Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Kadala Curry and Beans

When Priya made her Kadala Curry with Appam, I was reminded of the delicious Kadala Curry that goes along with Puttu, a Keralite breakfast dish made of rice flour. Kadala is brown garbazo beans in Tamil and Malayalam. My recipe for Kadala Curry is very simple. Sometimes I even, allow the brown colored garbanzo beans to sprout for added nutrition and taste. It's more yummy than using the unsprouted ones. And the side dish, the beans - it's a delightful mix of the french cut beans and lima beans. I love this combination. Lima beans and French cut green beans go well together.

Without much ado, here's my Kadala Curry recipe and beans recipe.

Kadala curry
Brown Garbanzo beans - 1 cup, soaked overnight and boiled till tender
Grated Coconut - 4tbsp (frozen or dried will do)
Cummin seeds - 1 tbsp + 1 tsp
Green chillies - 3-4, slit lengthwise
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Onion - 1, chopped
Curry leaves - 5 leaves (optional)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Black Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Olive oil - 2 tbsp (Any cooking oil will do)
Salt to taste

1. Make a paste of the green chillies, 1 tbsp cummin seeds and grated coconut along with 1/4 tsp of salt and keep aside. The salt is added while grinding to keep the green chillies from turning bitter after a while.

2. Heat the oil in a sauce pan and add add the mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the asafoetida and the remaining cummin seeds. After a minute, add the curry leaves and onions and saute till the onions turn brown. Add the boiled garbanzo beans and the ground paste and coriander powder and stir well. After 2-3 minutes, simmer (reduce the heat of the stove), add 2 cups of water and salt and cover the sauce pan. The Kadala cury will be ready in about 15-20 mins time amd smell divine. This goes great with steamed rice or Puttu or Dosas.

Green beans and Lima Beans
Baby Lima beans - 1 cup (I used frozen)
French cut green beans - 1 cup (I used frozen)
Onion - 1 chopped
Olive oil - 2 tsp (Any cooking oil will do)
Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp
Cummin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Heat oil and add the cummin seeds (crushed slightly with your palms to release the flavor). Add the onions and saute till the onions brown. Add the green beans and the lima beans and saute for a minute. Add the red chilli powder and salt and let it cook, covered for about 5 mins. Stir again and cook for a few more mins if needed. Sprinkle water if necessary, but I havent found the need since I cook in low heat and covered. The green beans and baby lima beans is a very combination. Sometimes I make this to stuff between bread slices and grill them in a sandwich maker.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never tried sprouting black chana. and my experience of sprouted white chickpeas is , I didn't find them tasty atall.

I'm going to take your word and make the curry with sprouted black chana, Kay.:)

Kay said...

Indira, I'm just about posting 'How to make sprouts' using a method taught by one of my net friends. That's how I make sprouts and it's turned out real good always.

Try this curry and let me know, how it turns out.

Kay said...

And smaller the sprout, the beter it tastes.

Priya Bhaskaran said...

Kay, you kadala curry looks easy and simple. I am planning to make puttu this week, I am going to give a try your way of kadala curry:)

Kay said...

Sure Priya, do tell me how it turns out. I'm going to try your recipe soon. :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Kay

I tried your Green Beans and Lima Beans curry.It came our very well.I used regular green beans and butter beans(instead of French beans and Baby Lima)and it worked out very well for the combo i used...Thanks for posting this and i look forward for more....

Kay said...

Thanks Doral. The French beans and the regular green beans are the same. French-ing is just cutting the green beans in a certain style, sliced from the middle.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip, Kay. I'll keep that in mind.