Red Lentil (Paste, Fry, Curry)\Musur Daal (Baata, Bora, Jhol)

This is a 3-in-1 post; or you can say a 3-in-1 recipe. With the same ingredients you can get three different dishes at one time: Paste (Baata), Fries (Bora\Pakoda) & Curry (Jhol). The paste is a very popular Assamese side dish, where as I have seen the pakodas in every Bengali house & I have seen these curry mainly in Assamese cuisine. So we can say this is a mixture of two different cuisines. Just try it & let me know your experience.

Ingredients:

Musur Daal\ Red Lentil - 1 cup

Onion - 2, medium, finely chopped

Chilly - 1, finely chopped

Tomato - 1/2, take out seeds & finely chopped

Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup, finely chopped

Salt to taste

Onion seeds - 1/2 tsp

Oil to fry

1. Soak the Musur Dal\Red lentil 2 hours before cooking.

2. Once it is soaked put it in a food porcesser and process it until you have a "not-so-smooth" paste of musur daal. The paste cant be too runny or too tight. Also I like if the paste is not very smooth.

3. Add the chopped tomato, coriander leaves, green chillies and sliced onion in the daal mixture. Add the salt and whip the whole mixture thoroughly with your hand. Add the onion seeds & mix again.

Note: Just before adding onion seeds, keep aside 4tbsp paste in a bowl & add a little mustard oil (I love the smell of the oil, so I always add 1tbsp oil to get a tasty paste :) ). Use this paste as a side dish. This is a popular Assamese side dish.

4. Heat the oil in a kadai and then pick up the mixture with a spoon and pour in the oil. Fry them evenly on both the sides and serve the red hot fries (bora).

Note: Some time I like to prepare curry of these pakoras\fries. This is also very popular Assamese cuisine. 

To prepare the curry:

Onion - 1, small, sliced

Garlic - 2 cloves, chopped

Ginger - 1/2tsp, paste

Oil - 1tbsp

Cumin Powder - 1/3 tsp

Coriander Powder - 1/2tsp

Chilly Powder - 1/3tsp

Salt to taste

Sugar to taste

Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp

1. Heat oil in a pan,add garlic & onion. When onion becomes soft, add cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, chilly powder & salt. (You can add potato pieces-cut into medium cubes.) 

2. Saute for 4-5min in low flame. Add water. (If added potato, cover the pan & cook for 7-8min in low flame, then uncover & cook in high flame for 5mins.) Cook in high flame for 5mins without covering the pan. Curry is ready.

3. Add the Lentil fries or daal pakoras in the curry, cook on low flame for 3-5mins. Add chopped coriander leaves, turn off the heat & serve hot.