Pahadi Gahat (Kulath) Ki Dal Recipe

Pahadi Gahat/Kulath Ki Dal Recipe in English, is horse gram stewed with humble spices to create a hearty wholesome curry, which is actually of deep brown color. To many of you, the name at first sound really weird – horse gram, the whole seeds of this bean are fed to cattle and I guess that explains the story behind this name, better I should refer to it with another name Gahat in the post. Gahat Dal is also beneficial for for kidney stones.

Like many other local ingredients in Uttarakhand Gahat is also grown with many hardships in those lovely terrace farms, where unworldly farmers work hard for days and months for the ample harvest of this bean to enjoy a bowl full of nourishing stew during the bad winter days with their families, when their farms are nothing but the storehouse of dew and fog, soil is damp and reluctant to bear any fruits of nature, sun play month long hide and seek, their nights get warm with dinner of Gahat Ki Daal and Roti.

My mother who has spent considerable part of school vacations in her paternal village – Paithani, as a cook has great affection for terraced paddy fields produce, during our growing up years every year one of her distant cousins before the first winter breeze use to send one bag full of Pahadi Gahat along with Pahadi Bhatt (black soybean) and Mandua flour, he never send it a month earlier or later, always right on time, then she would glee in pride by looking at ancestral land produce and treasure all these condiments like a prized possession until next winter using wisely and occasionally in our daily Indian food recipes.

On a bright sunny winter Sunday mood for Gahat ki Daal and Bhaat (steamed rice) was all staged by the weather, in heavy traditional cast iron pot daal was stewed with aromatic ginger, garlic and herbs chopped up in a haze, spoonful of colored flavors known as spices were thrown in and finally some rice flour paste to thicken the curry, then began the trial of patience of our growling and howling stomachs, curry is slow cooked for quite some time for the flavors to develop and also to tease our senses with the alluring aroma of it. And at last time for the sizzling melodrama of Indian kitchen – tadka (tempering), with a ladle full of ghee, cumin, and herbs I waited for the seeds to do the little crackling performance and finally grace the curry with the tadka. 

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The table was laid, dinner napkins unfolded, rice was perfectly steamed and fluffed, the salad could not be greener, pickle jars were uncorked and here arrived the centrepiece of the lunch table – Gahat Ki Daal laced with the sweet smell of ghee, garlic, herbs and hours of simmering over the low flame. One of my favorite Indian food recipes. One spoonful of it and it seems my hunger is been satiated, this uncomplicated taste of Gahat ki Daal always make me realize how deeply attached I am to my roots.