A peep into Pakistani cuisine is where this recipe leads you today. Maash here refers to Urad dal (split black gram), combined with another lentil and an additional ingredient of spinach, usually in their recipe. The dish I have prepared has a combination of moong dal/split green gram and urad dal. About the dish, I must say, it is very simple and subtle. The taste and flavour of the dish is a major contribution from the garnishing part of the recipe. So fry those onions crispy and brown, add a generous chopping of green chillies (if you like it spicy) and you could add a few mint leaves too (fresh or dried).
Moong aur Maash ki Dal
Time taken: 45 min
Taste-o-meter: Spicy
Ingredients:
- Moong dal: 1.5 cups
- Split black gram (Maash or urad dal): 3/4 cups
- Onion (small; chopped): 1
- Onion (sliced and crisp-fried): 1
- Coriander leaves chopped: 1 tbsp
- Lime (to squeeze juice over dal for garnish): 1
- Coriander seeds roasted and powdered: 1 tbsp
- Tomato: 1
- Green chillies (chopped): 2
- Cardamoms: 2
- Turmeric powder: 1 tsp
- Chilli powder: 1/2 tsp
- Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
- Cinnamon stick: 5 cm
- Bay leaf: 1
- Oil: 4 tbsp
- Salt to taste
Ingredients to grind to a paste:
- Small onion: 1
- Garlic: 6 flakes
- Ginger (finely julienned): 2.5 cm
Method:
- Heat oil and add cumin seeds. Add onion, cardamoms, cinnamon and bay leaf.
- Fry till the onion is light brown. Add the ground masala and sauté for 10 min till well fried. Little water can be added while frying.
- Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and salt. Fry and then tip in the dals and mix well. Add two cups of water and bring to boil.
- Cover the pan and let it simmer on a low flame. Stir occasionally.
- When the dals are well-cooked and soft, add the sliced tomato. The consistency of the dals should be thick.
- Pour the cooked dal in a bowl. Garnish with crisp onion, coriander leaves, green chillies and squeeze lime juice over it.
- Serve hot with rice, naans or any flat Indian bread.