టమాట పప్పు: Tamata Pappu- Pigeon peas with tomato

Preparation time : 30 min
Serves : 2





Ingredients

1 cup toor dal
2-3 medium sized tomatoes cut to chunks
2 tbsp tamarind pulp (soak marble sized tamarind in hot/warm water & then extract the pulp)
1 green chilli cut lengthwise
3-4 curry leaves
salt
2 tsps red chilli powder (adjust accordingly)


For Popu / talimpu / tadka:

1/2 tbsp oil
hing / inguva
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp″ jeera
1 tbsp urad & chana dal
1/4 tsp″ turmeric

Method

Wash dal, add 2 cups of water, tomato chunks, a pinch of hing, green chilly and a drop of oil. Pressure cook till dal is cooked.
Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, jeera and dals.
Once they crackle, add a pinch of hing, curry leaves and turmeric.
Now add the cooked tomatoes (top layer of the cooked dal) to the popu/tadka and fry for a min.
Add the tamarind pulp and 2-3 tbsps of water.
Add red chilli powder, salt and let it cook for around 5 mins on medium flame till the oil separates.
Check the taste and adjust salt if needed.
Now add the cooked dal and mix well.
Switch off the flame. Serve hot with plain rice, ghee and pickle/papad.

Note: Dry roast dal if you like to, before you pressure cook. Mudda pappu being the very essential, tomato pappu is the next essential pappu in our kitchen. I remember we used to have it atleast 3 times a week in our childhood but never bored of it.

We can also add tomato chunks directly to the tadka (without cooking with dal), but I love this taste. Adjust water accordingly to get the desired gravy consistency.

The Very Essential: ముద్దా పప్పు- Mudda Pappu

Serves: Two. Preparation time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
1 cup split pigeon peas (Tuvar daal, Kandi pappu)
2 cups water
1 pinch turmeric
Salt to taste

Method:

1. On low heat, roast the pigeon peas (you can dry roast them or use 1/4 tsp of oil) for five minutes, or until they turn golden brown in colour and give off an aroma. (Roasting prevents frothing during pressure cooking.)

Let them cool.

2. Place the cooled peas in a pressure cooker and add the water, cook for three to four whistles. If you dry roasted the peas, you may consider adding a drop of oil into the pressure cooker. If you roasted them earlier with oil, that is sufficient.
3. Open the pressure cooker when its safety valve drops down. Add the turmeric and salt, mix well.

Serve hot with rice & ghee.

Variation:
I noticed that cooking time reduces a lot if I soak the peas before pressure cooking them, sometimes they cook with just one whistle.
Also, if you have unroasted pigeon peas, you could boil them for a while (5 minutes for the quantity mentioned) in the water so the froth comes up and dies down. Then cover with the lid/whistle & pressure cook.

Culture & Health:
Mudda pappu is a huge part of Andhra cuisine, its importance cannot be stressed enough! As the name suggests, the most vital point in preparing this dish is its consistency, it should be just like a "Mudda" (lump, morsel).
Not only is it eaten as it is with rice, but is also an important base ingredient for several other dishes such as pappu charu, sambar, vegetable/greens pappu, etc. It is also an excellent accompaniment paired with menti pulusu, ullipai pacchi pulusu, rasam, avakaya, pacchadis, etc. It is essential to master this preparation before a chef can progress any further in Andhra cuisine.
It is an integral part of Telugu brahmana bhojanam, as it is an excellent source of protein in a vegetarian diet. Combined with some rice and vegetable, it makes for a complete balanced diet.
It is a part of all festivals, served first during all celebrations, prepared on all religious occasions, you won't find a banana plantain leaf without Mudda pappu on it. Mudda pappu is the ABCD, the 1234, the very lifeblood of Andhra gastronomy!

Trivia:
This recipe courtesy Kameshwari & Ramya, who advised me on  the roasting & water measure respectively. This is my first perfect Mudda pappu thanks to them!

పచ్చి మిరప కాయి పచ్చడి- (Pacchi Mirapakaya Pacchadi)- Green Chilli Chutney

Serves: Fills a 1 lb bottle. Preparation time: 50 minutes including washing/cutting/assembling ingredients/cooking/grinding.

