Southern Spice

The last few weekends I have been trying out a lot of new recipes. Trying new recipes is not an easy thing to do. It involves a lot of time and effort. Today I was in no mood to search for recipes and go grocery and vegetable shopping. So I decided to cook a simple meal. This is a traditional South Indian dish and quite easy to make.

I did it my own way and it turned out quite nice.

Here you go!

Bisibelabath

Raw rice – 1 ½ cups
Tuar dal – 1/3 cup
Tomato, cut into cubes – ½ cup
Potato, cut into cubes – ¾ cup
Carrot, cut into strips – ¾ cup
Beans, cut into strips – ¾ cup
Yellow pumpkin, cut into cubes - 3/4 cup
Small onion, peeled – ¾ cup
Peas – ½ cup

Gingelly oil – 5 tbsp
Jaggery - 2 tbsp
Tamarind water – ¾ cup
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Salt to taste

Fry the following ingredients in 1½ tsp oil till golden brown. Grind to a smooth paste, using water–

Dry coriander – 3 tbsp
Bengal gram dal – 1 1/2 tbsp
Broken urad dal – 1 1/2 tbsp
Fenugreek – 1/2 tsp
Red chillies – 10
Pepper – 15
Scraped coconut – 1/3 cup
Asafoetida – 1/8 tsp

To tamper -

Mustard - 1 tbsp
Broken urad dal - 1 tbsp
Red chillies - 2
Curry leaves - few

Soak rice and dal in water for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil, add vegetables and fry for a few minutes.

Add the tamarind water, jaggery paste, turmeric powder, ground paste, salt, rice and dal, along with 7 cups of water.

Pressure cook.

Once its done, smash the rice and dal well.

Top it with the spices tampered in a mixture of ghee and gingelly oil for a yummy bisibelabath!