Pleasure of simple food (Science)

As I sit on my couch on this fall morning and thinking about what to cook for lunch, I think about comfort food: something warm,something soothing. I am thinking about Rice and Dhal. Simple to make yet so delicious. It takes me back to my childhood when mom used to feed dahl and rice with ghee. When my son was 6 months old and we started him on the solids, this was his first bite -mashed up dhal with rice and ghee. Like the diverse people of India, we have lots of ways of making Dhal. The recipe I use is what my mom is used to make when we were kids. For making Dhal you will need :

Basic Version                                                                                   Spicy Version

1 cup of toor dhal                                                                          1 cup moong dhal
Pinch of Turmeric                                                                          Turmeric
Salt to taste                                                                                   1/2 cup coconut
Oil                                                                                                1/2 tsp Jeera
Mustard seeds                                                                               2-4 green chillies
                                                                                                     Oil
                                                                                                     Mustard seeds
                                                                                                     Salt to taste


Boil the toor dhal in water (2 cups of water with pinch of turmeric added ) until they are very soft.
The usual way I cook dhal is by using a pressure cooker.   Lately I use pressure cooker lot more as food cooks so much faster and evenly. If you are using a pressure cooker, let it whistle for 3-5 whistles. On a side note, my 3 year old son like to scream  with the whistle every time the whistle goes off  and it is hilarious to watch him scream his head off and he knows he is being funny and hence the pitch goes up higher as we laugh :-)

 If you are not using a pressure cooker, it will take 30-45 minutes cook the toor dhal to the right consistency ( Cooked dhal should not have any hard areas in the center and should become a paste if pressed).

Freshly cooked Dhal

Once you have the dhal ready, you can add tadka to it. Tadka is again very specific to your taste. I like to heat oil and add mustard seeds. Let the seeds splutter  and then take off from the stove and add it to the cooked dhal. Add salt to taste and boil for few more minutes. Other things you can add to the tadka are curry leaves, Cumin (Jeera), onions (Fry them till brown), garlic etc.

For the spicy version, combine coconut, jeera and Chillies and using a blender make it to a smooth paste. Add this paste to the cooled dhal  along with salt and tadka and simmer. This recipe goes well with chapathi and rice.

Now for the fun part: Science behind why we eat dhal and what it provides

 

This simple dish is a staple for most of the Indians. We eat some version of dhal everyday. When I tell people we are vegetarians, usual question is how do you get your proteins?  Of course from lentils is my normal answer. 

To examine this question from a Food Scientist point  view, the question is not how we get our protein but do we get a  "Complete Protein"?  A complete protein is the one that has all the "essential " amino acids ( For those of you who have forgotten biology completely, Amino acids are the building block of  proteins. They are 20 amino acids and our amazing body can make most of them except for few that need to supplied through food) .  In nature not all proteins are created equal and most of the proteins derived from animal source are "complete protein" with all the essential amino acids. Proteins from plant source usually lack one or more essential amino acids.

But don't worry yet!!   Indian diet tend to have a mixture of all different kinds of proteins (coming from rice, wheat etc) . What is missing lentils is supplied by what we eat with dhal  i.e rice or roti. We get all the essential amino acids we need by combining various sources of protein in our daily diet (There is growing body of evidence suggesting that even in lentils, the amount of essential amino acids are enough to sustain an adult human and combining food is not necessary).  One cup of cooked lentils has about 18 g of protein and an average adult weighing about 160 lbs needs about 65-70 g of protein everyday. If you are looking to increase your protein intake ( to help with weight loss), Soy is a great source of protein for vegetarian diet. A cup of cooked soy (175 g) has about 28-30 g of proteins. Bottom line is to eat a well balanced meal with a variety of protein source to provide with enough calories and proteins. 

If you are curious about finding out levels of proteins in your food, USDA web page has a good resource : http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/cgi-bin/nut_search.pl .

Other good resources I found on protein writing this blog:

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you-eat/protein/