This recipe was inspired by Madhur Jaffrey and a couple of other recipes I found online. I changed a lot of things, adding heaps more garam masala, using olive oil and adding extras like green chillies and cherry tomatoes. I hope this recipe works for you as well as it worked for me - it's quite a simple process and is very tasty indeed!!
Ingredients
2 cups red lentils (dhal)
6 cups water approx
Olive oil
5 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
Tumeric powder
Knob of ginger
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds
Chilli powder
Garam masala powder
Curry leaves
3 large green chillies
6 shallots
10 cherry tomatoes
Put lentils in pot with the water.
Bring to boil, scrape off the foamy stuff on top.
Add some large slices of peeled ginger and a couple of curry leaves to the water and a few teaspoons of tumeric.
Reduce to a low (very low!) simmer, partly covered for around 40-50 minutes.
After around half an hour, put some olive oil in a frypan, heat and pop the mustard seeds and cumin seeds (if you ask me, more is more so don't be afraid to throw a few teaspoons in!)
Fry the garlic, shallots, the rest of the ginger (finely chopped), 3 chillies (seeds are optional - they aren't particularly fiery, so why not!), chilli powder, garam masala and curry leaves.
Add more and more garam masala as you go, remember this will be diluted when mixed with the dal. Add some tumeric and the cherry tomatoes, frying until cherry tomatoes have disintegrated.
When dal is looking almost ready, add all the ingredients from the frypan and mix thoroughly. You will need to add some salt (perhaps quite a bit!) and a bit more tumeric.
Serve with or without rice, add fresh chopped coriander and top with heated roti or naan bread.
