Pressure Cooker bottom and whistle got burned while cooking "Lasooni Dal Tadka", what could have gone wrong?

Question

I was cooking Lasooni Dal Tadka (an Indian Lentil curry) following this Hebbar's Kitchen Recipe.

I followed everything as stated but only changed the water quantity based on what I usually follow which is:

• 2 cups of water for 1 cup dal.
• 1.5 cups of water for 1 cup of rice.

Of course, rice isn't included in that recipe but I pressure cooked it in a separate container simultaneously. The idea was to wait for up to 4-5 whistles as the recipe states but I started getting burnt smell after a few minutes of turning on the stove, so I had to immediately stop. I waited for about 5 minutes for steam to pass out and opened the cooker, the end result was something like this!

What could have gone wrong here? The obvious thing I'm thinking is the water quantity but I've cooked rice+dal many times like this and each time they cooked properly, could this be the cooker/equipment malfunction? What could be the case here?

Answer 1

So water ratio was indeed the issue as many commenters suggested. I cleaned the pressure cooker and again cooked the exact same recipe today with increased water ratio as follows:

• For 1 cup Dal: 2.75 cups water.
• For 1 cup Rice: 1.75 cups water.

And this time, it didn't burn and the results were as follows:

Rice:

Dal:

Considering that rice was still a bit moist and spilled some grains to the base area of the cooker, I think that water ratio was a bit much and 1:1.5 is still probably ideal for rice.

And considering that Dal was cooked but still quite thick (I had to whisk to bring a proper consistency), I'm thinking that 1:3 is ideal for Dal. In any case, the end result (Dal Tadka) after sauteing looked like this (the taste was so amazing that I ignored the tadka and consumed it as it is!):

This recipe has taught me the hard way that water ratio in cooking has to be exact and precise, we can't afford to get even slightly casual about this!