Sorakaya Pappu (Dudhi Dal)

Recipe

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¾ cup – toor dal (kandi pappu)

1½ to 2 cups – finely cubed bottle gourd (Sorakaya, Dudhi)

¼ cup – coarsely chopped onion

½ teaspoon each (or to taste)- red chilli powder and turmeric

Marble ball sized tamarind

Preparation for popu or tadka

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1 tablespoon ghee or peanut oil

6 each – curry leaves, crushed garlic

Pinch each – cumin, mustard seeds and hing (asafoetida)

Take toor dal in a pressure cooker. Rinse the dal with water. Add the bottle gourd cubes, onion, chilli powder, turmeric and tamarind. Add about one to two cups of water. Mix. Close the lid and steam-cook until toor dal reaches the fall-apart stage. Then add salt, and coarsely mash the ingredients together.

The dal benefits greatly from my daily vitamin dose, I call “popu or tadka“. Let’s heat ghee or oil in a vessel. Add the curry leaves and garlic. Toast them to pale brown, and then add the cumin, mustard seeds and hing. When the seeds start to pop, add the mashed dal to the vessel. Mix and serve the dal with rice or with chapati.

For a true Andhra experience, mix the dal with rice and ghee. Dip them in pickle or podi. Enjoy.