Lentils with coconut milk (parippu curry)

I am in no mood to ramble today because I've not been feeling too well. Took a long bath which was supposed to refresh me, but instead I'm feeling more lethargic. Have so much of work to complete and deadlines to meet but I have just been sitting on it. I started this blog post a couple of days back, and keep writing bits and pieces here and there. So today I finally decided to finish it off. At least I can console myself saying I have finished a blog post.

Coming to the recipe... If you ask me what my comfort (Indian) meal is, I will go for rice, dal, potato fry, pappad and pickle. I can seriously live on dal for any number of days. But for someone who loves dal, I actually don't make it that often. I wonder why. Anyway, I derived inspiration to make this dal after Finla posted her version. I love dal with coconut in it and the tedious traditional way to do this would be to grind dessicated coconut with a whole bunch of other ingredients and add it to the dal etc etc. I have tried that version as well, but this kinda fetches the same, or even better results with the use of just coconut milk.

The recipe is from the book The Kerala Kitchen by Lathika George, a book I stashed away because of a couple of recipes that gave me disastrous results. I found that the masala's mentioned were way way way too much for the said quantities of meat and the book has no pics, which makes it boring and incredibly difficult for me to figure out what the end result should be like. So when Finla posted the recipe with the pic, I couldnt say no. It looked way too good to pass and I decided to give it a shot soon after. I was not disappointed, so yes, I must admit that the book does have its plus points after all.

Toor dal- 3/4 cups (any lentil can be used)

Water- 2 cups

Thin coconut milk- 1/2 cup (*refer notes)

Ginger- 1 tsp, thinly sliced

Green chilli- 1, slit (add more if required)

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp

Thick coconut milk- 1/2 cup (**refer notes)

Salt- to taste

Tadka

Oil- 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp

Shallots, 1/4 cup, thinly sliced

Garlic- 3, thinly sliced

Curry leaves- a sprig

Dry red chillis- 2, torn in half

Wash the dal and soak it in some water for about an hour or so (I of course don't plan, so omitted this step)

Cook the dal with water, thin coconut milk, ginger, green chillis, turmeric powder, cumin powder and salt in a pressure cooker. About 2 to 3 whistles on medium heat should be fine. The lentils should be cooked, but not too mushy. 

Take the cooker off the flame, release the pressure, open the lid and pour in the thick coconut milk. Give a thorough stir. Keep aside.

Heat the oil in a kadai and throw in the mustard seeds.

Once they splutter, follow up with shallots and garlic and fry for about a minute or so, till just when they start browning.

Add the curry leaves and dry chillies, stir around a couple of seconds and take it off the flame.

Pour this over the cooked dal, give a stir and serve hot with some hot rice, pickle and pappad. Ah bliss...

Notes: Original recipe calls for split pigeon peas, but I didn't have any so used toor dal instead.

If you don't own a pressure cooker (first of all, buy one), do the cooking in a large pot. It might take longer, but it can be done. In that case, once the dal is cooked, take it off the flame and add the thick coconut milk.

While reheating, make sure you don't let it boil.

I froze the remaining dal and it worked out perfect. Just thaw it completely before reheating it on low fire.
*Thin coconut milk is more watery and not thick or creamy. What I do is mix about 1/4 cup canned coconut milk with enough water to get a thin consistency. (it doesn't mean skinny coconut milk or light coconut milk)
**thick coconut milk on the other hand is thicker and much more creamier. If I don't shake the canned coconut milk to mix it up, when I open it, I find a thick layer of coconut cream. I dish this out immediately and use it to make the thick coconut milk, by just diluting it with a few spoons of water or the coconut water collected at the bottom of the can.

Parippu Curry (Dal) and Jeera Rice

Give me dal and rice any day and i wouldn't complain one bit. I love dal in all forms...tadka, or fry or whatever. But the naadan parippu curry with rice a poppadom is my all time favourite. It just doesn't come out the way my grand mom makes, but i still make it when i yearn for it and finish it up more or less at one go. I'm however surprised that Ro has never tasted the naadan parippu curry in spite of being born and brought up in Kottayam. He was surprised when i mentioned this and said i was just being a bit adventurous and trying out new variations of dal. Adventurous i was, but definitely not the first time I've had naadan parippu curry. After all that hype, he thought it had a 'different zing' than the usual dal preps, but not 'zinged' enough to fall head over heels in love with it. I promised it actually tasted much better back home.

Toor/Moong dal- 1/2 cup ( I use them depending on my mood. I honestly don't know the difference, taste-wise)

Water- as required

To grind:

Grated coconut- 1/2 cup

Jeera- 1/2 tsp

Green chilli- 3

Turmeric pwd- a pinch

Oil- 1 tsp

Shallots/ small onions- 1 big or 3 to 4 small

Garlic- 2 pods, thinly sliced

Salt- to taste

To temper:

Dry red chilli- 2

Curry leaves- a sprig

Mustard seeds- 1 tsp

Coconut oil- 1 tsp

Grind all the items in the 'to grind' section and keep aside.

Dry roast the dal in a frying pan till it becomes fragrant. In a sauce pan, boil water and cook the dal. Mash and keep aside. I like it a bit watery, so i take a little extra water.

In a deep pan, heat about a tsp oil and sautee the onions and garlic till they become soft. To this add the ground paste and sautee for about 2 minutes. Add the mashed dal and salt and cook on low fire, just enough to infuse the flavours. At this stage, you can add more water if required. Once done, remove and keep aside.

Just before you serve, temper it. Heat the rest of the oil and when hot splutter mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves and pour over the dal. As mentioned before, i think this adds to the flavour of the dish and is my favourite bit.

For the jeera rice, while boiling rice, add about 1 tsp of jeera seeds and you will get nice fragrant, a slightly yellow jeera rice.

Notes: The ground coconut mix has to be more or less like a paste which i guess makes the curry thick.

Substitute coconut oil with ghee and it will add to the mallu-ness