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Fantastic warm weather salad - chopped cucumbers, spices, toasted peanuts, coconut, and green chiles come together in a refreshing but surprisingly substantial salad. I made a couple little tweaks - for ex. using toasted coconut in place of fresh - which I didn't have on hand.

Is this the recipe that is listed as Khamang Kakdi?

Exactly Sho - updating the name here.

Tasted great.

Heidi: I used fresh (frozen) coconut, and I think I would actually prefer the dried. I coarsely ground the peanuts as the recipe suggested, but next time, I think I will use bigger pieces as you did (judging from your photos).

I thought the dish would taste similar to the appetizer you often see at thai / burmese / etc., restaurants where you wrap peanut, chili, coconut, dried shrimp, etc., in a leaf of some kind (e.g., spinach). However, the flavor was quite different, at least when I made it.

Generally speaking, I really liked the dish, but I felt like something was missing. Compared to the thai dish, the lack of dried shrimp made the whole thing taste a little bit one dimensional. Perhaps I didn't toast the cumin and mustard seed enough. And somehow, I wish there were something more herbaceous and pungent in there. Some ginger, some mint, some raw onion.. something.

Anyway, don't get me wrong. The dish was great as-is. Interesting and delicious. I am just ruminating on what I would do differently next time.

Yeah, I toasted big flaky coconut within an inch of its life. It added another crunchy dimension and a dark toastiness that I def. liked alongside the cool cucumber. And I know what you're saying about the Burmese salads - there's the one with fermented tea leaves that delivers that magical je ne sais quoi.

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Curious to try this recipe. If it turns out as good as the identically named dish at our local Indian place, it will become a staple at our house.

Tasted great. Creamy, but not overly rich, with a subtle, nutty, fragrant taste. Exactly what it should be. Dal Makhni is our kids' favorite dish from the Indian place, and my previous attempts to make the lentils using Mark Bittman's recipe didn't cut it.

Getting the right kind of dal (urud dal) was one of the keys. Adding cream (I actually used half and half because that's what we had) was also part of the key. And the spicing, of course.

When I prepared it, I ended up with a bit too much liquid at the end and had to boil it down. You might want to try adding 1 1/2 cups of water at the last step instead of 2 cups. It is always easy to add a bit of water at the end to loosen things up. Removing the water takes time.

Thanks for the tip Sho, super helpful - this is near the top of my list of recipes to try. Speaking of which, now that I'm back, look out ;) I've got the ingredients all set for a couple of the recipes, and am planning a trip over to Vik's in Berkeley to trick out my Indian pantry a bit more.

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Delicious, with a nutty fragrance from the mustard seeds and toasted urad dal.

I've been trying to create a reliable Chana Masala for more than 2 years. I've tried Madhur Jaffrey's recipes and Iyer's one in 660 Curries but none of them have come as close to my ideal as this recipe has. I actually jumped up and down when I tasted the sauce for the first time!! My daughter stopped what she was doing to see what all the excitement was about.

Then she had a taste.
And she jumped up and down too.

I needed to make some tweaks because the recipe in the book doesn't include cinnamon so I added 2 cinnamon sticks while I was sautéing the onions. I used a smaller amount of ginger than called for (mine were 1 1/2 cm rather than 2 1/2 cm), and I used the higher range of garlic cloves (10). At the end of step 4 (now my step 4.5...) I blended the sauce with an immersion blender. I find that most of the recipes I have tried have added too much water, thereby creating something too diluted and thin - a bland soup - not a rich, delectable sauce - so in step 5, I added 2 cups of water (instead of 4). I added way more than 2 1/2 cups of chickpeas too as there was still plenty of sauce, even with the reduced water. Pure chickpea perfection!!! I am SO ELATED that I have found this recipe.

As I mentioned in my Aloo Matar/Gobi review, this isn't a main course either on its own but rather a side that along with other sides creates a beautiful palette of flavors, textures, and colors. I paired my chickpeas with the Aloo Gobi and the Garlic Spinach Massiyal so I had my beans, greens, and veggies. Oh and don't forget the naan! These three recipes made for the most wonderful Indian lunch that has ever come out of my own kitchen. I'm forever indebted to Kapoor and this amazing community (for with 101cookbooks I never would have picked up this tome)!

I do still plan on trying the Chholay Masala which seems to be the perfect spice mix for Chana Masala. I just needed the confidence to get this close and see the process before trying it out (as it's only a spice mix at the beginning on p. 25 but doesn't give directions on using it anywhere that I've found in the book. Maybe someone else has found it used.)

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