Masoor dal

Ingredients needed:

• 2 cups red lentils (masoor dal)
• lots of fresh garlic
• fresh cilantro
• coarse-ground salt and pepper
• fresh bay leaves or curry leaves
• red pepper
• ground turmeric

Preparation:

Cook the red lentils. (This can be done a day ahead of time.)

1. "Sort" the lentils to remove any rocks, twigs, etc.
2. Rinse them in a colander.
3. Put them in a pot with 8 cups of water and bring to a boil.
4. Skim off some of the foam that rises to the top, but don't worry about getting it all.
5. Add 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric and stir briefly.
6. Turn down the heat to low, and cover loosely.
7. Cook for 40 minutes or until the lentils are very tender.
8. Remove from the heat and either store for finishing later or go for it now.

Finish off the dal for serving. You can do this in larger or smaller quantities, drawing on the cooked mixture prepared above.

One cup at a time:
1. Put a bit of oil in an appropriate-sized pan.
2. Cut about two cloves of garlic into thick slices.
3. Heat the oil, and add those slices of garlic plus a teaspoon (or less) of red pepper.
4. Thoroughly brown the garlic.
5. Add:
   1. 1 cup of the red lentils prepared above
   2. 1/4 of a bay leaf, if they're really fragrant, more if they're not – or a number of curry leaves
   3. some coarse-ground salt (I do 1 or 2 turns of our grinder)
   4. some coarse-ground black pepper (I do 1/2 or 1 turn of our grinder)
6. Cook about 10 minutes (if the bay leaf is fresh and fragrant, until it's soft).
Prep the whole batch at once:
1. Put a good bit of oil in an appropriate-sized pan.
2. Cut all of the cloves from a bunch of garlic (or more) into thick slices.
3. Heat the oil, and add those slices of garlic plus about 8 teaspoons (or less) of red pepper.
4. Thoroughly brown the garlic.
5. Add:
   1. all of red lentils prepared above
   2. 2 bay leaves, if they're really fragrant, more if they're not – or a whole bunch of curry leaves
   3. some coarse-ground salt (I would do 6 or 8 turns of our grinder)
   4. some coarse-ground black pepper (I would do 4 or 6 turns of our grinder)
6. Cook about 10 minutes (if the bay leaf is fresh and fragrant, until it's soft).

Serve. Serve in bowls with cilantro leaves on top of each. (Stir them in as you eat it.)