Sour lentils Lucknow style

... or Lakhnawi Khatti Dal

I picked this up from Classic Indian Cookery by Julie Sahni and I first made it because I had tamarind pulp anyway (for making pad thai), but I've returned many times since and it has become a regular dish around our house.

Ingredients:
- 250 g pink lentils
- 1,25 L water
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 inch piece if ginger, finely chopped
- 1 heaping tbsp tamarind pulp
- butter
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- salt

The lentils were brought to a boil together with ground turmeric and finely chopped ginger.^[1] After simmering, partially covered, for 25 minutes, tamarind pulp was added^[2] and cooking was continued for about 15 minutes. At this point I am usually happy with the texture and simply season it with salt before serving.^[3]

While the lentils finish, butter was melted and when starting to brown added garlic paste, paprika and ground cumin - the spices were stirred into the butter in the hot pan before transferring to a bowl.

The lentils are served with the spiced butter (stirred into the lentils just before digging in), freshly chopped coriander, raita, chutney, rice, and flatbreads.

^[1] In my experience, when lentils first start to boil they tend to foam a lot and need a lot of stirring at this point in order for the pot not to spill over - after a few minutes this foaming subsides.

^[2] The original recipe calls for dissolving the tamaridn pulp in boiling water and straining it to rid it of fibrous strings - but all the brands of tamarind pulp I've bought have been too highly processed to contain any fibrous material to be removed by straining. Hence I use the tamarind directly.

^[3] The orignial recipe calls for beating the lentils to smooth the puré. I never bother with this.