Ingredients:

2.5 tbsp Oil
1 tsp Mustard seeds (Rai, Avalu)
1 level tsp Fenugreek (Methi, Menti) powder
1 level tsp Asafoetida (Heeng, Inguva)
0.5 Kg- Green chillies

2 tsps Salt

4 tbsps cooked tamarind paste
1 heaped tsp Coriander (Dhania) seeds
1 heaped tsp Cumin (Jheera, Jilakara) seeds
1 tsp Turmeric (Haldi, Pasupu)

Method:
1. Wash and destem green chillies (No need to chop them as they will soften in cooking process and ultimately get ground. Indian chillies are best suited for this recipe. If using a large sized cultivar, you can chop them into large chunks.). Set aside.
2. Heat the oil, add the green chillies and fry until they brown.

3. Remove the chillies out of the oil and set aside. In that same oil, add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add fenugreek powder, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, asafoetida, turmeric and salt. Let the preparation cool.
4. Grind the spices & tamarind in the food processor, add the green chillies at the end & grind on pulse.
5. Bottle into a clean dry glass container and refrigerate. Takes upto four days for the flavours to blend in. 
I noticed that this chutney has a long shelf life if placed in the refrigerator, since chillies are highly alkaline.
It takes upto 4 days for the spices-chillies-tamarind-salt to marinate so that the flavours blend in, the pacchadi doesn't taste as nice when freshly made.
It is very yummy when eaten with fresh hot rice & ghee. It can also accompany upma, idli, dosa, pesarattu, anything as per our taste.

Precautions/Warnings/Variations:

1. The amount of spice to be added depends on how strong the green chillies are. The above are only estimates, very hot chillies may need more salt/tamarind/fenugreek/cumin/coriander, milder chillies may need less salt/tamarind. This is because these spices+chillies marinate & help to bring down the fieriness of the chillies.

2. If you don't have coriander & cumin seeds, you can use coriander & cumin powder.
3. If you don't have fenugreek powder: Roast fenugreek seeds until they are black-brown. Cool and powder. Add this pre-roasted powder to the recipe along with green chillies.
4. If you're making a huge quantity to store for longer time, more oil should be added so that there is a 'pickling' effect.
5. The last three ingredients (coriander, cumin and turmeric) are not traditional, I add them out of my own taste.
6. According to the traditional recipe, tamarind+salt paste is boiled separately and added to the cooled green chillies preparation just before grinding. I cooked the two together since that saves me space & time.
7. Do not taste much of it while preparing, it can cause severe acidity within seconds, and don't think this to be a dumb suggestion :-D


Useful Tip/Tricks:
It is an awesome spread for grilled sandwiches & savory snacks. It can be used as a ready-to-add spice sauce while preparing other dishes, half a spoon of this chutney lends awesome flavour.

Trivia:
I learnt this recipe from my mom-in-law (Indira aunty). Fiery green chilli pacchadi is truly the queen of all pacchadis.

ఉల్లిపాయి పకోడీ (Ullipaayi pakodi)- Onion Fritters

Serves: Two as a snack. Preparation time: 1 hour including preparing ingredients to the final product.

Ingredients:
1 heaped cup of fine sliced onions
1 cup Chickpea flour (Garbanzo flour, Gram flour, Besan, Senaga pindi)
1/4 cup Rice flour
Green chillies, finely sliced- to taste
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder to taste
Curry leaves- 5 big leaves chopped fine
1 shallow tsp Garam masala powder
1 pinch Cumin seeds (Jheera, Jilakara)
Asafoetida to taste (Heeng, Inguva)
1 big pinch of Turmeric (Haldi, Pasupu)
1 shallow tsp Ginger-garlic paste
Oil to fry

Method:

In a bowl, sift together the Gram flour, Rice flour, Asafoetida, Garam masala, turmeric and cumin seeds along with 2 tsps of oil. Knead well for even absorption of oil into flour mixture. Set aside.
In another bowl, mix onions, green chillies, curry leaves, ginger-garlic paste and salt. Wait for thirty seconds, salt makes water run out of the onions. Add red chilli powder. Just before you start preparing this bowl, place a kadhai/wok of oil for heating.

