Gongura (Sorrel leaves) Pappu - exotic comfort made super easy

Didn't I show you my front yard beauties just a couple of weeks back as they popped up along with spring? The flowers are so many now the little tree is bent heavily towards the ground with the weight but still proudly showing off the seasonal bounty. We lost an hour last weekend as most part of US of A sprung forward making me grouchier than normal on the following Monday morning. We were playing board games with DD and a cousin well into the midnight on Saturday and by the time we turned in we had already lost the hour :-(. Oh well, never mind my whining, I do this every spring. You are all such good listeners that I don't have to worry about getting chided :-). The past week has helped catch up some sleep and also tame the body clock so it is like the time change never(almost) happened :-). And the cheery weather always makes me a chirpy, cheerful girl, so all is good!!

Last week was also spring break for the little girl, she was home and we had a great time together though both parents were incessantly coughing and sneezing on the kiddo for the entire week. Kashaya brewed non stop on the stove, cooking was lack luster on the days when the allergies and germs took over the best of me but we fought it back as well as we could. Tired that she was and happy to be home, DD slept through oblivious for most part. I am thankful the germs didn't get transferred to the little one and she went back to school safe and well. By the time she was getting ready to leave I was back to usual self and was able to cook the stuff she loves most and also get some things ready for her to take.

Now that we are back to being the twosome, BH & I threw ourselves in front of the big screen to watch a few movies. "If you don't mind, it doesn't matter" - is an old saying you repeatedly hear but somehow it seemed way more powerful coming from a 5 year old in the movie "Room". This movie made it to Oscars with Brie Larson taking home the well deserved Best Actress award recently. She makes the movie come alive and gut wrenching as does little Tremblay. If I had seen this movie some years ago when I was naive, low on worldly reality, I would have dismissed it as a movie maker's far fetched imagination running wild. Having seen multiple news coverage on similar incidences, I have sadly come to believe people do exist in this world that are capable of doing unimaginable damage to another fellow human being.

The movie is about a young adbucted girl and forced to confinement in a backyard shed for 7 years. She gives birth to a son and they live in the 'room' until the mom plots an escape with her 5 year old. Rest of the movie is about their adjustment to the 'world' as they call it and the never stopping happenings in the world. All I could think of was the unstoppable resilience in the human nature and the hope to overcome hurdles. By no means a light Saturday watch but if it makes someone take positive action to prevent such incidences in the society, it makes it for a well spent 2 hours.

I didn't mean to spoil anybody's appetite, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Let us not forget that most people are kind but be wary of the unkind ones as you send your loved ones out. Spread the love not the meanness.

Marrying into a Telugu family also meant embracing dal or pappu as my soul food. No daily meal is complete without this on the menu. Though I grew up with a protein rich side dish in the form of saaru, huli, tovve etc, eating pappu on a regular basis came only after the marriage :-). Luckily for me, I love lentils and BH is open to experimentation so our food has a much wider variety in terms of lentils used and how they are cooked. Pappu - the quintessential staple of Andhra cuisine which is essentially a concentrated dose of either toor(split pigeon peas) or moong (green gram) dal is the region's response to the dals from the North of India. Andhra kitchens boast of a variety of pappus ranging from plain, roasted dals to exotic variations.

Gongura are the green leaves that are sour/tangy by nature. Pachadi made with these leaves is a delicacy in Andhra. I generally end up making gongura pachadi (a few different ways) whenever I get these leaves home. Of late, our rice consumption during the weekdays is so low that the pachadi gets eaten happily the day I make them (usually weekends and we have rice for lunch) and the rest goes into the refrigerator and becomes that invisible container. And after a few days of ignoring, the freshness is lost, and finally I either force serve it with everything I make or it ends up in the green trash :-(. So one fine day, I decided that I would not succumb to the lure of the pachadi but will try the pappu instead. It was such a hit that I had to ask myself why I hadn't made it before. Needless to say, this pappu is a regular feature in the kitchen now and BH simply loves to eat it from a bowl, no sides (or mains) needed for him to enjoy this :-)

