This recipe was given to me by a friend of a friend last year and somehow I stumbled upon it while cleaning out my hard drive and I decided to give it a try. It's a very easy dal and just the kind of thing I was in the mood for. The only thing I'd do differently next time is decrease (or omit) the tomatoes, which made it all a bit too much like a tomato-and-lentil soup rather than a nice lentil-filled dal. This may have been improved had I added the coconut milk, but I didn't have any and wasn't in the mood for something too rich. All the same, this dal was very good and delicious with cucumber and yogurt raita.
Here is the original recipe:
Dal
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 cup dry red lentils
- 3 cups water
- bay leaf
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp medium curry powder (or to taste - I make my own using Mark Bittman's curry powder recipe)
- 1 14-oz can of chopped tomatoes (would skip next time)
- or equivalent chopped fresh
- tomatoes
- 2 oz creamed coconut of half cup
- coconut milk (optional - I didn't use it, though the raita kind of made up for that)
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Salt to taste
Method:
- In a deep frying pan, heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the lentils and fry them for a minute or two, then add the water, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and curry powder. Stir.
- Bring to a boil, then let simmer for twenty minutes, adding a little more water from time to time if it gets dry. Add the tomatoes and simmer another ten minutes. By now the lentils should be very soft. Add the creamed coconut or coconut milk and lemon juice, if using, and salt to taste. Remove cinnamon stick and bay leaf before serving.
- The final product should flow freely—add more water if it is too thick. If is usually served over rice, with some lime pickle and mango chutney. Sliced banana is another good accompaniment, and so too are pappadams.
