Why I try, but can never cook like my mother

Ugh. What a week. Being out of the house 11 hrs per day is gets to be tiring, and with weekends now being spent in the lab, I have pretty much forgone any semblance of a life during daylight hours for the mesmerizing hum of -80C freezer (true story). Unfortunately, this means that my cooking life is lacking, and the relationship that I have with my kitchen is rapidly going south. Read: Kraft dinner or packaged udon noodles and frozen vegetables.

BUT this week, I decided that this is no way to treat my staved student body, so I scoured my stack of recipes and found one that I've neglected for far too long: my mother's recipe for dal. Let me make one thing clear: everything that I know about cooking, and my love for it, I have gotten from my mother. She is a creative and talented cook, and has perfected cooking both traditional-style South Indian food and food from around the world. But what I find most admirable about her is her ability to incorporable all required food groups to create a balanced meal for a solely vegetarian diet, while still keeping it fresh and interesting. It's something that I can definately learn, and am still learning (although when I go home it's mostly to enjoy her food and to bring back as much as my arms can carry and my fridge can handle). 

What I love about my mother's recipes is their room for creativity - there is no strict list of ingredients and, as long as you have the basic components you can have as much fun with it as you want and your budget will allow. Dal is a perfect example of that. It is a soup made of red lentils that is chock-full of protein and virtually devoid of fat. You can serve it over rice, with naan or roti (Indian flat breads) or on its own as a soup or, with vegetables, a main. The possibilities are endless. 

I chose to use what I had in my fridge to create my own version of dal; not as delicious as my mother's but still, pretty damn good!

My mother's infinitely adaptable dal

2 cups of water

1 cup red lentils, rinsed

Pinch of asafoetida 

Roughly 2 tsp cumin seeds

1-2 dried red chilies

2 tsp olive oil

About 1/2 cup chopped cilantro

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1. In a medium saucepan, combine red lentils, asafoetida and water and bring to a boil on medium-high heat.

2. When boiling, reduce heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes, adding water to adjust to desired consistency (lentils will be a butter-yellow at this point)

3. In a small skillet, heat olive oil and fry cumin seeds, red chiles and ground black pepper until just browned (take care to avoid burning the cumin seeds!)

4. Chop cilantro and set aside

5. When lentils are soft, mash lightly with a fork (I prefer a slightly thicker soup but you can blend it as well)

6. Add cumin seeds, pepper, chiles and cilantro, and salt to taste. Serve hot!

My mother has a number of variation to this recipe, including

- frying crushed garlic with cumin seeds

- adding fresh tomatoes (this will yield a waterier soup)

- adding fresh dill instead of cilantro

- adding freshly grated ginger

Ps: I have some projects brewing on the back burner of my brain, so keep your eyes out for some spring exam cooking fun