Aardak Lasoon Masoor ki Dal (Ginger-Garlic Red Lentils)

I wanted a dal to go with my shrimp vindaloo and I felt like red lentils and/or pigeon peas would work particularly well. This red lentil dal caught my eye first, so that's what I went with. It was very nice. Especially with the optional spinach. It could probably use even more if you wanted to work some more veggies into the meal.

Aardak Lasoon Masoor ki Dal

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. skinned split brown lentils (masoor dal/Egyptian lentils/red lentils)
• 3 c. water
• 1-2 onions¹, coarsely chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1-2 fresh green Thai, finger, or serrano chilies
• 4 tsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. ghee (or coconut oil for a vegan option)
• 1 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1-2 dried red cayenne/arbol or Thai chilies
• 1 small (~400mL) tin diced tomatoes
• 1/4-1/2 c. frozen chopped spinach or kale (optional)
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Thoroughly rinse the lentils.
2. Add water and bring to a boil, uncovered, over medium heat.
3. Skim off any foam, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until tender (~20 minutes).
4. Meanwhile, add the onions, garlic, and green chilies to a food processor and pulse to chop.
5. Melt the ghee over medium heat.
6. Add the cumin and dried chilies and sizzle until fragrant and chilies blacken (20-30 seconds).
7. Add the onion mixture along with the ginger paste and stir-fry until onion softens (~5 minutes).
8. Add the tomatoes and spinach (if using) and cook until spinach is thawed and sauce has thickened slightly (5-10 minutes).
9. Pour the sauce into the pot with the lentils and stir to combine.
10. Simmer to let flavours meld (3-5 minutes).
11. Stir in cilantro and serve.

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¹ The original recipe only calls for 1 (red) onion, but my onions were on the small side, so I used two. ^Back

Dhingri Mutter (Mushroom and Pea Curry)

In theory this was meant to be "gucchi mutter" (morel and pea curry). However, morels are not native to New Zealand and getting them here is an extremely expensive prospect. I mean, they're expensive anyway. I've just been spoiled by being able to get them for free from my parents in the past. But, given that getting the required quantity of morels would've cost ~$100 here, I decided that maybe it was acceptable to swap them out for a different mushroom in this case. Especially since white mushrooms were on sale for $8/kg this week.

Dhingri Mutter

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 2-4 Tbsp. ghee, divided
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 c. slivered almonds
• 3-4 tsp. garlic paste
• 2 tsp. ginger paste
• 2 Tbsp. tomato paste
• 1/2-3/4 c. water
• 250g mushrooms¹
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 tsp. ground Kashmiri chilies
• 1/2 tsp. Kashmiri garam masala
• 1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1 c. frozen green peas
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Directions

1. Melt 1-2 Tbsp. of the ghee over medium heat.
2. Add the onions, almonds, garlic, and ginger and cook until nuts are browned (~5 minutes).
3. Pour 1/2 c. of water into a blender, add the tomato paste and onion mixture, and purée.
4. If the sauce looks too thick, blend in a few more Tbsp. of water.
5. Melt the remaining 1-2 Tbsp. of ghee over medium heat.
6. Add the mushrooms, cover, and cook until they release their liquid or morels look slightly shriveled (~5 minutes).
7. Add the sauce, salt, ground chilies, garam masala, and turmeric and stir to combine.
8. Add the peas, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until heated through and flavours blend (10-15 minutes).
9. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.

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¹ If you're going for the authentic gucchi mutter, then you'll want morels, thoroughly washed and cut in half. Otherwise, Iyer suggests sliced porobellos as a tasty (if very different) alternative. I just used white button mushroom, halved, for my curry and, honestly, they were great! ^Back

Thenga Paruppu (Coconut Lentils)

I haven't been feeling up to doing much cooking lately and my days have been pretty helter-skelter, so I can't really do much advanced planning either. That makes dals like this ideal for the days that I do manage to get it together enough to cook something.

