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.

 

Fuchsia Raita

A good way to incorporate more vegetables and have atleast one cup of yogurt a day, is to have them as raita. It’s a refreshing addition to a meal and is quite filling on its own as well. K is very fond of beetroot where I have abhorred it….it was cooked to death in the most obnoxious manner at my hostel mess, hence the distaste for it. Soon I realized however that it could be made in a simple stir fry that I quite grew to like, apart from being eaten as a salad….

Beetroots are rich in folates and help in lowering blood pressure. They are low in carbohydrates and calories. Makes it a good vegetable to get onto the plate. Plus the deep colour of beetroot will thrill you with its colour…. As kids we’d constantly rub it into our fingers to watch the colours seep in…..What I did today was a stunner in the looks department….. the deep fuchsia was brilliant…. The preparation though very simple, the colour was fabulous… the longer it stayed in the yogurt the deeper the colour got…. The mild sweetness of the beets, with the nutty crunch of the golden toasted black gram, was a nice contrast.

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!!)….

Dill Deewani!! Beans and Potato Pulav with Dill

 

Those of you who read my other blog know that the last 6 weeks have been pretty stressful for K and me…..amidst the bedlam there’s little time to think of something nice and indulgent…..and something that can make an appearance on this blog is currently just the stuff my wild fantasies are made up of….. yet we have to feed ourselves and i try and finish using the kitchen before the army of carpenters arrives…..its pretty crazy to do anything when they’re banging, drilling, hammering and sawing away……but i am overjoyed that all of this will soon be over….and K will finally get his much dreamt of Library….its almost too much excitement to take…

Commenting on my post “potatoes and carrot with leeks and dill”,   Vaishali suggested stirring dill leaves into rice, I put it down in my memory bank to try sometime……this afternoon, both of us were busy being omnipresent…..the last minute finishing means that we’re being called atleast once every 5 minutes …. i think i am getting a great workout in the bargain…. it also means that i got hardly anytime to even think of food…..when the army of workers took a break for lunch is when i realised we were ravenous too….my fix for all such emergencies, which still call for something substantial and filling, is a one pot dish….

pulav, khichri or sambhar rice is usually the answer to my frayed nerves and hungry stomach….i knew i had some cut green beans in the fridge and i decided that beans pulav it would be, when i opened the fridge i spotted a bunch of Dill, looking lost and quickly losing its colour….. it was then i remembered Vaishali’s suggestion….and Oh boy!! it really did make me do a merry dance as i waited for the pressure in the cooker to reduce before i could open it…..the aroma was unbelieveable….paired with a simple raita, this lunch was savoured and gone in less time than it took to make it!!

when the guys came back from their lunch break 30 minutes later, there was no trace of anything remotely resembling lunch having been cooked and eaten….except of course the tantalising aroma that the pulav long gone had left wafting in the air…..

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!!

Dosakaya pappu

After the sophisticated orange zest cupcakes with chocolate ganache…all dressed up to party somewhere hip, i crash land back to earth with the very earthy and comforting dal….in one of its many avatars………….I was always amazed at the array of lentils that would be cooked in our home as a child….and thought my mother and peddi were some sort of magicians who could stun us with their cooking….

Packed dabba lunches mostly meant rotis and vegetables, lunch times on Saturdays used to be special. Sunday lunches were usually more fancy cooking, the pulavs with a non vegetarian side dish lavished with a rich gravy….but on Saturdays, it would be basic and almost rustic…as we would have some kind of dal along with steaming hot rice and ghee, with papad on the side, we’d never even miss a vegetable if there was none….comfort food at its best….

Dosakaya pappu or lentils cooked with cucumber is a hot favourite…..spicy, tangy and absolutely yummy….paired to perfection with steaming hot rice, ghee and pickle…..whats even better, is that it is very easy and fuss free to make……that makes it a dish after my own lazy heart!!

Packed with protein, this Dal is my entry to eat healthy – protein rich hosted at Art of Cooking Indian Food.

