Unde Huli (spiced lentil balls cooked in yogurt based sauce) - High dose of delicious proteins

Imagine yourself being an awkward young adult with limited social skills and a clam shut mouth especially around new people. It is the age when you don't easily fit into any age group. I was one of them a few years (who am I kidding?) many years ago. Big brother had just got married and as the 2 families lived in the same city, we were trying to get acquainted with each other and get to know each other while the newly weds were far, far away in another country :-). It was an exciting and happy time and I was asked by the aunts and uncles of my SIL to their homes. Mine was a more informal visit as I had a 2-wheeler and could just drop by on my way home in the evenings than having to arrange for a real dinner or lunch with all the elders.

One of those visits, one of the well meaning aunts brought out a cup filled to the brim with a somewhat milky looking dish in it and offered it to me. My first impression of the dish was that it was some sort of payasa or kheer. Being the sweet hater (I know it is a strong word but I used to really despise sweets that time, I am glad it was just a phase and it passed and I enjoy all kinds of sweets now), I politely told aunty that I was full and she should really get half the cup emptied out before I would touch it. Aunty went in and came back with the cup now filled only a little below the half way mark. Comfortable I could swish down that amount with a handy water glass and not look too rude infront of the new family, I strategically placed the water glass close to me and took a spoon ful of the dish from the cup.

It definitely wasn't payasa, nor was it any kind of dessert, instead it was a delicious sensation of yogurt and spices in the mouth followed by a quick touch of a bite of something that tasted vaguely familiar and I was kicking myself (mentally ofcourse) as to why I made aunty take away half the cup before even knowing what it was. I am sure if I was a more mature person, I would not only have readily asked aunty for more but also checked out the recipe with her. The natural inhibitions of the young adult made me not ask for more as I greedily wiped the cup clean and kept it. And unfortunately the conversation was so engaging all around that aunty didn't notice my enthusiasm and didn't offer me any seconds. I agree the loss was entirely my doing :-)

I came home and told nammamma about what I ate and demanded why she had deprived all of us of that delicious dish all these years. Here was the problem, I never noticed what aunty called the dish and so nammamma ofcourse had no way of knowing what I was talking about with my limited culinary vocabulary at the time. She just brushed me aside and went about her ways. It was many days later that I somehow was able to communicate what I ate and my SIL told nammamma that it must have been her aunt's famous "unde huli (unde~round, huli~general term for the sauce)" and nammamma also acknowledged that she hadn't made that in years at home.

Since nammamma never got interested in making this at home, I went after my SIL and pestered her to make it for me and discovered that she makes them as good as her aunt. I have even been sneaky enough to soak the lentils when my brother & SIL made a trip to my home so she wouldn't have a choice but to actually prepare it for me the moment she landed here. So in that sense, it is handed down to me from SIL and her aunt.

So here is the mystery dish, it is called Unde Huli and is made with ingredients similar to those in nuchinunde but the look, texture and taste are vastly different. I strongly believe that there are 2 kinds of people in this world, one that live to eat and the second one that eat to live. If you belong to the latter category (which I also refer to as the 'non-foodies'), then you might just feel that unde huli and nuchinunde dipped in majjige huli taste very close but I am the former category person or the foodie and to me the two are miles apart and both take you on a gastronomical journey that is superlative. Unde huli is not steamed but simmered in liquid/broth until cooked which gives it a glistening coating on top and makes every bite soaked in the yogurt sauce. The sauce is not served on the side rather is part of the dish itself.

I can eat this by itself in bowls without making it a side dish. This dish is like taking proteins intravenous instead of swallowing small tablets, so plan accordingly as it will cover your protein needs for the entire day. It is totally filling and you can skip cooking anything else once you have made this. If you like lentils and looking for a one pot, concentrated dose of proteins, this dish is for you. Enjoy!

What do you need to make Unde Huli? 
1 cup Togari bele/Toor Dal
1/4 cup kadle bele/chana dal
4-6 green chilies
1-2 red chilies
1 inch piece of ginger
1 Tbsp salt (adjust to taste)
2.5 cups water
1 Tbsp rice flour
2 Tbsp grated coconut (optional but recommended)
1/2 cup yogurt
2-3 sprigs of cilantro
Seasoning: 
1 Tbsp oil
1/2 Tsp mustard
1/4 Tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 Tsp cumin
pinch of turmeric powder
1-2 pieces of dry red chilies (skip if you do not like it)
1/8 Tsp asafoetida

How do you make Unde Huli? 

• Wash, pick any dirt and soak the lentils in plenty of water for 2-3 hours along with red chilies
• Wash & remove the stalk ends of green chilies and chop them or break them into pieces. 
• Wash, peel and slice ginger. 
• Once the lentils are soaked (they look bigger and feel softer to touch), drain all the water and take them to the blender along with the chilies, ginger and coconut and grind into a coarse paste. Do not add water, use blender on pulse mode. 
• Take the mixture into a bowl, add salt and rice flour and mix well. 
• Take small lime sized mixture in hand and make them into a ball. Keep them aside in a plate. 

