Toor dal/ lentil in ground coconut curry

Toor dal/ lentil in ground coconut curry 

Dal curry really is the ultimate Indian comfort food. It goes along beautifully with plain rice or any Indian flat bread. This coconut dal is especially good with ghee rice. Ghee rice-dal-poppadum is the best combination. Add pickle and chicken fry and this is worth any occasion!!!

This curry doesn’t require much hands-on time. I didn’t have curry leaves. So, obviously you can skip it. But the curry leaves do add so much extra flavor and aroma!!  Start with cooking the lentils. Wash the lentil well and drain. Add enough water to cover. Add salt, a little turmeric and red chilli powder and 1 or 2 split green chillies.  Bring to boil. Reduce heat and cook till the lentil is cooked well and very soft. Take care to not let the whole thing boil over. You can keep a spoon in the cooking pot to stop boiling over. Some say one tbsp. vegetable oil added to the cooking liquid also helps. Let all the excess water evaporate and coarsely mash the lentil with a spoon.

Grind the coconut, shallots, turmeric powder, green chillies, and curry leaves with a little water in a blender till coconut is very fine. This takes 5 to 10 minutes. Mix the coconut with lentil. Adjust salt; add more to your taste. Bring to boil and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring to prevent scorching.

Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. Lower flame and add curry leaves and dried red chilli. Pour the hot mixture into the curry carefully. Serve the curry with rice and lots of poppadum!!!