Gongura Pappu ~ Andhra Style Lentils with Sorrel Leaves

The love of the sour Sorrel leaves or Gongura leaves in Andhra cooking is legendary. it is used as a souring agent in vegetable, dal/lentil and meat dishes and is world famous as Gongura Pachadi which is a chutney made out of it. As is normal, the preparation and the combination of foods it must be eaten with changes in every region. For instance, in the telangana area, gongura pachadi is eaten with jowar roti and sliced raw onions, in nellore i know it is eaten with hot steaming rice and a dollop of ghee and sliced raw onions. I prefer to skip the raw onions and just gorge on the pachadi with hot rice….

today’s recipe is a bachelor / singleton friendly one pot deal to make gongura pappu. this is a style of cooking i prefer the most… easy and effortless, yet the resultant dal is so full bodied and flavorful, it warrants to be put on a menu for a home style brunch.

Gongura Pappu

time taken – 20 minutes

serves – 2-3 persons

Tur Dal / Split pigeon peas/ arhar dal  - ½ cup (washed and soaked in water for 15 minutes)

Gongura Leaves / Sorrel  - 1-1½ cups (washed and stems removed)

Small onion (chopped – optional)

Green chilies – 2

A pinch each of asafetida and turmeric

Salt to taste

For the tadka/ seasoning

Ghee/ oil (gingely oil is preferred) – 1 teaspoon

Whole cumin seeds/ jeera – 1 teaspoon

Dry red chilies – 2-3

Fresh curry leaves – 15

Garlic – 2-3 pods

1. Take all the ingredients except the ones for tadka into a pressure cooker, add 2 cups of water and cook for 3-4 whistles. The dal should be cooked and you should be able to mash it with the back of a ladle.
2. When the pressure releases, add the salt and mash the dal with a spoon. Put the dal back on the heat and simmer for 5-6 minutes.
3. In a small pan, heat the ghee/ oil and add the whole cumin. Let it splutter, add the red chilies and peeled garlic, fry it till the garlic is turning golden brown.
4. Add the curry leaves, when they crackle, add it to the boiled, mashed dal. simmer for 2-3 minutes. Serve hot with rotis although steamed rice and ghee is preferred.

Sprouted Red Lentils – Masoor ki Dal

I love lentils in most forms. I keep buying them at the grocery store, and because we are so partial towards the ubiquitous tur dal, i often end up with red lentils or whole moong dal which i need to use in a hurry. I used sprouted whole red lentils or masoor ki dal in this one. Something about the delicate pink lentils and the fact that they cook easily and can blend into any kind of preparation makes me partial to them. Hyderabadis are generally partial towards these form of lentils and our khichdi is mostly made using masoor rather than moong dal like everyone else.

This is a dry dal and is best paired with hot rotis or parathas. It can substitute for a dry vegetable on a hurried weeknight. i used sprouted lentils to up the nutrition factor, this is optional. Its also a one pot preparation and is made completely in a pressure cooker. Use a heavy bottomed pan with a fitting lid if you dont have a pressure cooker.

Sprouted Red Lentils – Masoor ki Dal

1 cup red lentils, soaked in water for 1 hr, drained and left to sprout (about 6 hrs) alternatively, just soak the lentils for a couple of hours, drain and use.

1 medium sized onion, chopped

1-2 medium tomatoes, chopped

1 green chilli, split lengthwise

1/2 teaspoon of ginger garlic paste

1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder

1/4 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon coriander powder

a pinch of asafetida / hing

a few curry leaves

salt to taste

2 cups of water

1 teaspoon of vegetable oil

1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds (jeera)

heat the oil in a pressure cooker and add the cumin seeds, once they splutter, add the curry leaves, onions, green chilli and saute for a minute. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute till the raw smell disappears. add the turmeric, asafetida, coriander powder, red chilli powder and saute for a minute. Add the washed, soaked and sprouted lentils, the chopped tomatoes and salt to taste. add the 2 cups of water and cook on pressure for 3 whistles. (if not using a pressure cooker, cover and cook till the lentils are soft but not mushy). once the pressure is released open the pan, stir and check the seasoning. Adjust if needed and cook without the lid till the water dries up completely. Serve hot with rotis or parathas.

