Dalca Sayur / Easy Vegetables Dhal Curry With Coconut Milk Recipe

Dalca Sayur / Easy Vegetables Dhal Curry With Coconut Milk Recipe

   April 13, 2020       Lyn Alina

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Dalca or dhal curry is a common dish not only in Indian culture, but also among Malay.
This dish is especially prepared during wedding occasions, and dalca is serve with nasi minyak (rice cooked with ghee, vegetable oil, onion and other spices), nasi tomato (tomato rice) or biryani rice along with ayam masak merah (sweet and spicy chicken dish), kurma daging (beef korma) and acar (vegetable pickle).

Most of us are familiar with dalca, and in our culture, dalca is a dish which is named after the yellow lentils or dhal as its main ingredient.
Dalca is usually cooked with meat to enrich the flavor and added with vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, round brinjals and tomatoes that adding variety of texture to the dish.

Cooking dalca with meat added is not going to be an option for vegan.
And as such, another version of dalca, which is prepared without meat is designed, called dalca sayur or vegetables dhal curry, thus everybody can enjoy the deliciousness of dalca.
For me, I love both versions - with and without meat.
Sometimes, I'll add chickpeas in my dalca.
Most Indian dalca is prepared without adding coconut milk to the dalca gravy, but in my culture, coconut milk is a must add ingredient.

The yellow lentils (or kacang dhal) need to be soaked for few hours, to reduce the cooking time and is added into the dalca gravy and continue to be cook until soften over low heat.
If you prefer your dalca gravy to be thicker and creamy, you have to boil the soaked yellow lentils until it is really soft and mash with a fork or blend until smooth.
Then only it is added in the gravy.
I've never done this way when I cook dalca before, and I'm excited to give it a try next time when I prepare dalca for my roti canai.

You must remember, dalca tastes a lot better when is cooked with meat, since meat is rich in meaty and sweet flavors, especially the red meat.
And now, you're going to cook vegetables dalca, or dhal curry without the additional seasoning from meat.
It is going to taste a little bit bland, particularly when you've never tried vegetarian dish before.
So what you're going to do is to enhance the flavors to ensure you dalca tastes interesting, savory and flavorful by altering and adding alternative ingredients and spices.
If you're not a vegan and you just want to try making vegetables dalca, I would recommend to add chicken or anchovies stock powder into the dalca gravy like I did.
And guess what, we did not even remember that we were eating vegetables dalca, simply because it was so good!

Another option especially if you're vegan, instead of using the basic spices for making dalca, like onion, shallots, garlic, ginger, and empat sekawan (clove, cinnamon, star anise and cardamom), you can try adding cumin, fennel seeds and coriander along with those spices to make your dalca more flavorful.
Oh! How I love those spices, especially coriander in my dishes and marinade!
Just remember to not put cumin too much or unless it will ruin the taste of your dalca.
I recommend to use the ratio of 0.5:1:2 for cumin, fennel seeds and coriander into your vegetables dalca.

Let's get the details of my vegetables dalca recipe below 👇👇

DALCA SAYUR

VEGETABLES DHAL CURRY WITH COCONUT MILK

Cuisine : Indian, Malay

Serve : 6

Ingredients:

1/4 cup of dhal (yellow lentils) - soaked 1 hour

1 round brinjal - cut into bite size

2 potatoes - cubed

1/2 carrot - cut into 3 cm long, thick stick

1/2 long melon (labu air) - cut into chunks

A handful of green bean (kacang buncis)/ a small handful of long beans - cut into 4 cm long

1 tamarind slice / 1/4 cup of tamarind juice (mix 1/2 teaspoon of tamarind paste with 1/4 cup of water)

1 1/5 liters of water

1/2 anchovies / chicken /beef stock cube or 1/2 tablespoon of anchovies/chicken/beef stock powder

1/3 cup of coconut cream (I used KARA brand)

5 dried red chilies - cut into 2

1/3 cup of cooking oil

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

1 stalk of curry leaves - optional

1 clove of garlic - sliced

1/2 onion - sliced

Ingredients To Be Blend:

1/2 onion

5 shallots

4 cloves of garlic

1 inch of ginger

Other Spices:

2 star anises (bunga lawang)

1/4 stick of cinnamon (kulit kayu manis)

5 cloves (cengkih)

4 cardamoms (buah pelaga)

4 tablespoons of curry powder

1 teaspoon of turmeric powder

Instructions:

1. Blend all the ingredients to be blended.  Combine curry powder and turmeric powder in a small bowl and add a few tablespoons of water until it forms paste.  Set aside.
2. Heat oil in a wok or a pot over medium heat.  Add sliced garlic, sliced onion, curry leaves, dried red chilies and empat sekawan (cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms and star anises) and cook until fragrant and onion is translucent.
3. Add in the blended mixture and curry paste and cook until the oil is separating (pecah minyak).
4. Add water and the soaked yellow lentils (dhal) and anchovies/chicken/beef stock cube/powder and simmer over low heat until the lentils are soft.
5. Add potatoes and continue to cook until potatoes are tender.
6. Add more water if the gravy is too thick.
7. Add the remaining vegetables (carrot, round brinjal, long melon and green/long beans) and cook for another few minutes until vegetables are tender crisp.
8. Pour in coconut cream, add tamarind slice or tamarind juice and season with salt and sugar.
9. Simmer for another 1 to 2 minutes and your vegetables dalca is ready to be served!

#TIPS#

If you're using cumin, fennel seeds and coriander seeds in your vegetables dalca, all you need to do is to soak all those spices for 5 minutes and grind the spices.  Cook the ground spices along with sliced onion, sliced garlic, dried red chilies, empat sekawan and curry leaves until fragrant then only add in the blended mixture and the curry paste.