Spicy Cumin And Pepper Dal (Jeere Meere Saar)

Powdered pepper and cumin are fried in ghee and added to a soupy gravy of split yellow lentils. This daal is called jeere meere saar is konkani and is dalithoy with a twist. This saaru is actually dalithoy's cousin. When we are bored of dalithoy we make dali tomato saaru or jeere meere saaru. You can find both recipes on my website. 

When this daal is eaten with hot steaming rice and with any spicy sukke or song makes a scrumptuous lunch/dinner.
You can cook this saaru 3 ways. My way, my Mil's way & my mom's way.

Mil cooked it like this:

She boiled toor dal. 

Fried whole cumin & peppercorns in ghee in a cooking pan. Crushed them after a while. Added slit green chillies and fried them in some extra ghee in the same pan. Added cooked toor dal to them. Added water to make it watery in consistency. Added salt + little ground coconut (2 tablespoons). Seasoned it with ghee + mustard seeds + cumin powder + pepper powder + dried red chillies + curry leaves. 

Mom makes it like this. 🤤🤤

Mom uses very little cooked toor dal. Makes it super watery. Adds salt + green chillies. Cooks them. Adds lemon juice & lots of fresh coriander once she turns off the gas. Seasons it with ghee + mustard seeds + cumin powder + pepper powder + dried red chillies + curry leaves. 

It's so yummmm to drink. To so good to eat steaming hot rice with it too. Especially when it's raining outside or when you are down with cold.

My old way of making it:

I was just learning to cook & found the simplest way to make this saaru. Cook pressure cooked toor dal with green chillies, water & salt. Season it with ghee + mustard seeds + cumin powder + pepper powder + dried red chillies + curry leaves. I add a pinch of turmeric powder for it's health benefits.

So which way will you follow? Which one you & your family love the best do let me know.  

Need more details? You can find the easiest way to make it below. Recipe for novice cooks.  

Ingredients:

1/2 cup toor dal/split yellow lentil
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1/2 teaspoon pepper powder
2-3 green chillies
1 dried red chilli
2 leaflets of curry leaves
3 tablespoons of ghee
1/2 teaspoon of mustard seeds
Salt to taste

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 22-25 minutes 

Preparation Method:

1. Pressure cook the lentil along with 1 cup of water and slit green chillies until the lentil is well cooked and mushy.

2. Transfer the cooked lentil into a cooking vessel, add salt, 1 cup water and bring it to boil. 

Add water depending on how thick you like your daal to be. Jeere meere saar tastes best when its watery. 

3. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee in a tadka pan. Fry cumin powder and pepper powder in ghee for 1-2 minutes and add it to the boiling daal.

Be careful as to not over fry the powders, that'll spoil the taste of the daal. We just want the powders to sizzle in ghee.

If you don't have the powders then you can crush cumin and pepper with a mortar and pestle and then fry them in ghee. But the powders are better any time.

4. Lower the heat and simmer the daal for few minutes until the cooked lentils blend into the extra water added.

5. Remove the daal off heat and season it. 

6. Seasoning: Heat remaining ghee in a tadka pan, then add mustard seeds. When they start to splutter, add in curry leaves and red chillies roughly broken into pieces. Fry them in ghee for a minute and remove off heat. Add the seasoning to the daal and mix well.

Serving suggestion:

Serve jeere meere saar hot with a bowl of steaming hot rice and enjoy! 

Add lemon juice on top for added taste. You can even add lemon juice to the jeere meere saar itself if you like it lemony, but add lemon juice only after the daal's removed off heat or else the daal gets bitter. 

The best combo with jeere meere saar is any sukke like cabbage batate sukke, beans batate sukke, mitke sanga sukke or batate song.

P.S: Add green chillies depending on how spicy they are and depending on how spicy you want your daal to be.

Find more Konkani cuisine curry recipes here. 

Tags: Lunch, dinner, toor dal, easy to prepare, spicy, vegetarian, dal, Konkani recipe, Konkani dish, Konkani cuisine, Udupi cuisine, Mangalore food, Konkani food, jeere meere saar, saaru, saru, bachelor recipe