I make most of the pappu variations on a regular basis but some of them are better favorites than others at home. Today's Gongura pappu or dal with sorrel leaves is one such item.  Some bravehearts add additional tamarind juice to this pappu but we are happy with the tang from the leaves itself. You need to balance the salt and spices with the tangyness from the gongura in this dal for it to be really delicious, otherwise you will end up with a super tart pappu. Andhra cooking is also unique in that we use green and red (dry) chilies together in a lot of recipes, the flavors and taste they impart are different and I do this especially in pachadis and pappus. Sauteed in oil, these do not increase the spiciness a lot, so I also use a little bit of red chili powder at the end. Feel free to cut down on or eliminate any of these 3 heat sources from the recipe to suit your taste.

With today's recipe, I have also added a clove of garlic (which if you are a regular reader here will recognize as an ingredient I don't often use) as I am trying to incorporate into my cooking slowly as I keep hearing its health benefits. The fact that BH loves it makes an added incentive. As I gingerly put my feet into the world of garlic, I chose to add just a little and in a form that doesn't release too much flavor and smell. Cutting it into slices versus making a paste makes the flavor mild and I could easily pass the pieces onto BH's plate when they showed up in mine :-). I kinda liked the very slight hint of garlic, so there is still hope for me (becoming a garlic lover someday) in this world :-). If you don't like it, by all means omit it, doesn't affect the taste of the dish.

What do you need to make Gongura pappu? 
3/4 cup toor dal
1 Tbsp chana dal
2 packed cups chopped gongura leaves
1/2 cup thinly sliced onion
1 garlic clove sliced vertically (optional)
1 dry red chili - broken into pieces
2 green chilies
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
Seasoning: 
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard seeds
1 Tsp chana dal
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds
Garnish on top:
1/2 Tsp ghee (clarified butter)
1/2 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to spice tolerance)
1/8 Tsp asafoetida

How do you make Gongura pappu? 

• Pick leaves from the stalks, wash thoroughly and let the water drain
• Wash the 2 dals in water, pick any dirt, add 2 drops of oil and turmeric powder. 
• Pressure cook with 1.5 cups of water until soft. 
• I start the cooking at medium high and after the first whistle, simmer down the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. If you are more familiar by the number of whistles, use that method. 

• Switch off and let the pressure subside. 
• Heat a wide wok or pan, add the oil followed by mustard, chana dal, fenugreek seeds and the chilies. Slit the green chilies before adding to avoid its popping. 

• Once the mustard pops and the dal turns golden, add garlic slices if using and the thinly sliced onion. 

• Saute for 1-2 mins until onion sweats a little and turns translucent. 
• Add chopped gongura leaves and stir it in. 
• Saute for 3-4 minutes, stirring frequently until the leaves wilt and become mushy. 

• Add cooked dal, a cup of water and mix everything together. 
• Adjust the consistency with additional water if you like. 

• Add salt and let the dal come to a good rolling boil. Switch off. 
• Heat a small pan with ghee in it, once the ghee is hot, reduce the flame and add red chili powder and asafoetida. 
• Switch off and pour this on top of the dal, cover the vessel and let it rest for 10 minutes before stirring everything together. 

• We ate this tangy, spicy pappu with undrallu made with red matta rice. Super delicious :-)

Notes: 

• Toor dal tends to get mashed up completely and I like my dal to have a texture. Adding a spoon of chana dal gives that texture I am looking for. You can make the dish with only toor dal also.  
• Indian cooking uses pressure cooker very effectively for lentils, if you do not own one you can cook the dals in open vessel on medium heat for about an hour. Use slow cooker as another alternative. 

• If you are cooking in an open vessel, it helps to soften the lentils by soaking it in water for 30mins to an hour before cooking. 
• You can skip onion and garlic in this recipe if you prefer, I like onion in my dals and usually add them.

