Sunday, December 16, 2007

Red Split Lentils with Cumin Seeds (Masoor dal) Review

4 stars (on a 5 star scale) p. 165 Originally, I said the dal had too much ghee and was too soupy and I was going to give it three stars. J agreed with me on the latter count. Perhaps I should've boiled it less gently. However, leftovers both condensed (i.e., became less soupy) and mellowed, making the ghee less noticeable, and hence I'm bumping up the rating. J tasted the coriander in the dal and appreciated it, saying that it added a kind of meatiness. We both liked the cilantro and felt it complemented the dish well. I thought it so much that I added much more cilantro to my dal than called for in the recipe. I didn't use the optional asafetida. It's odd that the dal looks yellow yet is made from red split lentils.

3 comments:

luckyfatima said...

this simple home daal should be soupy and light.

also masoor daal turns yellow when they are cooked.

what do you eat with all of the food you make? a nice home daal like this goes with rice, flat bread, some yoghurt, and maybe some different types of pickles. It is a main dish, and served with other main dishes. So the table would have a meat dish (for non-veg people) and one or two veg. dishes, plus this daal. And then the accompanyments of rice, chappati, pickles, etc.

Now can you imagine it with those? Lovely!

Your looks yum, by the way!

Kamala said...

This recipe is probably the one that I use the most in this book. Yesterday I made this recipe with a slight variation -- I used whole green mung dal along with the masoor dal and I grated fresh ginger on top AFTER I turned off the stove. I love the whole moong, it gives the dal such a nice, meaty texture. The fresh ginger at the end adds a really nice zing, but you can't use too much.

Anonymous said...

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