Announcing My Legume Love Affair, Fifteenth Helping

Please Note: We are moving to no phone, no internet area (read new home!) this week, all by ourselves, I won’t be able to answer to any of your emails for next 2 weeks till we get time to breath easily :) Please keep sending your MLLA entries and I will reply to all your emails/questions/queries as soon as we get broadband connection and settle down in our new home. Till then, Happy cooking and blogging!
hugs
Sia

Regular visitors of my blog know my ever going, never ending love affair with legumes. So when Susan, a lovely blogger and splendid photographer behind the delightful blog called The Well Seasoned Cook, invited fellow bloggers to host her monthly event My Legume Love Affair sometime last year I jumped at the opportunity to host it. So here I am, inviting all dear bloggers and non-bloggers to participate in this month’s edition of My Love affair with Legumes-Fifteenth Helping.

A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or a fruit of these specific plants. A 'legume' fruit is a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. A common name for this type of fruit is a "pod", although pod is also applied to a few other fruit types, such as vanilla. Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soy, and peanuts.
(Source: Wiki)

So for this event we are concentrating on pods like the ones listed in this page and not the plant. Please make sure that you follow the guideline listed below in order to be eligible for the lovely prizes. Yes, there will be not just one or two but three fabulous prizes. One lucky winner will receive two fabulous books specially selected by Susan and a gift from Hurst Bean. The first book is Remembrance of Things Paris: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet (Modern Library Food) by Gourmet Magazine Editors and Ruth Reichl and the second one is Gourmet Indian In Minutes: Over 140 Inspirational Recipes by Monisha Bharadwaj and they will be shipped worldwide. The third prize is a case of six bags of your choice of Hurst Bean products, suitable for every diet, generously provided by Hurst Bean. Due to shipping restrictions, this prize can only be awarded if the winner is a U.S. resident.
So what are you waiting for? Show me how much you love your legumes. I am looking forward to my mail inbox getting flooded with delicious legume entries all this month. Let the love affair begin…
Guidelines for participation:
Prepare any vegetarian/vegan recipe with legumes as the star ingredient. Any cuisine, any course is acceptable as long as it features legumes. For this time I am restricting the entries to only vegetarian and vegan recipes but recipes with eggs are allowed.Multiple entries are welcome (entries in English only please) although only one submission will be counted towards the random drawing. Dedline for the event is 30th September ’09 and please note that late entries will not be included in the round-up. Please provide a link to this announcement page and to Susan’s event page.Send a mail with MLLA in the subject line to sia[at]monsoonspice[dot]com with the following details.Your nameLocation (Optional)Your blog nameName of the entry/recipeURL of your postAn optional photograph of the final dish that is resized to 400 X 300 (in pixels) or 300 X 400 (in pixels) depending on orientation. If you don’t have a blog but would like to participate, send an email with the recipe and the above-mentioned details and your entry will be included in the prize draw. Recipes submitted to other events are also permitted. Recipes from archives or older posts are accepted only if they are re-posted with a link to this announcement page and Susan’s event page.Use of logo is optional.

PRINT THIS POST
View the original article here

Announcing,Legume,Affair,Fifteenth,Helping

Badanekayi-Eerulli Huli: This is My Legume Affair

Wow! I can’t believe I am actually sitting here in my office and blogging!!! But after months of stress, running around and sleepless nights, I wanted to do something else to charge my batteries and obviously blogging is the first thing that came to my mind. I may still be stressed, worried sick, and running around flapping my feathers like freaking chicken but I have decided to come back and blog as it is the only creative outlet I have at a moment. And what the hell? There is nothing more relaxing at the moment than rant, ramble and vent out in my own small space in this virtual world which calms my jumpy nerves.



