Moog dhal

Once, after I got a visa extension, I was fiddling about with my passport, checking all the dates were correct and so on, when my friend Sharbat caught a glimpse of my photograph. 'That's not you.' she said. She laughed at how chubby-cheeked the face in the picture was. The picture had been taken in Saudi Arabia and I remembered that I had actually put on a fair bit of weight while I was there. Eating was one of the few passtimes which were allowed and I did rather a lot of it.

There was a restaurant downtown run by Pakistanis and although they served a lot of meat dishes, they had one dhal and at least one vegetable dish every day. The dhal was served with a layer of butter about half a centimetre thick on the top and was absolutely delicious. You might not want to use so much butter and I can't honestly recommend that you do, but at least use a little (or vegetable margarine). It really makes a difference to the taste.

Ingredients

1 mug of dry moong beans
3 and a half mugs of water
2 green chillies
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tomato
A third of a tsp. each of turmeric and ginger powder
Salt
Vegetable oil
A knob of butter or margarine
Garam massala

Put the dhal, water, whole chillies and spices into a pot and bring to the boil. After a few minutes of vigorous boiling, turn the heat down to a simmer and skim off any froth which appears.

While the dhal is simmering, fry the chopped onion in some vegetable oil and when it is starting to brown, add the garlic, crushed or chopped, and fry for a few minutes more. Add the chopped tomato and stir and stew the ingredients in the pan together until the tomato begins to turn to a paste. Add the mixture to the dhal and cook it until the beans are soft and splitting open. It should take under forty minutes from the first boiling. Add salt to taste a few minutes before the end.

Pour as much dhal as you want to serve into a bowl and let a lump of butter or margarine melt on top. Sprinkle with garam massala before serving. You can keep any extra dhal in the fridge. Reheat a quantity with a little extra water and serve with butter and garam massala as above.

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