Then fold in the previous bowl's contents (the mixed flours) into this bowl and knead well. Add upto half a tablespoon of water if you feel the need. Our pakoda dough is done, the oil too should be medium hot by now. Drop a grain-sized amount of dough into the oil to test it, if it sinks & rises up foaming, our oil is ready.

Drop small dollops of pakoda dough into the kadhai. Stir once in a while to fry evenly. When they are almost done, remove them onto a plate lined with blotting paper. They continue to cook & brown even after they're removed from the oil, hence they'll be perfectly done after they are out.
Serve with tomato ketchup or any chutney of your choice. They are absolutely yummy even eaten without any dips.

Precautions/Warnings:

Make sure oil is heated by the time the pakoda dough is done. (Pakodas turn out soggy if the chickpea flour soaks for too long while waiting for the oil to heat.) 

Trivia:

"Ullipai phokoda" according to Tittu, my favourite snack, how I fretted when I wasn't allowed to eat it for 3 months on a jaundice diet when I was ten years old.  

I love making "Kadi Pakoda" with these pakodis, a kind of 'Majjiga pulusu' . Alas this dish lies outside our purview for now, otherwise I would have converted these pakodis into awesome delicious Kadi Pakoda!!!

Pesarattu /పెసరట్టు / Green gram batter crepe

(Serves 2)

Ingredients
1 cup whole moong Dal / Green gram
1 cup water
1 Onion
2 tbsp Rice
1 inch ginger piece
3-4 green Chillies
Salt to taste

Method
Soak moong dal and rice for about 8-10 hours in water.
Wash them and grind to make smooth paste by adding 1 cup of water along with the salt,chillies and ginger.
Heat frying pan or non-stick pan on high flame and pour one ladle full of batter into the center of pan and spread it around in a circular fashion (from inside out) shaping the batter into a thin round.
Add finely chopped onions and sprinkle little oil on its sides and cook it for a minute.
Turn over and cook again for 1 more minute.

Note: Pesarattu -Upma is the tastiest and traditional breakfast.
Please refer to vineeta's recipe to prepare upma.

మెంతి మజ్జిగ / Menthi majjiga

Preperation time: 10 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 cups buttermilk
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
salt

For talimpu / tadka:

1/2 tbsp oil
pinch of hing / inguva
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp″ jeera
1 tbsp urad & chana dal
1/3 tsp″ turmeric
pinch of menthi podi / methi powder
4-5 curry leaves
2 green chillis chopped
1″ ginger finely chopped


Method

Add chopped coriander, little turmeric and salt to the buttermilk and keep aside.
Heat little oil in a pan on medium flame, add mustard seeds, jeera and dals. Once they crackle, add chopped ginger, green chillies , curry leaves and turmeric. After a min, add hing, methi powder and remove from fire&add it to the buttermilk..
Serve with plain rice or with dal.


Note: You can replace jeera with vaamu/ ajwain. Also, can add crushed methi seeds if you dont have methi powder.
Majjiga pulusu needs more time for preparation and so I prefer menthi majjiga in most cases. Its equally yummy!

సేమియా ఉప్మా: Semiya upma

Preparation time: 30 mins
Serves : 3





Ingredients:

2 cups semiya, roast in a tsp of ghee for 4-5 mts till golden brown
1 finely sliced large onion
3-4 slit green chillis
1″ ginger finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (optional)
1/2 tbsp oil
1 tsp ghee
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tbsp urad dal and chana dal
1/2 tsp″ jeera
salt

Method

Heat oil in a cooking vessel, add the mustard seeds and let them splutter.
Add the urad,chana dal, jeera and saute them till the dal turn slightly brown.
Add green chillis,curry leaves and ginger and saute for 2 mts.
Add the chopped onions and saute on medium heat for 4 mts.
add 3 cups of water and add salt. bring it to boil.
Now, reduce heat and add the semiya and mix it lightly and see that no lumps form and it combines well.
Cover with lid and stir occasionally till water evaporates & semiya is cooked.
Add tsp of ghee and garnish with coriander leaves.
Serve hot with chutney or pickle of your choice.


For variation, you can add peas, grated carrot and any vegetable along with onions. Also, can add a cinnamon stick along with jeera. Make sure water quantity is 11/2 times the roasted semiya, otherwise the semiya would stick.
Tastes simply great.I make it whenever am in hurry and I make it in less than 20 mins. Try it out!