Pakwan dal is a melange of flavors and textures. She served the pakwan and dal with two chutneys-fiery mint and sweet date-and-jaggery-along with sliced, raw onions. She lovingly fried the pakwan, a caraway-seed-flecked, deep-fried, crispy flatbread, and simmered and stirred the nutty dal, a slightly sour lentil stew seasoned with tamarind pulp. “This is the king of breakfasts,” Mama explained. I recoiled from many of these breakfasts- saiyoon, especially-and usually took just a bite, before returning to my buttered toast or soggy egg.My only favorite was pakwan dal, a treat served on rare Sundays. On weekends, Mama made hearty Sindhi breakfasts like loli, a jaggery-filled whole-wheat flatbread that she sprinkled with sugar for me seyal maani, day-old chapatis (whole-wheat flatbreads) or stale bread sautéed in a piquant tomato-and-onion mixture and saiyoon, sweet vermicelli with fried potatoes, served with papadam and pickled mangoes. With my paternal grandmother, who I call “Mama,” I watched both “ General Hospital” and “ Sesame Street,” and fell asleep by her side, wrapped in her soft, threadbare, brown shawl. They stayed with my family for long periods of time. My paternal grandparents, who became US citizens in the 1970s, traveled back and forth between New Jersey where I lived, and Pune, their hometown in western India. On and off during my childhood, I lived in a multi-generational, Asian-American household.

Dal pakwan sindhi recipe