Bengali boiled Masoor Dal - Red Lentil | Baisali's homely kitchen

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Bengali boiled Masoor Dal - Red Lentil

The other day, we came back from our winter vacation in Calcutta. It was late evening courtesy the heavy traffic from airport to my little apartment. My children and husband were in no mood to have restaurant food after a tour where we experienced lot of culinary delight. Now I have to think of preparing something easy and fast in home as dinner time was approaching. The first one that came in my mind was this recipe. Red lentil or Masoor Dal can be prepared in about as many ways as there are cooks who make it. It is even easier if you prepare with the help of pressure cooker.

This one probably does not qualify to be something present in a cooking blog but I think the situation I was in is quite common for anybody. Hence I present this easy and fast one in my blog. This recipe is a traditional Bengali one which we prepare in winter especially. The aroma of mustard oil may not be liked by non-Bengalis.

Preparation Time: - 5~7 min

Cooking Time: - 10 min

Servings: - 4 persons

Ingredients:

Red Lentil / Masoor Dal – 1 cup
1 medium sized chopped onion
3 cups of water
Mustard oil - 2~3 tsp
1 slit green chilli
Pinch of Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander leaves – ¼ cup
Lime leaves:-1~2 (optional) for added smell. I could not add this one as lime leaf was not available in Bangalore.

Preparation:-

Wash the Masoor Dal thoroughly.
In a medium sized pressure cooker boil lentil, salt and turmeric powder.
When the pressure cooker blow 3 whistles put the flame off and keep aside. A point to note here that different pressure cooker may require more or less whistles. I used a Prestige 3 liter steel pressure cooker.
Remove the lid and put the pressure cooker on the gas stove again. Now add the mustard oil, onion pieces, slit green chilies and coriander leaves.