Bisibelabath powder

This is variation the previous post

Ingredients
“Varali” turmeric – 7-8
Red chillies – 2 cups
Coriander seeds – 1 cup
Peanuts – 1 cup
Chenna Dal – ¾ cup
Urad dal – ½ cup
Dry tamarind – ½ cup
Fenugreek seeds – 1 cup
Dry curry leaves – a little
Sesame seeds – 2 tbsp
Dry coconut grating – 1 cup

Get Grinding!
1. Sun dry the peanuts and powder them with the curry leaves.
2. Dry roast the sesame seeds really well and powder.
3. Sun dry all other ingredients. Powder all
4. Mix all the powders together.

Get Cooking!
1. Take a mix of oil and ghee in a cooker, add the vegetables, the bisibelabath powder and roast.
2. Add rice-tuvar dal, salt, water (1 rice-dal:4 water)
3. Pressure cook this well.

Tips
You could use turmeric powder instead of the whole turmeric suggested.
One could avoid the tamarind and make the powder otherwise and follow the recipe for bisibelabath given earlier using this powder too

Panchapandavar Vadai

Ingredients
Chenna dal 1 cup
Urad dal 1 cup
Tuvar Dal 1cup
Moong Dal 1 cup
Black eyed peas (Karamani) 1 cup
Onions finely chopped – 1 cup
Grated coconut 1/2 cup
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves
Chillies
Salt
Oil

Get Cooking!
1. Grind the dals to a coarse powder (rava types)
2. When required, soak this rava for about an hour. Strain away excess water.
3. Mix in the other ingredients except oil and make into a vadai batter like that in aama vadai
4. Fry the vadais up and serve.

Bombay Chutney

A nice variation to the coconut chutney

Ingredients
Tuvar dal
Onions chopped finely
Green chillies
Coconut grated
Salt
Oil
Curry leaves
Mustard seeds
Urad dal
Lemon juice

Get Cooking!
1. Steam the tuvar dal with some water and a pinch or two of turmeric powder.
2. Grind the coconut with green chillies and salt.
3. Sauté the mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves in some oil. Add in the onions and sauté it until it turns golden brown.
4. Mix in the steamed tuvar dal, onions and ground coconut.
5. Add in the lemon juice. Mix it in.

Tips
You can replace lemon juice with curd. You can reduce the amount of coconut and add some dahlia too.

Bisibelabath

Ingredients
Poppy seeds 2tsps
Coconut grated
Bisibelabath powder1
or powder 2
Tamarind
Turmeric powder
Vegetables -any of them cut 2″ long
Salt
Cashew nuts / peanuts
Chenna dal
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Rice -tuvar dal in the ratio 1:1

Get Cooking!
1. Dry roast the poppy seeds and coconut and then grind them to a powder.
2. Boil the vegetables in some tamarind water with salt and a little turmeric powder.
3. Meanwhile, cook the rice-tuvar dal in a pressure/ rice cooker.
4. Add the bisibelabath powder or powder 2 and the ground coconut-poppy seeds powder to the vegetables.
5. When the mixture boils, add the cooked rice-dal and mix in well taking care not to crush the cooked vegetables.
6. Season this with mustard seeds, chenna dal, curry leaves.
7. Roast the cashewnuts/peanuts and add this to the bisibelabath.
8. Serve hot with thayir pachadi, fried appalams or chips

Tips
Add the vegetables according to decreasing cooking times as explained in avial . You could fry some chopped onions and add it to the bisibelabath alongwith the cashew nuts and mix them in.
Cook the rice-dal mixture well such that it can be almost mashed before adding it to the vegetables.

Dal Palak

This is one of the many ways you can make dal palak. One of the recipes without absolute measurements for the ingredients.

Ingredients
Spinach chopped
Split yellow peas
Tomatoes chopped
Onions chopped
Garlic sliced
Salt
Oil
Green chillies slit
Red chilli powder
Cumin powder
Turmeric powder

Get Cooking!
1. Soak the yellow split peas in some water for about 20 minutes
2. Heat a little oil in a saucepan, add the sliced garlic pieces, toss around.
3. Add the onions, fry them till they are lightly golden brown.
4. Add in the green chillies & chopped tomatoes, toss around for a while.
5. Put in the soaked yellow split peas. Cook for a while before adding in the chopped spinach.
6. Add the salt, very little red chilli powder, a pinch or two of turmeric powder and some cumin powder.
7. Keep cooking till the peas are cooked stirring occasionally to avoid burning of the dal palak.

Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

Makes 2 cups of kuzhambu with about 8 balls

Ingredients
Tuvar dal 1 cup
Salt 1 ¼ tsp
Red chillies 8
Asafoetida
Oil 4 tsp
Mustard seeds
Green chillies 2 finely chopped
Onions chopped (optional)
Coconut ¼ hemisphere grated
Curry leaves
Cilantro leaves finely chopped

Get Cooking!
1. Soak the dal in some warm water and drain the water.
2. Grind this coarsely with red chillies, salt, asafoetida and very little water.
3. Heat up about 4 tsp oil, add mustard seeds, chopped curry leaves, green chillies and onions (if using them) . Toss it around and then add the ground dal with the grated coconut, chopped cilantro.
4. Keep stirring and tossing until the colour changes and gets cooked. Switch heat off
5. Make kuzhambu like vathakuzhambu without the vathal and about 3 cups tamarind water.
6. Make balls and add to boiling kuzhambu.
7. Boil for a while and serve with rice.

