THE GOURMETGharana Subscribe
Family recipeNon-VegDalMainHyderabadi

Dalcha

Amma's notebook · Main course, page 4

Masoor dal cooked down with mutton until it melts into the gosht, soured with tamarind and finished with a garlicky tempering.

Dalcha, in Amma's handwriting
Amma's original. Tap to open full size.

Method

  1. Heat a little oil and add the bay leaf, dalchini, badi elaichi, shahzeera and slit hari mirchi. Add the onion and sauté.
  2. Add ginger-garlic, haldi, mirchi, dhania-zeera pd and a little salt. Mix well, add the mutton and cook until the colour changes.
  3. Add the soaked dal and bhuno. Add the soaking water and pressure cook until the meat is tender.
  4. When the pressure drops, mix thoroughly so the dal becomes a paste and blends with the gosht.
  5. Add tamarind juice and water and bring to a boil (kadoo is optional). Check the salt and adjust the consistency.
  6. Add lots of kothmir, podina and curry patta.
  7. Bhagar: heat oil and ghee, add rai, zeera, dried lal mirchi, chopped laisan and curry patta. Take off the heat, add hing, pour into the dal and mix.

Typed up from Amma's handwritten notebook. Her Hindi and Urdu words are kept as she wrote them.

More from this section of the notebook

Filmed · watch the video
Main course
Adrak Lehsun Chicken

Chicken marinated in lots of ginger and garlic with herbs and spices, then cooked in the same pan.
From the notebook
Main course
Basic Gosht

Amma's base for weeknight meat dishes: mutton pressure-cooked with onion and spices, then portioned and finished with any vegetable.
From the notebook
Main course
Bheja

Brain cooked gently with onions and spices, or in a dahi khorma.