Day 4

Today I made one of my all time favorites... Dahl. Originating in India, Dahl is a delicious dish of spiced lentils. Has anybody seen the new movie "The Hundred Foot Journey."? It is an amazing movie... probably one of my new favorites. It has so many wonderful elements to it... Food, friendship, culture, beautiful scenery... The main character is a man from India, who is living in France. He opens up a restaurant across the street from a super fancy-shmancy French restaurant. I'm not going to say anymore about it because I don't want to ruin it for anybody... but the reason that I brought this movie up was just to say that making dahl makes me feel like that main character guy. I was throwing in so many spices, and playing around with different combinations... I was very happy with how my dahl turned out tonight. :) I'd definitely recommend this dish, as well as that wonderful movie...

My brothers are not the biggest fans of lentils, so when I make dahl I usually make tortillas to wrap it in... I know, I know... I should have made naan to make it more authentic... but this recipe for homemade tortillas is just so good! (And I will end up making naan at some point later on.)

Ingredients:

(Dahl)

*Lentils (I used green)

*Onions

*Green peppers

*Garlic

*Ginger (I didn't have any... but it is soooo good with some fresh ginger!)

*Crushed red pepper flakes

*Tomatoes

* Spices: Cumin, cinnamon, ginger, paprika, curry, basil, tumeric... ect.



*I am really really bad at estimating the right amount of lentils to make for my family. I put in what looks like a good amount, but then they expand so much and we end up having enough food for about 33 people. But I'd say add about 2-3 cups of lentils to a big pot and cover them completely with water. The water should be about an inch above the lentils.

*Let the lentils cook until they have absorbed most of the water. Add more water... keep adding water to the lentils every time it runs out. When the lentils get kinda thick and pasty, they are done.

*While you are waiting for the lentils to cook, chop up your veggies. I sauteed my garlic, onions, green peppers, tomatoes and crushed red pepper flakes (in that order) I like doing it in that order because I like my garlic to be pretty well done, and slightly browned, I like my onions soft, and my green peppers slightly crunchy. Adding the veggies one at a time just makes it a bit more interesting. I also added about 2 tsp of salt. Adding the salt to the veggies instead of the lentils also made the whole dish a little bit more interesting... It drew more flavor out of the veggies or something... :/ I'm not quite sure, but whatever it did was good.

*Add veggies to the finished lentils. Add spices. I don't think that I've ever added the exact same spices twice, so feel free to mess around! :) And your dahl is finished!


In this picture, I hadn't actually added my veggies yet... (As you can see from the pan in the back round!) I hadn't mixed in my spices yet, either... But I just thought this picture was pretty... :) The basil is just for show... I ate it right after I took this picture. We didn't have enough basil to put in a ton, so it is kinda pointless to just add 2 leaves.

Now for the tortillas: 

Ingredients:

*About 1 1/2 cup water

*About 4 cup of flour  

*1 tsp salt                     

*3 tbsp oil                  

Such simple ingredients, right!? :)

*Combine everything. Mix it all until the dough is smooth. You can even knead it on a floured surface if you need. And just so that you know, my measurements are not super precise. So just play around with it until the dough is smooth. You'll probably need some more flour.  

*Divide into small balls                                                                                                         

About this size:

*Roll out                                                                                                                                 

It should be about this big 

Fry up in a tiny TINY bit of oil. After the oil runs out in my pan, I usually don't add any more. (You can if you want to, though.) And I usually need to clean out the pan a little bit every once in a while.


You should flip it when it starts getting bubbles on the surface. It should be slightly browned.

And here is the finished product:

Thanks to my sweet little brother, Nano, for helping me with the tortillas. :)

And that is it! Enjoy!

India is for sure on my top list of places to visit one day... With food like this, who could NOT want to go to India! :) Not to mention it is just a beautiful place, with beautiful people. And it has some really great movies... I have a secret obsession with bollywood movies. And... yeah. Ok, bye.