Thenga Paruppu

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. mung beans (sabud moong/whole green "lentils")
• 3 c. water
• 1-2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 1/2 tsp. mustard seeds, ground
• 1/2 tsp. fenugreek seeds, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt
• 1 small (400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 15 fresh or frozen curry leaves
• 1-2 fresh green serrano or finger chiles, cut into 5mm slices
• 1 c. shredded fresh coconut (or 1/2 c. dried coconut, reconstituted)

Directions

1. Thoroughly rinse the mung beans.
2. Place in pressure cooker with water and pressure cook (on high) for 20 minutes followed by a 15-minute natural pressure release.
3. Meanwhile, heat the ghee over medium heat.
4. Add the mustard seeds, cover, and cook until seeds have stopped popping (30-60 seconds).
5. Add the onion and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
6. Add the ground mustard and fenugreek seeds and sizzle for 10-20 seconds.
7. Add the salt, tomatoes, cilantro, turmeric, curry leaves, chiles, and coconut and stir to combine.
8. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and cook until tomatoes are softened (~5 minutes).
9. Once beans are cooked, stir the sauce into the pot and simmer until flavour meld (~10 minutes).

This is a simple pigeon pea curry is apparently fairly ubiquitous in Maharashtrian households. I'd never heard of it before. But, then again, I am not Indian.
I appreciate how easy it is to put together. It's not overly complex, but still has enough spices to be interesting. It works very well served over rice. Especially if you have a good vegetable curry to go with it. (Personally, I would recommend something with lots of greens.) You could add a meat or paneer curry as well for extra protein. But the legumes, rice, and veggies are sufficient on their own. Especially when served with a nice chutney and or some hot pickles.

Photo goes here.

Varan

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. skinned split pigeon peas (toor dal/toovar dal)
• 3 c. water
• 2 Tbsp. chopped jaggery
• 1 tsp. ground cayenne or Kashmiri chilies
• 1 tsp. ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp. ground asafetida
• 2 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Rinse the peas several times, then drain.
2. Place in a pot with the water and bring to a boil, uncovered.
3. Skim off any foam that forms on the surface.
4. Stir in the jaggery, chilies, turmeric, and asafetida.
5. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until peas are tender (20-25 minutes).
6. Purée until smooth. (Either by putting it through a blender jar in batches or using an immersion blender directly in the pot.)
7. Stir in the ghee and salt and serve.

I'll lead by saying, I'm not sure why these are called semolina almond cookies as there doesn't appear to be any semolina in the recipe. I can only conclude that the "semolina" must refer to the almond flour/meal. But in that case, I'd expect them to be called "almond semonlina cookies" since "almond" modifies "semolina". In the end, I suppose it doesn't really matter. I just found the name a bit peculiar.

These cookies are delicious. But with a caveat: the recipe says that you need to make them two or three days ahead... she is not kidding about that! I figured it'd be one of those things where the product might improve over time (like fruitcake), but that it'd still be tasty straight out of the oven, just not optimally so.

No.

Wrong. So, so wrong.

These cookies do not taste good straight out of the oven. They taste like floral ghee. After tasting the first one, I was not convinced that any amount of sitting in a biscuit tin could improve them. I figured that maybe it was just an acquired taste that I had not acquired. Maybe these cookies taste good to other people, but they are definitely not my jam!

Then I tried another one on day three. And it was delicious! In fact, they went from "I don't think I can eat this" to "I'm worried I won't be able to stop eating this" in just a few days. And they do make a lovely complement to the poached pears that show up elsewhere in the dessert chapter.

So, if you'd like to try an interesting variation on a whipped shortbread, these cookies are a good choice. Just don't try to eat them straight out of the oven. They really do need that three-day¹ resting period.

Semolina Almond Cookies

Slihgtly adapted from The Food of Morocco by Paula Wolfert

Ingredients

• 20 Tbsp. unsalted butter or 15 Tbsp. ghee
• 1 3/4 c. soft (standard/plain/pastry) flour
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 12 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar, divided
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp. orange flower water
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp. almond extract
• 3/4 c. almond flour (almond meal/finely ground almonds)

