Spices and Recipes

There are three parts to this recipe.

• Cooking the lentils
• Preparing the masala
• Cleaning and cutting the vegetables

Lentils required:

• 1/3 cup tur dal
• 1/3 cup masoor dal
• 1/3 cup moong dal

Mix the dals. Wash them thoroughly 3-4 times. Keep aside.

Pumpkin:

• Use the golden variety. You will need around 200 gms of the same. Remove the skin with a heavy knife, scrape out the seeds. Chop the pumpkin into 1″ cubes. Don’t cut it any smaller, or they will get totally mashed with the dal on pressure cooking.
• Pressue cook the dals with the pumpkin pieces for around 3 whistles.
• Meanwhile prepare the masala and vegetables.

For dhansak masala:

• 6 cloves garlic
• 1″ piece fresh ginger
• 6-7 red chillies
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1″ cinnamon stick
• 2 green cardamoms
• 4 pepper corns

1. Saute the above ingredients other than ginger and garlic, on a low flame until fragrant, about a minute or two.
2. Cool for a few minutes and grind to a fine paste along with ginger-garlic. You can add around 1/4 cup of water to assist in grinding. Keep the masala aside.

Vegetables:

• 2 medium onions-sliced
• 2 tomatoes-chopped
• 1 small bunch methi (fenugreek) leaves- cleaned and chopped finely to make a loosely packed cup

Method:

1. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a large pan. Fry the onion slices with a few grains of sugar (less than 1/8th tsp). Sugar makes the onions brown faster. Saute for 3-4 minutes till nicely browned.
2. Add the masala paste and saute for 3-4 minutes, until it emits a rich aroma.
3. Put in the chopped tomatoes, chopped fenugreek leaves. Saute for 3-4 minutes, until tomatoes are cooked and leaves have wilted.
4. At this stage, add the boiled dals and pumpkin. Add around 2 tsp of salt. Stir well and check for spices and salt. In case the tomatoes aren’t sour enough, you can add a teaspoon of tamarind pulp.
5. Serve hot with plain rice or traditional Parsi Brown Rice.

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