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1
Pressure cook the lentils (toor dal) in a pressure cooker alongwith 6 cups of water until the lentils are tender.
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2
Heat oil in a pot on medium-high flame.
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3
Once its hot, add mustard seeds, methi seeds and cumin seeds.
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4
Allow to splutter and crackle.
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5
Once they stop doing so, add in the curry leaves and ginger.
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6
Stir-fry for 5 minutes until the raw smell of ginger is gone.
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7
Add asafoetida powder and continue to stir-fry for another 5-7 minutes.
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8
Toss in the green chillies, mix well and continue to stir-fry for another 2-3 minutes.
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9
Then add in the tomatoes and 1/4 cup of water to cook the tomatoes.
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10
Mix well and cook on high flame until the tomatoes are softened.
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11
Add salt, red chilli powder and turmeric powder.
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12
Mix well.
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13
Extract tamarind pulp from tamarind to use as tamarind water.
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14
To do this, soak about 3 inches piece of tamarind in 1 cup of hot water.
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15
Squeeze to extract the tamarind pulp and let it mix with the water to form'tamarind water' (that's what I call it).
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16
There is no need to pass this through a strainer- use it directly!
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17
Measure out 2/3 cup of tamarind water in a cup and add this tamarind water to the tomato mixture.
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18
Mix well and allow it to cook on medium-high flame for 5 minutes.
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19
In the meantime, open the pressure cooker (by this time the lentils will be tender and the whistle would have blown) and with the help of a beater/mashing tool (we use what we call a'mandira' in Hindi. This is a long wooden spoon with a round base that we use for mashing lentils, bananas, etc), in round circular motions, mash the lentils completely, until they mix with the water in which they were being cooked.
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20
Now add 5 cups of water alongwith the lentil and water mixture that was used to cook the lentils. Add the tamarind-tomato mixture, mixing gracefully, as you sing your favourite kitchen song side-by-side!
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21
Allow this to come to a boil.
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22
Lower flame and cook for 10 more minutes on a simmer.
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23
Remove from flame and serve immediately with cooked long-grain white Basmati rice.
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24
Serve hot (we serve it immediately because it doesn't taste very good once it gets cold) alongwith low-fat plain yogurt on the side for a complete wonderful Asian-Indian meal in rice and lentil curry heaven!
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25
My brother, Manav, says that my wud-be hubby is a lucky man cos I'll cook this for him and oh my, my bro adores this curry!
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26
Please note: If you have a sore throat, a running nose, fever, cough and cold, then PLEASE omit the tamarind altogether because using tamarind juice in this recipe when you have a bad throat, will only make your throat worse. This curry cooks awesome even without the tamarind juice. Enjoy!
