Gorikaayi Huli (Cluster beans stew/sambar) - Comfort food at its best

We all have our comfort foods. How does one define 'comfort food'? For me, it is food that puts any queasiness in the stomach to rest, makes all real and imaginary discomfort go away, takes me right to that unconditionally happy state of mind. Tall order, you say? Think about it. Most of us, reach out for food as a means of comfort first, necessity later. It is true in my case and that is why I have a hard time controlling my eating :-).

I have multiple 'comfort' foods. Pongal/huggi/khichdi, mosaravalakki with pickle, steamed rice and saaru are some of the easy picks for me when someone asks me about my comfort food. The Karnataka Huli (known popularly as Sambar) is one of my favorite foods in the comfort category as well. This is easy to put together with the goodness of both proteins and vegetables, has the right amount of spices to tingle your taste buds and if made at the right consistency, not only can it be mixed with rice, served as a dip/side dish for rotis, or had straight out of a bowl as a stoup (Stew+soup) on a slightly chilly day.

Huli is a very basic, frequently spotted staple of the home style meal in Karnataka. The vegetables that go into it differ based on the season and accessibility and the lentil used is almost always toor dal or split pigeon peas. Nammamma made some kind of huli every 2-3 days as it was not only easier to make but also would eliminate the need to prepare multiple dishes. She used to have 'huli pudi' or sambar powder in large quantities and store them but always used to add to the freshness with grated coconut and cinnamon, cloves or raw onions depending on the vegetable she used that particular day. Here is how it works - Huli pudi + freshly roasted cinnamon & cloves + coconut for huli made with cabbage or radish, Huli pudi + raw onion+coconut for huli made with menthya soppu (fresh fenugreek greens) or eggplants. You get the idea, right? huli pudi and coconut would be the constants in the ever changing mixture to get the right balance of flavors between the spices and the vegetables. She could have mixed the huli pudi with the cooked dal + vegetable and called it done, it would have tasted good, delicious and no one would have complained. But the extra effort she took to make that every day dish somehow more special spoke volumes of her cooking with love. I don't know how she had figured it all, but every time she made huli, it just tasted divine.

The consistency of the huli varies by its intended usage as well. If you are planning to mix it with steamed rice, the gravy is slightly more liquidish and the lentil is cooked until it is mashed totally. If it is used as a side dish for rotti and rotis, the consistency is thicker. Lentil would be cooked to different degrees of 'softness' based on which vegetable was pairing with it. I love the dal to be holding shape when it is mixed with greens especially. It just makes it a better texture to the dish. Huli also makes an excellent lunch box item when mixed with rice and a little bit of twist, I will talk about it another day.

Nammamma always made huli with a single vegetable. Kootu is a different matter altogether where it is ok and infact required to mix and match the vegetables but Huli is always kept pure with a single vegetable. For me, her huli recipes always stayed at the top of the list of "World's ultimate comfort food" :-). I do not make huli pudi and store like she did because of our limited consumption but always follow nammamma's guidelines of the subtle nuances in the ingredients when I roast the spice mix in an effort to bring the same taste to my table.

Cluster beans - how many of you use this regularly? I see a lot of people scrunching their noses up at the mention of cluster beans. I get it, it is not one of the most popular vegetables. It has a unique flavor that has the potential to tip the balance of the dish if not handled carefully. I recommend to add this to your repertoire, give it a chance to be an 'acquired taste', with a little nudge this humble vegetable actually has the potential to grow on you:-). This is a seasonal vegetable and makes its way as the temperatures go down and once it is ready to harvest, it can really flood the market. Nammamma used to get it regularly and we also grew it in the backyard and harvested many, many baskets of the vegetable. I didn't care much for the stir fry she made with cluster beans but huli definitely is something you want to taste and enjoy.

