A bunch of you were asking for his recipe for this: so here it is. Believe it or not, I didn’t know he could do this kind of thing when I married him. Hidden talents…!<\/p>\n
The problem with informal food photography like this, of course, is that (like so many other one pot dishes of a peasant-y nature) it tends to just look kind of beige. (Or, as Himself Upstairs puts it, “Like savory mud.”) I couldn’t be bothered to go get parsley or whatever for it. Trust me: it was extremely good. <\/em>Below, Peter frames it as a possible side dish, but we ate it happily as a main course, believe me.<\/p>\n (PS: sorry for the slightly blurry photo. I was more intent on getting the image’s subject inside me than on the focus…)<\/p>\n Peter says:<\/p>\n Improvised store-cupboard dhal, for when you can\u2019t be bothered with a cookbook.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1 cup vegetable oil<\/p>\n 2 large onions, chopped fine<\/p>\n 4-6 cloves garlic, chopped fine<\/p>\n 1 tbsp. each of ground cumin, ground coriander<\/p>\n \u00bd tbsp. each of ground turmeric, ground chilli, ground black pepper<\/p>\n \u00bd tbsp. each of mild curry powder, hot curry powder<\/p>\n 1 tsp. salt<\/p>\n 2 cups red lentils<\/p>\n \u00bd cup green lentils<\/p>\n \u00bd cup brown lentils<\/p>\n Boiling water<\/p>\n 1 tbsp. lemon juice<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Heat the oil, fry the onions & garlic until soft and glossy. Add all the spices. Fry for a few minutes. Add all the lentils*. Stir everything together. Add enough boiling water to cover by \u00bd an inch. Stir everything together, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about \u00bd an hour. Check occasionally. Add more water if required a bit at a time, then stir. (Don\u2019t overdo it. Preferred texture is like stew, not soup.) Add lemon juice, stir, and serve with rice and\/or flatbreads.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Makes a good side with shop-bought tandoori chicken.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *Alternately add lightly fried chicken or lamb cubes and 2 x cans of chopped tomatoes along with the lentils. Reduce water accordingly. Simmer for \u00be hour, serve when meat is cooked, and call it a dhansak. (It isn\u2019t really. But it tastes good anyway.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A bunch of you were asking for his recipe for this: so here it is. Believe it or not, I didn’t know he could do this kind of thing when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17,31,37,57],"tags":[782,781,383],"class_list":["post-4423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cooking","category-food-2","category-home-life","category-recipes","tag-dhal","tag-indian-food","tag-omnomnom"],"yoast_head":"\n