Schezuan pepper spiced South Indian 'Sundal'

Oh boy, that recipe name almost qualifies as a tongue twister!,
'Sundals' are simple stir fries using lentils or beans as the key ingredient.
Primarily of South Indian origin, they are a staple holy offering during the Hindu festival of Navratri. While the choice of lentils & beans may be numerous, the basic seasoning is almost always a 'tadka' (mustard, a dried arbol & dehusked split 'Urad' dal, sputtered in smoking hot oil) and a pinch of asafetida powder. Certainly NOT toasted Schezuan pepper!
The inspiration for this recipe comes from Merill Stubbs of Food52.com who suggested this recipe
http://www6.food52.com/recipes/3098_shichimi_edamame created by chezsuzanne, a contributor on food52.
Asafetida is a spice pretty much confined to Indian cuisine & it was pleasant to discover that it paired very well with schezuan pepper. The pepper itself lends a nutty aroma that complements the dish beautifully.
Thanks Merill & Chezsuzanne for helping me unlock the potential of this wonderful spice!

Serves 6

Drain & discard the liquid from the can of garbanzo beans. ( the precooked beans have sufficient salt to season the dish, but feel free to add more as per your personal taste)

Heat oil till hot and add the mustard seeds. Once the seeds sputter & pop, add the arbol chilli and asafetida. Stir to combine.

Add the drained garbanzo beans, toasted schezuan pepper & turmeric. Mix well.

Lower the burner to a simmer, cover the pan & cook for 5 minutes till the flavors blend.

Transfer to a serving dish, drizzle with lime/lemon juice & garnish with cilantro.

Given that Sundal is such a comfort food for a lot of Indians & its healthy, tasty & vegan to boot, I'm taking the liberty of sharing this recipe with Claire of Chez Cayenne for the house favorites : Vegan recipes. Do take a moment to check out the other awesome dishes!

Unusual Ingredients - Unripe Blueberry Achar

T'was just another Summer afternoon, The kids were home for the summer holidays, getting bored, there's only so much summer reading you can force them to do, and the Indian mommy in me could no longer caution them against going out in the afternoon (I've solemnly refused to use that horrid excuse of 'You'll get a dark tan if you stay out in the mid day sun'), and so we decided to head out to Terhune orchards for the blueberry picking. The kids never say no to outings to the orchard, they LOVE the trip there, the cute yellow dogs and the cats, the chocolate crinkle and Snickerdoodle cookies, and they positively trip over grabbing buckets and heading joyfully towards the berry bushes... ... And there it ends, the younger one loses herself in her delightful imaginary worlds where she probably thinks she's hacking her way through virgin Amazon jungle, sighing at every branch that brushes against her legs, picks 2 or 3 berries as if they were a new as

Sputtering back....

I seriously feel like this scene from the movie 3 idiots .. remember this one? The way I kept racking up drafts and eventually stopped doing that as well. Lulled into complacence by the quick high from Instagram posts. Recipe measurements hastily scribbled into a Moleskine notebook faithfully depending upon my moods. The truth is that I keep over thinking the backstories needed to make the post more interesting while in reality the truth is that ideas and inspirations just occur spontaneously (like little itches , sneezes or twitches) whenever the opportunity happens to strike. Some really cool ideas that scare the beejeezus out of me and yet prove to be utterly delightful and simple in the end. Others, that seem so trivial that I feel it wouldn't be worth crowing about -- even if there are enough other recipes in that genre that get so much publicity simply because the author happens to have the right marketing knack. So in the past 4 years that I've been

Product Review: Ninja Mega Kitchen system and a recipe for Masala Dosa

One of the biggest reasons for attending conferences is the priceless experience of meeting fellow bloggers and get an invaluable exposure to all things culinary. This includes vendors with new products to savor and get inspiration from. I had no complaints about whatever appliances I had for making traditional Dosa (Traditional South Indian rice & lentil crepes) batter, a sturdy tabletop stone grinder that you could add the Urad dal, turn the timer on , and 30 minutes later, come back to a container full of fluffy, batter with the consistency of whipped egg whites. The The cons of this is the cleaning up, of the various parts, the roller, the grinding bin, the multiple trays on which the rollers need to be placed while transferring the rice & lentil batter, the invariable drips of thick batter on the counter.... you get the point, It takes quite a bit of time. I was pleasantly surprised when the appliance company, Ninja asked me if I'd like to try any of their

Panfusine

Search This Blog