Spicy Dal Fry

Main Ingredients (To serve 1):

• Cooking oil - 2 to 3 tablespoons (1 Tbsp = 15mL)
  
• Toor (Toovar) dal a.k.a. Yellow Lentils - 1 handful
• Medium sized green chillies - 3 or 4 - chopped into pieces
  
• Small tomato - 1 - chopped into small pieces
• Red onion - 1 - chopped into small pieces (Optional Ingredient)
• Harra Dhania a.k.a Corriander - As many as you like - Finely chopped
• Red chilli powder - half to 3/4ths of a tea spoon.
• Haldi a.k.a. Turmeric powder - a quarter tea spoon
• Rai a.k.a Mustard Seeds - variable
• Whole jeera a.k.a. Cumin Seeds - variable
• Ginger (or ginger paste) - 1 small pieces (or half tea spoon) (Optional Ingredient)
  
• Kadi Patta a.k.a Curry leaves - 4-6 leaves washed and chopped in half
• Salt
  

Cooking Method:

Ideally you should be using a pressure cooker to do all the cooking here. Its faster.

1. Wash the dal with normal water and keep it drowned in water for about 10 minutes in a small dish. The water level should not be more than 2 times the amount of dal.
   
2. Heat oil in a deep pan. Add rai and jeera. Wait untill u see the rai crackling and jumping around.
3. (NOTE:- The oil is very hot so take care when you add green chillies etc..)Add the green chillies, curry leaves, ginger and stir ocassionaly but not too vigourously.
   
4. Now add haldi, tomatoes and red chilli powder. Stir gently and mix well. If you can see stuff sticking to the base of the pan, add a little amount of water to increase liquidity.
5. Now add dal alongwith the water. Mix.
6. Add salt to taste.
   
7. Close the lid of the cooker safely. Now wait untill the cooker goes of atleast 3 times and switch the gas off. (For all those on electric cookers, switch off the power and shift the cooker to a colder coil). Wait untill all the pressure has resided and open the lid.
8. Now adding more water at this stage totally depends on how thick or thin you want your dal to be. Add water if it seems necessary. You can also choose to crush the dal if you like it that way.
9. Otherwise you can just choose to eat it as it is. Just stir it after opening the lid, add the corriander and stir again before you serve.
   

Best enjoyed with any type of rice and/or bread.