What it needs to make perfect Dhansak is time and patience.Last Sunday i had both .
So what Dhansak is ..
It is a popular Parsi delicacy, mainly with mutton. Dhansak consists of lentils, vegetables, spices, cumin seeds, ginger, and garlic together with meat and either gourd or pumpkin. Within the Parsi community, dhansak usually contains goat meat or mutton.
But i tried it with vegetables. It took really long time to prepare, but the end product was really nice ( at least i loved it). Below is the huge list of ingedients,
Ingredients:
800g Diced Mixed Vegetables. 1cm Diced cubes or thereabouts
2 Cups/600ml Water or Vegetable Stock
2 Small white onions finely chopped
2 Teaspoons Ginger Puree
2 Teaspoons Garlic Puree
200g Butter Ghee
2 Teaspoons Turmeric Powder
4 Teaspoons Mild Curry Powder
1 Teaspoon Chilli Powder
2 Teaspoons Garam Masala Powder
1 Teaspoon whole Fennel Seeds
200ml Pineapple Juice and 100ml Mango Chutney
50ml Natural Yogurt
2 Tablespoons Tomato Puree
200ml Pureed Onion
400ml Pureed Lentils
Roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves to garnish
Method –
To make the Onion Puree, bring a small pan of water to the boil and add some chopped onions. Boil until soft, drain and puree with a hand blender or in a food processor.
Heat a large saucepan on a high heat. Once it is hot add the whole seeds and toast them until they sizzle and crackle. Now add the oil and then add the chopped onions and reduce the heat to low. You can optionally add 1 or 2 Whole Star Anise which help bring out the sweetness of the onions and imparts a subtle aniseed flavour but remove them once the onions are cooked. Cook the onions gently and slowly until they turn a golden brown colour.
Make a paste of the ginger puree, garlic puree, curry powder, Turmeric powder, Chilli powder, with a little water. Add to saucepan and stir in well and fry for a couple of minutes.
Now add your 800g Diced Mixed Vegetables. 1cm Diced cubes or thereabouts stir in well.
Add the pineapple juice and mango chutney and stir in well.
Mix the Yogurt, Tomato Puree, Onion Puree, Lentil Puree, together in a jug with the water or stock and pour into the saucepan and mix in well. Turn up the heat until the sauce begins to simmer and leave to simmer for 10-20 minutes until vegetables are cooked through. Stir occasionally.
Finally sprinkle in the Garam masala and stir in well for the final 2 minutes of cooking. Garnish with the Roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves and serve.
Finally we had the end product. This is definitely not the authentic version of Dhansak, but yet it was tasty.
hemantkhandkar 