This is my Day-2 recipe of the week as I let this staple dish from nammamma's kitchen make its way to the blog. My favorite way to eat this is to scoop warm ladle fulls in to a bowl and spoon the deliciousness slowly into the mouth. I don't need any carbs in the form of rice or roti to go with it either. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

What do you need to make Gorikaayi Huli?
20-25 (not too mature) cluster beans
1/2 cup toor dal/split pigeon peas
2 Tbsp black eyes beans (optional, I used it as I had soaked them for something else that day)
1 key lime size tamarind
1/4 Tsp crushed jaggery
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/4 Tsp turmeric powder
4-5 curry leaves
For the spice paste: 
1 Tbsp oil
1 Tbsp chana dal/kadle bele
1/2 Tsp urad dal/uddina bele
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds/menthya
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
1/4 Tsp cumin
4 black pepper corns
1 inch piece cinnamon
4-5 dry red chilies (adjust based on the heat tolerance)
4-5 curry leaves (optional but recommended)
2 Tbsp grated coconut

For seasoning:
1/2 Tsp mustard seeds
1/8 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1/8 Tsp asafoetida
1 Tbsp oil

How do you make Gorikaayi Huli? 

• Wash, pick any dirt and drain water from the dal. 
• Soak it in 1 cup of water for atleast 30mins
• Wash the cluster beans, and chop tiny portions of the two ends from both sides.
• Chop into inch long pieces. 

• Soak tamarind in 1/4 cup of warm water for 20 minutes and extract the juice, discard any seeds & pith.
• In a pressure cooker, take the pre-soaked dal, pre-soaked black eyed peas (if using), chopped cluster beans, curry leaves, turmeric powder and 2 cups of water. 

• Pressure cook it on medium heat for 3-4 whistles, switch off and let the pressure subside. 
• Heat 1 Tbsp of oil, add all the ingredients listed under spice paste, except for coconut. Roast on medium heat until the spices are fragrant and the dals turn golden. Switch off. 
• Once cool, grind into a smooth paste along with coconut and 1/2 cup of water. Keep this aside until ready to use.

• Once the pressure subsides, open the cooker lid and either transfer the contents to another pot and continue using the pressure cooker as I did. 
• Switch on the stove, put the pot on it, add tamarind extract, jaggery, salt and the ground spice paste. 
• Give it a mix and adjust consistency by adding water as needed. 

• Let the mixture come to a good boil before switching it off. 
• Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a small pan, add all seasoning ingredients and let mustard pop. 
• Pour the sizzling seasoning on top of the huli, cover and let it rest for 15mins before serving.

Notes: 

• Notice how I said 'not too mature' cluster beans and not 'tender' cluster beans. For this recipe, you want slightly mature cluster beans so they have the flavor. If they are really tender, go ahead and make a palya/stir fry as it will not have the flavor to stand out with the huli masala. 
• Since I cooked dal and beans together, I pre-soaked the dal for 30mins to speed up the cooking process. Dal generally takes long time and you don't want the cluster beans to be all mushy. Alternatively, you can cook dal and cluster beans separately until they both reach the cooked consistency you desire. 
• This is one of the special huli recipes which is thicker in consistency compared to normal huli and the lentil is cooked until it is just breaking apart and not completely dissolved. 
• If you do not have a pressure cooker, use a heavy bottom vessel to cook the dal and vegetable but be prepared for atleast an hour of cook time. You can add the cluster beans half way through the process if you are cooking in an open vessel. Slow cooker works well too which doesn't need any baby sitting, you can dump all the ingredients and let it cook for 4-5 hours. 

Doddapatre (Cuban Oregano)Tambuli - Cooling the body and the soul and some exciting chukbhuk news :-)

Last week has been such a rushed one what with amma complaining about a back pain that pretty much tied to her room and bed for a couple of days. She is the backbone of the family and when she is down, typically life seems down too :-(, Woman power in our household in not at all exaggerated. On that note, Happy Women's day everyone!

Then BH started coughing and sneezing and like always didn't go to the doctor until it brought him down royally during the midweek, makes me wonder if my 'nagging' abilities are kind of becoming diluted over time :-). Finally, when he couldn't sleep for 2 straight nights and also kept the rest of the house up & awake, realization dawned on and he came back from the doctor with a handful of antibiotics. He is on the mend, slow and sure recovery. I am hoping to not catch any bugs for a while but then they don't really listen to me, do they?

