Baby Bok Choy Pappu ~ Lentil

Baby bok choy

Bok choy, also known as Pak choi or Peking cabbage, forms a small but elongated head (not round like European cabbage) with plump white stalks and deep green leaves. A member of the brassica family, bok choy offers nutritional assets similar to those of other cabbages: It is rich in Vitamin C and contains significant amounts of nitrogen compounds known as indoles, as well as fiber--both of which appear to lower the risk of various forms of cancer.

Bok choy is also a good source of folate (folic acid) and potassium. And with its deep green leaves, bok choy has more beta-carotene than other cabbages, and it also supplies considerably more calcium. The stalks and leaves have quite different textures, so in culinary terms, it's like getting two vegetables for the price of one.Baby bok choy has a sweeter flavor than adult varieties. For more information on varieties, availability, storage and nutritional information click here, here, and here.

Did you know...?
1 cup of cooked bok choi contains 15% of your recommended daily allowance of calcium ~ equivalent to 1/4 pint of full fat milk.

Source: Whole health MD

Baby Bok Choy Pappu ~ Dal

Baby bok choy pappu ~ dal with phulkas and fresh cucumber

I like adding baby bok choy in salads, stir fry's, soups, stir-fry noodles and fried rice and recently thought why not make some dal ~ pappu out of it. That way we can have our fiber intake as well as some folate too. Its a nice cross-over for leafy vegetable dal.

Source : My own
Cuisine: Fusion
Prep time: 7 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
1 cup toor dal/red gram lentil
5-6 stalks baby bok choy, trim the tough ends
1/2 red onion, sliced
3-4 green chillies, sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric powder/haldi/pasupu
1 tsp red chilli powder/cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
2 tsp tamarind pulp
for tempering/tadka/poppu:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal/black gram lentil
2-3 dried whole red chillies
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
few curry leaves
a pinch of hing/asafeotida
Salt as per taste
1tbsp oil
Method:

1. Chop coarsely bok choy and pressure cook them with toor dal/lentils along with turmeric powder, onions, green chillies, cumin seeds and chilli powder. Cook upto 3-4 whistles. Add tamarind pulp, salt to it and mash the contents.
2. In a deep pan heat oil, add mustard seeds, let it splutter then add urad dal/black gram lentil, curry leaves, torn red chillies, garlic and fry for a min. Add hing/asafeotida and pour the entire mashed bok choy dal and mix well. Let it simmer for 2 more mins.
3. Serve hot with plain rice or rotis /Indian flat bread.

Note: Use of salt should be limited while cooking this dal as bok choy already is little salty in nature. Thats what I found out while cooking with it.

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Udipi Sambhar and Green Beans Gojju

Karnataka Cuisine has always fascinated me because of its rich and healthy ingredients. I had kannadigas and mangaloreans as my neighbours and tasted much of their food as a kid and grown up too. But not older enough to note down their recipes ^_^ I loved their jonna-rottis (jowar rotis/bread), uppit, kosumbari's, thalipit, chutney powders, etc...so on and so forth, half of them I cannot even recollect their names but truly enjoyed eating them.

Nevertheless I didn't have any hands on experience cooking Karnataka cuisine so internet and google were at my rescue. I wanted some good, authentic and common recipes which are also famous in every house from this state and delicious too. Finally after a week long of research I ended up cooking the famous Udipi Sambhar from here and Green Beans Gojju from here. Also you can find my first post when I started this blog was Akki Roti, if you want to see the detailed recipe, click here. I hope you all will enjoy the celebration of this great state Karnataka and its cuisine.


Udipi Sambhar

Click here to see Green Beans Gojju





Source: Adapted from Pachakam
Cuisine: South Indian, Karnataka
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
Makes: 5-6 people
Ingredients:
1 cup Red gram dal/toovar dal/kandi pappu
2 cups mixed vegetables of your choice (Drumsticks/Eggplant/Yellow pumpkin, etc diced or cubed)
6-8 whole shallots/madras sambhar onions, peeled
1 plum tomato, cut into large chunks
3-4 green chillies, cut lengthwise-slit
2 tsps tamarind pulp (I used the readymade one here)
1 sprig of curry leaves (optional)
2 tsps of cilantro/coriander chopped
¼ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
1 tbsp jaggery, grated
salt as per taste
for poppu/tadaka:
½ tsp mustard seeds
2-3 dry red chillies/endumirapakayalu ¼ tsp asafoetida
2 tsps cooking oil
Dry roast and grind to fine paste:
2 tsps of black gram dal/minapappu/urad dal
2 tsps of cumin seeds/jeera
3 tsps of coriander seeds
½ tsp of fenugreek seeds/methi
4 dry red chillies/endumirapakayalu
¾ cup fresh or frozen (thawed) grated coconut
water as required to make smooth paste
Method:

1. Cook the dal with a pinch of turmeric and a tsp of oil in a cooker upto 3-4 whistles, mash it and while its still hot/warm and keep as side.
2. Meanwhile heat oil in a deep heavy bottom pan to make the sambhar.
3. Add asafoetida followed by shallots/madras sambhar onions, green chillies and half of the curry leaves off the sprig, and sauté until the onions become transparent and start to leave the juices.
4. Add the vegetables of your choice, tomato pieces and turmeric powder, if not adding any vegetables then add more shallots/madras sambhar onions.
   
5. Cook covered until the vegetables are cooked with enough water to cover the veggies, take care to retain their shape/texture.
6. Once thoroughly cooked add the tamarind pulp and cook covered until the raw smell of the tamarind goes off, approx 5 mins.
7. Add the ground paste, jaggery and salt to taste. Sambhar should not be too thick nor too watery, so add more water if necessary. You will notice that your kitchen is filled with nice aroma of this sambhar.
   
