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| Dahl with wild garlic puree: Not pretty, but tasty |
*(Life Saving Dahl)
You’ll be pleased to hear that the stress of the pandemic
hasn’t (yet) driven me to psycho-tropic drugs, just to comfort food (again).
Life Saving Dahl is a coinage of Indian food queen Madhur Jaffrey, which is
referenced in the intro to the recipe I made on Thursday (Channa Dahl with wild
garlic puree in the Jikoni cookbook). It felt about right, as I was in definite
need of comfort, amid the news of possible delays to the vaccine programme, just
as I’d been allowing myself to feel optimistic about it. Sigh. With more
information, it looks as if the delay won’t really be significant, but it has
reminded me how potentially fragile the whole house of cards might me.
So, comfort was necessary, and this dahl did indeed provide
it. There aren’t that many recipes in the Jikoni book I am realistically going
to make (too complicated, or too many fancy ingredients) but this one was
fairly simple. Cook an onion with some cumin seeds until soft, then add the
holy trinity of grated ginger, chopped chilli and garlic, and cook until to
quote the recipe ‘the smell fills your nostrils’. (I personally prefer slightly
more precise instructions, but never mind.) After this add blended up tomatoes
(from a tin in my case) turmeric, the channa dahl and water 600ml for 125g of
channa (enough for two people). Bring to the boil then simmer for 45 minutes.
The recipe says to make the wild garlic puree at this point,
but as I’d done that already (see here)
I got to sit down for a bit while it all simmered away.
I served this with flatbreads, and it was very good, and
certainly helped to get me through a wobble. In the spirit of optimism, we’ve
booked a holiday. We’re going to rent an apartment in York, with my parents. For
Christmas! I’m hoping that by then, it will not only be possible, but might
even feel like a normal and sensible thing to be doing…
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