mung curry

For lunch and dinner, we normally have rice and either a sambar OR a dal and a vegetable. A sambar is a hearty curry with chunks of vegetables and/or legumes in it. A dal is a split lentil, bean, or pea. The vegetable is either served in a sauce or cooked fairly dry with spices, usually the later.

Mung curry might be my favorite dal. It is very hearty and yummy, like bean soup. Today I helped Ranjana make it and I wrote down the recipe:

Ingredients:

Masala paste:
1/2 a coconut, grated (about 2-3 cups)
3 dried red chilis
1 heaping tsp cumin seeds
1 heaping tsp whole black peppercorns

Dal:
2 1/2 cups mung dal
3 tbsp oil
2 heaping tsp mustard seeds
20 curry leaves
2 medium tomatoes
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp coarse salt (or to taste)


Cook the mung dal. I didn't actually see this part. If I were to make mung curry at home, I would just cook the dal according to the package directions, in a pot of boiling water. After it's done, set aside.

Grind the ingredients for the masala paste together, along with 1 cup of water, either in a 500-lb stone hand-grinder or a food processor. Add another cup of water and stir. Set aside.

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. When they begin to pop, add the curry leaves, tomatoes, chili powder, and turmeric. After the tomatoes have cooked down a little, add the cooked mung dal and masala paste along with about 2 more cups of water and salt. Use your best judgement when it comes to how watery you're making it -- at this point, before cooking down, it should look like a runny stew. Bring the curry to a boil, and let it really boil for at least five minutes. Then reduce the heat and cook until the amount of liquid has diminished significantly, almost by half. Eventually, it should look like, well, runny beans.

Serve with rice, pickle, and a vegetable.