Question
Valentina Postinghel
In Indian cooking, dry chana dal or mung dal is often briefly toasted in hot oil before being added to a dish. Does this step actually cook the pulses, and is it enough to make them safe to eat?
Answer
So, uh, yes, indeed. Um, there are, um, a number of preparations, um, uh, you know, I'll share a couple of 'em. Uh, one could be making certain chutneys, and another one is in the, the forney or the tka, which is, uh, a finishing technique for, uh, many dishes where you, uh, fry spices and herbs and sometimes, uh, lentils or pulses. And, um, so in addition to frying these pulses in oil, sometimes they're toasted dry in a pan. Um, so either path, right? You'll find in Indian cooking and in the case, right, uh, that this, uh, technique comes toward the end of cooking, uh, of that dish. And Valentina is asking, does it actually actually cook the pulses? And is it safe to eat? And so the answer is yes, and the idea is that your, uh, you're, you're toasting or you're frying those things, um, and you are cooking them is, think of this, um, uh, an equivalent to this as being toasted peanuts, right? Versus raw. And so toasted peanuts, you're applying the, uh, dry heat to the peanuts. And then after you, you know, some time that's, uh, however much you want to get the color and, and, uh, the flavor that you want, you can let those cool. And they have a crunchiness. So they change in texture visually. They take on some, um, some browning and the, the aroma shifts. And, um, once they cool down, they have a, a crunchy texture to 'em, uh, versus a, a more moist texture in the raw state. And, uh, so these are, uh, the, the similar characteristics that will shift with pulses. Um, if you fry them in oil or do a, a dry toast in a pan, uh, before, you know, adding 'em at the end of the cooking process for that given Indian preparation.
