Lentils get bad press from being hippy food and the staple diet of Neil in The Young Ones but when laced with garlic, onion and spices in daal or a citrus, chilli, spicy combo in a Dhansak they are hard to beat. I'll probably have Dhansak 8 times out of 10 when ordering in an Indian and the other 2 times will then allow daal as a side dish.
This probably isn't anything like how your curry house would make their Dhansak but it tastes pretty close. We used to live a 2 minute walk from the Bombay Bicycle Club in Clapham and I had a chat with the owner about Dhansak and he recommended using lime instead of lemon so I usually do except when it's spur of the moment and there are only lemons in the fruit bowl. Quite a few dhansak recipes use pineapple but I've never fancied it but may give it a whirl one day.
Serves 4
1 large onion finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 inch piece of ginger grated or finely chopped
1 or 2 dried red chillies - Dhansak tends to be pretty punchy chilli wise in restaurants but up to you
2-3 desertspoons of curry powder as previous recipe on the blog
1 inch or so of cinnamon and 3 or 4 cardamom pods
400-500g split red lentils (yellow spit peas can be used but need soaking overnight and red ones don't). If there looks like too much lentil once cooked just set some aside.
Half tin of tomatoes
Desertspoon tomato purée
Juice of half to 1 lemon or 2 limes
Sugar - preferably jaggery or a darker variety that gives a nice caramely taste like soft brown or muscavado
Salt
Fresh coriander
Tablespoon of sunflower oil, maybe half and half mustard oil and sunflower if you have it.
The recipe is the same whether you want chicken or prawn. The quantities aren't exact as I tend to make it up but whatever feels and looks right.
Chicken: 8 thigh fillets or joint a whole chicken, much more economical and a carcass to make stock after
King prawns: how ever many you feel like but 8 or 10 each sounds right.
Soak the lentils for 10 or 15 mins giving them a good rub in the water to get some of the cloudiness off that creates the scum that surfaces when they are simmering. Rinse in fresh water until it runs clear. Cover with twice as much water and bring to the boil. Start them off gently skimming the frothy scum off and increase the heat once they start to tenderise. Add the dried chilli either whole or crumbled, the cinnamon and cardamom. Add more water if it looks too dry but once they are really mushy start to drive off the water so that it is thick and the lentils broken down and more like porridge. Mash up a bit if required.
Fry the onion in the oil until soft and coloured adding in the garlic midway through, adding some of the sugar towards the end of frying helps caramelise the mixture. If using chicken or lamb add this in to seal and colour a little. Add in the curry powder and fry for a few minutes to take away the rawness of the spices. Add in the tomatoes and tomato purée and simmer for 20 minutes or so adding a little water if too thick and sticking.
Combine the tomato sauce in to the lentils with the ginger and simmer further to combine. Add in the lemon or lime juice and taste to see if more sugar is needed. It should be sweet and sour in balance. Add salt to taste. The final dish should be quite thick, rich and the lentils having no firm texture.
If using prawns add them in and cook for a further 5 minutes until they are cooked through. Stir in some chopped coriander and reserve some to sprinkle on top when in a serving bowl.
Dhansak is quite often served in restaurants with rice as a standard side dish but I prefer chapatis or naan bread.
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