Fresh Pigeon Peas (Tur Beans) Gravy

I had bought some tur-beans (fresh tur dal) l from Bangalore when I visited my sister last time. I peeled them and froze them but forgot it for a couple of months; yesterday I tried this simple gravy to pack for lunch along with phulkas. I prepared pulpy gravy that suited the beans very well. He said it tasted like green peas subji; maybe we can try some more green peas-recipes with this beans.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 10 min

Cooking Time: 15 min

Ingredients:

1.      Fresh peeled tur dal – 1 ½ cups

2.    Tomato – 3

3.    Onion – 2

4.    Green chili – 1

5.     Ginger – 1“ piece

6.    Garlic – 3 cloves

7.     Oil – 1 tbsp

8.    Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

9.    Red chili powder – 1 tsp

10.Garam masala – ½ tsp

11.  Coriander powder – ½ tsp

12. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Chop one onion and one tomato; grind together two tomatoes, one onion, green chili, ginger & garlic into a fine paste.

Step 2: Heat oil in a pan, splutter cumin seeds and sauté chopped onion and then tomato until soft.

Step 3: Add and sauté the ground paste in it until the oil separates.

Step 4: Put the dry masala powders and fry for a minute; pour two cups of water and let it come to a boil.

Step 5: Add the tur dal, enough salt and mix well; cook covered in simmer for 5 minutes.

Step 6: Open the lid, check if dal is cooked, adjust salt and spices and cook it open for 2 minutes and then turn of stove.

Step 7: Serve garnished with coriander or fresh cream to accompany phulkas or rice.

Ragi Putma

The name sounds weird  huh?! But ‘Ragi Putma’ seems to me a more appropriate name because ragi puttu is made and then converted into upma in this recipe making it Puttu+Upuma=Putma. I’ve heard of and had ragi upma in the past, all of which included lots and lots of oil and were tough in texture (I don’t mind the chewiness part though). I loved the taste of it but for the oil because it almost gets cooked in oil; so I always kept exploring on options for a less-oil ragi upma. Yesterday, I happened to search for steamed upma and to my surprise hit many blogs that used steaming approach for ragi upma (which is why I’m not able to quote one). This is definitely worth a try for everyone who like and don’t like ragi. It came out very soft and delicious.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time:  10 min

Cooking Time: 10 min

Ingredients:

1.       Ragi flour – 2 cups

2.       Coconut – 2  tbsp

3.       Salt to taste

4.       Oil – ½ tbsp

5.       Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

6.       Urad dal – ½ tbsp.

7.       Bengal gram – ½ tbsp.

8.       Dry chilies – 2

9.       Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10.   Curry Leaves – 1 sprig

11.   Onion – 1

12.   Garlic – 4 cloves

Method:

Step 1: Mix warm salted water to ragi flour and rub it to get moist puttu mix and cook puttu by filling it between coconut gratings. (Elaborate explanation on puttu making can be seen from the post ‘Puttu With Kadalai Curry’)

Step 2: When the steamed puttu has cooled down, crush it to get a course powder.

Step 3: Heat oil in a kadai: splutter mustard, fry Bengal gram & urad dal, sprinkle asafoetida, thrown in torn curry leaves & dry chilies and sauté the finely chopped onion & garlic in it till soft and slightly brown.

Step 4: Sprinkle some salt and add the crushed puttu and toss well. Turn off heat.

Step 5: Serve hot and eat it plain or with curds if you like.

TIPS:

* I prepared two batches: Served the first batch with ghee, sugar & banana and prepared upma with the other batch; that creates a balance in the palate.

*Leftover puttu can be made into upma.

*If serving for old people and kids, you can avoid frying dals in tadka leaving it a very soft diet.

Senai Kizhangu Masiyal

Elephant yam that is called senai kizhangu or karunai kizhangu in Tamil is usually preferred as fry. Elephant yam is low in glycaemic index and rich in omega 3 fatty acids while it renders a very cooling effect to the body. I had cooked ‘masiyal’ which is like a chutney variety; I slightly modified this recipe which is an inspiration from kamalascorner.com on the flow just for convenience.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 15 min

Cooking Time: 15 min

Ingredients:

1.     Elephant yam – 1 cup chopped

2.     Shallots or Madras onion – 5

3.     Tamarind – 5” long strip or 2 tbsp pulp

4.     Salt to taste

5.     Oil – ½ tbsp.

6.     Sambar powder – ½ tbsp.

7.     Mustard seeds – ½ tsp.

8.     Urad dal – ½ tbsp.

9.     Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10.  Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Method:

Step 1: Wash, peel and chop yam roughly; steam cook it with salt.

Step 2: Sauté shallots in few drops of oil.

Step 3: Grind boiled yam, shallots, soaked tamarind or its pulp with enough salt into a thin paste.

 Step 4: Heat a pan and prepare tempering by: spluttering mustard seeds, frying urad dal, sprinkling asafoetida and adding curry leaves.

Step 5: To it add the ground paste and sambar powder and stir well.

 Step 6: Once you see bubbles in it and the raw smell goes, switch off the stove and transfer to serving bowl.

Step 7: Serve with hot steamed rice drizzled with ghee.

 TIPS:

*My mom adds red chili to tadka and avoids sambar powder so that no double cooking is required.

*You can sauté the chopped onion in tempering and just mash the cooked yam with the help of masher so that no mixer is required to grind.