Tips
Don’t crowd the kuzhambu with all the balls. Add them one or in twos. If you want the kuzhambu to be thicker, you could powder up a ball and add to it. I generally add the green chillies, curry leaves and coconut while grinding the dal. These balls can be added to mor kuzhambu or even rasam in which case do not add the onions. You could add some rice flour and mix it in to the roasted dal batter before making the balls which would help avoid the breaking up of the balls in the kuzhambu. Some people add even fennel seeds before grinding the dal (I don’t! )

Rava Pongal

This is a nice variation to the ven pongal

Ingredients

Moong dal 1/4 cup
Rava 1 cup
Green chillies
Ginger
Black pepper seeds
Cumin seeds
Curry leaves
Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Oil/ghee

Get Cooking!

1. Dry roast the moong dal such that you get the aroma of the roasted dal.
2. Wash the roasted moong dal, pressure cook the dal.
3. Dry roast the rava till it is golden brown. Pour double the amount of water and cook it stirring so that no lumps are formed.
4. Mix the cooked dal to the cooked rava well.
5. Sauté the black pepper seeds, ginger, cumin seeds, green chillies, asafoetida, curry leaves. Pour this onto the cooked dal-rava mix.
5. Add salt and mix well.
6. Serve hot with chutney and sambhar.

Tips

This dish tastes really nice with ghee. You could add a few cashew nuts to the seasoning. You could increase the dal to rava ratio according to taste say even 1:1

Paruppu Idli

Ingredients
Moong Dal 1 cup
Urad Dhal 1 cup
Rice 2 tbsp (optional)
Green chillies
Ginger
Black pepper seeds
Cumin seeds
Curry leaves
Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Oil/ghee

Get Cooking!
1. Soak for moong and urad dals with the rice.
2. Grind coarsely and leave to ferment for atleast 6 hrs.
3. Sauté the black pepper seeds, ginger, cumin seeds, green chillies, asafoetida, curry leaves in some ghee. Pour this onto the batter.
4. Add salt and mix well.
5. Pour the batter on idli plates and steam them in an idli cooker.

Tips
Make the batter in the morning if you are planning to make the idlis in the evening to get the right fermentation or vice versa. To the batter you can add grated carrot, shelled peas, corn, potatoes peeled & cubed, chopped onions. You add some cashew nuts for seasoning. You roughly the black pepper seeds and cumin seeds.

Lobhia

Ingredients

Black eyed beans or cowpeas 250 gms.
Onion (large size) 1 no.
Garlic 4 flakes
Amchur 1 tbsp.
Coriander powder 1 tbsp.
Cumin seeds (roasted & ground) 1 tbsp.
Garam masala ½ tsp.
Turmeric powder ½ tsp.
Tomatoes diced (large size) 2 nos.
Green chillies (minced) 3 nos.
Ghee or oil 2 tbsp. or a little less like I used
Handful of cilantro leaves (finely chopped)
Chilli powder (as required)
Salt to taste

Get Cooking!

1. Soak the beans in water overnight.
2. Add some salt and cook the beans till tender and dry.
4. Make a paste of the onion and garlic.
5. Heat the ghee/oil and fry the paste till golden brown.
6. Add the spices and tomatoes and cook till the ghee/oil floats on the top.
7. Next, mix well the green chillies and beans to the above.Then add half a cup of water.
8. Bring to a boil and cook on a medium flame till the gravy thickens.
9. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve this hot.

Adai

Dosa variety

Ingredients

1 cup tuvar dal, chenna dal, urad dal
2 cups boiled rice or rice
Red chillies 5 or 6 or 6 green chillies
Ginger
Chopped curry leaves 1/4tsp
Asafoetida powder 1 tsp
Coconut grated (optional)
Salt to taste
Cilantro chopped
Oil for pan frying

Get Cooking!

1. Soak the dals & rice together for about 2 hours.
2. Drain and grind coarsely with the chillies, salt, cilantro, ginger, curry leaves, asafetida, coconut into a batter to make a dropping consistency.
3. Proceed to make like dosas—heat tawa or griddle, pour a little oil then some batter and spread out into a circle.
4. Make a small hole or a couple in the middle of the adai. Pour a little oil all around and a little bit in the holes. Cook on medium heat.
5. Once the bottom side is browned up (will come off clean once done), flip it over, cook until that is brown.
6. Serve with coconut chutney or milagai podi and sambhar.

Tips
Can enhance this by adding chopped onions to the batter. Some add peas or cubed, peeled potatoes in which case the adai will be thicker.
I once replaced the rice with cracked wheat, cut some tomatoes, onions and made the batter…the adai came out pretty good.
My mum asked me to soak the rice separately and the mix of dals separately and then grind them separately. This turns out real good too Easy to get the right consistency