• Heat water in a deep and wide vessel with a pinch of salt until it comes to a gentle boil. 
• Turn down the heat to lowest on your stove and drop just one of the balls into the water. 

• If the lentil ball disintegrates immediately, then you need to add more rice flour to the mixture and make them into balls.  
• If the ball holds shape (a little bit of disintegration is fine and actually needed. 
• Drop the balls one by one (do not crowd them in the vessel, you can do this in batches if needed) and let them come to the surface on their own, takes about 7-9 minutes. 

• Once the balls surface to the top, gently flip them over and continue to cook for another 6-8 minutes. 
• The liquid would have thickened up a little with the lentil mixture and got the taste of the mixture - This is what makes the dish delicious overall. 

• Whisk the yogurt with a spoon and add it to the sauce. 
• Add chopped cilantro, let the mixture boil for a few minutes before taking it off.  
• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard, fenugreek and cumin. Let the seeds pop, add red chilies, and asafoetida. 

• Pour the seasoning into the pot, cover it add let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Notes: 

• If you are in a hurry or forgotten to soak the lentils, you can put them in hot water to gain some time. They will plump up in about 30 minutes. 

• Adjust the amount of chilies (between green & red) depending on the spice level you are comfortable with. Soak dry red chilies along with lentils if you are using them. 
• If you are cooking the lentil balls in batches, remove the cooked balls onto a plate before adding new ones. Add them all back to the pot before adding yogurt.
• Once cooked the balls will have a shiny texture all around and will not break unless you cut them with a spoon. 
• Seasoning the curry is essential to give it that extra flavor, don't skip it.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The balls tend to break and disintegrate in the water for 2 reasons - 

1. If the water is too hot, reduce the heat to lowest, make sure the bubbles have died away before you place the balls in the water.

2. If your mixture is watery, adding rice flour helps to absorb some of this moisture but don't use a lot of rice flour as the taste changes and the balls tend to become harder after cooking. 

Nuchinunde with hasi majjige huli (steamed lentil balls with yogurt dip) - a Mysore special

2 weekends of training with a full work week sandwiched in between, I feel like a zombie. Brain is woozy and information seems to be floating all around. I feel the need for some quite time and then I will be ready to be up and run with another week. Yep that is the impact of professional development training on me :-). So, as you noticed, I went light on my blog posts, cooked a little less than usual, spent a lot less time with family than usual and missed talking to you all. I am done with training (not with studying though) today, caught up on some late afternoon blissful sleep while BH & DD very sweetly did their own thing and let me snooze, I am up and fresh and can't resist the urge to chat with all of you again, blogging is addictive -{sigh}-.

Sometimes I wonder why I started or am writing this blog, I like cooking, I like feeding people, I also like to talk and I like to write - all good reasons but is it worth the time I spend on it? After 200+ posts and 120+ likes, I am totally convinced that it is worth the time, hope you feel the same way my dear friends who drop in and make me feel special. It feels good when people visit and leave genuine comments or feedback, I also get flustered when I see the obviously spamming messages but have learnt to put them where they belong (right in to the trash can) and move on. I have made some friends who inquire after me offline and that I think is the highlight of this journey.

When I started writing, the only 'not-so-encouraging' thing BH said was that I should make sure I had enough recipes to post so I don't suddenly come to a screeching halt, ever the wise man. I finished my 200th blog post recently and don't feel like I have even scratched the bottom of the barrel with the recipe repertoire I have, and I am learning so many new dishes as part of my 'blog visits' with like minded bloggers here. But then, just sharing recipes was never the the focus of my blog, I wanted to capture what went on in familiar kitchens when those dishes were cooked, reaction of people to certain dishes, stories behind the traditional recipes, experiments and heart aches while learning new recipes and all so often about my thoughts, events in my life, something that just made me stop in my tracks and slow down a tiny bit. Most times, writing a blog post is free flowing especially when I hold a recipe close to my heart but there are times when I have had to struggle to personalize a really yummy dish and present it to you all.

I had this dish marked down for my 200th post as I wanted it to be something special, then Navaratri came, the quick made Rasmalai became a hit and I thought why not do the 200th with a sweet treat. Things change, that is why you make so many baselines (I couldn't resist that one, I had to share something from my training of the last 2 weekends with you guys :-)) and Rasmalai it was last week as we celebrated Navaratri. So my very humble and healthy Nuchinunde kind of stayed back in the draft mode.