Dal Makhni - I wont say it again but it is without makhan :-)

I won't even go about explaining my vanishing act this past week, just suffice to say life has been busy and wonderful. We watched a very unique and wonderful dance performance over the weekend of which DD was part of. Awesome choreography, beautiful music and flawless performances made the long, hard months of toil totally worth it. Anything more will be divulging personal details which I avoid meticulously on the blog, but wanted to share the happiness with you all :-).

On a different topic, I got hold of Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri's latest work. I have read all her work so far and admire her very visual prose that makes you feel the story and this novel was no different on that aspect. With the Mao inspired Naxalite movement as background, she explores her human interactions and relationships. I felt let down as it didn't get to the depths of any of its characters but seemed to just graze on the surface. It is a compelling story and is backed by her brilliant writing but for me personally, it fell a little short. I am still a great fan and will read her Interpreter of Maladies or Namesake all over again but this latest read was a little disappointing. Maybe, it will work if I read it again sometime in a different mood. I have a new writer (to me)'s book on my nightstand now which I haven't started yet, will tell you all what I discover next time.

Back to today's recipe, how do you like your Dal? In our home, we like it any which way it is made from the oh-so-regular saaru, huli/sambar to patholi & nuchinunde to ambode to various pachadis to uslis to payasa/kheer, I am sure I left out a bunch of other dishes there :-). Dal here is a very loose term I use to include all kinds of legumes, lentils, pulses etc. Being the key source of protein in a vegetarian kitchen, this ingredient is something that shows up in a different avatar every single day. A true blue Andhraite that my BH is when it comes to his pappu(dal), any cooked dal/lentils is heaven for him while tempered and seasoned Dal is pure nirvana. So, if he is around in the kitchen taste testing while I am cooking, I need to readjust my calculation of spices as the dal vanishes and reduces in quantity every time I turn around :-).

Don't worry, I removed all that butter from the top before eating :-)

I bring you a special kind of dal today, this should not be a stranger to you if you eat Indian food regularly, atleast you would have heard about it. A typical punjabi fare, you will find it on most restaurant menus. These are best eaten in road side dhabas, tear a piece of warm naan, use it as a mop to scoop up a spoon full of dal makhni and put it into the mouth along with a bite of green chili or raw onions... I will let you enjoy that morsel for a few seconds.

If it is such a common dish and easily available, why do I write about it? Just because my version is different :-), stripped off of its unnecessary ingredients yet retaining all the flavors and taste, this version will make your taste testers and hungry eaters drool with every bite. I have nothing against butter but just don't feel like using so much saturated fat on a daily basis. I spell it as T.a.s.t.y and not as B.U.T.T.E.R :-) Try this awesome dal makhni and you will never order the loaded, greasy stuff in restaurants that tends to make you queasy in the stomach soon after you have paid for it.

What do you need to make Dal Makhni?
1 cup whole black urad dal
1/3 cup red kidney beans (use 1/4 cup if you like them to show up sparsely)
1 Tblsp oil
1/2 Tsp ghee/clarified butter
1/2 cup milk (I used 2%)
1.5 inch piece of raw ginger
2 green chilies
2 cloves garlic (increase if you are a garlic lover)
2 large tomatoes (makes 3.5 cups when chunked)
1/4 cup finely chopped onion (grating or mincing works well too)
1 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp garam masala powder
1/2 - 3/4 Tsp red chili powder (adjust to taste)
1/2 Tsp kasoori methi
chopped cilantro to garnish

How do you make Dal makhni?

• Wash and soak both the beans in plenty of water over night.
• Next morning, drain all the water, pick any dirt and pressure cook it with 3 cups of water for 15 minutes after the first whistle. The beans should be cooked soft and almost mashed. This is what gives it the creamy consistency.

• Pound peeled ginger and green chilies to a coarse paste in a mortar & pestle. Peel and finely chop garlic.
• Make a puree of the raw tomato chunks and keep it ready.
• Heat oil+ghee in a heavy bottom pan, add the ginger & green chili paste, sauté for 30 seconds.
• Add the chopped garlic and sauté until it turns light brown, about 30-45 seconds.
• Add the finely chopped/minced/grated onion and fry for a couple of minutes until they sweat and turn soft. Do not brown the onions.
• Add the tomato puree and let it come to a boil.

