When life gives you sour mangoes - Make Mango Dal

The summer is coming to an end and not one mango post on the blog, or so I was thinking. And then life presented me a sour mango this morning...

You cut open a luscious looking mango anticipating sweet and juicy fruit, which is already making your mouth water. Sometimes, the mango lives up to your expectations (and taste buds) and sometimes it makes your screw your eyes shut because it is so sour, giving your taste buds a rude shock. Instead of fretting over sour mangoes, how about putting them to good use. This Mango Dal recipe is one of them. The sweet-sourness from the ripe mango, heat from chillies go beautifully with any cooked dal. Here, I've used masoor dal. You could well use chana dal, tur dal or a mix of all the three dals.

Mango Dal, Bhindi curry served with paratha - Lunch 

I think mango, ginger and coconut make a fantastic flavour combination. If you don't have coconut on hand or you are not especially fond of coconut, by all means leave it out.
This dal, made as per the recipe below is thick and creamy, with a great depth of flavour and yet so easy to make. Even a beginner in the kitchen can churn this out in no time. Also, masoor dal cooks even on stove top in no time, in case you are one of those grad students stuck in the US without a pressure cooker :)

I've used Banganapalli variety of mango here, but you could use any mango that is ripe but too sour to eat as it is. If you use a small Mango like Alphonso, you'll need 3-4 sour mangoes, as they don't come with much flesh, not unlike the popular size zero movie stars of Bollywood.

Does your family have a special recipe for Mango Dal, which is made when mangoes are in season? Come over and participate in this discussion on the Facebook page of Saffrontrail - https://www.facebook.com/SaffronTrail/posts/411255952252710

Recipe for Mango Dal
Serves 3-4
Time taken : Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup masoor dal
1 large mango (ripe but sour)
3 tbsp fresh scraped or frozen coconut (unsweetened)
1-2 green chillies (depending on how spicy they are)
1 tbsp ghee / oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Fat pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 stick cinnamon (1")
1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp salt

Directions
Wash the dal and pressure cook with 1.5 cups of water (2 whistles, 5 min on sim).
Peel and cube the mango roughly, scraping off any flesh around the seed (stone). This should make a generous cup to nearly a cup and a half in quantity to get full flavour of mango in the dal.
Place the cubed and scraped mango flesh, coconut, green chillis in the small mixer jar and grind to a paste.
In a pan / kadai, heat the ghee.
Add the asafoetida, cumin seeds - letting the seeds splutter.
Add grated ginger, cinnamon stick, curry leaves, turmeric powder. Saute for 30 seconds and then pour in the mango-coconut-chilli puree.
On a medium flame, stir this for 1-2 minutes.
Add pressure cooked dal, salt and up to 1/2 cup water to get the desired consistency of dal.

Serve hot with steamed rice or rotis.

The taste of this mango dal lingers on...over my tastebuds, as I say this, DO try this out. I guarantee you'll love it.

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Get full with fibre : Plantain pith curry

We tend to ingore things that are in abundance around us. I'm not talking of any grave issues affecting the nation, but about the humble banana. India is blessed with a rich variety of this tropical fruit - rich in potassium, - and this is the first to be banned from your life by most dieticians and weight loss experts. I do understand with the sugars and calories that a banana brings in, it can be of some concern for someone who wants to lose weight. But surely it can be better than a packet of chips, when hunger strikes! 

The banana tree is not called the Kalpavriksha without reason - and while most of us might have written essays in school, it nice to remember how each and every part of this plant is useful in day to day life. The leaves make for ecofriendly plates on which one can eat a five course meal. (well, almost!) The fruit of course needs no introduction - being one of the first things we learn to eat as humans while being weaned from the breast. The raw bananas (plantains) can be cooked into koftas, used as a substitute for potatoes by Jains, fried into the widely-loved chips. The flower whose intricate design is a true miracle of nature, is used to adorn the entrance of auspicious events like marriage, while also being cooked into delicacies in many Indian cuisines. The stem (which is actually a false stem, as it is a collection of leaf stalks) is full of fibre and when the outer shiny layers are pulled off, the inner pith is edible and that's what this post is about. 

Fibre is too important component of our diet to be ignored - some of it's key benefits put simply -

-It provides satiety or the fullness experienced after a meal, so you don't end up consuming too many calories to feel sated.

-It binds with the bad cholesterol preventing it from getting deposited in the walls of the blood vessels causing heart attacks and strokes.

-It protects from cancer of the large intestine and of course...

makes your mornings hassle free :)

Eating whole grains, beans, lentils, vegetables and fruits with their skins wherever possible, adds up to provide the 25 odd grams of daily recommended fibre intake. 

This recipe is one sure shot tasty way to get some of that daily fibre.

Vazhaithadu curry

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 kg stem or a cylinder 8 inches long

2 cups thin buttermilk (old and sour buttermilk is better)

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

For tempering:

2 tsp oil

Pinch of asafoetida

2 sprigs curry leaves

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp udad dal

2 broken red chillies

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup moong dal soaked in water for at least 2 hours

1 tsp sambar powder (optional)

salt to taste

Fresh coconut scrapings for garnish (optional)

Directions

Oil hands before handling the stem as it stains the hands. 

