Mahanandi

Going home for my brother-in-law’s marriage.

You know what that means, good times with family and friends and of course Kanchi Pattu sarees, jewelry and food.

Kittaya is going to be with his friends Ace and Lucky at our kind neighbour Linas’ house. Thanks Lina.

See you all in September.

Kittaya looking for his friends.

His Friends - Lucky and Ace, our neighbours’ cats.

Checkout playful Kiri and Taffy at Clare Eats Blog.

Paruppu Usili or Lentil Curry, even though it’s an old classic from South India, I never made this at home before. Shammi’s post tempted me to try it. I liked the ingredients and nutritional aspects of this curry and also the quick way it can be made.

I followed Shammi’s recipe mostly.

-Soaked two fistfuls each of toor dal and chana dal overnight.

-Grinded the dals with half tsp of salt and six dry red chillies and pinch of hing into coarse matter, without adding any water.
-Fresh green beans are the vegetable I chose to make Parappu Usli.
-I chopped beans, one medium sized onion and one garlic clove finely.

Did the popu (frying mustard seeds, cumin and curry leaves in 1 tsp of oil), then added onions and garlic, saut�ed them for few minutes. Then added the coarsely grounded dal paste and green beans. Cooked them covered on low medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pinch of turmeric and salt to my taste, with these final touches and few more minutes on stove - my new favorite curry was ready for chapatis.

Thanks Shammi for showing this classic recipe.

Pappulu, Putnala pappulu or Dalia are made from chickpeas. Not the regular white chickpeas but from black chickpeas, a special variety of chickpeas specific to India and commonly sold under the name “kala chana”. Preparing dalia and puffed rice are cottage industries in India. We call them “Bhattis” and almost every town has few bhattis, where they not only make but also sell both pappulu and puffed rice. There were couple of bhattis near our home in Nandyala and we were used to buy them fresh and hot from those places.

The process to prepare roasted chana dal (Dalia, pappulu) is - first whole chickpeas are soaked in water for several hours, and then after draining, chickpeas are roasted in big caldrons like oats under controlled fire for several hours continuously mixing. Until the chickepas turn to crisp, golden color. Once the roasting process is completed, the hulls of chickpeas will be removed and each chickpea will be split into two equal pieces. This whole soaking-roasting process intensifies the taste of chickpeas and turn them into light yellow, mildly sweet pappulu or dalia.

Among all the lentil types available in an Indian store, these are only one which you can just open the packet and pop them into mouth, because they taste great. As kids and even now, we love to eat them as they are or mixed with murmuras. They are a snack item for us like popcorn. If you are from South India, I assume you already know how the roasted split chickpeas (Pappulu, Putnala Pappu, Bhuna Chana, Dalia)) taste. For those of you who don’t, you must try them at least once. They are usually sold in Indian grocery shops under the label “Dalia” in lentil section. They are really great tasting, guilt free snack.

Instead of besan (gram flour), we use pappulu podi(dalia powder) for everything - to season the curries, to prepare chutneys etc, mainly because it is not only adds sweetness to the dish and also acts as a thickening agent. This following recipe is a dry powder recipe of my amma’s. Prepare and store in a jar and add it to the curries or in chutneys.

Recipe:

1 cup Pappulu
6 to 8 dried red chillies
2 tablespoons of coconut powder or dried pieces of coconut
1 tablespoon of cumin
1/2 teaspoon of salt or to taste
4 garlic cloves (this is optional, even without garlic this powder tastes great)

Mix all off them together and take them in a clean, dry mixie jar. Without adding any water make fine powder of them. Store the powder in an airtight container. Will stay fresh as long as it remains dry.

What I do with this powder:

Tastes great when mixed with plain rice and ghee.
Also great when mixed with rice, dal (tomato or spinach) and ghee.
To sprinkle on Masala Dosa
To dunk Idlis and also with Upmas particularly with my new favorite-oatmeal upma.
Good with vegetable curries - mainly cabbage, bell pepper, beans and Indian variety beans.
(I usually sprinkle one tablespoon of this powder before turning off the heat while making the curries).
To prepare chutneys, mainly for coconut chutney.

I don’t cook mushrooms that often. They are Vijay’s (my husband’s) division. He likes all types of mushrooms and often cooks them himself. He usually grills or dry saut�s mushrooms but when he is in a mood to spend an extra 5 minutes in the kitchen, he whips up a sesame sauce to go along with his grilled mushrooms. He got this recipe from a Korean website. This sesame sauce is like an Indian version of one of the curry sauces but without the onions and other extras. I like the sauce so when he makes this, it�s a win-win for both us as I don’t eat mushrooms. Preparing this sauce is such an easy and quick task and he makes this himself most of the times without me setting foot in the kitchen.

Recipe:

Portabella mushrooms - Quickly rinse or wipe of portabellas with a paper towel. Remove the roots and make +(plus shape) cuts on them. After lightly covering them with sesame oil, stir-fry or grill them until they are golden and sprinkle with some salt and remove. When saut�ing in a pan, leave space around the mushrooms, so that they brown evenly.

Sauce - Toast half cup of sesame seeds and 4 to 6 red chilli peppers. Make a fine paste of them by adding a small piece of ginger, salt and molasses (half tsp each or to your taste).

….

Preparation:
Cook the sauce in a sauce pan by adding half cup of water for about 5 minutes or until it thickens. Serve the sauce with grilled portabellas.

Our meal - Rice with Portabellas in Sesame Sauce and Chappidi Pappu (Plain Lentil soup).

Buggani, the name itself makes my mouth water. A simple and common dish, prepared with puffed rice or borugulu , it’s traditionally served as breakfast in our Rayalaseema region. My mother makes the best buggani in the whole world, so I follow my mothers recipe exactly to the last words.

In Nandyala, my hometown in India, we buy freshly made puffed rice from street vendors. Here in US, in Indian grocery shops, puffed rice is available in only one size i.e. 14 OZ packets. Usually I prepare Buggani with half of that (25o g) packet for us two.

Recipe:

Puffed rice
One big onion - finely chopped lengthwise
4 green chillies - made into paste
1 tsp each of salt and oil
Pinch of turmeric
Popu
1/2 tsp each of cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, few curry leaves and one red chilli
extras
1 tablespoon of roasted chickpea powder(putnala pappu podi)
1/4 cup of roasted peanuts
1 lime

Buggani needs hot, spiciness from green chillies. So don’t hesitate to add enough green chillies.

Preparation:

First, take a big pot, fill half of it with tap water and add puffed rice to the water. Because of lightweight, they will float. Using your hands push them under water for few seconds. Let them soak water. Exactly after 5 minutes, remove them from water by taking handfuls and firmly squeezing the water from them by pressing the hands together tightly. Remove them all from water in this way and put them in a colander.

In a large frying pan over medium heat, heat one tsp of oil and do the popu (frying the mustard seeds, cumin, red chillies and curry leaves in oil). Add onions, saut� them until light brown, then add green chilli paste, saut� it till it turns from bright green to light green colour, don’t brown it. Finally add a pinch of turmeric and salt. Stir them all once and turn off the heat.

Add this hot onion mixture immediately to puffed rice along with roasted peanuts and roasted chickpea powder. Mix them all together and add salt if needed. That’s it. Serve them as soon as you prepare them.

Just before eating, squeeze few drops of lime. We usually serve this Buggani along with few pieces of finely chopped onions (washed in water beforehand), some more roasted peanuts, and a lemon wedge.

Going to spend July 4th in beautiful Pittsburgh.

Photo by Vijay Singari