Lasooni Dal

Hi everyone! Browsing through blogs is a fun pass-time for me when I am free. Sailu's Kitchen is a great blog I found.. simply amazing pictures and spicy dishes! :) One such tantalizing dish I found there is Lasooni dal. It reminded me of a spicy garlic dal I had eaten at a Punjabi restaurant some years back. Actually there are plenty of really good Andhra and South-Indian style recipes too at Sailu's website. This dish just happens to be North Indian and is the first one I have tried from there.

Fig. 1 Lasooni Dal

This Lasooni Dal recipe is really very "Hotel" or "Dhaba" type. And still, requires very basic and minimal ingredients. So it's good to serve when casual friends have suddenly dropped-by on a Sunday morning and you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen, but wouldn't want to serve plain dal-roti either.

I really liked how good the garlic garnish looks in Sailu's picture!! The dish tastes great too. Be sure to garnish the dal! Even for yourself, when you have no guests and are not taking pictures! :) I didn't have chopped fresh coriander, but that would be nice for additional garnish too.

I have made a few changes in the original recipe to match whatever ingredients I had. No spinach or onions for instance. So here goes..

Ingredients:Cooked tur dal ~ 1&1/2 cups
Chopped tinda ~ 3/4 cup
Chopped tomatoes ~ 2 small tomatoes
Cumin seeds (jeera) ~ 1 teaspoon
Garlic pods, peeled and sliced long ~ 5-6 medium sized
Oil ~ 1 tablespoon
Red chilly powder ~ 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Procedure:
1) Cook dal in pressure cooker.
2) Saute cumin seeds (jeera) in oil till sizzling.
3) Add long slices of garlic. This needs a tiny bit more oil because the garlic sticks to the pan otherwise. Or use non-stick pan. Saute till golden brown. Remove about 1/2 of the garlic for garnish later.
4) Now to this add chopped tomatoes and saute till fairly done.
5) Add chopped tinda and saute.
6) Now add salt, red chilly powder, turmeric (haldi) and saute a bit more.
7) Now add cooked dal. More salt if needed (according to dal). Add water as needed to achieve desired consistency. Boil till bubbling hot.
8) Garnish with fried slices of garlic. Yum!

Combination:
I kept it simple and served this with rotis, salad, pickle, raita and papad. The Lasooni Dal is so flavourful that it becomes the center of the meal. This combo with salad and stuff worked out really well for me. Perfect light lunch!

This post goes to Nupur's One Hot Stove event, Blog Bites #2. Do visit them and check out what restaurant-style recipes other participants have scouted from blogs!

I just realized that Sailu's Kitchen is also featured in this month's Tried and Tasted event hosted by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles. This event has originated at Zlamoushka's Spicy Kitchen. So I am also sending this post to Lakshmi's round up.

Ok everyone.. happy cooking!!