I decided to try out this recipe on one of the foggy fall days in California. I was craving something piping hot with roti and suddenly, I remembered a similar dish my mom used to make for us during winter. I grew up in a relatively colder place and Maa would often make this wholesome meal. During the week, I typically slow cook a batch of lentils to be prepared into some dish or the other. This week, I slow cooked the following lentils overnight.
Ingredients
(for slow cooker):
1 cup - Black whole urd daal (also known as black gram)
1/2 cup - white split urd daal
1 cup - Green whole mung daal
1 cup - Red kidney beans
Salt to taste
Water (covering three fourth of the cooker)
(for tadka):
Onions (chopped) - 1 medium
Garlic (chopped) - 4-5 cloves
Ginger (paste) - 2 tbsp
Oil - 3 tbsp
Fenugreek leaves (dried) - 1 tbsp
Garam masala pwd- 2 tsp
Corriander pwd - 3 tsp
Turmeric - 2 tsp
Red chilli pwd (optional) as desired
Green chillies (as needed)
Egg (as needed)
Cilantro (as needed)
Ghee (as needed)
Salt to taste
The lentils were soft and ready to be eaten next morning. Right before lunch, I browned the garlic and onions in oil in a cast iron skillet. The ginger was added later and the mixture was cooked for about 5 minutes on low heat. To this, I added the dried fenugreek leaves, coriander powder, turmeric and garam masala. Once this was done, I mixed it with the daal in the slow cooker.
Right before serving, I added one egg to the skillet along with cilantro, green chillies and red chilli powder. Then, I scooped about 4 ladles of the daal from the slow cooker into the skillet and sauteed for a couple of minutes. Topped it off with few drops of ghee and this was ready to be served with roti. The hot and spicy daal was great to soothe my damp and cold nerves from this weather :)
I made the daal in a big batch and will be using it for the rest of the week. My kindergartener loves to eat freshly cooked food (read right out of the pan) and is very particular about it -- not so much in words but in appetite. I have no idea how she figures out even if it was cooked a day before -- my mom says I was the same way :) Karma, eh? This recipe is mommy's way of tricking the senses ;-). Just need to add some fresh ingredients like cilantro, ghee, green chillies, eggs and saute in a skillet before serving and this will be ready to go.
