Sunday 17 February 2013

Creamy Dal


From The Gourmet Vegetarian Slow Cooker, Lynn Alley, Ten Speed Press, 2010.
I placed a cup of lentils in the slow cooker and added to them one cup of coconut water (from soaking desiccated coconut) and two cups of plain water. The recipe called for 4–5 cups of water but I preferred a thicker dal. This was left to cook for five hours.

When the dal was about ready I placed a chopped onion (much more than in the recipe but I felt it needed a stronger presence of onion) in a frying pan and sautéed it in oil until soft. I then added a large pinch of cumin seeds, an equal amount of yellow mustard seeds, a chopped red chilli and a little grated fresh ginger. These were cooked for about five minutes. A chopped tomato then went into the pan for a minute or two and the contents of the pan went into the lentils in the cooker. The dal was now seasoned with salt and pepper and a pinch of curry powder added.

The recipe now called for the addition of cream to the mixture. I decided against this but used instead about two tablespoons of yoghurt. This was stirred in and allowed to heat through and it was ready to serve with potato roti and a coconut and mint chutney.
This was a pleasant dal, well flavoured with a warming touch from the chilli. I thought the yoghurt was a better addition than cream as it was now quite rich. The recipe had not nominated what type of lentil to use and I had chosen brown lentils. I think that next time I would try it with red lentils and less cooking time as they break up so readily and make a smoother dal.
Taste: ✔✔✔
Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

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