Viva Lewes Issue #149 February 2019

RECIPE
Methi Dal
Community Chef Robin van Creveld
I’m a long-term vegetarian, despite being an
omnivorous chef, and so lentils and legumes
are a key part of my diet. I spent a lot of time
in India, back and forth, and I learnt to cook in
India. I mean I really learnt. I lived in ashrams,
where much of life is focused around the
kitchen and I was blessed to learn from very
experienced cooks. I’m actually making my
favourite comfort food for this recipe. Dal and
chapatti, for me, when life is complex, makes
me feel a lot better.
Chana dal, or yellow split peas, are one of the
highest protein lentils you can eat. They are
also the only lentil that you can commercially
grow in this country – I use Hodmedods as my
main supplier of British-grown, quirky legumes.
Chana dal has a texture unlike most lentils. It
has integrity, body, which means that, as part of
a dish, you get complex flavours and textures,
which I really love.
Soaking is a really important stage. You can soak
the peas in water for as little as two hours but it’ll
make you fart like crazy; the longer you soak –
up to two days, changing the water several times
– the more of the farty stuff goes out.
Methi means fenugreek. Most people use
the seed, or powdered fenugreek which
is principally bitter, and easy to burn. My
preference is the leaf, which gives you a very
enigmatic flavour that is quintessentially Indian.
For Indian food, the longer and slower you
cook your onions, the more depth of flavour
you have to your gravy. I start the cooking in oil
and finish with butter, which is my preference
for this sort of food.
Ingredients
250g yellow split peas (pre-soak in ample water
for 8 hours minimum); 1tsp turmeric; 1tsp
garam masala. For the gravy: 1 onion, minced;
1tbsp tomato purée; 2 tomatoes, chopped; 3
cloves garlic, chopped; ½ tsp fenugreek leaf (or
½ tsp ground fenugreek); ½tsp turmeric; 1tsp
ground cumin; 1tsp ground coriander; ½tsp
chilli powder; salt; 150g frozen peas. For the
tarka: 2tsbp butter; 1 clove garlic, sliced; ½tbsp
grated ginger; 1 fresh green chilli, sliced
Method
Cover the soaked split peas in three times
their volume of water, add turmeric and garam
masala and parboil for 20 minutes or until the
lentils are soft and their liquid reduced by half.
Discard any foam that forms on top and add
salt to taste. To make the gravy: fry the onions
and garlic until soft, add ground spices and salt
and fry for one minute before adding both fresh
and puréed tomatoes. When the cooking oil
starts to separate from the tomato gravy, add
the split peas and their water and simmer until
the liquid is further reduced by half. Shortly
before serving, stir in the peas. Melt butter in a
pan and gently fry garlic, ginger and chilli and
drizzle over the hot dal. Serve with chapatti and
fresh onion salad.
As told to Chloë King
Robin van Creveld runs a range of courses both
at and away from his Community Kitchen on
North Street and on 16th Feb is co-hosting an
event for the British Dal Festival in Lewes. See
communitychef.org.uk and instagram.com/
lewesdalfestival
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