The Magic called...Curry Leaves!

Many of you have probably never used or even seen a curry leaf before. Also known as kadi patta, and limbdo, if you can get fresh ones, they are very fragrant, lemony leaves that you can throw into curries and soups. I love them. But, they are ever so hard to find unless you know of a very well stocked Indian grocery store.

You do need to be careful with these leaves. Each leaf punches a lot of flavor, so you don't want to over do it. I particularly like them in dals (Indian lentil soup) and potato curry. I have not experimented with curry leaves in non-Indian foods, because I can rarely get my hands on them, but I am sure with the right combination, they would be fabulous.

Here's my all time favorite dal recipe, but even this lentil, called toor dal is somewhat difficult to find unless you can get to an Indian grocery store.

Ingredients

1 cup toor dal
3 cups water
2 medium sized tomatoes, diced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
salt
1 tsp turmeric
6 curry leaves
2 tsp coriander powder
lemon
cilantro

Directions:
1. Boil dal in the water until very soft and mushy. Feel free to add more water if necessary. Should take about 40 minutes to cook through.
2. In a large heavy bottomed pot on high heat, add oil. Once oil is hot, add mustard and cumin seeds. When they start to pop, add the tomatoes and stir quickly to prevent splattering.
3. Reduce to medium heat, and add some salt, curry leaves,turmeric, coriander powder. IF you have cayenne pepper or a hot green chillie, throw 'er in if you want some spiciness to this dal.
4. Once tomatoes are mushy, add the cooked dal and increase the heat to high. Add some additional water if you feel it is too thick. The thickness of this dal all depends on your preference.
5. Let this boil for about 10 minutes. Turn heat off and add some more salt to your taste and lemon.
6. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy!

This dish goes really well with some basmati rice, and is perfect for a chilly winter's day!