Okay let me start off by saying that I have never properly cooked before. My situation is not as bad as having never set foot in the kitchen; I have fried eggs, made instant noodles before. But even those simple undertakings ended up being burnt because of too much heat, or soggy because of too much water, or seemingly perfect until I took a bite to figure out that I did not add salt.

So it’s without saying that i do not have much knowledge or skill or experience regarding the culinary art. So as I set off on my life changing (and probably saving) journey of learning how to cook, I thought Moong Daal would be a good beginner friendly recipe. Making daal shouldn’t be that difficult, right? (spoiler: the recipe was actually pretty simple and anyone with minimum knowledge could pull it off).

Moong Daal is pretty common in my, and most Bengali, households So the dish is familiar to me and this was another reason why I chose it. So I woke up, hopeful and optimistic. But my lack of culinary knowledge came to bite me even before I entered the kitchen.

Now I just said that I am familiar with the dish Moong Daal, but actually that’s it. I knew the taste, I knew what the dish looked like, but I had no idea what the actual daal looked like. And the existence of Masoor Daal confused me even further. And looking back, at one point I told my mom that I will be cooking Masoor Daal, and at some other point I told  her about Moong Daal. So even she was confused about what I wanted to do.

Moong-Daal-(Green-Gram-Beans)

For anyone that may share the same confusion, Masoor Daal is more orange in color and Moong Daal more yellow-ish. Masoor Daal is cooked in a more liquid form, while Moong Daal is a bit heavier. And in terms of nutritional values, they are very similar.

Now back to the confused me standing outside the kitchen. I pulled out the recipe and confirmed that it was actually Moong Daal that I wanted to make. Then I showed the recipe to my mother and my heart sank a little more. She said that she has never cooked Moong Daal in this manner. But I washed away the nerves with waves of optimism saying that it’s a great opportunity to try out the old dish in a new style. My mother agreed.

After that I gathered all the ingredients and dishes, of course with help. Then I followed the instructions to the tee. The first few steps were pretty easy and soon my Daal was boiling. But I was not quite patient enough to hang around the kitchen while it was boiling. So I told my mother to call me when it was boiled and ready for the next steps.

10-ish minutes later my mother called upon me and I went back to the kitchen to see how my dish was coming along. But looking at it I did not have the faintest clue whether it had boiled or not. The water was boiling, surely that is not indication enough. And actually it was not.

I asked my mother how she knew that the daal was boiled, and of course her answer was that she just knew. So I changed my question and asked her how I could tell if the daal was boiled. She said to pick up some daal and to press them. If the daal was soft and broke easily, then it was boiled.

The next step involved adding garnish to the daal. And again, the process was simpler than I expected. But what fascinated me was the Bangla word for the process. Most Bengali making daal of any kind call this process “Bagar”. I found the word to be beautiful and how generations of Bengali cooks have been using the word but there is no literal English translation for it.

And after that the daal was ready to eat. But some fried onions (Birista) was added to enhance the flavour and look of the dish. And finally the Moong Daal was served. I had it with boiled rice and it actually tasted really good. I did feel a little bit of pride with every bite for being able to pull off this simple yet significant Bengali Dish.