Masoor aamti--the versatile little brown lentil

There are several ways in which masoor (the brown lentil) can be made: aamti to be eaten with rice, ussal--a dry stir fry of cooked and sprouted masoor with besan and lime juice. Here I describe a fairly easy to make masoor amti that was a staple in our household when I was growing up.

Ingredients:
Masoor
Garlic pods, grated ginger
Chopped onions
Tomato purée/ sauce/paste
Turmeric, cumin, heeng, bedgi mirchi or red chili powder
Kokum or tamarind paste
Salt, sugar.

Optional ingredients: coconut milk, cilantro, dhaniya powder

• In a pressure cooker, heat two teaspoons of oil. Add cumin seeds, heeng, bedgi mirchi and chopped up garlic pods. Let the diced pods turn slightly golden and add chopped onions.
• After onions turn translucent, add tomato purée, turmeric and grated ginger. At this stage, the Konkani recipe calls for addition of coconut milk or grated coconut purée with grated garlic, dhaniya powder and cilantro. For this recipe, green chillies work better than the bedgi red chillies. But I make it minus the coconut milk because it is lighter and I love the taste of the masoor. 
• Add masoor (you can soak masoor prior to use or just add it dry), double the amount of water as the masoor, kokum (you can add tamarind instead), jaggery, salt and sugar to taste.
• Pressure cook for 2-3 pressure cooker "whistles". 

Serve with rice. I like this particular dish with a simple beet root and chopped onion raita. Another favorite combination is rice and masoor aamti with either a piece of spicy pan roasted/ fried tilapia fish or some Bedekar sweet lime pickle.

Enjoy!