For my dahl-lings...

Dal, Dhal, Dahl, Daal... all acceptable. Wikipedia describes dal as a bland stew made of pulses. They certainly have the pulses part right. The word dal also describes the pulse (chick pea, lentil, kidney bean, etc). The consensus last night was that we won't stop attempting dal until we've reached the nirvaniciousness of Dohban's. And when we've figured that out, we certainly won't stop making dal!

Last night's dal was about the simplest I've made, except that I didn't have enough of the pulse of choice, red lentils. So I added the last of the kidney beans leftover from last month's sopa de fejão vermelho, and some white beans. I had to pressure cook the beans in order to catch up with the speedy-cooking red lentils, which were already boiling. (It's not that pressure-cooking isn't simple, but it was only the second time I tried this potentially explosive, face-scarring piece of engineering; plus, when I took out the pressure-cooker, some memories sprang from the cabinet too: of cooking fejão vermelho with Filipe over Christmas, calling his darling mom for the recipe, and staying up late with pots and pans and good smells everywhere!)

ingredients:
1 c red lentils
4 cups water
1 t turmeric powder
3/4 t salt
1 1/2 T canola oil (or ghee)
1 t cumin seeds
1 onion, chopped pretty fine
1/4 t cayenne
1 m tomato, chopped pretty fine
splash lemon juice

(I didn't have any ghee, green chilies, or cilantro so I left those out. I also added kidney beans and white beans and their cooking liquid.)

method:

1. Start 1/2 c beans (red and white in this case) in a pressure cooker with 2-4 cups of water.)


2. Bring to a boil: lentils, water, turmeric, salt.


3. As froth starts to build up, reduce heat and skim off the froth.


4. After frothing settles, reduce heat to low. Cover, leaving a gap to prevent froth formation and boiling over.


5. Cook lentils until soft (15-20 mins)


6. Heat oil on medium-high. Add cumin seeds and reduce heat immediately to medium. Add onions. Reduce heat to low and cook until the onions are sweet, tender, and delicious. The reason you start with high heat is to release the flavor from the cumin seeds, but careful -they can burn!


7. Add cayenne and tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes are soft.


8. Add seasoning and cooked beans to cooked lentils and simmer for another 10 mins.


9. Add lemon juice and garnish with fresh cilantro.


10. Bring to Brynn's house, where Sharon will tell everyone how good your last dal was (must have been a fluke) and hyper-inflate expectations for this simple one...