Spicy Whole Red Lentils (masoor ki dal)

I am trying to eat more varieties of lentils and went searching for stuff in the supermarket aisles that i generally dont buy. i found a bag of whole red lentils (masoor ki dal) and while i love the skinned version of it, common sense told me the whole skin intact one would have a nice nutty flavour and would be more nutritious as well. so in it went into my grocery bag. once home, it was put into the pantry and promptly forgotten. One morning, hunting for coffee powder amongst the pantry supplies, i found this bag and soaked about 2/3 cup of it. i had a full 3-4 hours to decide what to do with it. having never cooked with it before, and not sure if K would eat it at all, i trawled the net to find a recipe. I saw a few, read thru and decided to do my own thing. I’d already made the mixed dal which turned out to be a hit and so i had the mind to dump everything in the cooker and cook it to submission what i would do. I added coconut milk and a tablespoon of some meat masala that was sitting in my kitchen shelf and that really made all the difference to this dal. It was finger licking good and K even woke up around midnight to eat some plain dal straight from the fridge. this is a spicy dal, goes well with rotis and plain rice.

Spicy Whole Red Lentils

2/3 cup whole masoor dal / red lentils with skin soaked for 3 hrs

1 large red onion chopped roughly

pinch of asafetida

pinch of turmeric

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

2 slit green chillies

1 cup water

a few curry leaves

1 tomato chopped or 2 tablespoons tomato puree

Pressure cook all of the above for 3-4 whistles and turn off the heat. allow the steam to escape and open the cooker, stir the contents well.

1/2 cup thick coconut milk

1 1/2 teaspoon everest meat masala (or any other sucyh as kitchen king masala) you can substitute this with 1/2 teaspoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, 1/2 teaspoon jeera powder

2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves

salt to taste

Add the above to the pressure cooker and heat through, stirring well. Simmer for about 2-3 minutes till everything is well incorporated. check for spice and seasoning and adjust accordingly. the consistency should not be too thick or thin, rather like a thick soup.

for the tadka

1 teaspoon ghee

1-2 dry red chillies

1/2 teaspoon whole cumin / jeera

Heat the ghee in a small pan. splutter the mustard, add the dried red chillies and wait for a couple of seconds till they change colour. add this to the cooked lentils, bring to a boil.Take off from heat  and serve hot with steamed rice or rotis.

Introducing a brand new blogger – Swati of the Weekend Epicurean …. and easy Mixed Dal

All those of you who’ve encouraged me, please say hello to Swati, media person, executive producer, woman of today and Weekend Epicurean. Swati and I know each other through a dear friend U, and when she expressed her desire to start a food blog, i  told her of my tryst with blogging and how much i had grown personally from this little space i share with so many of you. When i told her of the joys of writing and finding your niche in this space, of meeting people and making friends, it didnt take her long to start her own blog.

Please stop over and send her your wishes!! Goodluck Weekend Epicurean…. may you have a beautiful journey.

Now for a an easy recipe for the blazing hot summer’s when the last thing you want to do is stand in the hot kitchen…. this recipe pretty much needs no babysitting, and is full of wonderful flavour. Makes a working night dinner with some hot steamed rice. Ok, if you are feeling indulgent, then roast some papad and add some pickle… but i ain’t going to stand in the kitchen longer than i have to light the flame under the cooker!!

Mixed Dal (serves 4)

2 tablespoons each tur (split yellow pigeon peas), Chana (split husked chickpeas), Masoor (red lentils), Whole moong (green gram with skin) and skinned moong

1 medium onion chopped

1 medium tomato chopped

1/2 teaspoon ginger garlic paste, or 1 pod garlic and small knob of ginger, roughly chopped or crushed

pinch of hing (asafetida)

pinch of turmeric

1 teaspoon of dhania jeera powder (or mix half tsp of each together)

2 slit green chillies or 1 teaspoon red chilly powder

1 1/2  cups of water

Salt to taste

Take all the ingredients for the dal except the salt in a pressure cooker and add the 11/2 cups water to it. (leave out the tadka stuff). Cook it for 2-3 whistles, let the steam release, mash well with the back of a ladle or with a dal masher.

