This creamy, flavoursome lentil dish is taken from Food of the Grand Trunk Road, a book written by head chef at Moti Mahal, Anirudh Arora and Hardeep Singh Kohli, which features recipes picked up whilst travelling along one of the oldest and longest roads in South East Asia.
Ingredients (Serves 4)
- 300 g/101/2 oz urad dal (white lentils)
- 1 tablespoon crushed dried red chillies
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 5-cm/2-inch piece ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
- 7 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 onion, sliced
- 6 green chillies, chopped
- Few sprigs coriander, chopped, to garnish
Method
Step 1: Rinse the lentils under cold running water, then drain. Leave to soak in fresh cold water for at least 2 hours, then drain.
Step 2: Put the lentils in a heavy-based saucepan with double their quantity of water, the crushed chillies, ground coriander, turmeric and salt. Bring to the boil, then cook over a medium heat for about 20 minutes until there is no water left and the lentils are just tender but still whole.
Step 3: Meanwhile, crush the ginger and garlic together with a pestle and mortar. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan, add the cumin seeds and cook until they crackle. Add the crushed ginger and garlic, onion and green chillies and cook until the onion is golden brown.
Step 4: Add the onion mixture to the cooked lentils and stir it in only slightly. Check the seasoning and garnish with the chopped coriander.
Recipe taken from Food of the Grand Trunk Road.
