BEST EVER TARKA DHAL

TARKA DHAL

I never tire of this humble dhal, I love the depth of flavours you get from adding the crispy nutty ghee fried garlic and onion tarka along with fresh coriander and garam masala at the end of the cooking, it really does make all the difference from a plain dhal to a sumptuous dish.  I love to scoop this dhal up with a ghee garlic loaded naan bread, recipe below, just perfect with this rich dhal.

Ingredients

(serves 4)

The Dhal

1 cup of red lentils washed and soaked

6 cups of water

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp curry powder

1/2 tsp cumin powder

1 tbsp coriander stalks finely chopped

The Tarka

8 fat cloves garlic sliced

1 small onion finely diced

1 tbsp ghee

1 small bunch coriander roughly chopped

1 tsp garam masala 

Sea salt and black pepper to taste

Rinse the lentils several times, place in a deep saucepan with the water, turmeric, coriander stalks, cumin and curry powder, bring to a simmer, pop on a lid and turn down to a low simmer and leave to cook for around 30 minutes, you are looking for a thick soft texture where all the lentils have cooked down and created a lovely dhal.

Meanwhile in a frying pan heat the ghee and gently fry the garlic and onion until nutty brown, reserve to one side until the dhal is cooked.

To finish the dhal add the tarka stir in with the fresh coriander, garam masala, season to taste and serve with some garlic butter naan breads for dipping scooping and stuffing.

GARLIC NAAN BREADS

Dough 15 minutes / 1 hr to 24hrs proving / 3 minutes cooking each naan (makes 8)

Ingredients 

(makes 8)

450g plain flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp sea salt

150g milk

4g yeast

1 tbsp sugar

2 small eggs

135g Greek yogurt

10 cloves garlic finely chopped

250g butter room temperature 

1 small bunch parsley finely chopped

The dough.

Place the milk in a saucepan and warm, you should be able to drop some milk on the inside of your wrist and it is not hot, take off the heat transfer to a bowl, add the sugar and yeast, leave to one side for 20 minutes so that the yeast can activate, the sugar will feed the yeast and you should see bubbles forming as the yeast activate. 

In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and Greek yogurt together.

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt to combine, add the wet ingredients, the yogurt egg mixture and the activated yeast milk and bring together to form a dough ball.  Knead with a dough hook for 10 minutes or by hand for 10 minutes.

Grease the bowl and cover, leave to prove for min 1-2 hours at room temperature or in the fridge for 24-48 hours.

If you have proved in the fridge take the dough out and leave to come up to room temperature at least 2 hours before cooking.

Mix the softened butter with the garlic and parsley, place in a bowl by the cooker with a pastry brush ready for painting the cooked naan’s.

To cook the naan’s heat a large skillet hot.

Tear off a tennis ball size of dough, very lightly dust you work top with plain flour and roll out your naan bread to a pound coin thickness, dust off any excess flour, place the naan bread on the skillet and let it cook on the first side for 2 minutes until two thirds cooked and puffed up, flip over and finish cooking for 1 minute on the other side, remove from the skillet and immediately paint with the softened garlic herb butter.  Keep warm and serve immediately.