For the tadka/ popu/ seasoning:

1 tablespoon ghee (or oil but it isnt the same minus the ghee)

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds, cumin seeds

10 curry leaves

2 dried red chillies

In a small tempering pan, heat the ghee or oil, add the cumin and mustard seeds and allow to splutter, add the dried red chillies and wait till they change colour to bright red, add the curry leaves now and take off the heat. Add this to the cooked and mashed dal. Mix well. Serve with plain steamed rice or rotis.

Idly and Sambhar

Idlies are a staple in our home. We can eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Sometimes on the same day!! I try and make the batter on Sunday so as to see me through 3 meals. It saves precious time and energy when you would rather be doing something else than tearing you hair out over a menu option. Depending on its availability, i use regular sona masuri or boiled idly rice. The results with the idly rice are far superior as the idlies turn out real fluffy. The key to making good idlies is to have well fermented batter at room temperature. And a good robust steamer. Steaming hot idlies with sambhar, chutney or podi. Yum!

I was looking at my dal/ sambhar category, I realised I didn’t have a post with sambhar. Now, Sambhar is like biryani, everyone has their own recipe. I didn’t know what the fuss was all about. In my home, there was no Holy Grail for sambhar. Soon after we got married, K craved for his mom’s version even though I used the very fabulous MTR sambhar powder. On the next trip we made to his parents place, I got down to work and got myself the recipe. Amma makes it fresh each time, but I am a bag of lazy bones and I will have none of the roasting and grinding, especially when pressed for time. While I sometimes still use a combination of readymade dry powders, this masala can be made fresh coconut and all, stocked in the freezer to be had at a moments notice. I also add an assortment of whatever vegetables I have on hand. At K’s parents place, its one veggie at a time. So it will either be shallots, ladies finger (okra) or drumsticks but not a combination. Sambhar is best paired with hot steamed rice, idlies or as in my case, bread.

Its been raining steadily in Hyderabad over the last few weeks and i am loving the weather. Nothing like a bowl of steaming hot idlies, sambhar with a dollop of ghee to get you off to a good start. The pictures are of breakfast on a recent morning. I shot it for my photoblog, where i am hoping to capture everyday moments of my life. Read on for the recipes.

Idlies (makes 16 idlies)

½ cup skinned urad dal/ black gram

1 ½ cups of rice (i use boiled rice, sona masuri works fine too

½ teaspoon whole fenugreek seeds

Soak all of the above for atleast 6 hrs. Grind with 1-1/2 cups water to a smooth batter. Some would ask you to grind the lentils and rice separately and mix, but i cant be bothered about this and i have not had bad results to make me want to try. I grind mine in a wet grinder but a regular food processor works fine too. Again i speak from experience.

Transfer to a large vessel and leave to ferment for 5-6 hours. Add salt to taste and Mix well.

In a large pot with a lid/ steamer/ pressure cooker without the whistle, pour 3-4 cups of water and bring to a boil. Grease the idly plates with a dab of oil, spoon out 1/3 – ¼ cup of batter or according to your mould. Stack the plates and place in the steamer. Make sure the water doesn’t come above the lowest plate. Steam for 12-15 minutes. Cool and unmould using a blunt knife. Serve hot with podi / chutney or sambhar

Drumstick / Munagakaya/ Murungakai Sambhar

1 c tur dal/ kandi pappu/ yellow pigeon peas

¼ teaspoon of asafoetida/ hing/ inguva

¼ teaspoon of turmeric/ haldi / pasupu

6-8  2 inch pieces of drumstick/ munagakaya/ murungakai

1 c tamarind extract, made from a lemon sized ball of tamarind, soaked in hot water and pulp extracted

½ c sambhar powder (recipe follows)

Salt to taste

For the tempering

1 teaspoon oil

8-10 curry leaves

2 small dried red chillies (or one long one broken into two)

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

Pressure cook the dal/ lentils with the turmeric and asafoetida and 1 c water till well cooked. After the pressure releases from the cooker, open and mash the cooked lentils with the back of a spoon till smooth. Steam the drumstick pieces in 1 c water on a stove top or microwave (about 6-7 minutes) till just cooked. Discard the, water they were cooked in. Combine the tamarind extract, sambar powder and cooked dal, drumsticks and 1-1½ cups of water and return to the stove. Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about 3-4 minutes. In a small pan, heat the oil, add the ingredients for tempering, heat through till the mustard seeds pop and add to the sambhar. Serve hot with idlies or rice and a dry vegetable dish.

