This is my second time cooking daal and I’m still none the wiser. My first question to Lima Apu was “Are Cholar Daal (ছোলার ডাল) and Booter Daal (বুটের ডাল) the same?” 

Just like how Chola and Boot are the same, Cholar daal and Booter daal are the same. You know them as Chickpea. The daal version is made from dried brown chickpeas. The chickpeas are skinned and split into pieces to make the daal. The daal itself is yellow or orange or in between in color and shaped like a hemisphere. 

Cholar daal is maybe the only daal that retains its shape even after being cooked. This makes it stand out from the rest of the line up of different daals. And because the chola retain their shape, this daal is the most chewy of any daal. 

Cholar Daal Ingredients

The liquid form of other daals make them perfect for eating with boiled rice (bhaat). So much so that bhaat-daal is probably the single most common food mixture of Bangladesh. The most common daal used here is Masoor daal, the most liquid of them all. And it is absolutely delicious, especially since you can have it with almost anything. Daal-bhaat with fried fish, fried egg, almost any kind of curry or torkari (vegetables) or just simple achaar is a delicacy to almost all Bangladeshi people. And almost everyone has a different favorite side dish for daal-bhaat. My personal favorite is fried Rui Mach (Labeo rohita or rohu fish) with chicken curry and Shutki (dried fish) holding a special place. 

But now here’s a personal rant, the humble bourgeois will invite you to have some daal-bhaat, referring to the fact that they will organize a modest lunch. But then you will be presented with the most extravagant array of dishes that is way too much for the few invited guests. Most of the time you will leave these invites feeling uncomfortable from overeating or guilty for not eating enough. And the worst thing is, there will never be bhaat and Masoor daal. But do you know which daal is most likely to be present in the line up of lavish dishes? Cholar daal!

Don’t start thinking Cholar daal as an “elite” daal, it is not presented to the guests for being pricier or more uncommon. On the contrary, Cholar daal is probably the second most common daal in Bangladesh. But it gets its place in the list of lavish items presentable to guests to maintain a social position because it can be cooked or mixed with other “premium” items. Cholar daal is the only daal I’ve seen that is eaten with Polao. The daal can also be prepared with meat of any kind. And even prawn and some specific fish. 

On the other hand, Cholar daal is also the breakfast of everyone. It is the go to breakfast item in Bangladesh. Remember I said that it is the most chewy daal? In Bangladesh the liquid daals are somewhat unpopular with roti, parotta. But Cholar daal is not chained by liquidity, the chewiness of the daal makes it ideal for roti/parotta. Every restaurant serving breakfast will have Cholar daal on the menu, be it a street side restaurant or a five star hotel. The recipes might differ, but it is always Cholar daal. 

And the street side restaurant cholar daal might not be prepared in a hygienic kitchen (a warning: no street food/street side restaurant in Bangladesh maintain hygiene) or they might not have any special ingredient. And objectively speaking, they do not even taste that good. But this breakfast Cholar daal holds a special place in every Bangladeshi’s heart and sometimes it is just the breakfast you want. My friend returned from the states after years and the first thing they asked to eat was, not meat, not her mother’s cooking, but just plain old Cholar daal. 

Today’s recipe of Cholar daal is quite a bit different from the breakfast Cholar daal I spoke of. But I promise it’s tastier. The main recipe is almost the same but today’s cook, Rumana Lima, said that two things are done differently. 

Cooking all kinds of daal requires “Bagar” (বাগার) or high garnishing. During today’s high garnishing you will need to add whole cumins to the daal, something the breakfast daal lacks. And today’s secret ingredient is coconut milk. 

And the cooking tip of the day is to make sure that your daal is not boiled too much. Cholar daal needs to retain its hemisphere shape. So boiling it too much will result in it melting, something you do not want. So make sure to boil it to the right consistency. 

To check if the daal had boiled enough, pick up a piece of the chola and press it lightly. In the ideal condition the light pressure will result in the daal melting. If the daal is too soft to touch it has boiled too much. And it it is too hard, it needs to boil a bit more.