Mysore Special - Avarekalu Kadubu

If you happen to be from Mysore like me, winter months always bring back memories of fresh Avarekayi (Surti Papdi/surti lilva), this is a kind of beans rich in its fragrance and creates a love me or hate me reaction instantly :-). You peel the avarekayi to get the avarekalu and discard the peels, cows love to eat this and I am sure they get enough of it during the season with every house feeding them the peels.

In our family, we just love avarekayi and the 2-3 months long season creates varieties of avarekayi recipes. I remember riding my 2 wheeler in Mysore to KG Koppal to bring fresh avarekayi in the morning. Early morning, Mysore winter, the dew drops on your nose and cold hands.... Amma would make a different avarekalu dish every day and we would never tire of it.

Since this is a good winter month here and I found fresh avarekayi in the local Indian grocery, I immediately set out to do a family favorite - Avarekalu kadubu.

This is a blended taste with enough sweet, salt and pepper to awaken your taste buds and easy to prepare recipe.

What do you need to make Avarekalu Kadubu?
2 cups of avarekalu (use frozen packs you get in Indian grocery stores but the taste is not the same :-( )
2 cups of Idli rava
1 Tblsp pepper corns
1 Tblsp cumin seeds
3 Tblsp of grated fresh/frozen coconut
2.5 cups of water
2 Tsp of ghee (clarified butter)
3 Tblsp of crushed jaggery/brown sugar
4-5 curry leaves - chopped fine
salt to taste

How do you make Avarekalu kadubu? 

1. Dry roast idli rava on medium heat until it is slightly golden brown for about 8 mins with frequent stirring
2. In the meantime, put the avarekalu with 2 cups of water and salt in a pressure cooker and cook it for 2 whistles 
3. Prepare pepper and cumin seeds by roughly powdering them either in a mortar & pestle or in a coffee grinder, take care not to fine powder them 
4. Heat the ghee on medium heat in a heavy bottom pan and add the pepper & cumin to it, stir it for half a minute
5. Add the curry leaves and cook for half a minute
6. Add the roasted idli rava, crushed jaggery/brown sugar, grated coconut and mix it all in 
7. Once the pressure is off from the cooker, drain the avarekalu (keep the water) and mix it into the rava pan
8. At this stage, I would recommend tasting it for salt, spice or jaggery since this is the only chance you get to make sure the taste is perfect
9. Reduce the heat and slowly add the water to the rava mixture constantly stirring to avoid any lumps
10. Cover and cook this for 8-10 minutes until the rava is cooked and water is absorbed
11. This looks very much like upma/uppittu at this stage
12. Switch off your stove and let the mixture stand for a few minutes.

Fresh avarekalu with water & salt, getting ready to be cooked in the cooker

Kadubu making:

1. Take a bowl of cold water to dip your hands in as the mixture will be hot
2. Now take a big lemon sized mixture into your wet hands and shape it like a 3-dimensional disc (see picture).
3. Finish your cooked mixture by making it all into the discs.
4. Put these discs into your idli stand or regular pressure cooker pans and steam it like idlis (without the weight) for 15 minutes.
5. Delicious Kadubus are ready to eat

Enjoy your kadubus, Wishing every one a Happy 2012!

How do you serve Avarekalu kadubu?

1. Serve it with a dab of ghee on top
2. You can make coconut chutney as a side but since the kadubu has a blended taste it can be very easily eaten by itself :-)

Tips:

1. When you make the kadubus, the mixture should be still hot. Make sure you dip your hands in cold water as you do this to avoid any burns.
2. You can cook avarekalu in microwave or on stove top, but this takes longer, the beans need to be soft to touch when cooked