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
