Hi Food Tube, my name's Maunika and I'm going to show you how to make a really simple and classic dhal
It's a sweet and sour lentil curry
There's a lot of different versions of dhals that you can actually find or spiced lentil curries all across India
But this is my version including some really lovely spices for a warm, comforting flavour
So I'm using something called a toor dal which is a split pigeon pea
and you can see it's quite a thick and coarse lentil
and you need to boil them so what you need to do is add some water to this
and about I'd say a teaspoon of turmeric powder as well
It's really lovely but it also adds a lovely flavour to the dish as well
and some water on average about 2 litres of water is required
We're going to also add just a pinch of salt
So I'm just going to give it a quick stir to loosen up all the lentils
and bring it to a boil, let it simmer for about an hour
until it's completely done
Okay so it's been about an hour and I want you to come and have a look at the dhal
It's really, really thick and gorgeous
All we're going to do is take a masher
So a potato masher or the back of a fork would be great
and just mash it roughly, you don't really want whole lentil grains
And then I'm going to add a little bit of water to it just to loosen it slightly
And already you can see how nice and lovely it is, really loose
but now at this stage is where you start infusing and injecting more flavour into this
humble, simple dhal
So a nice heavy bottom saucepan with - on medium heat
Now to this I'm going to add about 3 tablespoon of oil
vegetable - sunflower oil, perfect
So the oil is nice and hot in my pan. What you want to do is add your mustard seeds first
At this stage I'm going to add the cumin seeds
just to add a bit of warmth and flavour to the oil
3 or 4 cloves and along with them I'm also adding some cassia
which is the outer bark of a cinnamon plant
Lastly, I'm adding my chillis. Now I'm using the round ones because I think they look really fantastic
So just a good handful, I'd say about 8 or 10 of the curry leaves
Tear them up or just halve them
I will also add the lentils
You want to fry the dhal really nicely and what you're really looking for is to inject a bit of flavour
and spice in the dhal itself
So the spices, the whole spices you've actually added to the oil will infuse
the - the lentil curry
So now, I'm going to add the rest of my spices
so I've got my kashmiri chilli powder, 1 teaspoon of this powder
A pinch of turmeric, just give that a quick stir
So some salt
and I'm adding about 2 heaped teaspoons of jaggery
So a nice sort of treacley, molasses flavour that you're really looking for
If you can't find jaggery you know mascara sugar or even just some caster sugar works perfectly fine
and now to add the sour element to the dish
I'm adding taramind paste so I've got a really nice sticky, sort of thick paste
that I've got here which is ready shop bought
So I'm adding about 2 teaspoons and if you can't get hold of taramind one of the best
things to do is actually just swap it for maybe some lime juice
It works perfectly well, it will give it a nice acidity to the dish
It's reduced slightly so it's thickened and become nice and creamy
It's really luscious, it's infused with a lot of spices
you can see how thick and gorgeous it is
you don't really need much else to it, you just need a tiny bit of coriader with it
I'm going to be serving it with some chapatis
It's absolutely perfect, sweet, sour, tangy with a hint of spice
Just what you need, I think you should give this a try definitely
One of my favourite, favourite versions of actually making a beautiful dhal
Please try it, tell me how you make yours
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For a refreshing drink to go with your curry
I've got a recipe for a mango and saffron lassi over on drinks tube
Just click on the link