Green Moong Delicacy from the Bong

Green Moong dal needs to be first boiled and then kept aside. It needs about three to four whistles and if it is kept in water the whole previous night it gets easily mushy and soft. Now we need a pan and light it up. Chop up a handful of coriander leaves, green chilies about two of them, a tomato and half of one onion evenly and very fine. Make sure you mince ginger and garlic too; one teaspoon of each of them. Leave all of these ingredients aside along with one teaspoon of turmeric and red chili powder or cayenne pepper only to infuse color. We also need one and a half teaspoons of cumin seeds for this preparation. You can adjust these proportions as you like it and use as much you need for the dal. Use a pinch of asafetida to give the dal the correct seasoning.

Well anyway, the next step is to make sure we make the tadka or the tempering for the dal. Use desi ghee for tempering and once warm temper clarified butter with all the spices as listed above. Let the cumin seeds be tipped into clarified butter and let it splutter and ooze out an aroma. Once that is done, we add all other spices alongside the green chilies, onions and make them all turn into a nice paste. Let us keep stirring and add a little sprinkle of salt for the onions to turn translucent faster. We may tip in the tomatoes at this point and let it all come together as we stir it in altogether. Make sure the gas is down to medium low. Tadka as we all know it is a tempering technique to make dals spicier and simply delicious. When the tomatoes blend in easily let it simmer for a couple of minutes and add a little splash of water to make it quite runny and thick in consistency. Once the tadka is nicely done pour all of the spice on top of the dal that you can warm up with a little bit of water. Check for consistency and give it a great mix all of it at the end. Now check for salt and if required more please add. Now let it sit for a few additional minutes before you turn off the gas. Four or five minutes roughly on medium low heat is quite enough and now turn off the gas. Sprinkle nicely chopped coriander leaves on top of the dal and serve it hot with rotis or rice.