Curried Dal with Basmati-Raisin Pilaf

You already know we love incorporating world cuisine into our weekly repertoire, and last night's culinary journey was to India. We clipped a recipe for Curried Dal with Basmati-Raisin Pilaf out of the October 2008 issue of Cooking Light and have come *this close* to using it a number of times but could never commit. Last night we finally got an opportunity to prepare it, and with great results.

Dal is a vegetarian dish of lentils, and this particular recipe include instructions for fragrant basmati rice to accompany it. Because it's really two dishes, you might be intimidated by the army of ingredients it sports, but don't fret - this meal comes together astonishingly quickly.

This is a recipe where we absolutely recommend chopping and measuring everything out ahead of time, because the rice and dal are cooked simultaneously, and each for only 15 minutes. We started by taking out all of our ingredients, looking ahead in the recipe to see which items "went together", and measuring them together into small bowls representing each step.

The rice is easy to begin first, because all 8 of its component go into the saucepan together - water, rice, and aromatics and seasonings. If you're having trouble finding cardamom pods (those two little seeds laying at the right front corner of our cutting board in the picture), you can either omit them or substitute 1/4 tsp of ground cardamom. We bought our cardamom pods in the bulk section of our grocery store, because a bottle of them was marked at a mind-blowing $9.99! (About 20 of them in bulk were just 80 cents.)

While you wait for the rice to boil, heat the olive oil over medium high heat, then sautee the onions for 5 minutes. When the rice comes to a boil, stir it once, cover it, and reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for 15 minutes until it's nice and fluffy. You'll die when you smell this rice - it's so sweetly fragrant! The cinnamon sticks, bay leaf, and cardamom pods can be discarded, then remove the rice from the heat and keep warm.

Turning our attention back to the dal, when the onions have sauteed, the spices, ginger, and garlic are incorporated into the onion mixture for 30 seconds, then the water and all other ingredients (except the cilantro!) are added. That mixture is also brought to a boil, then covered and simmered over medium low for 15 minutes, after which the cilantro is stirred in. Then it's time for dinner!

We've noticed in our years of preparing Cooking Light dishes that their spiciness is often overstated. We were expecting a little more heat based on the incorporation of serrano chiles into the dal and were slightly disappointed this time. Sure, it was delicious, but we were hoping for a little more kick. So, to our Southern friends, who are always adding Tony's and Tabasco to everything, we recommend grabbing 2 or 3 of those chiles and going with gusto!

To recap:

• Buy your cardamom pods in bulk.
• Measure out everything ahead of time for a stress-free cooking experience.
• Turn up the heat!