Masoor dal

 

                                   Mummys  Masoor dal

This dal holds a very dear place in my heart it’s my mum’s dal recipe that I hated thru my childhood just because it was dal. And I missed it once I wasn’t living with mummy anymore L. My dad has told me stories about how his friends would just come home only for this dal, with age it is that I have understood why, as a child it just seemed dumb that people liked dal :P. it is quiet versatile I remember eating it with just a sabzi  or even dry prawn chutney, or even a sukka or fish fry or just plain pickle rice and dal. It tastes great with practically everything. I hope it gives you the pleasure that it gave me. And I guess it would make my mum very happy to know that her dal gets more memories attached to it. Too emotion for a dal I hated as a kid, but it does bring back loads of emotions for me. Serve hot with rice and a sabzi or fish fry or anything of your liking.

 

Ingredients

Masoor dal ¾ -1cup

Moong dal 4 tablespoon or just a small handful

1 medium tomato chopped

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

Turmeric powder/haldi 2 teaspoon

Hing about ½ teaspoon

 Salt to taste

Water

For tempering

Oil or ghee 3 teaspoon

4-5 green chili depending on how spicy the chilies are and your taste increase or decrease the number

Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon

Jeera/cumin seeds 1 teaspoon

3-4 garlic roughly smashed with the skin will do

Curry leaves 8-10

Hing 1 teaspoon

Dhaniya/coriander leaves washed and chopped for garnish. Don’t be shy make it a small handful

 

Method

wash the dals nicely then in a pressure cooker put the tomatoes, dal, hing 1/2teaspoon, turmeric powder, salt, ginger garlic paste and enough water to cover the dal, I would say around a little more than 2 cups. Pressure cook for upto 5 whistles. We need for the dal to be completely mush. If you are not using a cooker then same procedure just use a vessel and cook the dal until its mush, if you need you could add more water.

Once dal is cooked, in a small pan take the oil/ghee and put it on a high flame, before the oil becomes hot peirce the green chilies with a knife and add them to the cold oil. Once the oil becomes hot add the mustard seeds when they stop spluttering add the crushed garlic, once it gets a little color add the hing, jeera and curry leaves and quickly pour this mixture into the cooked hot dal.

Be careful when tempering because the dal will flash around and could burn you. Check for the salt and thickness right now and adjust according to your liking. But please don’t thin it down too much. Boil for a few more minutes garnish with corriander while boiling and then switch off the gas and let the dal settle a little.