YELLOW SPLIT GRAM COOKED WITH BOTTLE GOURD

Yellow split gram cooked with Bottle gourd - Moog Dal Lau

This is a speciality cuisine from Faridpur, now in Bangladesh sourced from someone family relation. It is a simple dish with easily available ingredients. Purely vegetarian and easy to cook, this is a soothing nutritious dish during hot and humid Bengal summers.

Ingredients:

Bottle gourd (Lau) 400 gm – shredded into 2-inch juliennes

Cumin – ½ teaspoon for tempering

Dried Red Chilli – 2 nos. for tempering

Sona Moog Dal – 2 cups (aromatic variety of yellow split gram)

Ginger – 1 inch, Cumin – 1 teaspoon, Coriander – 1 teaspoon ground to a smooth paste

Red Chilli powder – ½ teaspoon

Cumin – 1 teaspoon dry roasted, coarsely grounded for sprinkling

Mustard oil – 4 tablespoons

Salt – according to taste.

Instructions:

This can be quickly cooked in a pressure cooker, cooking pan or wok also works well.

Heat the mustard oil.

Add Cumin and Dried Red Chilli in hot oil for tempering.

Add Lau and sona moog daal.

Add salt to taste.

Saute until the daal gives out its flavour.

Then add the ginger-cummin-coriander paste.

Add chilli powder.

If the Lau is tender, you won't have to add water, otherwise, add little water just to cover the whole thing.

Close the lid of the pressure cooker.

After one whistle, reduce the heat and cook for another 5-6 minutes.

It is originally a dry daal recipe but those who like it runny can keep it slightly slurry.

If you are not doing it in a pressure cooker, wait till both daal and lau are done.

Sprinkle the dry-roasted cumin, ground coarsely.

Enjoy with rice. A zest of ‘Gondhoraj’ lime enhances the flavour of the dish.