Dal Makhani and Homemade Flatbread

Can we talk about how I'm the boss at dinner?  Just for a second?  Okay, great.

I had never made lentils before, but I decided I was going to so I bought a bag from the grocery store.  And then the bag sat on the shelf for days and weeks and months, getting pushed farther and farther towards the (shadowy, uncharted) back of the pantry until I had forgotten all about their existence and my desire to eat them.

And then I found a recipe.

A recipe for dal makhani, specifically, from Can You Stay For Dinner (which, btw, I am completely obsessed with at the moment).  I remembered the poor, untouched bag of lentils sitting in my pantry and I recalled a recipe for 2-ingredient flatbread that I had been wanting to try.  It was like fate.  Or coincidence.  One of those two things.  Anyway, here's how you do it:

Dal Makhani
Adapted from Can You Stay For Dinner
Makes like 3 or 4 cups, maybe?  I don't really know, I'm sorry.

Ingredients:
1 cup dried lentils
15 oz can tomato puree
1 T grated ginger (I use the kind that come in a squeeze tube in the fresh herb section of the grocery store)
1 t minced garlic (I use the jarred kind, but it's about 2 cloves of real garlic)
2 T butter
cayenne pepper to taste
plain yogurt to taste (the original recipe calls for cream but I didn't have any, nor was I interested in buying some just for the 3 T needed)
 
Measure and rinse your lentils, then put them in a pot and cover them with a few inches of water.  Bring the pot to a boil, then let the lentils simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes or so until they are softened.

Once the lentils have finished cooking, drain the water then return the lentils to the pot.  Add the tomato puree, ginger, garlic, butter, and cayenne pepper.

The garlic is totally in there, it's just under the cayenne pepper.

Here's the part where I realized I should have read the recipe more carefully before I started cooking:  at this point, the lentils need to simmer, covered and on low, for another hour.  So, dinner was a little later than originally anticipated, but it gave me time to finish up the flatbread.  Speaking of which:

Two-Ingredient Flatbread
From The Little Things
Makes 4 pieces

Ingredients:
1 1/3 c self-rising flour
5 oz yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
salt (technically this is a third ingredient, but whatever)

First I should start by saying that I don't actually own self-rising flour.  But, I do own regular flour, baking powder, and salt, so I made my own.  Following this technique, I combined 1 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour, 1 1/2 t baking powder, and 1/2 t Kosher salt.

It should be noted that the original recipe is to make 1 cup of self-rising flour and I didn't do any actual math to adjust it up to 1 1/3 cups, I just approximated.

To the dry ingredient(s), add 5 oz yogurt (I measured with my kitchen scale) and mix to form a ball of dough.  I didn't add any additional salt at this point, but I probably should have and I will next time.

Divide the dough into 4 pieces, and roll out each piece to about 1/4 inch thickness (this of course is another approximation; I just rolled it out until it looked right).

This is what we call 'making do with what we have.'

Then, place one piece of dough at at time on a hot grill pan for about 2-3 minutes each side, until they are a little puffed and have nice grill marks.  You may suspect that a grill pan is on the list of things I don't have in my kitchen, and you would be correct.  But, I do have a George Foreman:

It totally worked, too.

Eventually the lentils will be done cooking, and when that time comes stir in enough yogurt to get to a color you like.

The verdict?

This was delicious.  I've honestly never heard Kevin say, "Mmmm!" that many times for anything else I've ever made him.  The flavors of garlic and ginger were such a great combination, and the flatbread on the side was perfect, especially with a little butter on top.  I'll definitely be making this one again.