• Add salt and red chili powder and continue to boil until the liquid evaporates and you see a nice, soft, goop in the pan - about 6-8 minutes on medium heat.
• Mash a spoon full of cooked lentils (you can run it in your blender to make it smooth), add it to the pan along with the rest of the cooked lentils.
• Once you see a couple of bubbles on top, add garam masala and mix it in.
• Add milk and bring it to a slow boil - about 4-5 minutes.

• Reduce heat further and cook for another 10 minutes until everything comes together into a creamy, sauce consistency.
• Crush the kasoori methi between palms and sprinkle on the top.
• Switch off and garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve with hot phulkas, naan or Makki ki roti.

Notes:

• If you are one of those young at heart AND young in body :-) enjoying excellent health and your diet regularly has butter, cream, ghee etc in it, go ahead and top this dal makhni with a dollop of butter while serving. But I can guarantee that the extra dose of saturated fat is not going to change this already yummy dish much further :-)

• Black urad dal takes longer to cook than usual lentils, so soaking overnight helps cut the time down.
• Homely Punjabi dal makhni adds 1/3 cup of chana dal to the above and also gives onion a skip. Try this variation if you like.
• The secret to a deliciously creamy dal makhni is well cooked lentils and keeping them on the stove on low heat for a long time as the spices and seasoning work their magic. This is a perfect recipe to make in a slow cooker if you are a fan of that mode of cooking. 

Moolangi(radish) tovve - A dal recipe so comforting you will forget it has radish

Do any of you have experience carrying a (cooked) radish dish in lunch box to school/college/work? I did that once, had made mulangi(radish) huli at home and took it to work with rice. Honestly, I was amazed that until then I had not realized that a lunch box could stink, am glad I opened the lunch box when no one was around and immediately closed it. Came back home famished, heated up the dabba food and ate it licking my fingers :-). Nammamma though never carried any lunch boxes knew something about unleashing a radish dish from a closed vessel, how else do you explain the strange coincidence in all the years she made my lunch box, never once it had the radish huli or gojju.. Moms are really smart.

But, I do like radishes, I eat them both raw and cooked. Nammamma's typical moolangi dishes would be huli (Yumm, I have to blog about it soon), gojju and the huli tovve and I like all three of them. I had not seen red radishes until I traveled across the seven seas (well, just pacific ocean) and fell in love with those cute little bulbs in the farmer markets. They are not as spicy/pungent as the regular radishes and work extremely well in salads. I trim the ends and use them in huli/sambar for a fragrant side dish :-).

Tovve is a quintessential kannada dish you will find on the typical festival or wedding menu, though radish doesn't fare as a favorite on certain days, it does make a wonderful tovve that goes well with both rice and rotis. I like white radish for this recipe because for me tovve is as much about the yellow green color as it is the taste, feel free to use red radishes as substitutes and try this simple recipe for a delicious meal.

What do you need to make radish tovve? 
1 cup moong dal/hesaru bele
1 medium sized white radish - washed, peeled and chopped into bite size pieces
1.5 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
2 green chilies - slit length wise
handful of fresh cilantro
1/2 Tsp turmeric
2 lemons/lime - juice extracted
3 cups of water

For vaggarane/seasoning:
1 Tsp cooking oil
1 Tsp mustard seeds/saasive
1 Tsp cumin/jeerige
1/2 Tsp asafoetida powder
3-4 curry leaves

How do you make radish tovve? 

• Wash the moong dal in 2 changes of water and bring it to boil in a vessel.
• Add the radish pieces and green chilies when the moong dal starts to boil and cook them for about 10 minutes on medium heat. 
• About 5 minutes after adding the radish pieces, add finely chopped cilantro and let it boil with the dal & vegetables. 
• When the dal & radish turn soft to touch but hold their shape well, add salt and turmeric, switch off the stove.
• Prepare seasoning - heat oil in a small pan, add asafoetida, mustard and cumin, wait for the mustard to pop and switch off the stove. 
• Add curry leaves into the hot seasoning and pour all of it into the tovve. 
• Add the lemon/lime juice and mix well.
• Serve hot or warm tovve with rice or rotis, we had ours with chapatis. 

