Recipes Cooking: paruppu

Showing posts with label paruppu. Show all posts

Friday, April 25, 2014

KEERAI PARUPPU PORIYAL GREENS STIR FRY WITH LENTILS

This is a stir-fry my mom makes regularly. She uses greens like amaranth or drumstick leaves. This is made as a side dish with rice and any spicy gravies, particularly seafood dishes. The best combination which I like the most is meen kuzmbu, fish fry, and this stir fry made with drumstick leaves. This is also comfort food for my sister and I. Sadly I don’t get drumstick leaves here, which is my favorite, but I did get a chance to taste many different ones like Swiss Chard, collard greens, turnip greens etc. I keep all of them in my freezer and this is very easy to make any side dishes with greens in just minutes. This time I have made this dish with collard greens. Collard greens have a slight bitter taste, so I have used one small tomato. This can be omitted if any other less bitter green like spinach is used.

INGREDIENTS:
1. Collard greens, 1 bunch.
2. Small onions, 2.
3. Tomato, 1.
4. Green chilies, 1-2.
5. Ginger-garlic paste, 1 teaspoon (optional).
6. Mung dhal or green gram, ¼ cup.
7. Mustard seeds, ½ teaspoon.
8. Cumin seeds, ½ teaspoon.
9. Salt as per taste.

PREPARATION:
Precook the dhal until they are cooked but the dhal is still whole and has a bite to it. This can be done either on stove top by cooking the dhal in a pot with enough water to immerse the dhal and cooked for 10-15 or microwave for 10 minutes. Wash the greens and chop it finely. Dice the onions and tomatoes and slit the green chilies into 2. Heat a pan with some oil. When the oil turns hot, add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Then add the cumin seeds and fry for a few seconds. Now add the diced onions and sauté for a few minutes until the onions turn translucent. Then add the chopped tomatoes, chilies, ginger-garlic paste and keep sautéing until everything is well blended. Add some salt along with the chopped greens and dhal and mix everything well. Cook closed under low flame for 5-10 minutes until the greens are wilted and all the water is absorbed. Serve hot with rice.

A tablespoon of grated coconut can be added after switching off the stove. Even around ½ teaspoon of ground cumin seeds can be added in the end.

Friday, April 11, 2014

Beans Paruppu Usili

Ingredients

Beans (finely chopped)-250gms

Onion small( sliced)-1

Red chilly powder/Paprika powder-1tsp

Turmeric powder-1/4tsp

Hing/Asafetida-pinch

Salt to taste

Mustard seeds-1tsp

Chana dal/Split Chick peas-handful

Toor dal/ Split Pigeon peas-handful

Dried red chilly-4

Garlic cloves-2

Oil-2tbsp

Method

Wash and soak the chana dal and toor dal. Grind both dals in mixer to a coarse paste along with dried red chilly and garlic cloves. To the coarsely ground dals add 1tbsp oil and required salt( since salt is also added to the beans, i prefer adding less salt to the dals). Add the ground dal paste to a steam pan and steam for at least 10 mins. Once the dal is cooked allow to cool and crumble it with fingers. Next heat oil in a pan, when hot add the mustard seeds. When mustard seeds crackles add the chopped onion and saute until onion turns pink. Now add the chopped beans and stir fry for few mins. Season the beans with red chilly powder, turmeric powder, asafetida and salt. Sprinkle little water on the beans, cover and cook until 3/4th done. Now remove the lid and add the crumbled dals. Stir fry the bean and dal mixture until dry. Serve hot with steamed Rice or Roti.