Mangala's Potpourri: Dantina soppu bassaaru

Tuesday, 7 February 2017

GREEN GRAM (Mung Bean) RASAM WITH GREENS

COLOUR: Green like leaf SHAPE: Round like marble SIZE: Small as gram KINGDOM: Plantae VALUE: Just as Jade!!

Green coloured, sweet flavoured, high in fibre, rich in nutrients, cooks faster, helps control body weight, lowers blood pressure and much more.

Wash it. Soak it. Sprout it. Cook it. Grind it. Make rasam, curry and have it with hot, steamed rice and rotis.

Dry roast it. Dry grind it. Use the flour to make tasty rotis or parathas.

Wash it. Soak it. Wet grind it. Generate healthy versions of dosas and idlis too. That’s green gram for you.

Combine it with greens. Watch what’s cooking…delicious red coloured rasam boiling and a close-to-finish fresh green coloured curry tossing!

Dish Type: South Indian Vegetarian Stew

Time required: 40 min

Serves: 4 persons (approx. )

Ingredients

For pressure cooking:

Green gram 75 gms

Water 250 ml

Ghee 1 tsp

Turmeric A pinch

Dantina soppu 1 bunch (amaranth leaves)

Tomato 2 nos.

Salt to taste ½ tbsp. (at the time of adding chopped greens)

For grinding:

Raw coconut ¼ of a coconut

Rasam powder 2 tbsps. approx.

Cooked green gram and greens 1 tbsp

Cooked tomatoes 2 nos.

For seasoning:

Ghee 1 tsp

Mustard seeds ½ tsp

Cumin seeds ½ tsp

Asafoetida A pinch

Garlic pods few (optional)

While boiling:

Salt to taste ½ tbsp. (when ground mix of rasam powder and raw coconut is added)

Tamarind paste ½ tsp

Directions

Wash green gram thoroughly. Keep it for boiling on low flame in a pressure cooker along with water, turmeric and ghee.

Wash greens (dantina soppu) and tomatoes thoroughly in salt water. Drain out the water. Chop greens finely. No need to chop tomatoes.

By this time, green gram would have been half cooked. Remove the lid of the pressure cooker. Add these chopped greens and salt and over this, add tomatoes. After 2 whistles, switch off the pressure cooker. Let it cool.

While the cooker is cooling….grate raw coconut. You still have time to spare? Use it to read footnotes given at the end of this recipe.

By now, pressure in the cooker would have subsided. Transfer the contents on to a colander to drain the water to another vessel. Use this precious water as you proceed making the rasam.

Finish grinding using ingredients listed under “For grinding”. Grind it to a fine paste. Add this to the drained water that you stored just now. Add salt. Boil for about 5 min. Add tamarind juice. Let it boil for another 5 min. Switch off the burner.

Now is the time for seasoning. Heat a drop of ghee in a small skillet. Do not heat it too much. When it is just hot, put mustard seeds. When they crackle, switch off and immediately put cumin seeds and asafoetida. Pour it on to the boiled rasam.

Hmmm….Fresh n fragrant Green Gram Rasam is ready.

Serve it hot with steamed rice.

Tete – a - Tete:

When you finished cooking dals and veggies, are you sure you drained the water used for cooking? Rest assured, your nutrition too has gone down the drain! Not a healthy practice…right? Bother about the broth?….Yes you must! Why miss a chance when you can aim for the best of health and taste? Preserve this precious water to make rasam.

Use the remaining cooked green gram and greens to make “Green Gram Curry with Greens”.

When using greens, there is no need to add coriander leaves or curry leaves.

Quantity of water can be adjusted to suit taste and consistency. Consistency can be as thin as soup or as thick as porridge depending on the amount of water used. Similarly taste can vary from hot and spicy to mildly spicy or made bland.

Same recipe can be followed to prepare rasam using Kadale Kaalu (Chick peas), Hurali (Horse gram), Alasandi kaalu (Cow peas).

Lentils and pulses should be cooked slowly in low flame for a long time to achieve a comfortably creamy texture. While cooking them, it is better to add a pinch of turmeric powder and a tsp of cow ghee. Turmeric has antiseptic properties. Cow ghee gives a rich and pleasing flavour. A tsp of ghee consumed everyday improves blood circulation, lubricates bone joints and cleanses liver.