Directions

1. If using butter: Melt it over low heat without stirring, discard any foam that forms on top, pour the clarified butter into a container and chill for 2-3 hours.
   If using ghee: Chill until solidified (1-3 hours depending on how solid/cool it was to begin with).
2. Sift the pastry flour and baking powder together and set aside.
3. Beat the chilled ghee until very light and fluffy (at least 5 minutes)!
4. Gradually beat in 7 Tbsp. of the icing sugar.
5. Beat for 2 minutes.
6. Add the egg yolk and beat for 2 more minutes.
7. Add the orange flower water, vanilla, and almond extract and beat for 1 more minute.
8. Fold in the flour mixture.
9. Fold in the almond meal.
10. Cover or wrap in waxed paper and/or cling film and chill for 30-60 minutes.
11. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).
12. Shape dough into balls, pressing each one flat to form a disc.
13. Place ~2cm apart on ungreased baking sheets.
14. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 12-15 minutes. (The cookies shouldn't brown at all.)
15. Place the baking sheet on a wire rack and immediately sift 2 Tbsp. of the remaining sugar over the hot cookies.
16. Cool for 5 minutes.
17. Remove the cookies from the baking sheet and roll in remaining 3 Tbsp. of icing sugar to coat.
18. Transfer to biscuit tin or airtight container and allow to rest/mellow for at least three days before serving.
19. Cookies may be stored like this for several weeks and should improve with age.

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¹ Wolfert says two to three days but, having tried one a day for several days, I would say three days is the minimum. ^Back

Ven Pongal (Rice-Lentil Porridge)

There are loads of different pongal recipes out there. Pongal can be sweet or savoury and include any number of different flavours and ingredients. Sometimes it might be fairly plain, other times if may include all sorts of vegetables, nuts, or even fruit! Ven pongal is one of the savoury versions, but even within that, there can be a huge amount of variation. Ginger, curry leaves, and whole (or coarsely crushed) black peppercorns seem to be common to most (possibly all) ven pongal recipes, but everything else is open to adjustment and interpretation: proportion of rice to lentils, amount of water, other seasonings, amount of ghee, inclusion of cashews or other nuts... There are a lot of options!

I found Iyer's version okay. But I thik I'd like to try one of the cashew-full recipes next time. I was also slightly disappointed by the consistency of this pongal, but that's not really Iyer's fault. I adjusted the quantity of water called for down because I was doing it in the pressure cooker rather than on the stovetop. Apparently I adjusted it down too much. Now that I've looked at some other recipes (ones that were written for pressure cookers) I'm thinking I probably should've just used the full amount of water called for in the original recipe. (If I were making it on the stove, I might even end up using more water than called for.

My too-dry pongal still came out tasting nice. It's just a bit dense and heavy. I would've preferred something with more of a porridge-y, risotto-y consistency. Hopefully the extra water will help me out there the next time I try to make this.

Ven Pongal

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. skinned split green lentils/mung beans (moong/mung dal)
• 1 c. long-grain brown rice
• 3 c. water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 2-4 Tbsp. ghee, divided
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns
• 3 (40mm x 20mm x 3mm) slices of ginger, julienned
• 1/4 c. chopped fresh cilantro
• 15 fresh (or frozen) curry leaves

Directions

1. Rinse the lentils and rice.
2. Add rinsed rice and lentils to pressure cooker/InstantPot along with water, salt, and turmeric.
3. Pressure cook (on high pressure for InstantPot) for 18 minutes with a 10-minute natural release.
4. Meanwhile, heat 1-2 Tbsp. of ghee over medium-high heat.
5. Add cumin seeds and pepper corns and cook for 30-60 seconds.
6. Transfer spices and ghee to a mortar and lightly crush with a pestle.
7. Heat the remaining 1-2 Tbsp. of ghee over medium-high heat.
8. Add the ginger and cook until aromatic (15-30 seconds).
9. Toss in the cilantro and curry leaves (carefully) and then remove from heat and set it aside.
10. Once the porridge is ready, stir in both ghee mixtures.
11. Serve with yogurt, pickles, and/or additional ghee.

Nayee Toram Paruppu (Pigeon Peas with Ghee)

This is probably the simplest curry possible. A dal of puréed pigeon peas with just a bit of salt, turmeric, and ghee stirred in. It is apparently the first solid food offered to babies in many parts of India. It is also surprisingly tasty considering the extremely simple ingredient list!

Nayee Toram Paruppu

Slightly adapted from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 1 c. skinned split yellow pigeon peas (toovar dal)
• 3 c. water
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
• 2 Tbsp. ghee

Directions

1. Thoroughly rinse the pigeon peas.
2. Combine peas with water and bring to a boil.
3. Skim off foam, reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20-25 minutes.
4. Purée peas either in a blender jar or with an immersion blender.
5. Stir in salt and turmeric and simmer for an additional 3-5 minutes.
6. Drizzle with ghee.
7. Serve over rice.