Peel off the satiny outer layers with a knife until the inner rough part is exposed. This could be 2 layers or more depending on how thick the stem was to start with.

Keep a big bowl of diluted sour buttermilk on the side to immerse the chopped stem pieces. This prevents them from darkening.

To cut the plantain stem, slice it thinly - 4-5 slices at a time, place them in a stack and then finely dice it, immersing the chopped pieces in the buttermilk immediately. Do this until you have chopped the entire length of the stem into small bits. Any tough fibres that come in your way, peel them off and discard. Small fibre bits will remain and that's what will make this dish extremely healthy.

Once you are ready to cook, drain the chopped plantain stem and place in a vessel with 1/4 cup water and turmeric powder mixed well.

Place 2-3 cups of water in a pressure cooker large enough to hold the vessel containing the chopped stem.

Pressure cook this for 3 whistles and 3-4 minutes on sim. Once cool, remove and drain if required. You can also boil this in very little water until almost soft.

In a wok, heat the oil, saute the udad dal till light golden, put in the remaining tempering ingredients. After a quick stir, put in the drained moong dal and cooked plantain pith. Add sugar and salt, plus sambar powder if using. The pinch of sugar is offset the slight bitterness in the stem.

Sprinkle water and cook covered for 10 minutes with occasional stirring, so that the dal is quite done.

Check for salt and adjust, remove from flame. Sprinkle fresh coconut and serve hot with rice and mor kozhambu.

P.S.

I was wondering if cutting off the stem of the poor banana tree, caused it to die a premature death. A bit of research reveals that the banana tree yields only once after which it is anyway cut off and fed to the cattle, or to banana-stem eating folks :)

P.P.S.

Plantain pith, plantain stem, vazhaithandu, vazhaipindi, musa pseudostem are all the various terms of endearment of the banana stem.

Some interesting links:

How to cook a Musa Psedostem- this one is a must read by CY Gopinath

Celebrate the Banana republic - Ratna Raman

Manglorean style plantain pith curry

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Traditional cooling food - Panakam and Kosumalli for Sri Rama Navami

The more I dig into our traditional foods, I'm amazed at how intelligently and seasonally our ancestors ate. Panakam and Cucumber Kosumalli that are offered as Neiveidyam on the occasion of Sri Rama Navami which falls in the summer season. 

As a kid, I would happily glug the Panakam prepared by my granny on these occasions, but today I like it more as I drink it mindfully, realizing how good it is for us. This ayurvedic drink is naturally sweetened using jaggery, spiced with ginger, cardamom and black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice for that balance in taste. This sweet-spicy-tangy drink can be had all around summer. It's nice if kids develop a taste for these kind of natural drinks instead of reaching out for the fizzy drinks. Having a sip of this after quite some years, I realised how much I have missed this taste!

Kosumalli is another very simple, cooling, no-cook dish except for the tempering of mustard seeds and asafoetida for a delicate yet distinct flavour. While it is a neiveidyam dish, it can be easily had on a regular basis in summers as a salad with a bowl of yogurt for a light lunch. In the salad version, you can toss finely chopped onions, peppers, carrots and tomatoes along with the soaked moong dal. However, the dish in it's simplest version here is also a masterpiece and a great example as to how delicious, simple food can be.

How to make Panakam

For 4 cups or 6 small glasses

In a large vessel or bowl, take 4- 5 tbsp of crushed or grated jaggery. This will vary depending on the sweetness of your jaggery. Stir in 3-4 cups of drinking water until completely dissolved. Filter through a muslin cloth or a fine mesh in case you see any impurities in the liquid.

To this, add -

1/4 tsp dried ginger powder (sonth powder)

1/4 tsp black pepper powder

1/4 tsp salt

Juice of one large lemon (2 tbsp or so)

Seeds from 2 cardamom pods shelled and pounded or one fat pinch cardamom powder

Stir well and serve chilled.

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Cucumber Kosumalli

for 4 servings

1/2 cup moong dal

1 large or 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, finely diced*

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp salt

Few sprigs of coriander leaves, washed and finely chopped

1 tsp oil or ghee

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

pinch of asafoetida granules

1-2 tbsp of fresh coconut scrapings for garnishing

Wash and soak 1/2 cup yellow moong dal (husked and split moong) in 2-3 cups of water for 1 hour. Drain in a mesh strainer for 15 minutes or so.

In a medium bowl, mix the chopped cucumber, lemon juice, salt, coriander leaves and toss well.

In a small tempering ladle, heat 1 tsp ghee or oil - splutter the mustard seeds, add the asafoetida, stir for a few seconds and toss this on the kosumalli.

Garnish with fresh coconut scrapings.

*Do check for bitterness in the cucumber before mixing with the other ingredients.

The same recipe can be used to prepare Carrot kosumalli by substituting two grated carrots instead of chopped cucumber.

