Yellow Dal Tadka

After starting this blog with rice, the next dish I write about had to be dal. Again, a little upgrade on the basic dal - here's presenting a slightly fancy recipe for the humble dal.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of dal (lentils)*
• 1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1 medium onion
• 3 dry red chillis
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

The USP:

• A (not so) simple dal
• Quick to make

Steps:

• Boil the dal in a pressure cooked with water in a 1:3 ratio (1 unit dal, 3 units water)
• Wait for 2-3 whistles (more whistles for the bigger dals) and then switch off the stove
• At this time, chop the onion finely
• Cut the tomatoes into fine pieces **
• Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a kadhai/vessel
• Add the jeera
• Add the dry red chillis by breaking into two pieces each, such that some of the seeds fall out
• When the jeera starts popping, add the onions
• Heat the onion till it turns golden-brown
• Now add the chopped tomatoes
• Now heat for a long-ish time till the tomatoes seem soft. Add the puree tomato.
• Heat till oil starts separating at the corners from the tomato paste ***
• Now open the pressure cooker and add the dal
• Mix well and bring the dal to boil
• Now switch off the stove and serve hot, with rice or roti !

Possible Additions:

• Garam Masala (cinnamon, cloves etc): Wouldn't recommend unless you've having this with plain rice.

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* - wash the dal very well before cooking. I was personally amazed to see the pink dal become yellow in colour after washing. Long story short, there's a lot of stuff on the raw dal you don't want to ingest.

** - I personally prefer to make puree out of one tomato, and chop the other one

*** - I have never been able to master the 'when oil starts separating' trigger. What I do, instead, is to add a little water to the tomatoes and onions and let the water boil. This takes time, also wastes gas; but it ensures that I don't feel raw tomatoes in the dal.