Calcutta comforter

Name: Calcutta comforter
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
Yield: Serves: 4
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1 tbsp vegetable or mustard oil, if you can get hold of some; 1 small cauliflower, chopped into florets; ¼ tsp asafoetida; 1 tbsp grated fresh root ginger; 2 bay leaves; 1 tsp mustard seeds; 1 tsp fenugreek seeds; 2 tbsp ghee/clarified butter; 1 tsp cumin seeds; 90 g/3¼ oz/½ cup yellow split peas; 1 tbsp ground cumin; 1 tbsp ground coriander; 2 tomatoes, finely chopped; 1 tsp turmeric; 1 large green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped; a handful of chopped coriander/cilantro leaves; salt; 1 tsp red chilli powder; 200 g/7 oz/heaped 1 cup long-grain white rice, rinsed and drained; jars of Asian pickles and crushed ready-salted crisps,

Preparation info

Serves:
4

Difficulty
Medium
Ready in
50 min

Appears in

Pimp My Rice

By Nisha Katona

Published 2017

About

Truth is, we eat this with ready salted crisps and jarred pickle – a truly shameless comforter. If you have had the sophistication to buy and add the fenugreek and asafoetida, why, you deserve a happy hands-free ending.

Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable or mustard oil, if you can get hold of some
1 small cauliflower, chopped into florets

Main course
Vegetarian
Gluten-free

Method

Heat ½ tablespoon of the oil in a heavy-based frying pan and sauté the cauliflower florets over a medium-high heat until they colour and soften slightly. This should take around 6–8 minutes. Remove from the pan and leave to one side.

Dry-roast the split peas over a medium heat in a separate pan for about 3–4 minutes until golden brown, then remove from heat and leave to one side.