Paruppu Usli Sandwich :)

Yesterday I made Vaazhapoo Paruppu Usli & Sepagezhangu More kozhambu for dinner. My girls generally like to take beans paruppu usli. Whenever I feed them, I make sure they take vaazhapoo usli too. But now a days they have started eating by themselves. So yesterday, no luck with vaazhapoo paruppu Usli :(. Now I have two full cups of this usi in my fridge. Wanted to make use of it in a good way. So I had it as sandwich spreading it in between two bread slices. It may be sound wierd but it was really yummy surprisingly!! Here goes the recipe..

Ingredients:-

1. Wheat Bread slices - 2
2. Paruppu Usli  - 2 tbsp
3. More kozhambu - 1 tsp
4. Butter - to spread

Toast the bread, spread the butter on both the bread slices and spread the usli on one of the bread slices and spread the more kozhambu on the other one. Cover it on top of the other slice and cut it into two halves. It tastes really good by itself with out anything to dip.

This sandwich also goes to Srivalli's Sandwich Mela.

Snake Gourd Usli - Podalanga Paruppu Usli

Podalanga Usli

I finally managed to find time to write a blog post after almost 6 months.  This is something I made when we were in Chennai. Till then I never knew that we can make paruppu usli with podalanga. My MIL said, its a common dish in Thanjavur iyer families. I was not very sure whether I should try making this one. But that particular day I had no choice. So I tried this one and it came out pretty good. This is how it goes..








Ingredients:-

• Snake Gourd - 2 medium sized (cut it into tiny cubes)
• Toor dhall - 1 cup
• channa dhall - 1/2 cup
• urad dhall - 1 tbsp
• Rice - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• curry leaves - few
• Red chillies -2
• Green chillies - 1
• Asafoetida powder - apinch
• Salt to Taste

First soak toor dhall, urad dhall, channa dhall, and rice in water for atleast an hour or two. In the mean time, wash the snake gourd. Cut it into small pieces and cook it. When it is fully cooked, keep it aside. Now grind the soaked dhall and rice mixture adding salt, green chillies and red chillies to it.

Grind the dhall + rice + turmeric powder + chillies + salt in to a fine paste. Steam cook it in a idly pan, for 15 mts. Allow it cool and scramble them. Keep it aside. Take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add curry leaves and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the steam cooked dhall to it. Fry it till the dall becomes softer. Now add the cooked snake gourd to it and mix everything well. Turn off the stove. This is the traditional way of making paruppu usili.

Comfort Food 2

In this post, i will be talking about the comfort food No.2 (according to me ofcourse!). Paruppu Usli - More kozhambu. In my mom's place, they make more kozhambu as a main dish which goes along with rice just like sambar. They make potato or chepangezhangu or Yam fry as a side dish along with papadam, for more kozhambu. They make paruppu usli once in a while as a side dish for sambar rice. I still remember my mom used to make paruppu usli for drumstick sambar.

But in my in-laws place, they have this combination of making paruppu usli and more kozhambu on the same day and they mix rice with paruppu usli, more kozhambu as side dish. After marriage, I was there with my in-laws for 10 months. When my MIL made this dish one day, I started blinking as usual and asked her why she made paruppu usli for more kozhambu. I found a logic behind her reply. As you all know, lentils are the main source of protein for vegetarians and we have to take it everyday in some form or the other. We use toor dhall for making sambar. But while making more kozhambu, we will not use lentils. In order to compensate that, she made paruppu usli, which is full of lentils. I never thought this way before. So after that, I always make paruppu Usli, whenever I make more kozhambu which happens to be one of my favorite meal (once a week).


Check out Kerala Style More kozhambu here...

This how my MIL makes more kozhambu...

Check out Beans Paruppu Usli Recipe here... Vaazhapoo Usli (banana Blossom) here... Spinach Usli here...

Spinach Paruppu usli

I give spinach to my girls everyday. So I have think something or the other to make them eat spinach. I make spinach curry, spinach with dhall, spinach kootu etc. This is the recipe I followed to make spinach usli.

Ingredients:-

1. Spinach - 1 cup (1/2 box of frozen spinach)
2. Channa dhall - 1/2 cup (small cup)
3. Toor dhall - 1/4 cup (small)
4. Urad dhall - 1 tbsp
5. Red chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
6. Salt to taste
7. Turmeric powder
   

For seasoning:-

1. Oil - 3 tsp
2. mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
4. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
5. Curry leaves

First soak channa dhall, urad dhall, toor dhall and redchillies in water for half an hour. Thaw the spinach (if you are using frozen box) and cook it for 5 to 6 mts. Drain the water and keep it aside. When the dhall is ready after soaking for 30 mts. grind it coarsely. Add a little more water to the dhall, add turmeric powder and steam cook it for 15 mts. It may take 15 mts for the dhall to cook. When it is fully cook, scramble it and keep it aside.

Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall, asafoetida powder and curry leaves and fry it till golden brown. Now add the scrambled dhall to it and fry it for a minute or two. Add the cooked spinach to it and mix it well. Add salt now and mix every thing well and let it on top of the stove for another 3 minutes. Serve it hot. This can be eaten as side dish or as a main dish with white rice.

Vazhapoo Paruppu Usli - Banana Flower Paruppu Usli

This is another vegetable we use to make paruppu usli. The process of making this usli is time consuming. But banana flower is very good for utreus. My father in law being a doctor, usually encourages us to eat banana flower once a week. This will also helps to get regular periods. Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:-

1. Banana Flower (vazhapoo) - 1
2. Channa dhall - 1/2 cup
3. Toor dhall - 1/2 cup
4. Urad dhall - 2 tsp
5. Red chillies - 2
6. Green chillies - 1
7. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
8. Salt to taste
9. Oil - 2 tbsp
10. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
    
11. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
12. Curry leaves - few

As I said earlier, This recipe includes a long process. First, banana flower needs to be peeled layer by layer and in each tendril, there is a black stem (called as Kallan in Tamil), remove it and cut the tendrils into small pieces. Soak it in water with few drops of buttermilk in it. Also soak channa dhall, toor dhall, urad dhall , red chillies and green chillies for one hour. Grind it adding turmeric powder and salt (required for dhall only) into a fine paste. Steam cook it in a idly pan, for 15 mts. Allow it cool and scramble them. Keep it aside.


In the mean time, drain the banana flower, cook it with a pinch of tumeric powder, salt(required only for banana flower) and 1/4 cup of water. Cook until it is half done. Drain it and keep it aside. Now take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add curry leaves and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the steam cooked dhall to it. Fry it till the dhall becomes softer and add banana flower to it and saute until moisture leaves. Now banana flower paruppu usli is ready to serve. This is also a side dish.

Beans Paruppu usli

Paruppu (in Tamil) means lentils or dhall. Usli is something where we use three kind of lentils i.e., toor dhall, channa dhall and urid dhall. We mix the cooked lentils with green beans. In my mom's place, we usually use this as a side dish for sambar rice and rasam rice. But in my MIL's place, we don't use this as a side dish, instead we use this to mix with rice and the side dish will be more kozhambu. Its basically paruppu usli rice. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Green beans - 1 cup
2. Toor dhall - 1 cup
3. channa dhall - 1/2 cup
4. urad dhall - 1 tbsp
5. Rice - 1 tsp
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Oil - 2 tbsp
8. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
9. curry leaves - few
10. Red chillies -2
11. Green chillies - 1
    
12. Asafoetida powder - apinch
13. Salt to taste

First soak toor dhall, urad dhall, channa dhall, and rice in water for atleast an hour or two. In the mean time, wash the green beans. Cut it into small pieces and cook it. When it is fully cooked, keep it aside. Now grind the soaked dhall and rice mixture adding salt, green chillies and red chillies to it. There are two ways of cooking this recipe

1. Grind the dhall + rice + turmeric powder + chillies + salt in to a fine paste. Steam cook it in a idly pan, for 15 mts. Allow it cool and scramble them. Keep it aside. Take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add curry leaves and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the steam cooked dhall to it. Fry it till the dall becomes softer. Now add the cooked green beans to it and mix everything well. Turn off the stove. This is the traditional way of making paruppu usili.
2. Another method is for present days quick cooking. In this method also, we grind all the soaked dhall + rice adding salt, red chillies, green chillies coarsely. Careful while grinding the lentils. We should not mash the lentils. Put it in a microwave safe vessel. Add 3/4 to 1 cup of water, turmeric powder and salt to it and mix everything well. In this step, we can also add a tsp of sesame oil. Microwave it first for 3 mts. Take it out and stir it thoroughly and again microwave it for another 5 mts. By this time the lentils must be cooked. If not, then microwave it for another 3 mts. Now take a pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters add curry leaves and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Now add the microwave cooked dhall to it. Fry it till the dall becomes softer. Now add the cooked green beans to it and mix everything well. Turn off the stove.
   

This is a wonderful side dish. In the place of beans, we can also use banana blossom (vazhapoo) and cluster beans (kothavarangai). Try this and lemme know your comments.