Nuchinunde gyan - in Kannada (nuchu~broken tidbits, unde~balls), it means balls made of broken tidbits of dal. When almost everybody was a farmer and grew their own rice and lentils, as the lentils were harvested, cleaned, there always used to be some collateral broken lentils as a result of all the processing. Somebody smart found a great use to convert this 'not wholesome looking' dal into a delicious dish. But since it tastes so great, we now bring perfectly 'wholesome looking' dal from the store, break it into pieces and make the nuchinunde :-). Nammamma always made this with toor dal, I have tasted versions with a combination of toor and chana dal or only chana dal too. They all taste great and it is a matter of preference. It is a ground coarse paste of dal, mixed with herbs, onions and coconut, made into balls (or ovals as nammamma did and I make), steam cooked. Have it with a smear of ghee on top and a majjige huli, you will be cleaning that plate in a jiffy and asking for more.

This is not a dish you will find in restaurants and its appearance at home cooked meals is also becoming few and far. For me, it is one of those dishes that brings back memories of that childhood kitchen, where we would all be salivating as nammamma soaked the dal early in the morning, the quantity would be huge to serve the family and drop in visitors and it would very soon start sounding and smelling like a festival was in the air. As soon as they were cooked, amma would put a few in a plate, dab a smear of home made ghee on top of each, pour some deliciously spicy sour majjige huli on the side and set it infront of us. Dip the hot, steam effusing nuchinunde into the majjige huli and take a bite, you will not ever stop at one bite. A perfect balance of spices, deliciousness of onions and coconut - this is a very simple dish that gives you that protein boost with every small morsel.

Nammamma also served this with a Hasi majjige huli (no cooking needed) without vegetables as a dipping sauce, see below for recipe. You can also serve it with the ginger tambuli, or other yogurt based dips or chutneys.

What do you need to make nuchinunde? 
Makes about 15 undes
1 cup Toor dal
4-5 green chilies (adjust to taste)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3/4 cup chopped onions
1/2 cup grated coconut (fresh or frozen)
1 Tblsp finely chopped coconut pieces (optional, gives a nice bite)
1 Tsp salt (adjust to taste)
pinch of baking soda (less than 1/8 Tsp)

How do you make nuchinunde? 

• Wash, pick toor dal and soak it in water for 2-3 hours until it softens. 
• Rinse and drain the water from the dal. 
• Grind the soaked dal with green chilies and ginger into a coarse paste without using water. Tip: use the blender in pulse mode, make a paste of ginger and green chilies first and then add the dal. Moisture from the soaked dal helps in grinding. 
• Take the ground paste into a bowl, add all the remaining ingredients and mix it well. The consistency should be such that you can press a fistful of mixture in the palm and it holds shape. 

• You can make real round balls to stay true to the name or make longish ovals like I do, aesthetics here is a matter of personal choice. 
• Arrange the balls in a lightly greased (1-2 drops of oil) vessel in a single layer, steam it for 20 minutes on medium heat or until the nuchinunde gets a nice shiny coat on top. 
• I use my pressure cooker and steam them like idli (without the weight). 
• Let the steam subside, take out the nuchinunde, serve them hot with a dab of ghee and the majjige huli. 

How to make Hasi majjige huli? 

• Take 2 Tblsp kadle (roasted gram dal), 1/2 cup grated coconut, 1 Tsp cumin seeds, 2-3 green chilies, 1/2 Tsp salt to the blender and grind them to a smooth paste with 1 cup of sour yogurt. 
• Adjust the consistency with more yogurt if you like.
• Heat a Tsp of oil, add 1 Tsp mustard, 1/2 Tsp cumin, a few curry leaves, 1-2 pieces of dry red chilies and 1/8 Tsp asafoetida. Once the mustard pops, switch off and pour the seasoning over the ground paste. 

Notes: 

• Baking soda helps make the nuchinunde lighter, coconut serves the same purpose also in addition to adding to the taste. If you do not feel like using the baking soda, skip it and increase the grated coconut by a Tblsp or so. 
• Do a taste test before you steam them and make sure the spices are right for your taste, note that the undes will mellow down once steamed so you want to make them a little spicier on the tongue.
• I add finely chopped dill leaves (sabsige soppu) or fresh fenugreek leaves (methi) to the paste along with onions and coconut for flavor sometimes. 
• If your blender is not cooperating without addition of water, go ahead and add a few spoons of water and then add a Tblsp or so of besan/chick pea flour to get the right consistency to make the balls.
• I like to break a day old nuchinunde and mix it with hot rice and a little bit of oil and relish it. It tastes really yummy. 

I am a self declared lentil lover and what better way to show it than entering this protein rich dish into one of the longest running events in the blogospehere? I am sending this to I am sending this off to My Legume Love Affair 64 hosted by Princy of Spicy Food. The event originally started by Susan, The Well Seasoned cook is now maintained at Lisa's Vegetarian kitchen.