Put some ghee in a pan and lightly fry the onion with some finely chopped garlic. Add in the lentils, ground chillies, garam masala, chopped tomatoes and salt. Cover with two fingers’ width of water above the level of lentils and simmer over low heat, stirring continuously. Add water if needed, (when the stew runs out of broth) but not in excess. Stir until the lentils are very tender and star forming a purée. Finally, sprinkle some grated coconut over the Dal.
*To clarify butter, we need to cook it in a double boiler. If we put it directly over the heat, it would burn. When the butter melts, the aqueous whitish part of the butter separates from the fat, which is totally yellow. At this point we can remove the fat taking care not to take away any of the whey (whitish liquid).