On a positive note, my Maddur vade post got published in Indian railways Railbandhu magazine. You write something that is close to your heart not even thinking about the audience it may reach and then someone from the other side of the world finds it and reaches out to you. It is exhilarating. I wasn't even aware that Indian railways had a magazine and when they contacted me in Jan stating they liked the post (not just the recipe but the write up about train journeys) and wanted to publish, I was more than happy to nod my head. The entire post is not on the magazine for lack of real estate, however it is an abridged version of my original post. If you are in India and travel in railways, look up the magazine if you have time. I received a pdf version of the monthly and here is a picture of the same. Happiee me..

I have a very simple, homely, almost rustic recipe today that won't be on the menu in any restaurants. You will have to knock on the doors of people who continue home cooking in Mysore region and ask them for a bowl of this delicious tambuli. Yep, that is the only way to get your hands on this ever green, soul happy dish. I have a couple of recipes for tambuli on the blog, here & here but what I have today is the queen (it could have been king I suppose but since I am writing the post on International Women's day :-)) of tambulis made with doddapatre (dodda~big, patre~leaf) or cuban oregano.

This is my favorite tambuli variety, nammamma always had this bush growing in the yard as far as I can remember and it used to be on the menu regularly and more frequently in summers. She would serve it as the first course on a hot afternoon and the taste & fragrance of the leaves just freshens you up. I have had it in pots for over 8 years now. The herb like the regular oregano is easy to grow and grows wild if allowed but pots seem to restrain the free growth. Some of my Tamil speaking friends have borrowed it to be used as medicine, I believe the leaves are crushed and the juice is applied on the forehead to get relief from common cold and congestion. It may not be easily available in your garden stores around the world but you can order it online. Growing it in the pot is easy, don't expose it to extreme temperatures and harvest the leaves regularly. DD loves it so much that she won't eat anything else on the days I make it for lunch.

My inlaws live on the outskirts of Bengaluru in a self contained educational campus filled with students but devoid of any of Bengaluru city's pollution (atleast thus far). The air is clean, mornings are filled with the music of birds & stray dogs, unadulterated cool breeze freely fills the surroundings. While staying so far away from the city has these advantages, it also becomes essential to be self sufficient. The surrounding villages have stepped up along with the college itself reserving land for farming. You get the fresh vegetables but also get the instant maggi noodles and the likes to satisfy the student population :-). I guess everyone thrives. The people who live on campus (other than students) are typically the teaching staff and management and the housing has developed in to a colony.

On our last India visit, DD & I were generally walking around on our last day in Bengaluru around the campus and came across a small park not far from the house. There is an elderly lady who lives right across and is a mega gardening enthusiast. She has plants all around her house and also have adopted this park to grow plants of all varieties, you will find vegetables, fruits, flowers which just makes the area so colorful and chirpy. She invited us to come see her park and we went with her. As I was admiring the pomegranates, guavas, chikkoos hanging from the branches, DD saw something that made her jaw drop and she quietly sat down. Curious, I went near her to see what she had found and burst out laughing.

There was the doddapatre plant creeping so generously all over the ground that she had never experienced the abundance in our restricted pot growing. The lady thought we didn't know what it was and started to explain the medicinal values, looking at DD's face I knew what I had to do and asked the lady if I could pick some leaves. As soon as she said yes, we went to her house to get a small bag and picked the leaves to our heart's content, here was the catch, we were heading back that night. So the leaves got all washed up as soon as we reached home, roasted in ghee and ground with coconut and yogurt. The freshness of the leaves still in our throats, we finished our 'head out' meal and made our way to the airport. BTW, this makes an excellent dip for maddur vade if you want to try them together :-)

I recently read an article about why Indian food is so tasty where the research says that Indian cooking seems to blend flavors that are vastly contradictory unlike others where things that complement each other are used in a recipe. I don't know all the science behind it but one statement caught my eye which read that typical Indian recipes are complicated medley of ingredients and usually have upwards of 6 ingredients. Here is my very humble, simple yet exotic in taste and medicinal value - Doddapatre tambuli for all of you to try with a small set of ingredients.

What do you need to make doddapatre tambuli? 
30-35 medium sized dodda patre (cuban oregano)
1 Tsp ghee (clarified butter)
1/2 Tsp black pepper corn
1/2 Tsp cumin seeds
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
1/2 cup grated/shredded coconut (fresh or frozen)
1 cup yogurt (home made and a day old preferred, or use plain yougurt from the store)

How do you make tambuli? 

