Slow-Cooked Onion with Pigeon Peas from 660 Curries by Raghavan Iyer

Ingredients

• 12 to 15 medium-size to large fresh curry leaves
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves and tender stems
• 1 medium-size tomato, cored and finely chopped
• ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds
• 4 fresh green Thai, cayenne, or serrano chiles, stems removed, cut crosswise inton ½-inch-thick slices (do not remove the seeds)
• 1 small red onion, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced
• 1 cup oily or unoily skinned split yellow pigeon peas (toovar dal), picked over for stones
• 2 tablespoons Ghee or canola oil
• ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds, ground
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, ground
• ½ teaspoon black or yellow mustard seeds, ground
• 1½ teaspoons coarse kosher or sea salt