I tried my best to NOT have Indian food whole of last week and succeeded till Friday. And then we went for a Malaysian food festival, ended up having beef rendang with rice and wasn't too happy at all. I can go without having rice for as long as a month or maybe even more without missing it, but the moment I get a taste of it, I crave for it..quite a lot. Which is what happened on Saturday. So I decided to make some steamed rice, dal and tindora fry (I realized the frozen ones are so much easier since I don't have to chop them and just do a stir fry with some sambar powder, its just brilliant) and washed it all down with a mug of beer. I can have rice, dal, pickle and pappad any given time and day...seriously!!! And then today I wanted Hyderabadi biryani, nothing less, but ended up having Sushi..yes Sushi..a far cry from the incredibly awesome Dum biryani, but lets not go there, it makes me wanna cry. So to vent my frustration for not having biryani, I had left over rice and dal for dinner AGAIN!!
I'm not that great at making dal, but for the first time, this dal prep. came out extremely good. Monsoon Spice is a blog I stumbled upon recently and must say I love what I see. This Moong and spring onion dal recipe is more or less adapted from her space. Thank you Sia for the awesome recipe.
Moong dal- 1 cup
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Salt
Water- enough to cook the dal
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Fenugreek powder- 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida- a pinch
Dry red chillies- 2, halved
Garlic cloves- 3, lightly chopped
Green chillies- 2, chopped
Ginger- 1 inch piece, peeled and roughly chopped
Spring onions- 2 large ones, sliced with the greens and whites separated
Tomatoes- 2 small, roughly chopped
Garam masala- 1 tsp
Chilli powder- 1/4 tsp (optional)
Coriander leaves- to garnish
Salt- to taste
Oil- 1 tbsp
Mix together the dal, turmeric powder salt and water in a pressure cooker and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes or for about 3 to 4 whistles on medium to high heat. You can do the same on open fire as well..might just take ages.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and splutter the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek powder, asafoetida and the red chillies..say about a minute or two, stirring continuously
Add the Garlic and green chillies to the oil and sauté for a minute.
In goes the ginger and the white part of the spring onions. Sauté till the onions turn translucent.
Add the tomato garam masala and chilli powder and combine well. Cook till the oil separates. Add salt at this stage, if required.
Pour the cooked dal into this mix and stir well to combine the masala with the dal.
Add a cup or so of water, if you want it diluted a bit. I did.
Add half of the greens and stir well. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes.
Just before you serve, garnish with coriander leaves and remaining spring greens.
Serve hot with rice, pickle and pappad :)
(how incredibly cute is this serving bowl BTW???)
Notes: The original recipe had a few more ingredients which I didn't have at hand, do add them if you have it, but without that it still was super duper awesome.
I added that extra chilli powder because the green chillies i had didn't give out enough heat.
