slow cooker dhal

Several years ago, Da's friend, SNC (the Lord bless his soul) taught me his "secret recipe" for dhal. SCG hailed from Seremban in Malaysia and he had migrated to Perth, Australia for many years and was by then an Australian citizen. He cooked the most mouth-watering Indian dishes.

Each year whenever Da and I visited Perth, SNC would always extend to us the hospitality of his home. Each night, I looked forward to my cooking lessons with SNC. The cheeky guy once tried to "trick" me by adding one piece of chilli (which he probably chopped to tiny pieces) to his fried hor fun and then telling me with a straight face that the dish contained no chilli. Believing him, I took a hearty bite of my plate of fried hor fun, then I burst out laughing and turned accusing eyes at him. He shook his head in disbelief that I could taste the chilli. *grin*

Without fail, each visit to SNC would also mean a visit to his dearest friends, GB and YB who live in Fremantle, Australia. SNC's and GB's friendship went back a long way, to the days when SNC was still a student in Perth, Australia. Today, GB has mastered the skill of cooking curry dishes and the gang fondly talks about "curry in a hurry". Da and I have tried GB's curry dish and it is delicious. GB and YB live in a very old house in Fremantle which they are renovating by building an extension to their house. By "extension", I mean an additional part to the house that is large enough to be another house of its own! The amazing thing is that GB is building the extension himself! The project has taken the couple several years (it started before SNC passed away). Recently, YB told me that the extension is expected to be ready at the end of this year. I look forward to this.

Over the years, I have cooked dhal several times and I must confess that each time, there is always room for improvement (it just never seemed to taste exactly like the dhal that SNC cooked!). When I get round to buying the ingredients for a complete dish of dhal, I shall post SNC's recipe. Although SNC passed away suddenly in 2004, till today, I have kept a printout of an electronic mail from him where he gave me tips on how to improve my dhal.

There are, however, days when you just feel like a simple dish of dhal, without "all the works", accompanied by crusty bread. This is when your slow cooker will come in useful. The recipe in this post serves 2 persons.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup yellow lentils (soaked in water and drained)
2 cups water
1 large potato (cubed)
1/2 cup mixed greens
4 dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked and sliced)
2 pcs mock crab stick (sliced)
1 stick cinnamon
4 pcs dried cloves
1 pc star anise
2 tbsp sambar powder (note: it is "sambar" and not "sambal")
1 tsp ground tumeric
salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

1. Place all the ingredients in your slow cooker (except the salt and pepper) and stir thoroughly.

2. Cover with the lid and cook on LOW for 4 hours or until the lentils have softened and the gravy has thickened.

3. When the lentils have softened, add the salt and pepper to taste. Also add more water if the gravy is too thick.


TIP

The gravy of dhal has a thick consistency and according to SNC, there is only one way to thicken the gravy if you have added too much water - by adding some more potatoes. However, the fresh batch of potatoes would take time to cook and thicken the gravy. As such, the trick is not to start with too much water because you can add more water later if the gravy is too thick.