Sunday, March 05, 2006

Dal with Radhuni

Here I am, after an enormously exhausting week. I worked late everynight and returned home at 4.30am on Thursday. I was alone today and (A having gone to his parents for weekend) and so instead of eating out (which I do when I am alone), I rustled up a simple bengali meal. Aloo posto, Radhuni dal and rice. And savored every bit of it. So for Weekend Herb Blogging, at Kalyn's Kitchen here is the recipe forDal with Radhuni

Radhuni is a herb used (to my knowledge) by bengalis mostly. I looked up the net to find out more about it (for the benefit of non-bengali readers of my post) and to my surprise found radhuni is the seed of celery! Perhaps my knowledge is scant, but I can think of only a very few dish that requires the tiny dark grains of radhuni. And yet, these dishes cant be cooked without radhuni. There is simply no substitute for it! It looks a lot like "ajwain" or Carum / Carom. But that's where the similarity ends. It has a very distinct flavour. And only a pinch is required, otherwise, it could overpower the dish!

(For Two)
You will need:
1 small cup of masoor dal (Marc has explained dals very well here)
1/2 tsp radhuni / celery seeds
salt to taste
1 tsp oil for tempering
green chillies optional
1/2 l water

How to
1. Pressure cook / boil the masoor dal with 1/2 tsp turmeric and salt. Reserve.

2. In a kadai / wok, heat 1 tsp oil.

3. Add the radhuni seeds.

4. When they crackle, add the dal.

5. Add water if dal is too thick or cook on high flame to reduce if too watery.

6. Adjust salt.

7. Eat with rice and veggies of your choice!

Bon Apetit!!

16 comments:

Kalyn Denny said...

This is great! I love celery seed. My mother always put it in potato salad and beef stew and I like it in quite a few things.

Sukanya C said...

Now that is news to me. I thought this was a very bengali thing. I am not too sure other regional Indian cuisine uses celery seeds / radhuni!

Meenal Mehta said...

hi sukanya ,

lovely recipes ..I did not know about radhuni seeds atall .

one more thing i learnt today .

do visit my blog sometime :) called meenal's kitchen

just curious ..why do you call your blog , "the timid cook"

Sukanya C said...

Meenal, I will take a look at your blog. And the name of the blog? Because I am timid about cooking! That's why :-)

Shammi said...

Do you have any photos of celery seed? Not sure if I've seen it at all...!

Sukanya C said...

Shammi, I will try and get a visual! If you happen to be close to some bengali / bangladeshi shops in UK, just ask for "radhuni"! And they really look like ajwain but taste different!

Anonymous said...

I also love celery seed. We don't use it in many things, I must admit. But, we always add it to cole slaw and potato salad. I just realized--I need to order some from Penzeys!

Sukanya C said...

Sher, thanks for stopping by. I will look up the recipe for it on you blog (am sure you must hav posted it).

Anonymous said...

Hi Sukanya,
Followed Kalyn's WHB roundup to here.
I clicked on the link you provided fo Radhuni. It almost looks like mini coriander seed.
I'll definitely look for it during my next Indian grocery shopping and will try out your dal recipe with it. Thanks for introducing this new spice and providing the photo link.

Sukanya C said...

thanks for stopping by Indira. it looks more like ajwain. But tastes very different.

Unknown said...

Radhuni is something new to me. Thanx for introducing it.

Very nice blog. Keep up the good job.

sailu said...

Hi Sukanya,you seem to be wearing yourself out.Take it easy,buddy.
I am going to try out this recipe,Sukanya.Thanks for sharing..:)

Sukanya C said...

Wearing myself out? Quite the opposite. Everytime I check out blogs of other foodies, I get so embarrassed. I have what 10 posts so far? And I am posting only the very basic easy less than 30 mns recipes....I wonder people even stop by and bother to post comments! I am not complaining though...I love it.

Anonymous said...

radhuni is a wild celery, but the seed is different from ordinary celery seed. The taste is very near, but radhuni lacks the characteristic celery pungency. The radhuni seed is used in a mix called panch poran, where it is usually replaced by black mustard seed.
cheers
Waaza

Anonymous said...

Here is a link to an image of the celery seed:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Celery_seed.jpg

Anonymous said...

Thanks so much for your recipe! Must try. I was introduced to Radhuni today (an aunt made me kababs with them), and a little research informed me that Radhuni is not celery seed, though due to the taste and flavor, is often mistaken for so.