Hungry in Berlin

Here’s another guest Dönerspende post (keep it up, peoples!) that addresses one of HIB’s favorite comfort foods, dhal. A staple of much of India and the surrounding region, it’s a great dish because with rice, it makes a complete protein and couldn’t be cheaper to make. Lentils (of any shape or color), spices, rice. Our contributor Kean, originally from Malaysia, has sadly left the Hauptstadt with his gorgeous family after a three-year stay; yet he continues to taunt us with delicious (and even cheaper) meals enjoyed in his home country (as seen in the picture to the right.) Enjoy.

Here’s that dhal recipe I promised you, though without the authentic Malaysian spices, of course…Madras curry powder makes a suitable substitute (and it’s widely available, at about 80 cents per pack.) This is a lentil/veg curry, sorta Malaysian style, and it feeds at least four people.

Malaysian-styled Dhal

3 cups of lentils, soaked overnight in filtered water, then drained…if you mix both red and yellow together, it’s quite a nice texture later) (Ed note: Lentils are nice in that you don’t necessarily have to soak them ahead; doing so will cut down on the cooking time slightly, however.)
2 peeled, medium-sized potatoes (or sweet potato), chopped
2 peeled medium-sized carrots, sliced up
1 (red) onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 chunk of fresh ginger, about 1-2 cm thick, cut into strips
vegetable oil
water

For the curry:

3 tablespoons of madras curry powder
1 teaspoon of turmeric powder (optional)
1 dried curry leaf (sold in packs at Asiamarkts)

**You’ll want to mix both the powder and tumeric together with a touch of water to make a thick-ish paste beforehand.

The best pots I’ve used to cook curry in have been those earthenware ones sometimes found in Asian grocers; they keep an even heat without burning, ideal for a long, slow cooking process. But stainless steel pots work fine too, just a bit less forgiving in my experience.

Fry up onions, garlic and ginger in about 3-4 tablespoons of vegetable oil until fragrant, then spoon in all the curry powder mixed paste and fry until fragrant (this won’t take long, don’t worry too much about slight burns across the saucepan). Then throw in the lentils and mix it all well. Add a cup or two of water for the mix, so as not to burn the lentils; mix well. Once it starts simmering, progressively add carrots and potatoes, each time adding cups of (filtered) water to barely cover the contents, keeping things simmering along. Then cover the pot and keep simmering, punctuated by stirs, over about 40-50 minutes at lowest possible heat (hot enough to simmer but not burn the lentils). Add soy sauce (or a touch of salt) to taste. Once the lentils and potatoes have melded into a nice thick curry, it’d be ready to serve with some basmati rice!

The cost: A half-kilo of lentils, whether red, yellow, lentiles du Puy or black, shouldn’t set you back more than 2 Euro, and you’ll get at least three meals out of one bag. As Kean mentioned, your spice bag — Madras curry powder, turmeric — should be about 80 to 99 cents per bag. Potatoes, onions and carrots are a negligible cost per serving, as they come in bulk and are cheap; snap a ginger root in half at the market if you don’t want to buy too much (to keep it cheap, too.) Rice, given the worldwide price hikes, isn’t too cheap — but if you buy in bulk, it’s a better value.

Dhal encourages creativity, too. Toss in some tomatoes, or eggplant, or even coconut milk if you have it around. We bet you can feed four people for under 5 Euro…or way less if just for two, and you’ll have plenty of leftovers for lunch…

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