Mussoor dal #1
4 Servings
Ingredients
| Quantity | Ingredient | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | cup | Red lentils (up to) |
| 2½ | cup | Water (up to) |
| 2 | Serrano peppers | |
| ¼ | teaspoon | Turmeric (maximum) |
| ⅛ | teaspoon | Nigella (kalonji; in many Indian languages) |
| 1 | teaspoon | Oil; more or less, or clarified butter |
| Salt to taste | ||
Directions
While a fancy dal is nice from time to time, I much prefer simpler preparations. For these simpler dals the procedure is as follows: 1. Boil the dal till it is cooked through.
2. Heat a little oil or clarified butter in a wok. Stir fry the spices for a few seconds, to produce what we call the tarka. Expect some spitting.
3. Pour the boiled lentils in, salt to taste, remove from heat.
4. Clock time: about 30 minutes. Real hands-on time required: ~ 5 minutes.
Here are two implementations, using red lentils (mussoor dal). (Measures are American, and not critical anyway. I don't measure.) Version 1: (see "Mussoor Dal #2" for Version 2) Procedure:
1. Wash the lentils. Add the water, bring to a gentle boil. Some scum will develop, from lentil dust, and surfactants in the lentils. Skim it off.
2. Add the turmeric powder. (Doing this before the scum is removed causes the turmeric to float up with the scum, and it is then lost. If you do not skim the scum off you will have problems with the mixture boiling over.
Also, you will have problems with stuff boiling over if you cover the pot completely.)
3. Pierce the sides of the peppers (or slit them), and drop them in. Boil gently, almost covered, till the lentils are completely cooked. If necessary, add some water along the way. The end product should be fairly fluid. The lentils will still have some structure, but it will be more flaky than granular. Remove the peppers, homogenize the mixture with a hand mixer, drop the peppers back in.
4. Make the tarka: Heat the oil, preferably in a wok, which makes it easy to deal with the very small quantity of oil. Add the nigella.
5. As soon as it stops sizzling, add the cooked lentils rapidly. You may want to let the oil cool somewhat, so that splattering is avoided.
6. Salt to taste (½ to 1 tsp), mix, serve.
REC.FOOD.RECIPES
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