Maash Ki Khushk daal( Dry black split lentil). It’s a favourite of many of us. It is a must on all special dinners in a UP household. It is a super delicious dish. It requires bit of a patience and presence of mind to cook this traditional dish.

While cooking, one has to observe it constantly so that one can make sure it’s neither undercooked and nor overcooked. With a slight miss of luck it can get overcooked. My feeling is that our next generation may not know how to cook it. I hope they do. If you are a maash ki daal lover and you want to cook it, follow my very simple and delicious recipe:

Serves: 4 people

Cooking time: 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS:

300 gm black Urad daal or black split lentils
2 whole red chillies – chopped roughly into three halves each
3 teaspoons of finely sliced or chopped ginger
Salt to your taste

FOR BAGHAR/FRYING:

1 good size onion –chopped into fine thin slices

3 cloves of garlic- chopped roughly
2 tsp of cumin seeds
4 black peppers corns

100 ml cooking oil (or to your liking)

FOR GARNISHING

1 green chili- chopped thinly
Coriander leaves- chopped finely- as much as you want!

METHOD:

1. Soak the daal overnight or for 5 hours. (Try not to use the white Urad daal as it gets cooked very easily and it hard to handle it for this special recipe). Before you start cooking, wash the lentils in a way that all the shells/chhilka of daal are gone and all you have the white daal. You may have few black shells- that’s OK! It is not easy to wash away all shells. So rub it with your hands and wash.

maash ki daal2

2. Now put in a pan. Add water just half a finger above the daal. Add salt to your taste, whole red chillies and ginger. Bring the daal to the first boil on full heat. After the first boil, cook the daal with the lid on till it is soft on low heat.

3. If you think you need to add water at any stage do that but add little by little, gradually. This daal can go either way. The test is to cook it just right.

4. Once the daal is cooked, heat 100 ml cooking oil in a pan and fry onions and garlic in it till they are light golden! Add cumin seeds and black peppers corns in it. Once everything turns properly golden, pour it on top of daal.

5. Garnish it with coriander leaves.

Enjoy!

Recipe By: Khadeeja Arif

The post was first published here: @indiancurrybykhadeeja