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Malka Masoor (Split lentil) Dal Recipe

Malka is decorticated (skinless) split lentil seeds. They are light pink in color and turn yellow when cooked

Ingredients

Basic Cooking

1. Malka Masoor (Decorticated split Lentil): 1 cup

2. Water: 4½ cup
3. Salt: ¼ teaspoon
4. Turmeric powder: ¼ teaspoon
5. Powdered hot Cayenne pepper: ¼ teaspoon
6. Ghee: 1 Tablespoon
7. Amchoor (Dried sour mango powder): ¼ teaspoon

8. Sugar: Pinch

Tarka Jeera

1. Ghee: 2 teaspoons
2. Cumin seeds: ½ teaspoon

Tarka Onion

1. Ghee: 2 Tablespoons
2. Fresh onion, peeled, sliced thin: ½ cup
3. Fresh Serrano (Green hot chili pepper), chopped: 2
4. Fresh ginger root, peeled, chopped: ½"
5. Garlic peeled sliced thin: 4 Cloves

Finish

1. Butter: 4 Tablespoons

Method

There are five different cooking phases

1. Pre-cooking phase

Wash and rinse seeds thoroughly in plenty of water. Drain.
2. Basic cooking
a) Put washed seeds, water, salt, cayenne pepper, Turmeric, and Ghee in a pot. Let the water come to a boil. Turn down heat and let it cook on low to medium heat for about 10 minutes or till the seeds start to turn tender. Pay attention while cooking. This Dal can easily over-cook and turn mushy. Prevent over cooking.
b) Stir in Amchoor and Sugar.

c) Turn down heat to very low.

3. Jeera Tarka or Tempering.
Heat Ghee in a heavy frying pan. Add Cumin seeds. Fry till they start to turn brown. Transfer the contents to main lentil pot
4. Onion Tarka or Tempering
Add more Ghee to the frying pan and heat. Add onions, fry till they start to caramelize. Add Serrano, ginger root, and garlic. Fry for 30 seconds. Transfer contents to the main lentil pot.
5. Finishing
After tempering, simmer on low heat covered for five minutes. Shutoff heat. Stir in some butter.

Notes

1. You don't need to soak the seeds in water as is customary with other whole lentils such as Moong or Urad
2. You should put about quarter teaspoon of salt per cup of dried seeds. The salt is important. As the seeds will swell by absorbing water the salt will flavor the internal of seeds.
3. The Ghee during basic cooking phase reduces boil-over.
4. Souring agent is important in this recipe. Amchoor or lime juice may be added. Amchoor is preferred. A tiny amount of sugar is added to blunt and balance the sourness. You need fruity sourness.

5. Some people routinely stir in fresh chopped cilantro in everything. Don't add Cilantro to Masoor.
6. Makhan (Cultured white butter) or even regular un-salted cream butter will add more character and texture to Masoor than any other ingredient. Stir butter in at the end of cooking. Butter gets absorbed, it does not make the dish oily.

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