Nutrish and Delish: Authentic Indian is low-fat, hi-pro, and healthy!

The beauty of making your own Indian food is that it tastes SO much better than take-out AND, you save thousands of kcalories and grams fat -- REALLY! Home-made Indian food is SO much more lighter to the touch with the fats needed to cook it as well as other fattening ingredients like coconut milk or cream. Also, once you set your mind to making and enjoying a dish or two, you have a host of the NECESSARY INGREDIENTS in your kitchen cupboard which makes it handier and easier to cook your home-made Indian delicacies for the next time you fancy it. And, honestly, it REALLY DOES NOT REQUIRE ALOT OF TIME AND COOKING EXPERTISE!. A book I would HIGHLY recommend is:

Curry Easy by Madhur Jaffrey, Ebury Press, 2010. The following BRILLIANT recipe is from her book on page 191. I recently made it and served it with grilled salmon. We didn't have naan or any other starch with the meal -- only cucumber and coriander salad with plain yogurt. What a quick and easy, yet satisfying scrumptious, filling meal!

Goan-style Dal Curry

This delicious curry can also be made with moong dal (skinned and split mung beans) or mixed half and half with them. Serve with rice and some fish. Serves 4-5.

200 g/7 oz red lentils (skinless masoor dal), washed and drained
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 1/2 tsp salt
50 g/1 3/4 oz fresh chopped coriander
1/2-3/4tsp cayenne pepper
2 Tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
1/2 tsp whole brown mustard seeds
1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds
1/2 medium onion, peeled and chopped
10-15 fresh curry leaves or 6 fresh basil leaves, torn
1 tsp peeled and very finely chopped grated fresh ginger
1 large clove garlic, peeled and crushed

Put the lentils and 700 ml/24 fl oz water in a medium pan. Bring to the boil but do not let boil over. Skim off the froth and add the turmeric. Stir, cover partially, reduce the heat to very low and simmer gently for 40 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, salt, coriander, and cayenne pepper. Bring to a simmer. Cover, lower the heat.

Pour the oil into a small frying pan and set over a medium-high heat. When hot, put in the mustard and cumin seeds. As soon as the mustard seeds begin to pop, a matter of seconds, put in the onion and curry or basil leaves. Stir and fry until the onion starts to brown. Now put in the ginger and garlic. Stir for one minute, then empty the contents of the pan into the lentils. Stir to mix.

Enjoy! ;)