Hungry Dahl?

Cooking with kids: Dahl and Chapati 

A prata breakfast at Tekka Centre is an unusual way to spend Easter Sunday morning granted... but it was a great inspiration for todays lunch!

As I understand it dahl is most often eaten with rice or roti but I decided I'd go with chapati bread A/ because I had a recipe handy and B/ because it is made of wholemeal flour which happened to be in my kitchen and seemed a healthy option.

Dahl

My Dahl is pretty simple and I would suggest adding more salt and chilli for an adult palate.

Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Onion
1 Carrot (+ other vegetables as desired)
3 tsp of Garam Masala
1 Lt of Water
1 Cup dry red lentils
1 can chopped tomatoes
Salt and Peper

To a medium sized pot add oil, garlic, onions, carrot and whatever other vegetables you have handy (today I threw in a potato and some peas) and cook for 5 minutes or so.

Add 2 or 3 teaspoons of garam masala to the mix (at this point you could choose to add chilli powder if you wish) fry it for another minute or so.

Add water and red lentils and tomatoes and bring to a boil.

Simmer for 30 minutes or until the lentils are cooked through.

You can add fresh oregano and parsley etc at this point if you have it but I typically don't... tut tut!

Give it a brrrrr with the bar mix, salt and peper to taste, dollop of natural yogurt  ... voila 

Chapati bread 

250 g Wholemeal flour

175 ml Water

Mix and knead the dough for about 5 minutes, the mix will be very sticky so you'll need additional flour for kneading (I do this in a standard mixer with a dough hook so I think if you are doing it by hand you'll need to knead (LOL) for a little longer!

Place the mixture in a bowl and cover in cling wrap and leave in a warm place (not difficult in Singapore) for about 30 minutes.

Turn the mixture onto a heavily floured surface and split the mixture out into about 12 small balls...  this is the fun part for kids.. get them to help you roll out each ball into a thin flat "circle".

Cook the bread on a dry non-stick frypan for a couple of minutes on each side.  It should puff up a little bit - separating in the middle like pita - I have to admit Miss May was not nearly as excited to see this puffing business as I was... 

You can put a little butter on them to make them more appealing to kids - our nanny's comment was that it tasted like cardboard but I think at the time she was still getting over the mess in the kitchen... I think they are great dipping tool for the Dahl!  Yum!!