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June 15, 2008

Tori Bendi




I had these dried beans/peas in my pantry for a very long time and I didn't know what they were. It was almost as though I had bought myself a surprise ingredient. When I examined the bottle carefully, I realized what it contained. I also realized I didn't actually buy it. I brought it when I moved from Bangalore and my mother had given it to me. Pigeon Peas. I'd soaked these one night and the plan was to make sundal that we could eat before heading to the gym. I ended up making this much loved amchi dish instead.


To me, bendi always meant only Avrya Bendi, but I am glad I tried it with something else. And although this is traditionally served along with Dali Saar, I didn't want an overdose of Tuvar, so we had this with rotis.


1 cup Pigeon Peas, soaked overnight and cooked

2 tbsp Coconut, scraped

1 tbsp Tamarind Paste

2-3 Red Chillies

1 tsp Teppal (Triphala)

Salt to taste

For the Tempering:
1 tsp Cooking Oil
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
½ tsp Asafoetida (Hing)
7-8 Curry Leaves



Grind the coconut, tamarind, red chillies and a tablespoonful of the cooked beans to a fine paste.


Mix this paste with the cooked beans and add salt and a little water. Bring this to a boil.


In a frying ladle, heat the oil and add the mustard and asafoetida. Add the curry leaves after the mustard has spluttered. Add this to the boiling mixture and serve.


As expected, this is off to Sig and Sug as entries to the JFI and AFAM events respectively. I don't think they had any idea what they were in for when they chose these ingredients.

11 comments:

Arundathi said...

nice looking dish - haven't heard of it... :)

Sig said...

Bring it on girl... :) Thanks for another delicious entry.

FH said...

Whole dry Tuar are called Pigeon peas, I have some too! Love the dish, great entry for Sig and Sug!:D

Laavanya said...

This looks great. I have a pack of these because my husband bought these instead of the toor dhal (split) that we usually consume (unknowingly) and I still hadn't used it with anything. Will try your recipe and let you know.

Raaga said...

@Arundathi: I don't blame you. But do try it.

@Sig: I have more coming your way :-)

@Ashakka: Yeah... once I knew what the bottle had, I knew what it was :-) which is why I said I wanted to avoid the overdose of tuvar :-)

@Laavanya: Sure... do try it... I am certain you'll love it

Anonymous said...

I began to drool at the very mention of the word "bendi" :D
The dish looks so delicious, Raaga. I have seen dried toor in the store and should make it a point to buy some. I love how you grind some of the beans with the coconut paste- I always have a problem making a smooth paste and adding some cooked beans would surely help the grinding along.

Raaga said...

@Nupur: Thanks :-) The addition of the beans helps reduce the amount coconut in the masala. I had a problem making fine paste with very little coconut :-) this does help.

delhibelle said...

have been eating tur dal 5 out of 7 days for years now, but never wondered about the whole version!This dish looks really mouthwatering:)

Sia said...

u just reminded me about another bendi recipe raaga. my fav summer dish with sasme. but i usually do end up adding little extra bit of coconut. :)

Raaga said...

@Delhibelle: To me, dal is always tur dal... somehow while I eat the others with amazing regularity, I don't think of them as dal :-)

@Sia: The reduced coconut version is by design :-) I had only one kind of bendi: with avro... tried this only now.

Suganya said...

I am glad that our choices work together. But many Indian cuisines strongly favor either of these ingredients.