As promised, here's the written instructions for the basic daal tarka: http://goonswithspoons.com/Daal_Tarka The thing about daal is that there are so many different types out there that it's impossible to pin it down to one technique or recipe. I tried to give  general overview here about the regionality of daal, and how it generally works for most people. I ended up rambling a lot. There's an excellent article (with pictures) about daal written here: http://indiaphile.info/guide-indian-lentils/ It gives cooking times and ideas of what to do with the various daal we use.