• Wash the leaves under running water a couple of times and pick any stems that might have made their way. 
• Heat ghee in a thick pan on medium heat
• Add pepper & cumin seeds, let them sizzle (1-1.5 minutes)

• Roughly chop the cleaned leaves and add it to the pan. 
• Add salt and mix well. 

• Roast for 3-4 minutes until leaves turn into a mush and leave water.
• Switch off and let cool completely. 

• Grind the roasted mixture along with coconut into a smooth blend, use the water that is in the pan. 
• Add yogurt and run the mixer a couple of times to get a homogeneous mixture. 

• Serve it with piping hot rice and enjoy the unforgettable experience. 

Notes: 

• Slightly tangy yogurt brings out the best taste, if your yogurt is too plain, add a small piece of tamarind and grind. I have done this and DD was none the wiser so it is a great tip :-)
• Use ghee in this recipe instead of oil if you can, it really brings the taste. 

Avalakki(Poha) Vaggarane - orange, yellow, pink, green and black, what other colors can you spot in this delicious comfort of food?

The other day I was making a list of dishes I would like to post on the blog in the next couple of months (yes, I am organized, and no, it is not a new year resolution :-)) and I noticed that it was only made of special items or things I would prepare on occasion. I guess I was thinking that nobody really cares about the every day preparations unless there is something to make them stand out or in other words there is a 'twis(h)t to the story' :-). It is probably true, with hundreds or even thousands of food blogs, cookery shows and cook books, things tend to get repetitive from one source to the other especially with common items and it takes every blogger constant effort to keep things fresh and unique. But then there are some things that should not need to change, these are some of the comfort foods in every kitchen and every day food is needed well, every day. I reach out to my container of poha in the morning when I am running short on time and do not have any ready batter or bread lying around in the kitchen or too bored to eat the cereals and oats yet again in the morning. It takes no more than 20 minutes from start to finish and is a perfect way to start the day especially with a bowl of home made yogurt, fits snugly into lunch boxes without any hazard of spills and tastes divine even after it is cold. Any other requirements to be satisfied before you can feature it in your kitchen? I didn't think so :-)

While this avalakki vaggarane shows up atleast once in 2 weeks in my home, I was still hesitant to put it on the blog. Then something happened very recently (infact twice) to make me feel confident that it truly deserves a place on the blog. A friend of BH was staying with us over Christmas Holidays and when I made this for one of the breakfasts as they were heading out for a boys day out, our guest casually mentioned that we (in US) seem to get better quality poha/beaten rice than at Pune (where he came from). This was a very unexpected remark, I know the exported goods are sometimes better but what can make poha better here than Pune? And I have read and heard from everybody around me that Pune/Maharastra is known for its Poha dishes, so slightly intrigued, I asked him what he meant by that. He said the texture of the poha was very nice and the dish tasted very yummy. Now you can definitely pass this off as my polite guest's polite compliment and not attach any more significance to that simple statement but it was his 2nd day at home and I was actually wondering about my cooking skills since he was hardly eating anything remotely sufficient for a grown man since he landed. Both him and BH who has known him for a long time kept telling me that it was not the food but his normal eating habits. With that background, on the day I made this poha, he had 3 servings and enjoyed them :-). So I am convinced that it was not just a polite compliment of a guest. And further conversation made it clear that he thought the texture of the poha itself was unlike any he gets in Pune (BTW, he cooks regularly at home) and then I told him I made it so by powdering the store bought poha.

Then the next week, we had a family friend and wife visiting from Far East and as their stay was short, I made this poha again before they left for the airport. The couple relished it genuinely and made me feel all warm and fuzzy :-).

Buoyed by these two unexpected compliments, I thought this poha recipe of mine had definite potential on the blog, so here it is..Food can't get any simpler, satisfying or more delicious than this dish.

There are multiple versions of the poha - some with onion, some with potatoes, some with carrots, some a combination of 2 or more of these, and .... So I thought instead of writing a different post for each of those variations, I would give it to you one single "all in one" post as a reference for you to pick and choose from or make your own delicious combinations. I will also point out to my favorite ones so you know which ones to try first :-).

