Washing and Soaking lentils before cooking makes a lot of sense. Even 15 - 20 min soak after washing. We generally use a pressure cooker for daal items. Cooks faster. There are some differences between a north indian daal and a south indian pappu/paruppu etc though.
an example of a south indian daal , probably easier to make in terms of the number of steps you can substitute spinach and quite a bit of extra tamarind to get the taste of gongura as that’s a leaf which isn’t available outside of South India.
These go well with normal steamed rice as opposed to the north indian daal which generally go with roti/basmati rice
Greek yoghurt or natural yoghurt
1tsp dried mint or fresh.mint
Cucumber cubed. Take the middle bit out to stop yoghurt becoming runny the next day and salt to taste.
If you want it hot , add a green chopped chillie, deseeded.
if you can tenderize it the night before , then yes.
Basically two times of marination.
Brine overnight with Adequate Water , Salt , a little bit of sugar , smashed garlic cloves and pepper, rosemary goes well too w.r.t the aromatics.
Overnight marination will work great here.
And then in the morning , do a 4-5 hr basic marination (any flavouring agents of your choice garlic , garam masala , chilly powder , lemon , whatever suits ). Just let the lamb be patted dry
Roast it in your oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes and 160-170 degrees for another 50-60 minutes.
you would still need to add it later. The first brining is just to tenderize the meat. The second one which is more of a dry rub adds the flavour. Add honey / oyster sauce etc if you want a more burnt looking outer crust. The outer marinate is totally up to you.
The basic marinate taste profiles are that you need
acidity - lemon or hung curd or vinegar provide that
2)sweetness - to caramelize the exterior skin, provide sweetness - sugar / honey / oyster sauce
3)garlic,ginger
4)heat(chilly powder/paprika/paste of chillies)
5)saltiness (salt , soya sauce, oyster sauce etc, including umami flavours in here)
6)mix of any other spices
That’s basically it. Mix and match all the above options with your preference and you’ve got the marinate done. For Tandoori , It’s a base mostly of hung curd and the other ingredients. Different recipes call for different marinates but the rationale behind is basically the same.
And for me brining and marinating makes more sense than combining the two into one process. Especially for roasted/grilled stuff. Just make sure that there’s enough water while brining.
I was just reading through this and wondering if I could do an “Aldidente” version (cooking using only things that can be found at a standard German supermarket).
What would a reasonable substitute for Fenugreek be?
If it is something that hints at flavour, they will treat it like witchcraft.
I did just have a look and they sell cheese flavoured with it but not the actual leaves.
Aldidente was a book written years ago which consisted entirely of things that could be made with things commonly found in an Aldi supermarket. Our nearest Aldi is actually quite good for spices, and they usually have things like fresh chillies and ginger.
