Friday, October 24, 2008

Paruppu usili

Deepawali is around the corner and if you guys are looking for some special vegetarian dish , then you can try this paruppu usili.
This is a side dish prepared by Brahmins of TamilNadu , India.
If you start preparing this Paruppu usili, then you will definitely prepare this dish atleast once in a month. My hubby and myself love this dish very much with More-Kulambu , rice and Madras appalam.
Try this and tell me how it turned out.
Happy Deepawali!



Paruppu Usili.

Ingredients

string beans / cluster beans / ordinary green beans/Ivy gourd (kovakkai) - 250 gms (cut pieces - 2 cups).
Red gram / Thoor dhal - 1/2 cup
Bengal gram / channa dhal - 1/4 cup
Dry red chillies - 4
asafoetida powder / hing - 1/4 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
salt - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
oil - 1 tbsp
mustard seeds for tempering
shredded coconut - 1 tbsp
cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
chopped onion - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste


Usili Idlies:

Soak the thoor dhal with channa dhal overnight or for 3 hours in warm water.
Grind this to a coarse paste with 2 broken dried red chillies, 1/4 tsp of asafoetida powder, pinch of turmeric powder, 1 tsp salt and a few curry leaves with little water.
Steam this paste in an idli-steamer or a regular steamer for 10-15 minutes until the lentil paste is cooked.(Like Idly..see image).
Remove the cooked dhal to a bowl once cooled and scramble them into small pieces. Keep aside.

Method:
Heat a pan with 1 tbsp oil, and put in the scrambled usili. Stir them around on medium flame till golden and slightly crispy. This will take around 5-7 minutes. Keep this aside.
In the same pan, take 1 tsp oil, crackle the mustard seeds, add the broken red chilli pieces with onion. Once they get fried , add the chopped kovakkai .Then add some water , put a lid and cook it .After the Ivy gourd becomes tender add salt to taste, stir around for 2 minutes.
Add the stir fried usili and stir together for 2 minutes until they have come together. check for salt.
Finally add shredded coconut and cumin seeds, Then put off stove.

serving suggestions:
Serve hot with More-Kulambu or Karakulambu and rice .

Note:
You can make double the amount of usili Idlies and store them in freezer for the next time .

7 comments:

Yasmeen said...

Thanks for visiting my blog,Viki.
You have tasty collection of recipes. The usili with all the dals sounds very nutritious.Have a happy Deepawali:)

Gita Jaishankar said...

The parupu usili looks delicious. My favorite combination is with rasam. Wish you a very Happy Diwali :)

Gita Jaishankar said...

Dear Viki,
Thank you very much for the encouragement :)

Purva Desai said...

Wishing u and ur family Happy Diwali...
Paruppu Usili looks inviting

Yasmeen said...

Viki,I've a surprise for you at my blog,please check out this post:)

Adlak's tiny world said...

Hi my first visit here and u have nice collections of indian recepies.
Paurppu usili is also our favrt dish and it accompanies well with vathak kulambu also.

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

woww.. it is a great idea to steam usilis than to fry in oil.. awesome.

Bakery soft Vanilla cake, Butter cream icing

Bakery soft Vanilla cake, Butter cream icing -  For a detailed explanation pls click to see my video on making vanilla cake, icing rose tech...