Lentils & Veggies

Dinner tonight came from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking, still my first go-to book for Indian food. The main dish was a recipe I'd never cooked before, and I thought it was pretty impressive. I'm not sure why I needed to soak the dal before I cooked it; most of her other recipes don't call for this step, and it didn't seem to make the dal cook more quickly.

The original recipe called for a mixture of dals, so I used what I had: to make up a 1/2 cup of dal, I mixed (nearly) equal bits of red lentils, black urad dal, and moong dal. (The black urad wasn't my first choice, but I didn't locate the channa dal until after I'd started cooking.)

The rest of the meal was just my staple Indian dishes: pullao and raita.

GUJARATI DAL (Mixed Lentils and Vegetable Stew)
adapted from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking
serves 2-3 people

1/2 cup mixed dal (see note above)
half a can of diced tomatoes
1 small Japanese eggplant (about 170g)
1 medium-sized zucchini (about 170g)
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1 clove garlic, chopped
1/4 tsp cayenne
vegetable oil
3/8 tsp black mustard seeds
3/8 tsp cumin seeds
big pinch of asafetida
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp chopped corriander

1. Wash the dal, place in bowl, and add enough water to cover by two inches. Let soak for 90 minutes, and then drain and set aside.

2. Cut eggplant and zucchini into thick wedges.

3. Put the soaked dal in a deep pot with the turmeric, ginger, garlic, cayenne, and 360ml of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cover partially. Cook for abou 45 minutes, or until the dal is fully cooked and tender. Turn off the heat, let cool for a few minutes, and then liquidize. (I used an immersion blender.) Add enough cold water to make 500ml of puree.

4. Heat the oil in a deep saucepan until very hot and add the mustard seeds. Allow them to pop and splutter for about 5 seconds and then add the cumin seeds. After about 5-10 seconds, the cumin seeds should darken. Now add the asafetida, and then very carefully add the canned tomatoes. Caution: they will spit at you! Stir the tomatoes around quickly for a few minutes and then add the eggplant and zucchini. Cook for another 3 minutes or so.

5. Add the pureed dal and salt to the saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, cover, and let the stew cook for 20 minutes. The vegetables should be quite tender. Stir in the corriander and serve.