Saturday 24 October 2015

Red Lentil Dahl

Recently a friend had us over for a lovely Sri Lankan meal, which was deliciously tasty and just a bit too spicy (for me). He gave me a run-down on how to make the dahl, which I've now made a few times. I'd always thought dahl was too time consuming to bother with, but this recipe proved me wrong.


Ingredients:
1 cup red lentils
oil
1 small brown onion, diced
1 green chilli
1/2 large red chilli
3 pandan leaves, cut into 1 inch batons (you can find these at an asian grocer)
handful curry leaves (fresh is best but dry is fine)
curry powder
coconut cream
chicken stock powder
water
tumeric powder

Method:

1. Rinse the lentils then place in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to a simmer, and take off the heat when the lentils are al dente. They will still be dark in the centre but translucent around the outside.




2. In a heavy based pan, heat some oil, then add you onion and chillies. Saute until the onion is almost cooked. 


3.Then add the pandan leave and curry leaves. Stir until they become aromatic.



4. Add your curry powder, lentils and coconut milk. Stir, then add in the chicken stock powder and a little water. Be sparing with the water, you can add more as required but can't take it out if you add too much. Add more as needed to get the right consistency.


5. Cook on low (I use a heat spreader under my Crueset pan) until the lentils are cooked. Right at the end, add enough tumeric powder to give the dish that lovely yellow colour. And you're done!
Before tumeric


After tumeric

I'm serving this with some gorgeous beef curry I've had in the slow cooker all day, and some basmati rice.