January 3, 2012

• Re: Let’s Lentil

  A few days back my … er … homie… @starmanjones posted about cooking with lentils, and inquired about my expertise (or the lack there of) regarding the matter.  As luck would have it I am somewhat familiar with lentils, or Daal, as they’re known around here.  However, my approach to cooking is to apply underlying guidelines, rather than specific wossname.

  I see it as something like making a cake.  There’s the base, i.e. the parts without which it would stop being a cake.  Then there are the add-ons, the vanilla essence, the baking cocoa, the bits of fruit, the chips of chocolate, the frosting, the occasional chopped up octopus.

  Now, a lot of traditional Bangladeshi cooking is built on a very simple base.  Boil something with a bit of chili powder, garlic, onion, salt and a pinch of turmeric for an extended period of time.  The amount varies, depending on the nature of what’s being cooked, and tastes & preferences of people cooking them but the overall rules remain the same.  (A piece or two of Bay leaf is an optional ingredient to the base, if you’re feeling like it.)  If you’re cooking something for the first time, it makes sense to progress slowly, regularly tasting the work in progress to make sure things stay within acceptable limits.  It also helps to err on the side of less.  For example, if you have less salt than you want you can always add a little more, but if you have more salt than you see fit… well it’s a little more difficult.

  Orange lentils, locally referred to as Masoor Daal, is cooked as a “soup” of sorts.  (It’s generally consumed with boiled rice and other cooked dishes consisting of meat & vegetable.)  It’s fairly simple to make.  You boil orange lentils with chili powder, garlic, onion, salt and a pinch of turmeric, over medium heat for roughly a half an hour.  The amount of water used determines the thickness of the concoction.

  If you want to go all fancy, you can garnish the whole thing with a bit of ground cumin, deep fried minced onions & garlic, and a green chili or three.

  If you want to be fancier still, you can cook the rice and lentils together, which is locally referred to as Khichuri.  Stir fry the aforementioned chili powder, garlic, onion, salt and a pinch of turmeric for a bit over low heat in a cooking oil of your choice, add in the lentil & rice in a 1:1 ratio, stir the whole thing for a few more minutes and then add water in a 2:1 ratio.  (i.e. two cups of water for every single cup of lentil & rice.)  Keep stirring until the water’s gone.  Adjust the amount of water according to preference for a mushier or less mushier mix.

  If you want to go all fancy, again, you can garnish the whole thing with a bit of ground cumin, deep fried minced onions & garlic, and a green chili or three.

  Last but not least, if you’re feeling like cooking a meal at a single go, it’s not unusual to add meat & vegetables to the mix.  As usual, you start off with the stir fried chili powder, garlic, onion, salt and a pinch of turmeric for a bit over low heat in a cooking oil, add the meat and/or poultry first (since they take more time to cook), stir fry until they smell about half-done, add the vegetables (traditionally this involves things like potato & cauliflower), stir fry until they smell about half done, add the lentils & rice, stir fry for a few more minutes, add the water and… well that’s about it.

  As far as options & add-ons go… some folks like to throw tomatoes and/or green mangoes into the mix.  Others like to use different types of lentils.  As far as cooking oils go, tradition requires clarified butter, a.k.a. Ghee.  And there’s always the occasional chopped up octopus.

  • 2:35 am
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