8. Once the mixture comes to a boil add the cooked dal, mix well and check for salt.
9. When the sambhar just begins to boil, switch off the stove. Make sure you don’t boil the sambhar after adding the dal coz the dal will lose its soft texture.

For tempering/poppu/tadka:

• Heat a tsp of oil in a small kadai, add the mustard seeds, when it starts to splutter add the dry red chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida. fry for a min and pour over the sambhar.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with idlis, dosas, or plain rice.

Note: You may also make this sambhar powder/paste in large quantity without the coconut and store in air-tight container for future use. Just dry roast coconut and grind along with a couple of spoons of this sambar powder whenever needed.

Udipi sambhar with green beans gojju

Green Beans Gojju

Click here to see Udipi Sambhar

Source: Adapted from Payaswini's
Cuisine: South Indian, Karnataka
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Makes: 4-5 people
Ingredients: 1/2 kg or 1 pound green beans, chopped
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 long spring curry leaves (optional)
1-2 tsp tamarind juice (I used 1/2 tsp of store bought tamarind pulp)
1 tsp jaggery, grated
1 tbs oil Salt as per taste
Dry roast and grind to fine paste:
1/2 cup grated, coconut(fresh or frozen)
4 green chillies
1/2 tsp asafoetida
1 tbsp coriander leaves/cilantro, chopped
1/2 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1 tbsp bengal gram dal/chana dal
1 tsp sesame seeds/til
Method:

1. In a pan, dry roast the cumin/jeera, bengal gram dal/chana dal, sesame seeds/til until light brown. Grind in the mixie with coconut, green chillies, asafoetida, coriander and little water to a fine paste.
2. Heat oil in a suce pan, add mustard seeds, let it splutter then add chopped beans, turmeric powder and curry leaves.
3. Add water and bring it to boil of cook till the beans turn soft.
4. Then add the grinded paste, tamarind juicer/pulp jaggery and salt.
5. Cook for another 10-15 minutes till the gojju thickens.
6. Serve hot with chapatis, rotis/Indian flat bread or plain rice.
   

Green beans gojju with rice

Food Event: This straight away goes to Asha of Foodie's Hope, Asha is hosting this month's RCI-Karnataka. RCI-Regional Cuisines of India is celebration of various cuisine across India. Each month we get an opportunity to learn, explore and experiment food from different states of India. Of course the thought process was started by Lakshmi K of Veggie Cuisine.Asha dear I am sending here with two entries on RCI, Udipi Sambhar and Green Beans Gojju your way.

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Peddamma's Pappu Charu (kinda lentil/dal soup)

Pappu charu is a daily staple in every Andhrite home, but many are not aware of this incredible *Charu*, or else you can say it is a diluted version of sambhar except that there is no sambhar powder used in this. In the west to be more specific it resembles the taste of a lentil soup but little sour to taste as we use tamarind pulp juice/water. There are many variations to it, you can add many different vegetables to it like okra/bendakaya/bhendi, eggplant/vankaya/ baingan or raddish/mulangi/muli etc etc and are respectively called as bendakaya pappucharu, vankaya pappucharu, mullangi pappucharu.

Toor dal/red gram lentil

I learned the art of making pappu charu from my Peddama aka mother's elder sister when I went to Vizag on my 12th std vacation. She is a great cook and has magic in her hands in cooking traditional andhra recipes and non-vegetarian recipes. Today I made the simpler version on the request of Bee from Jugalbandi with just tomatoes, onions and green chillies. You can find on pappu charu recipe at Vindu's, Mom's Kitchen, Sailu's Food, Mahanandi, and Srivalli's sorry if I miss anyone, these are random listings for the recipe, Enjoy!

Source: My Peddamma
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Prep time: 7 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Makes: 6 people
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup red gram lentil/dal/toor dal
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
1 big tomato, cut and squeezed
3 green chillies, cut length wise
1 small ball size tamarind, soaked in 1 cup water
1 tsp red chilli powder (cayenne pepper)
½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 cups of water
salt as per taste
for tempering/tadka:
1 tsp urad dal/black gram dal
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1 tsp mustard seeds/rai
2-3 torn dried red chillies
1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped
few curry leaves
a pinch of asafeotida/hing
1 tsp of oil

Method:

1. Wash and soak the dal for about 20 mins or so. Boil it in a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles.
2. Meanwhile soak medium marble-size tamarind ball in 1 cup of hot water. Once the tamarind is soft, pulp it with hands and filter it. Keep the tamarind water aside and if there is more pulp in the remaining tamarind repeat the same with 1/2 cup water this time and continue so on till you have squeezed all the pulp out of the tamarind just like you do for sambhar preparation.
3. In a deep sauce pan add the red onions, chillies and squeeze in the tomato pieces. To this add the tamarind water, cooked dal, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt, mix well and if required add water if the mix is too thick. Bring it to a boil or till the onions are cooked.
4. Lastly temper it with seasoning by heating oil in a kadai/round bottom pan add the mustard, cumin seeds, urad dal/black gram dal then add the torn dried red chillies, curry leaves, and garlic. Once they are golden brown turn off the heat and add asafeotida/hing. Immediately pour this seasoning into the dal soup, Pappu charu is ready!
5. Serve hot/cold with rice and curries or pachadi's as a side dish
   

Here is step by step photo explanation of the procedure, I know which would be confusing with out this.

ingredients

cooked dal mixed with tamarind water, onions, tomatoes, chillies, turmeric, salt and chilli powder

Pappu charu boiling on medium high

tempered pappu charu

Our meal today: Rice, pappu charu, cabbage pachadi and aloo methi fry

The recipe for cabbage pachadi and aloo methi fry will follow soon...

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