Bengali Red Lentil Dal Recipe - red lentils

Method

• Key spice: Panch Phanon Mix, also known as Five Spice (don't substitute Chinese Five Spice!)
• Equal proportions of whole cumin, fenugreek, anise, mustard, "Indian black onion" seeds (kalunji).
• You will need to go to an Indian Store to get the last ingredient.
• It is not related to the onion.
• There are three basic steps to this recipe: cooking the lentils in water, making a tomato/onion/ginger mush, and making a spiced oil.
• 1.
• Rinse lentils well, add in water, serrano chilies, turmeric and salt.
• Bring carefully to boil and cook over low to medium heat, partially covered, for 25 min.
• Cover and cook another 10 min.
• Adjust salt.
• 2.
• While lentils are cooking, cook onions in a frying pan in the oil till they are golden (approximately 10 min), stirring constantly.
• Add in tomatoes and ginger and continue cooking till the tomatoes decompose into a delicious and fragrant mush (approximately 8 min.)
• Stir constantly so which tomato mix doesn't stick.
• Turn heat to low if necessary.
• 3.
• Scrape out this mush into the lentils and stir it in.
• Let lentils sit while you make the spiced oil.
• 4.
• Do a quick rinse of the frying pan, without soap, and dry thoroughly.
• Add in the remaining 2T oil and heat over medium high heat.
• When oil is warm add in panch phanon mix and heat till the seeds begin to pop, about 15 seconds.
• Add in red chilies and fry for another 15 seconds, till they turn a little darker.
• Turn off heat and add in the crushed garlic and let sizzle for about 30 seconds.
• Stir this mix into the lentil/tomato mix and serve with rice.
• Adjust salt.
• NOTE: Using ghee changes the taste compared with oil.
• I prefer it for step 4.
• It tastes good either way though.