Pahit

The dal of Akbar's kitchen in the Ain-i-Akbari: split pulses cooked soft and dressed with ghee, fresh ginger, cumin, and asafoetida, and eaten with plain rice

Origin: Agra, Mughal India

From the journey of Asafoetida.

The Ain-i-Akbari, the record of the emperor Akbar's government and household compiled by his minister Abu'l-Fazl in the 1590s, includes a chapter of recipes from the imperial kitchen, and it begins with the dishes 'in which no meat is used'. Akbar ate little meat and kept many days of abstinence, and the meatless dishes of his table are set down with the same care as the pilafs and kebabs. One of them is pahit. In H. Blochmann's translation: 'For ten sers of dal of vetches (or gram, or skinned lentils, etc.) take 2½ s. ghi; ½ s. of salt and fresh ginger; 2 m. cuminseed; 1½ m. assafoetida: this yields fifteen dishes. It is mostly eaten with Khushka', the plain boiled rice given a few lines earlier. That is the whole of it, and it is a list of ingredients, not a method; but it is enough to show a dal recognisably like those cooked in northern India today, rich with ghee and seasoned with ginger, cumin, and asafoetida. The quantities of ghee and salt are generous by modern standards and those of the spices are small, so that the asafoetida is a background savour rather than a headline. The asafoetida itself had come over the Kabul road; the Englishman Ralph Fitch saw it shipped out of Agra by the boatload in 1586. The Ain allows any split pulse. Split mung dal or skinned red lentils, both of which cook to softness quickly, suit it well. How the cooks combined the ingredients is not recorded: here the ginger is cooked into the dal and the ghee, cumin, and asafoetida are poured over it as a tempering, which is the commonest way with dal now, but the ghee may as well have been cooked into the pot.

Ingredients

Dal

250 g split mung dal or skinned red lentils (masoor dal), rinsed
1 l water
12 g fresh ginger, peeled and finely shredded
1 tsp salt, or to taste

Tempering

60 g ghee
0.5 tsp cumin seeds
0.25 tsp compounded asafoetida, or a large pinch of pure asafoetida

To serve

300 g long-grain rice, boiled plain, to serve (the Ain's khushka)

Method

Put the dal in a heavy pan with the water and bring it to the boil, skimming off the froth as it rises.
Add the shredded ginger, lower the heat, half-cover, and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring now and then, until the dal has collapsed into a thick, soft purée. Add the salt and a little more water if it is too thick.
Heat the ghee in a small pan over a medium heat. Add the cumin seeds and, when they darken a shade and crackle, add the asafoetida and swirl it for five seconds.
Pour the hot ghee over the dal, stir it through, and serve with the plain boiled rice.

Notes

The Ain's own proportions, for ten sers of dal, are two and a half sers of ghee, half a ser each of salt and fresh ginger, two misqals of cumin, and one and a half of asafoetida. This version keeps the generosity of the ghee and the restraint of the spices but uses much less salt. Compounded asafoetida usually contains wheat flour; use pure resin for a gluten-free dal.

The Gastrographer

Name: Pahit
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Mughal India
Ingredients: 250 g split mung dal or skinned red lentils (masoor dal), rinsed; 1 l water; 12 g fresh ginger, peeled and finely shredded; 1 tsp salt, or to taste; 60 g ghee; 0.5 tsp cumin seeds; 0.25 tsp compounded asafoetida, or a large pinch of pure asafoetida; 300 g long-grain rice, boiled plain, to serve (the Ain's khushka)

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control