Sabut Masoor Dal

I am of the humble opinion that good food belongs to two different categories...simple , wholesome , easy to make, yet delicious .This is food one can make daily and make sure the body and soul are both satisfied. The second category is food that requires a whole bunch of ingredients, time , finesse .The end product is delicious too but also exotic and mostly a visual stunner.Fulfilling for the eyes too.

I like to dwell in both the categories. Depends on my mood, time and the occassion . On a daily basis I really like to keep it short and simple .Coming to which "DAL", is simple .

Dal is known by many names...lentils, legumes and pulses.And then there are tonnes of different kind of daals . Pulses have been around and used as food for thousands of years. The lentil was probably one of the first plants ever to be domesticated by humans. Most pulses prefer warm climates but there are varieties which grow in temperate regions.The awesome thing is that they are rich in proteins and vegetarians dont need to worry too much if they just eat their dals.

The various dals I know of are moong dal(dhuli and sabut), arhar(toor or tuvar dal), chane ki daal, ma ki dal, masoor dal (sabut and dhuli) and urad dal . When a dal is "dhuli"it simply means that the skin has been taken away and the seed is split and exposed and when its "sabut " it means that the whole seed in intact in its covering .

I recently made sabut masoor dal .Masoor dal is also called "Egyptian lentils" and is dark brown in color.Its difficult to look at those dark ,non-descript seeds and beleive that they could turn into such a delicious lentil soup.(if you decide to cook sabut daal ,please remember these seeds take longer to cook because they are whole. )

Alright, lets get started without much ado.

You need :
250 g. sabut masoor dal

For Tempering/baghar/tadka
(this is basically just seasoning the dal by with spices and other ingredients )
1 tsp. ginger paste
1 tsp. garlic paste/crushed garlic
2 tbs. (vegatble/sunflower/canola)
1 large onion finely chopped
1 large tomato finely chopped
1 level tsp. chili powder/flakes
1\2 level tsp. ground coriander-
salt to taste
1 level tsp. garam masala
2-3 tbs. finely chopped fresh coriander leaves for garnish

This is how you cook it
Pressure cook the dal , using approximately a half a litre of water .(You can add the salt right now or later after the dal is cooked.Usually it takes about 15-20 minutes in a pressure cooker. You may have to add more water if the lentil is not tender yet and cook for further 8 to 10 minutes). Let the pressure whistle blow about 3-4 times on medium to high heat

Take the dal of the stove and take a pan .Heat the oil and add the ginger paste, garlic, onions and fry them till they become transparent .Then add the tomatoes and fry them till they start losing their moisture and become soft.Now add the dal (if the dal is not dilute enough , you can add more water to get a consistency you want).Add salt, dhania powder and chilli flakes /powder.Stir and cook for few more minutes.

Take off the stove .The dal is now ready .As a finishing touch add the garam masala and garnish with the chopped corriander .

its Yummy :)