Courtesy of Chef Oza — not his recipe, but because his $108 book is difficult to justify, searches for something akin to what he called mulligatawny are ongoing, as noted ad nauseum… This particular search was done by google image, suspecting it was a rasam variety, hoping visual feasting could accurately identify one similar.
Not the case, with this, and instructions were somewhat vague, resulting in an overly tamrindy stew — too thick to boot. However, reviewing elsewhere clarified the proper treatment of the tamarind, and pressing what was brewed through a strainer and diluting a bit more, finally produced the marvelous sour, spicy soup. Certainly not Chef Oza’s marvelous mulligatawny, but tamarind was definitely in use…
Interesting to note, that a dal — is a split pea of any kind: Garbanzo, kidney, lentil, etc. Additionally, red lentils are simply split brown lentils! So, whole lentils are masoor, and split red lentils are masoor dal. Whole masoor dal followed the spicy broth — also a bit thick, but not off-putting, and obviously to concentrate the flavors:
Acompanying the stews where very clever loaves of bhaturi, using pre-fabricated bread as one of the ingredients! In this recipe, it was learned that whole wheat is not atta, and further, that it doesn’t really matter because these were still outrageously rich and delicious right out of the fryer. She instructs, “with the help of a slotted spoon, nudge gently so that the bhatura gets puffed up.” Which seems somewhat silly, until a dough-disk is left to its own devices and remains just that! Gentle tapping with the spoon does seem to assist with the puff. Having a little fun with it: Half were tapped and half were not. All tapped with the spoon puffed splendidly, the others — barely at all.
And it is true, the bubbled bhaturi were better bread — rich and magnificent, but needing to be eaten near immediately, as various methods of re-heating did not fare them well.
S.E.M.I.C.O.G.E.N.T. for bread and rasam, the curry was merely excellent.
Crew Cuisine 