Hi, Ray here again.
Saturday again so it is time for another curry recipe review.
Amongst the dhal recipes there was a very simple Tomato Dal recipe which was ideal for me to try. I love a good dhal and this might fit the bill.
I picked up some lentils and tomatoes when I was out shopping and Sunday afternoon saw me soaking the lentils. I saw that I had to let the cooked dhal cool before being put into a food processor and so I started the cooking a couple of hours before the scheduled dining time.
Cooking dhal is usually pretty easy and this dhal was no exception. In little more than half an hour I was letting the dhal cool down before putting it into the food processor. Whilst the dhal was cooling, I was giving this next step a bit of thought. Why put dhal through a food processor? Surely all that would happen is that it would turn into soup? This is a very strange step in the cooking process. However, the step was in the recipe so I followed it.
After putting the dhal through the food processor, I added the coriander (cilantro), ginger and garlic and heated the dhal up again.
Then I heated up the oil in a small saucepan and cooked the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and half dried chillies.
Within 15 minutes everything was ready (I started cooking the rice in time for it to be ready when the dhal was ready) and so I served up the Tomato Dal on basmati to the waiting diners. As expected, the dhal was really a soup and so I issued soup spoons with which to eat the meal.
One thing that I had to do was avoid serving up half a chilli to anyone. The chillies went into the dhal pretty late in the cooking process and were still whole when the cooking was finished. I found this to also be a strange step in the recipe.
The dhal itself was quite tasty but it was way too runny and nobody liked eating dhal with a spoon. Everybody agreed that this would be a decent dhal if the step of processing into a soup was missed out. The spice/heat rating was “Mild to Medium” and the taste rating was only 5 out of 10 – the low score was primarily caused by this being a soup rather than a dhal.
If I was to make this dhal again, I would definitely not use a food processor and I’m sure that the result would be great.
