Lajeet's Kitchen

On the topic of new beginnings, my older son started kindergarten this year, and with it has come new friendships for both him and me. One of the mum's is an amazing cook from India and she has graciously offered to teach me and another mum (let's call her Danica, cause that is her name.)

Dancia and Lajeet before the magic.

Now, I've been a vegetarian for over 10 years and I've probably tried a dozen lentil dahl recipes, but I can't even come close to the flavour at an East Indian restaurant. So what aren't the recipes telling us?


Lajeet watching over her protege.

Here is what I learned during lesson #1 of Lajeet's kitchen:

1. Fresh spices are best. Toast and grind your own, blend your own garam masala. We did a sniff test. My cumin smelled good. Then we smelled Lajeet's fresh cumin and when I went back to smell mine, I almost couldn't detect the cumin!
2. Soak lentils overnight. Then cook them with salt, chili, turmeric, ginger, and garlic until soft. Then set aside.
3. Cook the lentils again. Saute cumin seeds, onion, and garlic until soft, then add the lentils again along with jalapeno, tomato, turmeric and chopped coriander.

I think you could take any dahl recipe and add the above steps. The results literally had me calling out Lajeet's name. We served the dahl with homemade yogurt and fresh roti.




Here I am, sampling the curry!