Groundnut chickpea sundal

Chickpea - channa, konda kadalai ; groundnut - peanut, nilakadalai, verkadalai.

Having sundal (salad with lentils) for snack is a great way to stay fit. I always try to keep a batch of sundal in my fridge for that tea time cravings:) Though the easiest way is to buy a canned lentil, I prefer the home cooked ones better. Dried nuts are lesser expensive, healthy and delicious. Pressure cooker makes perfectly cooked chickpeas very easily. We can do stove top cooking too, but it will take nearly 2 hours. Sometimes I cook the chickpeas in a big batch and freeze in small portion / containers, so that I can add some protein in any dish I want.

A healthy snack for tea time.

Ingredients:
dry White or red chick peas - 1 cup (1 coffee mug)
dry groundnut (peanut) - 1/2 cup
coconut oil - 1 tsp
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
dry red chillies - 3
curry leaf - 2 sprig
mustard seed - 1 tsp
asafoetida (hing) - a pinch
salt - to taste
water (to cook) - to immerse and 1 cup standing over.

 Method: 
Wash the groundnut, chickpeas thoroughly and Soak them for 12 hours or over night. They will double in size after soaking. Fast Soaking can be done in hot water for 5 - 6 hours along with some baking soda (but I won't suggest that). Remove the soaked water which is frothy (must). Wash again and add some more water. They should be totally covered with water and add some water to stand 1 inch above. Pressure cook the peas to one whistle, then reduce the flame and cook in low flame for 15 minutes. Release pressure and take out. Add salt, drain the water. Heat oil in a wok. Splutter the mustard seeds. Reduce flame and add the red chillies, curry leaves, hing and wait till the chillies turn dark red. Add the cooked letils and stir fry till it looses all the water. Check the salt. Add  grated coconut. Switch off immediately.

Serving suggestion:
Serve as snack with tea / coffee.
Sometimes I make some chundal with variety rice like puli saatham, lemon rice or puli kulambu rice as side dish.
Channa is a very healthy protein rich snack with nearly 100 calories per cup after cooking.

Note: 
It would be better to make channa sundal and peanut sundal separately and mix them for the peanut lovers, as some can't take peanuts.
Red channa has more fiber than the white one.
Red chickpeas takes only 6 hours to soak (more the better) and it is easy to sprout too.

Universal food festival in our Church

Last weekend (September 15) our Church, St.Cecelia's Church, Iselin, NJ organized an 'Universal food festival'. The parishioners were requested to bring a dish from their heritage. Also we were asked to send some recipes for the booklet the church printed.
I was very much excited to prepare a food from Indian cuisine. Hubby dear suggested me to make something with a story behind to share. Then he looked at my menu list and picked sarkkarai pongal (sweet rice pudding), as it is prepared on the Pongal day, the day of thanks giving celebrated by Indian farmers. I prepared the pongal using almost 2 lb rice. I needed a very big heavy bottom vessel to prepare this quantity of pongal. So I used my huge 10 liter pressure cooker my Father in-law presented us during our wedding :)  I used it as my stirring pot and it took me nearly 3 hours to get the pudding like consistency. The next thing puzzled me was the serving tray, as the pongal was very heavy and the disposable tray we bought couldn't hold it. So I kept a tray as base and set the disposable tray over it and poured the pongal into it. Now the whole serving tray was safe and I covered it with a foil. Then carried it carefully and presented it to the person in-charge (our favorite choir singer Ms. Mary Jane).
Other dishes from India were Vegetable briyani, chicken tikka, veg samosa and everything tasted fabulous.

The buffet was delicious with many choices from Cuba, Dutch Indonesia, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Polynesia / Hawaii ,  Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine , Vietnam, All American Classics.

Dessert buffet was opened around 7.30 pm and I was very much delighted to see the guests liking our Sarkkarai pongal along with all the dishes. Whenever someone asked about this 'sweet rice pudding', I told them the festival associated with pongal and we all enjoyed the party.

As soon as the party started I was very surprised and happy to see my recipe printed in the festival booklet.

The next happy thing was the gift they presented us by randomly choosing the ticket numbers. The gift is a beautiful Angel , named as Bright Star Angel made by 'willow tree gifts'. We both were very much thrilled to get that precious gift and consider and thank God as it is His blessings.

Bright Star Angel.

Totally the food festival was a very pleasant experience for all of us and looking forward to participate in all the festivals in Our St.Cecelia's church in future.


Thanks for reading this post my friends, this festival means a lot to me.
Thanks,
Viki.