Masoor Dal with Onion Rice

First recipes--after my much anticipated trip to the Indian grocery store, I was ready to start cooking this morning. I returned last night with about $40 worth of dal (that's a lot of dal). My first dish was masoor dal (red lentils). As a side note, I had tried a continental masoor (brown lentils) dish last week, but I didn't have the appropriate ingredients. It was ok, but I knew a trip to the store was in order.

Here are the recipes:

Masoor Dal

2 cups masoor
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 Tbsp butter
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 small onion chopped fairly small
1 tsp ground red pepper

Add turmeric and salt to 1 qt water and boil. Wash masoor and add to water. Cook uncovered 15 min. Add water as needed. The masoor will begin to dissolve. Add water as needed. The eventual goal is a creamy hummus-like consistency.

In a separate pan, melt butter and add ginger garlic paste. Cook several minutes and add onion. Cook until translucent. Add to masoor once masoor is done. Also add ground red pepper at this time. Cook and stir until well blended.


Onion rice
(modified from Indian Food Forever)

2 cups cooked rice
1 small onion chopped fairly fine
2 cloves garlic chopped fine
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 Tbsp butter
juice from 1/2 lime
salt to taste

Melt butter and add mustard seeds. Cook 1 minute and add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent. Add rice and lime juice. Stir until well blended. Remove from heat and salt to taste.


The results:

Wow! These were great. The dal was very good, and not overly flavored. It did need a lot of salt, however. The rice was wonderful. I have never added citrus to my rice before, and I really liked it. I was worried that the dal did not have any sour components. The lime in the rice provided this. I have been nibbling on this all day. Great first recipes.