes four times as long as coriander seed to colour.

  4. Grind the roasted masala fine

    15m
    • from 3 Dry-roast each spice separately until it smells toasted
    • dried coconut 1/4 cup

    Grind while still warm and it powders instead of turning to paste.

  5. Fry the cashews and seeds in ghee until the nuts turn gold

    4m
    • ghee 3 tbsp
    • cashew nuts 1/3 cup
    • mustard seeds 1 tsp
    • curry leaves 15
    • asafoetida 1/4 tsp

  6. Fold the rice, dal, vegetables and masala together, loosen with hot water, and pour the tadka over

    8m
    • from 1 Cook the rice and dal together until neither holds its shape
    • from 2 Simmer the vegetables with tamarind until tender
    • from 4 Grind the roasted masala fine
    • from 5 Fry the cashews and seeds in ghee until the nuts turn gold
    • hot water 1 to 2 cups

    It should fall off the spoon in a sheet. It thickens hard as it stands, so err loose.

Why the dal and rice go in together

Cooked separately, rice and dal reach softness at different rates and you end up folding two textures into one bowl. Cooked together in the same pot, starch leaching out of the rice thickens the water while the dal breaks down, and the whole thing sets into one body. That is the difference between bisi bele bath and a pulao with lentils in it. The tamarind is kept out of the pot for a reason — acid slows the softening of pulses considerably, so the dal would stay chalky.

Notes

  • Roast the coconut last and lowest. It scorches while the coriander seed is still pale.
  • Make double the masala. It keeps a month in a jar and the roast is the only slow part.
  • Leftovers set solid. Loosen with boiling water in the pan, never in the microwave alone.

Try butter, 30 minutes, braise, or an ingredient you need to use up.