INTRODUCTION

Since I issued the roti canai or pratha recipe, readers have been asking me for the recipe of curry dhal, a type of gravy usually served with roti canai in the Malaysian and Singaporean eating outlets. That is the  main reason that I have decided to study, experiment and issue this recipe.

I have wrongly bought a package of moong dhal from the supermarket a few months ago. I mistakenly that it is the split mung beans used for making angku kuih. They looked almost the same but they taste totally different. I used half of the moong dhal to prepare angku kuih but the taste is very different with the Chinese split mung beans. Since then, I have left the dhal in the cabinet and unsure what to do with it until today.

The main ingredient of this recipe is dhal, , the lentils commonly used in Indian cooking. As per Wikipedia:

“Dal or Dhal (IPA: [d̪aːl]) is a dried pulse (lentil, pea or various types of bean) which has been split. The outer hull is usually stripped off; dal that has not been hulled is described as chilka (skin), e.g. chilka urad dal, mung dal chilka. The word dal is also used to name the thick stew prepared from these pulses, an important part of Indian,Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi cuisine. Dal or lentils is staple food eaten with rice and roti or chapati(wheat-based flat bread) throughout India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal where Dal Bhat (literally: dhal and rice) is the staple food for much of the population. Dal is a ready source of proteins for a balanced diet containing no meat.” (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal)

The recipe is a very simple straight forward recipe. To expedite the process of boiling dhal, I have use pressure cooker instead of overnight soaking and it took me only about 1 hours to get ready my dhal curry. Dhal curry goes well with roti pratha or other Indian bread such as naan. If you are interested, you can refer to this post: Roti Prata, Roti Canai, Roti Paratha , Roti Parotha (印度煎饼，手抓饼, பராத்தாவை ）

If you are interested in naan recipe, you can refer to this post for homemade naan: Garlic Naan Bread (蒜香印度烤饼）

WHAT IS REQUIRED

Servings: 4-6 adult servings

Recipe adapted from: http://www.recipies.50webs.com/Dhal.htm

• 1 cup of dried yellow lentils or dhal, clean and soak overnight
• 3 cups of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 tablespoon of garam masala
• 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
• 2 tablespoons of ghee or butter
• 2 dried red chilli
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cm of ginger, minced
• 4 cloves of garlic , minced
• 1 sprig of curry leaves
• 1 medium size tomato, diced into 1 cm cubes
• Salt to taste
• Sugar to taste

STEPS OF PREPARATION

• Put the soaked lentils in the pressure cooker pot, add 3 cups of water and pressure cook using rice function. If there is no rice function, it will take approximately 15-20 minutes. If you do not have the pressure cooker, you can boil the lentil with 3 cups of water over the stove for about 30 – 45 minutes or until the lentil are soft.

• In a pot, melt the ghee or butter, add the diced onion, minced garlic and ginger, mustard seeds,  turmeric powder and garam masala powder. Stir fry until aromatic. Once aromatic, add in the cooked dhal and diced tomatoes. Add additional water just enough to cover the dhal. Bring to boil. Once it boils, let it simmer for 5 to 10 minutes under medium heat. Before off the heat, add salt and sugar to taste. In the event that it is too try, you can add in water any time you feel like it. It will thickens when the curry is cold.

CONCLUSION

A rather easy and straight forward recipe. I have to admit that I never like dhal curry in the eating outlets as I found that it is very watery and the flavour are very faint. But for this illustration, I really like it. The family finished 1/2 pot and the another half we gave it to neighbour. This is Indian Vegetarian Curry recipe, however for Chinese vegetarian, you may have to omit garlic and onion.

Hope you like the post today. Cheers and have nice day. Should there be any imperfections in my blog layout, bear with me and I am trying hard to rectify it. In the event that you are a follower of Guaishushu at http://kwgls.wordpress.com, please do follow this new blog Guaishushu1 at https://www.guaishushu1.com.

You can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP and FOOD PARADISE 美食天堂to see more recipes. I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.