Daal and Fireworks!

As a child, I craved daal and chawal ( lentils and rice). Daal is a dish that can be made quickly, is filling, and healthy. We always keep a variety of lentils on hand at home. My mother made daal a comfort food and it was beautifully warm and reassuring. My favorite daal dish is created by combining masoor daal, which is orange, and toor daal, which is yellow, to make the most comforting dish you’ve ever eaten. Daal can be eaten with basmati rice, roti, paratha, or naan. You can even eat a bowl of it just on its own, like soup. When I was in Pakistan, on rainy days, my cousin and I would take warm daal, put it in bowl with sliced onions, tomatoes, cilantro, jalapeno and squeeze fresh lime juice over it. We would sit out on the balcony, listening to the rain watching the people below playing in the downpour as we filled our bellies with the warming comfort of daal.

As a child it became a goal to make daal just like my mother, or maybe even better. I like to have equal amounts of masoor daal and toor daal, you could do a little more of one or the other, it is up to you. The pot is your canvas, remember this: you put in whatever you want to create the dish that you want.

Soak 1/2 cup masoor daal and 1/2 toor daal in room temperature water for half an hour. This helps to soften the daal making the cooking of the daal easier.

Ingredients- makes 2-4 servings :

• 1/2 cup massor daal
• 1/2 cup toor daal
• 1tsp of zeera (cumin seeds)
• 1 garlic
• 1/4 tsp haldi (turmeric powder)
• 1/4tsp lalal mirch (red chili powder)
• 1 tsp of saboth mirch(whole dry red chili)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 small onion
• 2 tbsp of cilantro
• 1 tbsp ghee (clarified butter) or oil

Directions

Drain the lentils that has been soaking in water. Place the lentils into a medium sized pot with 3/4 water and bring the water to a boil. As the lentils begin to cook a bubbly white foam will form on top of the water. With a large spoon remove the foam.

       

Add haldi, lal mirch, and salt. Mix all the ingredients with the together and bring to boil. Turn the stove down and let simmer for about 30 minutes or until you see that the daal has softened and has come together with the water.

In a small frying pan warm up your ghee or oil. Chop your onion and garlic finely and add this to the frying pan. Fry until the onion is golden brown, and add the zeera. You will need to move quickly here as you do not want to burn your onion or garlic because it will make your daal taste bitter.

         

Cook the zeera for about 10-15 seconds. Take the mixture from your frying pan and pour it into the daal. This is my favourite part; it makes a popping sound like fireworks! Be very careful not to splash yourself as you add this mixture to the daal, or you can get burned. When I was a child, my mother would make me stand behind her as she did this part, and I would jump up and down with glee when I heard the sound and I say: “Again mom do it again! One more time mom, please!”

Take a spoonful of daal and pour it into the frying pan to get any bits of the onion, ghee, garlic, zeera mixture left behind. Your daal is now ready!

Finely chop some cilantro and add it to your daal. This can be left out if you don’t like cilantro. And enjoy the warm comfort of your daal.