Masoor Dal (Red Lentils)

This is one of my favourite things to do and I make this to go with rice and spicy cauliflower. This is another Madhur Jaffrey recipe. The photo shows the lentil dish on top of boiled white rice and cauliflower and potato curry. I will type up the recipe for the Punjabi style curry I used for this dish.

You need:
2 fresh green chillies, cut lengthway slits not cutting the top and bottom
180 g cooked red lentils *
2 tbsp vegetable oil
chilli flakes
1/2 tsp panchporan**

1. Bring the red lentils to a gentle simmer and drop the chillies. Cover and let simmer for about 5 mins.

2. Put oil in a small pan, medium heat. when very hot, put in the chilli flakes. Once dark, put in the panchporan. After about 2 seconds, add the oil and spices to the lentils. Mix then serve.

* To cook red lentils for this recipe, you need 180 g of red lentils and 1 litre of water. Boil, watching the froth that rises to the top. I remove the froth with a slotted spoon. Add 1/4 tsp of ground turmeric and 1/2 tsp of salt, partly cover, turn the heat low, and cook for about 45 mins.

**You can get panchporan in any Asian store but basically it's a mixture of brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, nigella, fennel seeds, and fenugreek seeds in equal parts.