Tips: 

• Be generous with lemon/lime juice in the tovve recipe.
• Adjust tovve consistency to be thick. 
• Make sure you do not cook the dal too long, it just has to be soft, you want to taste and feel the soft dal with every bite. 

Summer tastes - Maavidikaya pappu a.k.a Mango Dal

What does Summer mean to you? For me (even after all these years), summer is synonymous with school vacation, new hobby for the 2 months and mangoes. Yes summer is as much mangoes as winter is avarekayi for me. I love mangoes, period. Growing up in a city like Mysore, we didn't have mango trees in the back yard but come season, there would be no dearth of fresh mangoes in all shapes, sizes and colors. We used to have basketful of mangoes at home but formally restricted to eating them within limits. Me & my younger brother would fight for the juiciest, ripest raspuri mangoes (my favorite kind) and along with the ones chosen for nammamma, anna, and older siblings will put them in a bucket of cool water in the evening. We used to mark the fruit with a signature, a line drawn with nail, pencil anything to identify that it was mine come dessert time. The first one to finish dinner would run to the bucket and get the cooled, washed mangoes to distribute around. After the last morsel of curd rice vanished from the plate and the plates licked clean (yes, we did that), we would start enjoying the delicious fruit peel by peel, Hmmm..

But much before the fruits started appearing at dinner time, there would be a parade of green mango dishes such as mango chitranna (varieties of it), chutneys, tokkus, gojjus, rasam and of course the pickle. Nammamma never brought home the first mango until it was the New Year's day or Ugadi, the first mango had to be cut on that day and a delicious chitranna would be on the lunch menu, after that it was mango everyday in some form or the other. I have no such scruples (read weak will power) since I don't get raw mangoes all the time, I jump at them whenever I find them in my local  grocery store.

We are still ways away from summer where we live, I am yet to find Spring in the air :-) but imagine my happiness when I found the local grocery store carrying fresh green mangoes the other day. It is difficult to decide which dish to prepare since we love everything with mango, but finally after much serious thought, family voted on the Mango pappu - very simple recipe for a flavorful, comforting dal I learned from Amma. This is how we make the mango pappu at home.

What do you need to make Mango pappu? 
1 medium sized firm green mango - washed, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup toor dal/kandi pappu
2-3 greeen chilies, slit lengthwise
1/2 Tsp turmeric/pasupu
1 Tblsp salt (adjust to taste)
2 cups of water to cook

For popu/seasoning:
1 Tsp cooking oil
1 Tsp mustard seeds/aavaalu
1 Tsp cumin seeds/jeelakara
1/2 Tsp fenugreek seeds/menthilu
A generous pinch of asafoetida
2-3 curry leaves
2 dry red chilies - broken into half

How do you make Mango pappu? 

• Wash the dal, add the mango pieces, slit green chilies  and  turmeric, cook it in your pressure cooker until the dal is soft.
• Once the steam is off, open the pressure cooker, add salt and mash the dal lightly with a spoon.
• Heat oil in a small pan - add the asafoetida, mustard, cumin, fenugreek seeds along with the red chilies. Let the seeds splutter.
• Add curry leaves just before switching off.
• Pour the sizzling popu in to the cooked dal, give it a good mix. 
• Serve it with hot rice and ghee and dig in. 

Variations: 

• Use garlic in seasoning if you favor the garlic flavor. 
• On our recent trip to India, BH's cousin's wife served us with a delicious mango pappu with tomatoes added in, it tasted great too. 
• I sometimes use moong dal/pesara pappu instead of toor dal. 

Tips: 

• Get fresh green mangoes that are firm and tart for best taste. 
• Adjust amount of mangoes based on how tart you like your dal, the mangoes I had were slightly sour and I used 2 of them.