For the dosakaya pappu

2/3 c tuvar dal (arhar or kandi, washed and soaked in water for 10 mins

2 cups of cucumber the oval and yellow indian variety/ dosakaya, deseeded and cut into one inch cubes ( I cook it with the skin, peel if you prefer it skin less)

1 t red chilly powder

¼ t turmeric powder

A pinch of asafetida

Salt to taste

2 T tamarind extract

For the tadka

1 T oil

¼ t mustard seeds

10-12 curry leaves

2-3 dried red chillies

In a pressure cooker, add the washed tuvar dal, cucumber pieces, red chilly powder, turmeric, asafetida and 1 ½ cups of water and cook for 3-4 whistles or till the lentils are cooked.

Open and mix well. Use the back of a spoon to mash the lentils. In a small vessel, heat the oil and splutter the mustard seeds, add the red chillies and fry for a few seconds till they are beginning to turn brown, add the curry leaves. Add this to the cooked lentils, add the salt and tamarind extract and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add a little water to get the consistency of choice, though it is best when slightly thick. Enjoy with steaming hot rice and ghee.

Foes turned favorites!!

Food makes up some of the most vivid memories of my life so far….watching my mother make it, tasting it and endless discussions at the dinner table….when I began cooking post marriage ….. I would most naturally alter the way I made something based on how it tasted….a little bit of this, a dash of that, till it became at least a poor imitation of what my mother and peddi had cooked up….then I turned vegetarian, and I had to summon a lot more thought into making weekend cooking more interesting and wholesome (cos I always thought meat was more interesting at the table)….some of the stuff my mother used to make that I had insulted and rejected, suddenly began to provide succor to my table….

one such is the “mukkala pulusu or karam pulusu”…..it always had loads of vegetables in it and I wanted to believe they were rejected by all the other dishes that we being cooked and derived strength in collectively being simmered in a pot…..imagine to my stunned surprise that K took to it (it is an Andhra preparation I think) like a fish to water and now it is made on at least two weekends a month ……it goes well with plain dal (meetha dal, mudda pappu) and is a good substitute to sambar. The left overs can always be mopped up with dosa on Monday morning (since batter is made on Sunday!!) and making a vegetable side dish is optional since it already contains a medley of vegetables (whatever’s in your fridge really). It is also very accommodating with as many or as few vegetables that you have on hand and treats them all equally…. You can always dress up the meal by serving it along steamed rice, papad, ghee and pickle…and suddenly you have a table full of food!!

that’s exactly what we had for our Sunday lunch today….mukkala pulusu, mudda pappu/ meetha dal, aratikaya (raw banana) vepudu, potato and carrot vepudu and curds ……….now for that afternoon nap!!

Weekend overdosing…………………..Jeera Rice with Palak Paneer

K and I have overdosed….on food and movies this weekend….it has been blissful no doubt, but I’d like to put an end to this gluttony…..I attempted some north indian fare for lunch on Saturday…jeera rice, raitha, palak paneer and dal tadka…..having skipped breakfast, ravenous hunger made sure I didn’t have time for pictures….so I am going to post the recipes here minus any pictures….. we then went bookshelf shopping before K’s book collection toppled over from the current one they overflowing from, watched Shootout at Lokhandwala…..its one of the better made gangster movies, racy and never a dull moment, but blood and gore isn’t my cup of tea…..we tried out a small Rajasthani place for dinner and had a traditional thali that was replete with rotis doused in ‘desi ghee’, curries of brinjal and onions, potatoes, and a mixed vegetable fare, dal, dahi, achar, papad and rice….. if food is supposed to bring you comfort which I am sure it does…then this was it…..back home I tried to walk off some of the guilt….then we decided to watch an old Tamil Classic…”veerapandiya kattabomman” starring the melodramatic Sivaji Ganesan, some sports and half of Jerry Maguire later we realized it was almost 4 a.m and we were hungry….coffee and some quick microwave cooked pasta with store bought pasta sauce later, we finally hit the sack at 4.30 a.m……if ‘unhealthy’ needed personification, then it couldn’t get better than this