Tripura is one of the “Seven Sisters” states in north east India. It is the third smallest state of the India. Its capital is Agartala. It is hilly and extensively covered with forests. During British raj, Tripura was a princely state.
The state celebrates almost all the festivals of India. Garia, is one of their indigenous harvest festivals which is celebrated in the month of April. Deity Garia is a household lord. Each household offers a handful of rice to lord Garia, on that day at the ceremony.
Tripura shares international boundary with Bangladesh in the north and south.
Shares border with Assam northeastand Mizoram in the east.
Food:
Rice and fish are the staple food of Tripura. Berma is a fermented dried fish which everybody loves and uses it often as a common ingredient in their cooking.
A young Tripuri friend of mine -Ujala, gave me a simple dal recipe from Tripura’s Chakma tribe. This dal dish is called Del Tohn. “Del is pronounced dale and Tohn is pronounced as tone.” She continues… “fry lots of small red local onions in mustard oil. No haldhi no masalas and no pressure cooker. Dal should not have too much water and should not be fully mashed. One should be able to see the round dal shape which should be soft. The main flavor in the dal is the fried onions.”
Let us try out her recipe. Small variety of onions are not easily available in every market. We were however, lucky to have found some. Even, otherwise, one can cook the dal with big onions slicing them finely.
Del Tohn (Dal Dish)
Del Tohn is a very tasty dal. The flavor comes mainly from the fried onion in mustard oil. Very little spice and oil makes the dal nutritious. Easy to make and with a few ingredients. I recommend you to try it out once.
You need:
100 gm pink masoor dal
4-5 small onions/ 2 medium size onion
2 tbsp of mustard oil
3 green chilies
Salt to taste
Method:
- Wash and drain the dal. Keep it aside.
2. Peel, wash and cut the onions finely and keep them aside.
3. Slit the green chillies through lengthwise.
4. Heat a pan with the mustard oil. 5. When the oil smokes, lower the heat and add the sliced onion and the chilies.
6. Fry them for a while until onion are lightly browned.
7. Keep aside a little for garnishing later.
8. Add the dal and saute for few seconds.
9. Add enough warm water and salt and cook over low heat until the dal is soft and retain the dal shapes.
10. Bring the water to boil, cover it and cook for about 20 minutes until the dal is cooked.
11. Stir gently from time to time, but make sure to maintain the round shape of the dal.
12. Add ¼ cup of warm water to the dal and gently stir it.
13. The consistency of the dal should neither be thick nor very thin.
14. Simmer the dal for another few seconds and remove it from the heat.
The dal has a beautiful flavor of fried onion. Serve it hot with steamed rice.
Happy Cooking!
Coming up next ……………The Eastern India.
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Dal On The Table 
Going thru your North East recipes, an interesting fact emerges. All the original recipes of N.E. retain the flavours of the main ingredient Dal! Spices do not overpower the aromas of the dals.
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Thank you so much Ankush.
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Never knew dal could have so many avatars!
Waiting for more.
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Thank you Abha.
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Very nice, informative site. Dal and rice is comfort food for many of us. Apart from the unique recipes from each region, love the brief of the place and the accompanying map. Looking forward to more posts .
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Thank you so much for your beautiful comment. Please do keep reading ……
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