Spicy Dal

This dal is easy to make and delicious. It's good winter comfort food. We serve it with rice, and recently we've been having spicy mango pickle on the side.

This is mostly the recipe for "Red Lentils with Chiles/ Mirchi Waale Massor Ki Dal" on page 397 of 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer. I've made a few very minor changes and rewrote the recipe in my own words for maximum clarity. (By the way, I cannot recommend this cook book enough. It's not all vegetarian but there is plenty of vegetarian dishes and it's easy to adapt his recipes if you don't have all the ingredients).

This recipe makes 3 cups of dal.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of lentils (masoor dal, the orangey pink ones)
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped very small
  
• a tablespoon or so of grated ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 small red onion, cut in half and sliced thinly
• 10 dried chiles (stems removed) or a combination of half dried and half fresh chiles depending on what you have the cookbook calls for serrano, thai or cayanne chiles, I use those little red dried ones but I am not sure what kind they are, and some fresh serranos if I have them)
• 1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
• A handful of chopped fresh cilantro
• Juice of 1 large lime (2 tablespoons?)

Directions:

1. Wash the lentils (fill pan with water and lentils, swish lentils around, drain water out, repeat until water doesn't get too cloudy)
2. Add 4 cups of water to lentils and cook on medium heat, uncovered until boiling. As it heats up, try to skim off the foam that forms on the surface with a spoon or spatula (this is kind of a pain, sorry).
3. Stir in ginger, garlic and turmeric. Reduce heat, cover the pan and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are tender (18 to 20 minutes).
4. Meanwhile, in another pan, heat oil on medium-high heat and add the cumin seeds until they sizzle, turn reddish brown and smell "nutty" (5 to 10 seconds).
5. Add onion and chiles, stir fry until the onion browns and chiles smell "pungent" (3 to 5 minutes).
6. When lentils are tender, stir in salt and the onions, cumin seeds and chiles from the other pan.
7. Continue to simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally for about 10 more minutes.
8. Stir in the cilantro and lime juice right before serving.

Recipe taken from Iyer, Raghavan, 660 Curries, pp 397-398 (2008)