Cooking: Dal

[lyorn]

I made Dal today. Sliced a leek in very thin half-rings, chopped two garlic cloves, fried both with a little oil in a low pot until it looked half-cooked. Added spices: Garam Masala from the red lentil soup I made for my birthday party, mustard seeds, cumin and cayenne pepper, when it started to smell interesting, put in half a litre of water and scraped the bottom with a wooden spoon until everything that had stuck was unstuck. Then threw in a vegatable broth cube (for 1/4 litre) and 250g red lentils, and cooked on low heat. I had to add some more water, a lot more salt, and more cayenne pepper before it had developed well. As I did not have Indian bread, I had Ciabatta with it (I have ciabatta with everything lately, because it's easier to have a little of it than it is to cook a handful of rice or a cup of pasta), and experimented on the table with Worchestersauce and Greek yoghurt. (Result: take one or the other, but not both.)

Some fresh herbs might have been nice. More spices and water than given in the recipe I grabbed from some German cooking site was needed. Cooking time was a little over 20 minutes. It was enough to feed two.

There is a lot of room for experimentation here, but I think I have the basics down now.