Although I make this dish by directly soaking the store bought poha/beaten rice in water, most days I run it in my mixer to make a rough or coarse rava kind of consistency before soaking it. This is the only way nammamma makes this dish and I love the texture and taste of it. It hardly takes 2-3 additional minutes and is compensated in the soaking time as the powdered poha soaks quicker than the whole and is very well worth the time and effort. But if you do want to skip that step, you can still follow the rest of the recipe and the variations to make a delightful seasoned poha.

What do you need to make Avalakki vaggarane? 
(This is how I made it the day I took the pictures, look at the variations given below for other equally yummy versions)
2 cups think poha/avalakki
2 Tblsp oil
1 Tsp mustard seeds
1 Tblsp chana dal
1 Tsp Urad dal
3-4 curry leaves
2-3 green chilies
1/2 inch ginger root
2 Tblsp finely chopped onion
2 Tblsp finely chopped carrots
1 Tblsp finely chopped cilantro
1 Tblsp grated/shredded coconut (fresh or frozen)
1/2 Tsp sugar (optional but recommended)
1 Tsp lemon/lime juice (optional)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)

How do you make Avalakki Vaggarane? 

• Add the thick poha into your mixer jar and make a upma rava consistency by pulsing the mixer a few times. 
• Take the ground poha into a wide bowl and run water on it and immediately drain the water out. 
• Let the wet poha stand for 5 minutes (while you are preparing the seasoning) for it to soak up the water. 
• In the mean time, heat a wide pan and add oil to it. 
• Add mustard and the dals into the oil and let them come to a sizzle along with the oil (slow roasting of dals gives them the crunch and they stay that way even after you add the soaked poha). 
• Once mustard starts to pop, add chopped green chilies, finely chopped ginger and curry leaves and let them roast for 30 seconds. 
• Add the finely chopped onion and saute for a minute. 
• Add the chopped carrots, salt, turmeric powder and saute for 2-3 minutes until carrots becomes slightly soft and onions are cooked. This time is entirely dependent on the size of your vegetables, heat from the stove and your preference for crunchy or soft bites. 

• While the veggies are cooking, fluff up the soaked poha as it would have become one big tight mass (unless you over watered it :-)). break the lumps and make sure it looks completely fluffy. 
• Pour the fluffed poha into the pan, add chopped cilantro, shredded coconut and give a good mix. 
• Cover and cook for 2-3 minutes on low heat until the poha just warms up, remember there is no cooking of poha required. 
• Open the cover, switch off the stove, add lemon juice if using and serve warm or cold with a bowl of thick yogurt on the side. 

Notes: 

• Unlike the whole poha, soaking the ground poha is a little tricky, excess water will make it soggy, so err on the side of using less water and you can sprinkle some later if the poha looks very dry. 
• Mixer/blender wisdom: When grinding poha in the mixer, make sure you have added enough quantity to just cover the blades, if the amount is too less, it doesn't grind well and if it too much, it tends to make a powder. 
• If you are using whole poha, squeeze handfuls of it to remove all excess water before adding it to the seasoning. 
• You can finely chop green chilies if you like it spicier or leave them as big pieces that can be lifted out of the plate easily if someone is not friendly with the heat. 
• I sometimes use grated carrots instead of finely chopped ones, this changes the bite and texture but you can try it for a change. 

Variations:

1. Nammamma makes a very basic version - no oinions, no ginger and adds 1/2 Tsp sugar along with the fluffed up poha and ofcourse one and half times the quantity of coconut I gave here and it tastes divine. 
2. Cube and parboil potatoes (1 medium potato is good for this quantity) and add it along with onions to saute and crisp a little. This makes it kanda-batata poha (onion-potato). 
3. Bell peppers of different colors finely chopped make excellent flavor agents in this poha. Use them along with onions & carrots or without them. 
4. Green peas, fresh or frozen, boiled to tender and added not only gives a splash of color but also some protein boost. 
5. Add peanuts while roasting the dals to add some crunch to the poha. 
6. Add cooked garbanzo beans (chole) to upp the proteins. 
7. A restaurant version of this humble homely dish is generally served with a squeeze of lemon/lime and sprinkled with a spoon of sev (deep fried lentil sticks) or boondi on top. Looks pretty if you want to try it.