Welcome to the September meeting of Eden Cooks! Eden Cooks is a cooking club for any interested members of the Eden community. We will meet on the forum to discuss everything from tips and pointers for less well-equipped kitchens, explanations of cooking terms, and important techniques. There will be a featured recipe each meeting, with pictures taken as I prepare it for you. I will cover some ingredient substitutions to make each recipe more friendly to people with dietary restrictions. Since this is my very first meeting as the new leader of Eden Cooks, I'd like to share the recipe for my most-frequently-made meal. It's tasty, it's healthy, and it's cooked up in less than half an hour! Whenever I realize I forgot to plan dinner, whether I have guests over or I'm just cooking for myself, I'll throw together a batch of "masoor daal" --- that's split red lentils, cooked the Punjabi (north Indian) way---and some fresh flat bread. During the meeting, a $25 gift card will be awarded for the winner of a contest where you guess the lesser known kitchen implement from a series of photos that I take. Another will be given to the winner of a trivia contest from information that I will provide during the meeting. The meeting will take place on the EdenFantasys forum in this very thread at 8 pm EST on Thursday, September 8th. I'm really looking forward to hosting Eden Cooks, so I hope to see you there! less

So let's take a look at what we need to serve six people! (Or, if you live alone, this makes one week's worth of healthy packed lunches---daal keeps in the fridge a long time, or you can freeze it)



In three parts:
In the middle is the bean step.
1 cup split red lentils
3 cups water
1 Tbsp sweet acid (lemon juice, tamarind juice)

On the left is the chapati step.
2 cups "chaki atta," or all purpose flour.*
0.5 cup warm water, and a cup with water to dip your fingers in.
1 stick of butter for dabbing on the chapatis as they cook.

*Chaki atta (Golden Temple or Sujata are some popular brands) is a very fine grind of whole wheat flour with some bran added. It's a pretty color, and the flavor is nice and nutty. If you don't live by an Indian market, you might have a hard time finding this---so just to make sure it works with all-purpose flour, that's what I used in these pictures. Find it if you can, but don't sweat it if you can't. I've also seen people do 1 cup all purpose flour + 1 cup whole wheat flour, to give a little of the nuttiness.

On the right is the flavor step.
1 Tbsp ghee, butter, or oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 onion
1 clove garlic, (minced)
enough fresh ginger (minced) to make ~1 tsp
2-5 bird's eye chilis (Thai chilis)---to taste!
dried spices:
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp salt

(All of these spices except garam masala come from my standard grocery store, garam masala I order from Penzey's. If you're having a hard time finding each of the individual spices, you could use a pre-mixed "curry powder," but you won't be able to have quite as much fun!)

I cook the lentils in a medium saucepan, the spices in a small skillet, and the chapatis in a large skillet. You'll also have more fun with chapatis if you use a rolling pin. When I lived with roommates with an electric pancake griddle, chapatis were even easier to make---so if you have a griddle I'd suggest using that. less