Vegetables for sambhar: any vegetable that will not turn to mush can be used for sambhar. some of the more popular choices individually as in K’s home or a combination (i like a medley) are:

shallots/ sambhar onions/ pearl onions, okra/ bhindi / vendakkai/ bendakaya, radish, drumsticks, brinjal, carrots, beans, yellow pumpkin, bottle gourd, etc. tomatoes can be added in addition to the vegetables.

Sambhar powder

2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds

2 tablespoons Bengal gram / chana dal

1 teaspoon fenugreek . methi seeds

¼ teaspoon asafoetida/ hing

3-4 dried red chillies (adjust according to your spice tolerance)

½ c freshly grated coconut

1 teaspoon oil

Heat a heavy bottomed pan with the oil. Add the coriander seeds and Bengal gram and roast them for about 1 minute or till they turn golden. Make sure they do not burn or it will spoil the flavour of the sambhar. Remove to a plate. In the same pan, add the dried red chillies, fenugreek seeds and asafoetida and roast stirring all the time, about 20 seconds till golden, remove onto the same plate as the Bengal gram. To the same pan, add the scraped coconut and roast till just turning golden. Remove onto the plate with the other roasted spices. Leave it to cool.  Grind all together with ½ cup water to make a smooth and thick aromatic paste.

To store this sambhar masala: Roast and cool all the masalas and dry grind it along with the freshly grated coconut in a spice grinder. This can be stored in an airtight container or ziplock bag in the freezer for upto 2 months. Before using, remove from the freezer, add ½ cup water at room temperature and pulse for a few seconds before adding it to the cooked dal / lentils mix. I increase the ingredients proportionately about 5 times to make this in bulk.

Simple Tomato Pappu (Lentils with Tomato)

What could be better than some hot dal with rice or rotis? this is comfort food at its best for most indians…. growing up, we complained that no two dals would never taste or look the same at home ….  as a child, that was something peculiar, now that would be a delight!!

On a weeknight, dal for me is an accompaniment paired with rice / roti and a vegetable side dish is really a bonus.  This is a simple dal with tomatoes, that is cooked in no time, yet flavourful and wholesome. most of the cooking is done in the pressure cooker which saves a lot of time. 

Tomato Dal (Serves 3)

1 c tur dal (yellow lentils)

2 c water

a pinch of asafetida 

2-3 green chillies, slit

1 c chopped tomatoes

1/2 c chopped onions

2-3 pods garlic crushed

1/2 t turmeric powder

1 t Coriander powder

salt to taste

1/2 t mustard seeds

1/2 t cumin seeds / jeera 

a few curry leaves

1 t ghee

2 dry red chillies

2-3 T fresh coriander leaves

 

Pressure cook the dal with the onions, tomatoes, crushed garlic, green chillies, asafetida and turmeric, adding the 2 cups of water for about 4 whistles or 12-13 minutes till cooked soft.  Mash the cooked dal with the back of a ladle. add the salt and the fresh coriander leaves to the dal and mix well. in a small pan, heat the ghee, add the cumin seeds and splutter, add the dry red chillies and fry for a few seconds, add the curry leaves, add this to the cooked dal, mix well and serve hot with roti or rice. the consistency can be adjusted by adding water.

Keerai Molagootal

 

When I married K, I didnt think much of the cultural differences between us…. it was such a non issue….the small fact that we must have grown up eating food that was chalk and cheese didnt even cross my mind…when people ask me how i ‘adjusted to the food and all”, i look at them with what seems to me like a look telling them “i dont really know what you mean” ….

For one, i love the food that his mom makes…. at first bite, i was hooked…whats not to like about food that’s yummy and wholesome? i was struck by how simple and yet tasty the preparations were…. the food we ate at home was so different from what he ate…. we cant cook without ginger garlic paste, onions and an assortment of wet and dry masala…. amma(mine) will sneak in a little coconut into everything that she makes….amma (k’s) will finish cooking even before my eyelids open wide, onion and garlic are major no no’s and there’s a fixed combination of what goes with what…..

naturally, i have my own style of cooking…what works for me is simple, quick and fuss free….no long drawn roasting and frying and grinding and all that…. what i mostly cook is a marriage of taste and convenience…and it works like a charm for me…..

