Chillichap's Recipe - Tarka Dhal - My Cold-Busting Indian Food Recipe - Classic British Indian Restaurant (B.I.R) Garlic Lentils Dish

Hello!

If you’ve read some of my other posts, you might be starting to wonder if I’m a curry-aholic (yes, I know the word doesn’t exist). Let me just say guilty as charged. About ten years ago, my world transformed, when a friend’s wife shared with me her family recipe for curried lentils. I’ve tweaked the recipe over the years, ending up cooking it in a slow cooker. Every time I make a batch of this, any colds we might have seem to disappear. Indeed, my wife and I had an amazing run of no colds whatsoever for about five years when I made this recipe weekly (it’s cheap to make and fills you up). Anyway, this is my gift to you, and I hope it gives you many, many hours of pleasure over the coming years. Fingers crossed-it keeps the colds at bay too!

Tarka Dhal Recipe

Preparation Time: Less than 10 mins
Cooking Time: 30 mins to 4 hours (if using a slow cooker)
Serves: 4

Ingredients:

• coconut oil, ghee or vegetable oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons crushed/grated ginger
• 4 tablespoons of crushed garlic
• 5 teaspoons turmeric
• 2 teaspoons hot chilli powder (adjust quantity to your own heat levels-I like mine spicy!)
• 2 teaspoons hot curry powder (as above)
• 400g of chopped tomatoes
• 1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
• 400 g dried red split lentils, rinsed and drained. It’s really important to wash these well.
• Enough water to completely cover the lentils
• 2 bay leaves (optional)

To Serve — all optional:

• cooked rice
• roughly chopped fresh coriander leaves
• Freshly chopped green chillies

Method:

1. heat oil, ghee, or coconut oil in a saucepan or sauté pan over a medium heat.
2. Cook the onions for five minutes, stirring regularly, until softened and very lightly browned.
3. Stir in the garlic, ginger, turmeric, chilli powder, and curry powder and cook, stirring constantly, for about a minute. You end up with a gloopy mess, but it’s really important to fry the spices to release their flavour and properties (particularly the turmeric) and take away their dryness.
4. Tip the tomatoes into the pan and add the stock cube, lentils, and bay leaves.
5. Bring to the boil, then cover loosely with a lid and simmer gently until the lentils have completely broken down, stirring occasionally (don’t let it catch on the bottom of the pan). You may need to add more water as the lentils soak this up.
6. For the last 5 minutes of cooking, I usually remove the lid, stirring regularly. A good sign that things are going well, is the oil floating to the top. Also remember to stir any rogue bits of sauce around the edge of the pan back into the sauce-this is where the flavour gathers!
7. Serve with the rice, sprinkle with coriander, and chopped fresh green chillies (all optional).

Recipe Tips:

• Sometimes I’ll just eat the lentils as a kind of soup, but they’re very nice with naan bread. Fried, crispy onions on top are amazing.
• I usually make a large batch and even freeze the mixture, but I definitely have a supply in the fridge for the next few days. This is a great base for other curry dishes, like dhansak. But it’s lovely on its own, or even add another pulse of chickpeas or butter beans.
• If I don’t have the time to spend at the hob, I complete steps 1–4 and then transfer into a slow cooker for about 3 hours. The pot still needs to be stirred occasionally, and it may be necessary to add more water. You can really cook the lentils to whatever consistency you like.
• Shaved coconut also makes a lovely addition. I often use creamed coconut in a block (not more than a quarter). This is available in most supermarkets these days.
• I often also put one star anise in the mixture as it cooks, which gives it a beautiful, fragrant Asian taste. But remember to remove this before serving, as they don’t taste very nice on their own! Some people like to fry mustard seeds too.
• You can add salt to taste, but I find the stock cube is mostly sufficient (I try to keep my salt levels down). Stir in sugar near the end for a sweet and sour element.

Thanks for reading

Matt AKA Chillichap