Phaanu

Slow-cooked broken-down horse gram — gahat (horse gram / kulth) soaked overnight, then cooked on a low flame for hours until the lentils have completely broken down into a thick, coarse, rustic dal. Unlike the tempered kulth-ki-dal of the foothills, phaanu is finished with ghee and dried ginger only — no garlic, no onion in the traditional Garhwali Brahmin version. The slow disintegration of the gahat creates a deeply earthy, protein-dense, almost sludgy dal that is ladled over mandua ki roti. The defining lentil preparation of the high Garhwal villages.