Amti (Maharashtrian Dal)

Blogging Marathon# 25: Week 3/ Day 1
Theme: Cooking with Alphabets - A, L, F
Dish: A for Amti
My theme for this week of BM# 25 is "Cooking with Alphabets" and I picked "A, L & F". So for the next 3 days I'm going to make dishes that start with these letters. For the first day, I have "A for Amti".
Amti is a Maharashtrian dal that is spicy and very flavorful with the use of amti masala, tamarind and jaggery. If you have the amti masala already made, dal takes no time to cook. I made my batch of masala and I'm looking forward to make this delicious dals in its various forms in the future. I followed Nupur's recipe for Amti to the T and the whole family loved this dal. Its slightly tangy, slightly spicy and slightly sweet -- an explosion of flavors in the mouth. Thank you Nupur for this authentic recipe.
Amti Masala: Ingredients: Coriander seeds - ½cup Cumin seeds - ¼cup Shahjeera - 2tsp Cloves - 10-12 Cinnamon - 1: piece
Method:

• Dry roast all the ingredients on a very low flame, stirring frequently until the spices start to smell fragrant and they turn a little darker in color (but don't burn the spices).
• Grind into a smooth powder and store in an airtight container.

Amti Dal: Ingredients: Toor dal - ½cup
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Amti Masala - 1tsp
Tamarind pulp - 1tsp
Jaggery - 1tsp
Red Chili powder - ½tsp
Turmeric powder - ¼tsp
Salt - to taste
For Tempering:
Mustard seeds - ½tsp
Cumin seeds - ½tsp
Dry Red Chili - 1
Curry leaves - 8-10
Asafoetida (Hing) - pinch
Method:

• Cook toor dal until soft and almost mushy in a pressure cooker (I cook for 5-6 whistles on medium-high flame and then reduce the flame to low and let it sit for 3-4 minutes for a well cooked dal).
• Heat 2tsp oil in a sauce pan; add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add onions and cook until they turn translucent.
• Add turmeric, amti masala, red chili powder and salt. Cook for 1-2 minutes.
• Next add the cooked dal and enough water to get to the desired consistency.
• Then add tamarind and jaggery; bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve with hot steamed rice and a dab of ghee.

I served this simple amti with sorakaya-senagapindi kura (doodhi-besan curry), dosakaya chinthakaya pachadi and rice for a filling lunch. Lets check out what my fellow marathoners have cooked up today for BM# 25.