The lentils are the easy part. The tempering — the hot fat poured over at the end — is what makes dhal worth eating.
Serves 4. About 35 minutes.
You need
- 250 ml toor or masoor dhal, rinsed until the water runs clear
- 1 onion, chopped fine
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger and garlic
- Curry leaves
- 3 tbsp ghee or oil
- Salt
From the shelf: 1/2 tsp Haldi, 1 tsp Mustard Seeds, 1 tsp Jeera, 5 Methi Seeds (count them), 2 Dried Red Chillies, a pinch of Hing, 1 tsp Dhania Powder.
Method
1. Boil the dhal with the haldi and three cups of water until soft — about 25 minutes in a pot, 8 in a pressure cooker. Skim the foam off in the first few minutes. Whisk it loose with a spoon.
2. In a separate pan, heat the ghee. Add the mustard seeds, cover, and wait for them to finish popping.
3. Add the jeera, the methi seeds, the broken chillies and the hing. The methi is the one to watch: five seeds is right, half a teaspoon will make the whole pot bitter and there is no fixing it.
4. Add the onion and fry until golden, then the ginger and garlic, then the tomato and dhania powder. Cook until the tomato collapses and the oil separates.
5. Pour the whole tempering into the dhal, add salt, and simmer together for five minutes so it stops tasting like two separate things.
Notes
Dhal thickens as it stands. Loosen it with boiling water, not cold, or the texture goes grainy.
For a richer version, add a second small tempering of ghee, jeera and Kashmiri chilli poured over just before serving.
Leave a Reply