Black gram or Vigna Mungo is a common pulse crop grown in Northern Bangladesh. It is also known as black mung bean and widely used in South Asian cooking. This pulse has slimy texture when cooked. In Bangla, it is called mashkolai daal (মাসকলাই ডাল) or masher daal (মাসের ডাল)।

In my in laws hometown, Mashkolai Daal is cooked differently than other lentil or pulses. First they are cleaned, dried and then made into a coarse powder mixture with different spices like cinnamon, turmeric, chili, cumin etc. It helps cooking faster, as black gram takes a very long time to get boiled. So when I went to Bangladesh for a short trip, I bought back some powdered black gram mixtures to Denmark.

The most simple way to cook it like a lentil soup or daal. The ingredients are also kept simple – onion, garlic, salt, turmeric, cumin and chili.

First, I took all the daal in a pot and added almost triple amount of water. Since the daal is coarse powder, so it does not need to get boiled, but to cook them properly, you need to add a lots of water. You can see the differences of texture between uncooked and cooked daal. I also added salt and turmeric powder to the pan.

I mixed everything very well with water and put the mixture in medium high heat. It is important to keep an eye on the pot as it tends to get boiled over.

Meanwhile I started ‘bagar’ (process of sautéing onion and garlic and adding to the daal) in a separate pan. According to my in laws, adding whole cumin seed to bagar increases the taste to another level. So in hot oil I added whole cumin seeds first and added lots of garlic. Then I added sliced onion before cumin and garlic start getting browned.

As you can see in the pictures, the consistency of daal is getting thicker and slimier. The tip is the more you boil the daal, the more it gets an even consistency and more delicious. At this point, I added some sliced green chilies.

The onion got dark brown so its time to add daal in the bagar.

Now, many would put the fried onion directly to daal. But my personal opinion is add little bit of daal to the fried onion pan, let it simmer for a while and then put back on the main pot with rest of the daal. In this way daal gets to soak the full flavor of onion and garlic. I also wash the rest of frying pan with water and add them in the main daal too, so I make sure no flavor got wasted.

I simmered daal for a while until it got to my desired thickness and consistency.

You can eat this Mashkolai daal or masher daal with rice or ruti, but I liked it best with rice, to be honest. It is very rich, nutritious and fulfilling too.

Recipe: 6-8 Servings Prepping time: 5 minutes, Cooking time: 20-25 minutes

Ingredients: 120g Powdered Mashkolai Daal (Vigna Mungo) Spice and Condiments: 50ml Vegetable Oil 1 big Onion – Sliced 3-5 cloves of Garlic – Sliced 2 tsp fine Salt 1/4th tsp Turmeric powder 1 tsp whole cumin seeds

Instructions: 1. Take powdered black gram in a medium pot along with double amount of water. Also add salt and turmeric. Turn the heat to medium and allow black gram to cook for 20 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frypan set over medium heat. Add cumin seeds first, then garlic and onion and cook them until dark brown. 4. Now, scoop a ladle full of boiled black gram and pour them over fried onion mixture. Simmer for 10 seconds. 5. Pour the daal- spice mixture to the pot with rest of the boiled black gram. 6. Simmer daal for 5 to 6 minutes in low heat. You can add extra water if you want daal more soupy. Serve them hot with rice, ruti or naan. Enjoy!