[Grabid Rannies]

Evening all

I am making (attempting I should say lol) an Indian lamb curry recipe at the weekend. The book just specifies a quantity of 'split gram lentils', which have to be 'soaked for six hours' before being added to the recipe.

Now I have a packet of red lentils knocking about in the cupboard, so I originally thought oh great. But wanting to be sure I googled, and there are no results for a thing simply called 'split gram lentils', but instead a thousand and one different varieties of lentils, some split, some red that turn yellow when cooked, all requiring different pre-preparation methods, cooking times to get certain textures, etc etc. I just can't get my head around the variation in the search results.

Could anyone confirm what would be OK to use in terms of the book's above specification?

[Gaditano]

You could use your red lentils, which would have the advantage of not needing any soaking before cooking. They will result in a fairly mushy dal, however, with a different flavour to what I suspect your recipe wants. Still tasty though.

[swingaleg]

I think of gram lentils as being yellow split peas

they're a right sod to cook as they seem to take hours

your red lentils will be fine.............they cook in a few minutes !

(you probably know this already but I'd cook the lentils separately first in a different pan so you can skim the starch off........before adding it to the pan with the main curry in

[ChoccyCarole]

Just saw this info on line about Gram Split Lentils on a site called
indiamart
seems they are the corn coloured yellow split ones
[they look like yellow split peas ] like this >>>>>> BUT without the smiley face
Gram Split Lentils aka "chana dal"
We are offering an excellent range of Gram Lentils.
The words "chana dal" mean "split chickpeas."
Chana dal are baby chickpeas that have been split and polished.
They look and taste like small kernels of sweet corn and work well in soups, salads, and rice dishes.
(Chana gram is a whole chickpea).

The most popular legume in India.
Chana dal is a very versatile dried split yellow lentil with a slightly sweet taste,& a nutty flavor.
It is used in variety of vegetable dishes.
It can be cooked until soft for the dish called simply dal (yellow dal), or as in southern India it can be used as a spice.

good luck with it

[Gaditano]

Chana dal are lush. Do need soaking though, I'd say for about two-three hours.

[Grabid Rannies]

I should have said - the picture of the finished product in the book shows yellow, firm textured legumes that are quite 'separated' amongst the mix of whole dish. So I think that rules out the red lentils if they produce the mushy 'dal' type texture (which the book has illustrations of elsewhere, so I deduce from that that a different type of lentil is required). I do want to try and replicate the texture shown, and from the above descriptions it seems the baby chick pea ones above might be the closest thing.

Thanks for the responses so far all, it's really good of you to take the time - especially so late at night! You have given me a clearer direction to mull over in tomorrow's light of day

[ChoccyCarole]

you are welcome Grabid Rannies

[swingaleg]

I'll tell you what is good.........you can get a type of flour made from yellow split peas

It's called 'gram flour' and the Indian shops near me sell it

It makes great batter and pancakes.........


OP............if you're going to use the yellow split peas I reckon you should cook them until separately they're soft then add them to the dish

If you put everything in one pan you might find that they're still bullet hard as everything else is dissolving

I seems to remember that they took hours to cook.............regardless of what it says on the packet or in a recipe book

[Welsh-lad]

In simple terms = fart pellets.

[grassmarket]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grabid Rannies

I should have said - the picture of the finished product in the book shows yellow, firm textured legumes that are quite 'separated' amongst the mix of whole dish. So I think that rules out the red lentils if they produce the mushy 'dal' type texture (which the book has illustrations of elsewhere, so I deduce from that that a different type of lentil is required). I do want to try and replicate the texture shown, and from the above descriptions it seems the baby chick pea ones above might be the closest thing.

Just to confirm, split chick peas are quite different from yellow lentils, yellow lentils will go mushy when cooked, chick peas don't.

[peach45]

Yellow split peas shouldn't be too difficult to get hold of. If you have a look in the Ethnic food section (or whatever they want to call it these days) in Tesco, you'll probably find it there. They're quite difference from either red lentils, or chick peas.

[c4rv]

If you are cooking lamb 'dansk' style then you will be wanting yellow split lentil AKA chana dal. The are made from smaller family member of the chick pea. If you are slow, long cooking your lamb curry then soak dal for a couple of hours and add to your curry at the start of cooking. probably 1 1/2 hours on a slow cooker should be enough.

Larger Tesco definitely stock them if you don't have an ethnic shop near you.

[Utopian Girl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by swingaleg

I'll tell you what is good.........you can get a type of flour made from yellow split peas

It's called 'gram flour' and the Indian shops near me sell it

It makes great batter and pancakes.........


OP............if you're going to use the yellow split peas I reckon you should cook them until separately they're soft then add them to the dish

If you put everything in one pan you might find that they're still bullet hard as everything else is dissolving

I seems to remember that they took hours to cook.............regardless of what it says on the packet or in a recipe book

Gram flour is made from chick peas - Anjum Anand has a great veggies recipe for it called 'Gold Coin Curry' - it's very filling but the sauce is wonderful, light in taste and texture and can be used for many other dishes IMO - fish for example. Just google it - I would put a link but I'm clueless.