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B for Beans Paruppu Usili

When I wrote my earlier post, A is for Avial, I had forgotten that I'd have another BIG favourite dish from our cuisine - it is Paruppu Usili. I cannot proclaim my love for this enough. And I don't know of too many people who've grown up eating this, not listing it as one of their top favourites. I

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 cup toor dal
  • 2 tbsps chana dal
  • 2 chillies dried red
  • 1/4 tsp asafoetida compound powder / hing
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 cups beans finely sliced French (remove the string, top and tail before slicing)

for tempering

  • 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
  • 1 tsps dal udad
  • 1 sprigs curry leaves
  • to taste Salt

Instructions
 

  • Soak 1/2 cup toor dal with 2 tbsp chana dal and 2 dried red chillies, for 2-3 hours
  • Drain well and grind this to a coarse paste with 1/4 tsp of asafoetida powder, without adding extra water.
  • In a non-stick pan, heat 1 tbsp oil. Add the ground dal mixture and start crumbling the mixture using a wooden spatula. Roast on a low flame, until the crumbled dal paste is well cooked and starts to crisp up. This takes 12-15 minutes.
  • Meanwhile, steam the beans in the pressure cooker or stove top in a pan with very little water and a pinch of salt (or microwave). Once beans are cooked, but still green, remove from pan and drain any excess water. Reserve this water for any other dish.
  • Add the beans to the crisped up crumble. Add some salt if required.
  • In a tadka ladle, heat 1 tsp oil. Prepare the tadka using curry leaves, udad dal, mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds splutter, udad dal turns golden brown, transfer it over the usili.
  • Garnish with some fresh coconut scrapings.

Notes

Serve hot with Moar Kozhambu and rice.
Recipe for Mango Moar Kozhambu
Recipe for plain Moar Kozhambu
This post is a part of the A-Z Blogging Challenge, April 2014.
Earlier posts:
A is for Avial
(c) Nandita Iyer 2006-2015