Ammalu’s Kitchen

Payatham Parappu Masial/ Mashed Greengram Dal

I have been thinking hard on what to post for RCI- Tamil Cuisine hosted by lakshmi of VeggieCuisine. Dakshin by Chandra Padmanabhan came to my rescue. I bought this book a few weeks ago and haven’t ventured into the main course. I decided to give it a try and for starters tried this simple split moong beans dal.

All you require is :

A cup of moong dal picked and washed
A lemon sized tamarind ball for tamarind paste
Turmeric
Ghee, Salt to taste

For the Popu/tadka/seasoning:
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1 teaspoon Urad dal
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 dried chillies
A few curry leaves
3 slit green chillies
Asafoetida

Method:
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Boil the dal in 3 cups of water and keep aside . The author asked to boil seperately, but I boiled in the pressure cooker. Mash and keep aside. Soak the tamarind in hot water for about 15 minutes and then squeeze the liquid from the pulp and keep aside.

Do the Popu/tadka/seasoning in a heavy bottomed pan by heating ghee and adding urad dal, mustard seeds, red chillies, green chillies, curry leaves, asafoetida.

Add the tamarind extract now and let it simmer until the raw smell of the tamarind is gone. Now add the boiled dal and let the flavours mix. Simmer for another 10 minutes and remove from heat. Serve with hot rice.