Читать книгу Indian Cooking For Dummies - Monisha Bharadwaj - Страница 66

Eat in an Indian home, and you’ll most likely find that a selection of store-bought foods like achaar (pickles) and chaats (called popadams in the West) are also brought to the table. These add another layer of flavor and texture to the meal and help to personalize heat levels for each person.

TABLE 4-4 Buying Lentils, Beans, and Legumes

Pulse	Description
Black gram	Available as whole black beans, split in half with the skin on, and split without the skin. You can’t swap them in most recipes, so pay attention to what’s called for. The sticky texture of the split ones is important in pancake batters (dosa), and the whole beans make a black dal creamy. Also called urad or urid.
Brown, red, or orange lentils	Available whole as brown lentils or split and skinned as red or orange ones. The split ones cook faster. Also called masoor.
Gram lentils	The largest of the yellow lentils, these take the longest to cook and can be soaked beforehand to hasten cooking time. Also called chana dal or Bengal gram.
Mung	Available as whole green beans called (mung beans), split in half with the skin on, and split without the skin (which are called mung lentils). Each has a different texture. The whole beans can be sprouted. Also called moong.
Pigeon peas	Yellow in color, they’re slightly larger than mung lentils. They take much longer to cook, so they can be soaked in boiling water for 30 minutes or so prior to cooking. Also called tur, toor, or arhar.