Recipe - Eggplant Dal Sauce

1 md Eggplant
2/3 cup Red lentils
2 cup Water
2 teaspoon Black mustard seeds
1 teaspoon Coriander
1 teaspoon Cumin
1 Cinnamon stick
1 Dried red chili
cayenne pepper to taste
salt to taste

Roast the eggplant in a 400degree oven for an hour (stab it first with a
fork). A half hour or twenty minutes before you anticipate the eggplant
will be done, pop the mustard seeds in a medium sized saucepan, then add
lentils, water and spices. Bring to a boil and gently simmer until the
eggplant is finished cooking, then remove eggplant from oven, slit open,
scoop out innards, chop them coarsely and add to lentils. Cook another
510 minutes to blend all the flavors. This would probably make a
respectable soup if it were thinned out with more water and broth, but I
served it over...

Kirsten, your recipe for eggplant dal sounds delicious, but would you
explain how to "pop" mustard seeds? Also, you call for black mustard seed
~ how is that different in flavor from regular mustard seed? Do you find
them at your HFS, or do normal grocery stores carry them? I pop the
seeds by putting them in a heavy wok with a lid. I spray a little bit of
Pam first. The brown or black mustard seeds can usually be gotten at a HFS
or an Indian grocery store. These are the only kinds of seeds I have ever
tasted so I can't comment on whether the flavor is different but they add
substantially to the flavor of an Indian type dish.

Kirstin Reade Wilcox krw3@columbia.edu
From Fatfree Digest AprilMay 1994, Formatting by Sue Smith (using MMCONV)

File ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/fatfreex.zip