Whole masoor cooked to a thick, brick-red curry with browned onion and kasuri methi, served with pale jowar rotis blistered over the flame.

Ingredients

From the TrooFoodz pantry

• Sprouted Jowar Flour 2 cups

Fresh

• Whole masoor (brown lentils), soaked 1 hour 1 cup
• Onions, finely chopped 2
• Tomatoes, pureed 3
• Ginger-garlic paste 1 1/2 tbsp
• Green chillies, slit 2
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp
• Coriander powder 2 tsp
• Kashmiri chilli powder 1 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala 1 tsp
• Kasuri methi 1 tbsp
• Mustard oil 3 tbsp
• Salt 1 3/4 tsp
• Hot water 1 1/4 cups (for the dough)
• Ghee, to finish the rotis 3 tsp

Method

1. Cook to just-whole

   Boil the soaked masoor with turmeric until the lentils are tender but still holding their skins — three whistles, no more. Whole masoor curry wants texture, not mush.

2. Brown the onion properly

   Fry the onion in smoked mustard oil over medium heat for a full 12 minutes until deep brown. This is the base of the curry's colour and its sweetness.

3. Fry powders hard

   Add ginger-garlic paste and chillies, then coriander, chilli powder and a splash of water, and fry until the water evaporates and the oil separates out again.

4. Reduce the tomato

   Pour in the tomato puree and cook hard for eight minutes until it darkens to brick and pulls away from the sides of the pan.

5. Combine and thicken

   Add the masoor with its cooking liquor, salt and garam masala, and simmer uncovered 10 minutes so the curry tightens around the lentils.

6. Warm-water dough

   Meanwhile bind the Sprouted Jowar Flour with hot water and knead three minutes; pat or roll 16 cm rotis and cook two minutes a side on a hot tawa.

7. Flame and finish

   Puff each roti briefly over open flame and brush with ghee. Crush the kasuri methi between your palms over the curry just before serving.

Why this works

Whole masoor keeps its skin, so it needs a curry with body around it rather than a thin dal — hence the long onion browning and the hard-reduced tomato. Crushing kasuri methi at the last moment releases its aroma into the steam instead of letting it cook flat.

Make it your own

• Whole masoor → Whole moong Greener, firmer bite; add 10 minutes to the boil.
• Mustard oil → Groundnut oil Neutral; let the browned onion carry the flavour.
• Kasuri methi → Fresh methi leaves Add a handful with the tomato; greener and less musky.