First of all, thanks to everyone who wished smooth house move. It indeed went smoothly and we are having lots of fun rearranging and decorating every room in our new home. Although it was bit saddening to leave our first home where we started our life together, our new house felt like home from day one we moved. It’s beyond words to describe the feeling of saying good bye to my first kitchen where I learnt to cook all by myself and where I actually did my first blog post. But at the same time, I love each and every minute of cooking in my brand new spunky kitchen that is equipped with top-end appliances. Slowly but steadily I have started cooking regularly but still haven’t had time to cook something exclusively for blog and take photos. I am sure everything will fall into old routine in few weeks time. I can go on and on rambling about our move but I will leave it for next few posts because there is so much to share!
Next I want to apologise for not posting the round-up for RCI! I know I should have done it 3 weeks back but moving houses have taken major chunk of our time and rest was spent in office trying to finish my project before deadline. Since we still have no TV, internet and phone connection at home, I am slowly putting things together during my lunch break in office. I am hoping to post RCI round-up by next weekend and I hope I’ll be able to stick to my promise this time. It sucks when I can’t fulfil my promise and trust me I am not enjoying it. So friends, give me couple of weeks to wrap up major works at home and office.
Another thing I wanted to mention is about the lovely entries I am receiving for MLLA-15th Helping. Thank you one and all. I will try to reply to all your emails ASAP. Please note that there are only few days left to send in all your entries to win these fabulous prizes sponsored by lovely Susan. So if you have already made the post but haven’t mailed, make it a point to send in all the details before 30th September, 2009.


So what have we got today? Of course, a delicious legume recipe for MLLA-15th Helping, brainchild of Susan. The day I saw this recipe of Badanekayi Eerulli Huli posted by my good friend Vani of Mysoorean in our group blog Beyond Curries, I wanted to try it ASAP.

In Vani’s own words,
Huli is a form of dal made mainly in the Mysore/Bangalore regions of Karnataka. It is a thicker version of sambar but made with a different masala and is usually very vegetable-heavy.

During my post graduation days in beloved Bengaluru, this Badanekayi Eerulli Huli was regular dish on our Sunday lunch menu. Served with fried Papads, Majjige Menasu or some potato chips, this was a comfort food i always looked forward to enjoy on lazy Sunday afternoons. So it was inevitable that I try this recipe and re-live the hostel days… Thanks to Vani, I tried this recipe following Vani’s instructions to T. It not only takes me down the happy memory lanes but also tastes so much better than the one I remember. So without much delay let’s make some delicious Badanekayi-Eerulli Huli.

Roasted Spices for Badanekayi-Eerulli Huli

Badanekai Eerulli Huli (Thick Lentil Stew with Eggplants and Onions)
Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Cooking Time: 30 minutes (20 minutes to cook lentils & vegetables and 10 minutes to prepare the stew)
Serves: 4-5
Spice Level: Medium
Cooking Level: Intermediate
Recipe Source: Beyond Curries
Serving Suggestions: With Rice & Papads/Chips

Ingredients:
1 medium Onion, chopped into ½ inch squares
1 medium sized Eggplant, chopped into 1 inch cubes
1½ cups cooked Toor Dal
3 tbsp fresh/frozen grated Coconut/desiccated unsweetened Coconut/Coconut Powder
¾ tsp Tamarind Paste (Adjust acc to taste)
2 tsp Jaggery or Brown Sugar (Adjust acc to taste)
Salt to taste
For Huli Masala Powder:
2 inch Cinnamon
1 tbsp Chana Dal/Split Bengal Gram
2 tbsp Coriander Seeds
4-6 Dry Red Chillies (Adjust acc to taste)
A small pinch of Hing/Asafoetida
1 tsp Oil
For Tadka/Tempering:
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
A spring of fresh Curry Leaves
½ tsp Turmeric Powder
A pinch of Hing/Asafoetida
1 tbsp Oil

Method:
Heat a tsp of Oil in a pan and add all the ingredients listed under Huli Masala Powder. Fry it on low to medium flame until fragnant, about 2 mins. Let them cool before you grind them to fine powder.
Now add grated coconut to this masala powder and grind to smooth paste adding very little water. Keep it aside till needed.
Heat oil in a deep pan and add mustard seeds. When mustard starts to pop and splutter, add hing, turmeric powder and curry leaves.
Immediately add onions, eggplants, and about 1½ cups of water.Cover the pan with lid and cook until eggplants are tender, about 7-8 mins, on medium flame.
Next add the coconut paste, cooked toor dal and salt to taste and bring the whole mixture to gentle boil.
Add tamarind paste, jaggery and adjust the seasonsings. And cook for 2-3 minutes for all the flavours to blend well.
Serve this delicious Badanekayi-Eerulli Huli with rice, papad/chips and a dollop of Ghee and enjoy. Notes:
The consistency of Huli is very thick as compared to Samabr. So make sure that you drain the water from dal before adding with the vegetables. Also, make sure that you use very little water when grinding the coconut paste.
Vani suggests that you can also use the combinations of other vegetables like onion and potato, chayote and balck eyed beans, green leafy vegetables, cabbage and beans.
PRINT THIS POST
View the original article here

BadanekayiEerulli,Legume,Affair