Recipes viewed here are a part of "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog

You may also view in this blog:

Few other Rasam and Sambar Varieties
Side Dish Recipes
Dessert Recipes

Snack Recipes

DANTINA SOPPU BASSAARU

“Elai Dantu, neenyaakae nanage biddi gantu” grumbled grumpy farmer Bantu. (Hey Dantu, why on earth did you get hooked to me?)

Lively leafy Dantu had this to say to her haughty hubby Bantu….

Potent nutrient, forever vibrant. Grown as flower, cooked as veg…eatable, colour of mine can be red (nah not when angry!) or can be green (me in envy...with you? Ha ha nah J). Called in English as Amaranth I do justice, for neither the colour nor the flower in me withers even when death drags away my powers.

Crammed with carbos, packed with proteins, a mine of minerals in me you can find. Consume me. I am high in fiber. So your bowel moves better and your health shall bolster. I am easy to digest by all… be they toddlers or mighty older. I am so rich in iron. When you consume me, sure you can rest content. B’cos on RBC you can count. I prevent your hair from greying, your skin from dying, just so evergreen you can be living. So rich I am in vitamins A n C that living with me has bettered your IsightU to its best. No wonder I see you see me eye to eye. Won’t you now call me “Darlin’ Dantu, you are such a deliteuu!” View cooking this leafy delight right below. You are sure to go green with envy. Miss it and you’ll end up marching past hungry, red and angry.

Down to earth traditional. Farmer’s favourite. Authentic Karnataka dish handpicked from an endless list of rasam varieties and served on a platter! Prepared by using a choice of greens, vegetables, lentils, sprouts stock (i.e., the water strained after cooking greens, grains or vegetables) this delicious Bassaaru derives its name from two Kannada words “Basidu” (which means strained) and “Saaru” (which means Rasam).

In the Rasam recipe shown below, Dantina Soppu (Amaranth) is used.

Dish Type: South Indian Vegetarian Stew

Time required: 40 min approx.

Serves: 5 persons approx.

Ingredients

Amaranth 1 bunch

Tur Dal 100 gms

Turmeric powder A pinch

Tamarind paste 1 tsp

Salt to taste 1 tbsp approx.

Water 1000 ml approx.

For grinding:

Channa dal 1 tsp

Coriander seeds 1 tsp

Raw grated coconut 1 cup (say ½ of ½ coconut)

Asafoetida A pinch

Rasam powder 3 tsps

For seasoning:

Oil 2 tsps

Mustard seeds 1 tsp

Curry leaves few

Directions:

Separate dantina soppu leaves from its stalk. Wash leaves and stalks thoroughly and drain out the water. Chop leaves fine and stalks too to small bits.

Cook dal in pressure cooker along with water, turmeric powder, dash of ghee and a few curry leaves. Dal should be well cooked and easily mashable. When cooker has cooled and dal is cooked, transfer cooked dal on to a colander. Reserve the drained water (known as broth) for making rasam.

While dal is cooking….

Boil stalks and soppu in a pan along with water. Switch off when they turn soft.

Transfer cooked stuff to a colander. Reserve the drained water for making rasam. In the same empty pan, prepare seasoning. To this add a pinch of turmeric, green chillies, boiled soppu, mashed dal and salt to taste. Saute for some time till the greens and dal blend together as a curry. Switch off the flame. Garnish with raw grated coconut. Dantina soppina palya (Amaranth Curry) is now ready.

To prepare rasam, add ground masala (prepared using ingredients listed above under “for grinding” to the broth. Also add salt and tamarind paste. Let the broth boil well till you get a nice aroma. To this add seasoning and garnish with fresh, fine chopped coriander leaves. Dantina Soppina Bassaaru is now ready.

Enjoy this dual treat with steaming hot rice and/or chapathis.

Tete – a – Tete:

Squeeze the juice from ½ a lime and add to the bassaaru at the end if you like a tangy taste.

A portion of the cooked dal can be ground along with masala if thicker consistency is required for rasam.

In any Bassaaru recipe, excess water is added to dal, grains and vegetables while cooking. Rasam prepared using this water (better known as broth) is highly nutritious.

Recipe contributed by nonagenarian and expert cook Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy

Recipes viewed here are a part of "Mangala's Potluck" section in this blog

You may also view in this blog:
Snack Recipes

Dessert Recipes

Side Dish Recipes

Sambar & Rasam Varieties

Few other recipes contributed by Smt. Lalithamma Ramamurthy:

Heralekaayi Gojju (Citron Lime Sauce)