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Tomato and mint flavoured moong dal

Moong dal or split, husked green gram has not always been a favourite - but according to Ayurveda, it is said to be lighter and easier to digest, compared to the more popular toor dal. Khichdi prepared from moong dal and rice is said to be one of the most restorative dishes during an illness. When pressure cooked, this dal tends to get somewhat slimy, which is why I wasn't too kicked about it in my early cooking days. Besides it doesn't have the kind of rich flavour that is inherent to toor dal. Add some masalas and a good tempering in ghee and moong dal turns more palatable. Cooking moong dal by the boiling method as against the pressure cooking method keeps the texture alive and makes it a much better dish, in my humble opinion.

This time I added tomatoes and flavoured it with ginger and a pinch of mint powder for a bit of mystery in the background and if I may say so, it did turn out pretty good. This is best had with rotis as it doesn't have any liquid to mix around with rice.


Sukhe Moong Dal

Serves 2 as an accompaniment to rotis


Ingredients

1/3rd cup Moong dal, washed and soaked in 2-3 cups water for at least 30 minutes, or more if possible

1 tsp oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp finely chopped or grated fresh ginger root

pinch of asafoetida

1-2 green chillies, finely minced

2 medium tomatoes, finely diced

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

3/4 cup water

1/2 tsp salt or to taste

1/4 tsp dried mint powder


Directions

In a pan, heat the oil. Splutter cumin seeds and then add ginger, asafoetida, chillies and saute for 30 seconds.

Add the tomatoes and stir for a minute or so before adding all remaining ingredients except mint powder.

Once water comes to a boil, add soaked moong dal. Cover and cook for around 8-10 minutes, checking in between to add tbsp of water if dal is drying out.

Look for a stage when the dal is cooked, yet keeps its shape well and water is dried out. On a medium flame, this would take around 10 minutes. Sprinkle mint powder towards the end, give it a stir and remove into a bowl. Serve with rotis.


Next post : How to prepare mint powder / dried mint

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Saraswat Lunch Menu from Rasachandrika

Regional Indian cooking has such variety that it's mind-boggling. Every culture has had it's cookbook bible that it trusts to preserve the heritage and authenticity - Meenakshi Ammal is one such great lady who put down traditional Tamil cuisine in three volumes. Such books are not only wonderful to discover in our kitchens the kind of food that is hardly ever available in restaurants, but also to give a great insight into the other cultures in our country. I can say the same about some of the food blogs :) Rasachandrika, written by Ambabai Samshi is one such cooking bible for Saraswat community - and  I was glad to buy it a few months ago - this showcases Chitrapur Saraswat cooking.

What I loved about this book is the emphasis on vegetables and the numerous ways of preparing each one, not to mention the simplicity of ingredients and directions. Suppose you are stuck for how to prepare snake-gourd for example, just open the chapter on this vegetable and see which recipe you want to prepare. The quantities for most veggie recipes will be good for small families.

This is how I used up the cut beans, kovakkai and brinjal - selected a dal from the dal section and I had a whole Saraswat meal ready.

 

Menu

Beans Talasani

Kovai Butti - The masala used for this curry, I found very similar to the one we grind for mor kozhambu. This was probably the best tasting kovakkai (ivy gourd) dish I've ever had.

Recipe for Kovai butti

1/4 kg tender kovai

1 tbsp ground nut oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

pinch of asafoetida

salt and jaggery to taste

small ball of tamarind

5 red chillies*

1 tsp coriander seeds*

1/2 tsp black gram dal*

a few fenugreek seeds*

4-5 garlic cloves*

1/4 coconut gratings - roasted

*fry in a little oil

Wash and slice the kovai into rounds.

Heat oil, temper the mustard seeds and asafoetida. Add sliced kovai, salt, jaggery - stir well, sprinkle water, cover and cook till tender.

Grind the coconut, fried spices and tamarind to a paste, adding some water if required.

Add this paste to cooked kovai and let it simmer till nearly dried out.

 

Brinjal bhareet - A very simple dish made by roasting and mashing a large eggplant. The recipe called for adding green chillies, ginger and coconut as is into the mash, I preferred to temper them in oil before use.

Recipe for Bhareet

1 large brinjal

Oil to coat the brinjal - 2 tsp or so

handful of coconut gratings

chopped coriander leaves

6-7 green chillies

1 small piece ginger

salt to taste

3-4 tbsp curds or lemon juice

Apply oil over brinjal and roast on open flame turning on all sides, till completely soft inside. When cool, peel and slice checking for worms. Mash with a fork.

Crush the chopped chillies, ginger, coriander leaves and salt, add to mashed brinjal with coconut gratings. Mix in curds or juice of half lemon in the end.

Dali tuaykadi - One of the traditional lentil preparations, the fresh ground masala gave it a unique taste.

Recipe for Dali Tuaykadi

1/2 cup tur dal

1 cup water

1 small marble sized tamarind / 3-4 kokum rinds / 1/2 raw mango cubed

To fry in oil -

1 tbsp grated coconut

3 red chillies

6-8 cloves garlic

6-7 pepper corns

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

salt to taste

Pressure cook dal with turmeric and water with soft.

Mash dal well with salt and tamarind juice and simmer.

Grind the fried ingredients to a paste, add to simmering dal and boil.

Garlic is optional.

Limited preview of the book available here

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