Keerai Molagootal is one such traditional Palakkad Iyer dish that had me hooked… its a simple to make dish and is flavourful. it also is full of all the nutrients that spinach brings and includes proteins from the dal. Though I’ll admit it did take a while to get used to the unselfconscious green on my plate!! This goes great with Steamed rice and Avial. It is also a good accompaniment with rotis.

Mentham Kura Pappu (Lentils with Fenugreek Leaves)

Amma made this dal, so I can’t take any credit for anything other than clicking the pictures!! The way it got polished off at the table, it deserved to make its appearance here!! This is a simple yet very tasty preparation that can be had with rotis or rice. The addition of fenugreek leaves enhances the flavour so fabulously yet so subtlely. This is a dal that is guaranteed to have the most slurps you have ever heard while eating a dal dish!!

Fenugreek leaves used in this dal are the mature leaves, the ones that are dried for kasuri methi. They retain a slight bitterness but not as strong as it is in the baby dleaves. Fenugreek leaves are known to be high in iron content. When cooked with protein packed dal (lentils) it is a good source of nutrition.

Edited to add: this is my entry to  My Legume Love Affair, a monthly eventhosted this month by Suganya. The brains behind this event is a Well Seasoned Cook, Susan.

 

from the home kitchen – bachali kura pappu

While weeding out my obscene collection of magazines, as always happens, I sat down to turn the pages of almost everyone of them, cutting out pages I wanted to keep before tossing them….as you can guess, a lot of work did not get done, and I ended up with a huge pile of pages with recipes printed on them…..I keep all kinds, even ones for non vegetarian concoctions that I think someday I will adapt and make into an equally appealing vegetarian one…..well…but that’s another story….

Back to the pile of magazines…..I came across this old one with a lovely collection of comfort food recipes that they had titled “from our home kitchens” …. I liked it enough to want to use it here…..that’s what this recipe is all about….the comfort of a simple home cooked dish….

in my parents home, we had a lot of stuff growing in our unkepmt backyard….which I referred to as the “jungle”…. spinach, amaranth and bachali kura…also called chinese spinach, this has slightly rounded heart shaped leaves that are thicker than spinach and are slightly slimey when chopped…there are many kinds and we grew the creeper that climbed anything and another short stubby variant…. these would wind their way into stir fries or daals…..for the last few years now i havent seen or eaten bachali kura because it isnt available as profusely as the other leafy greens….so imagine my delight when i found three seedlings sprouted in one of my flower pots!! i transplanted them to a pot of their own and i think in the process stunted them….the leaves are usually atleast 2-3 inches in diameter….. mine are less than an inch…and very bushy….. nevertheless, i harvested 2 cup fulls the other day (the picture of the plucked plants isnt very nice…so i wont post…and oooo i didnt take one of the leaves alone)

this is off to Sra’s My Legume Love Affair, 4th helping , she’s guest hosting this even which was conceptualised by Susan of the Well Seasoned Cook

anyways, i wondered what to do with my small harvest….it was too little to be cooked on its own…and hey much as i love “home grown” too little to waste fuel and time on…so i decided it would go into a simple daal….and this is what i made….slurpiliscious daal…we had this with hot rotis and a vegetable side and it was divine…. this is good with any kind of green leafy stuff….except i guess mint and basil!! both of which are also growing boistrously in their designated spaces!!

the last week has been blistering hot….ending thankfully in full blown 30 minute rain…..i leave you with pictures of my rain drenched plants…potted curry leaf and stubby chilly (for want of a name!!)….

The return of Recycle Rani – Rasam Soup

The picture is a bit hazy….but the flavours of this one are anything but!! they are full bodied!!

For k, rasam is “sick food” to be had when you are really under the weather…..and for me….i can eat rasam and rice practivally every day…..problem is on the rare occasions that I make rasam, it remains in the fridge for a couple of days…..even in the smallest of quantities, I cant seem to finish it…..and my loathing for wasteage is legendary………a couple of things from the pantry and I was slurping on the most surprisingly wonderful soup!!

I don’t think this will be made again only if I have some leftover rasam for the soup…..with some rasam powder on hand, this can be whipped up anytime…..and with the rains coming on full blast here…..this is perfect food for this time of the year…throw in some boiled pasta…or pair it with some crusty bread….and dinner is served!!