Paruppusilli

Two dals are soaked and ground rather than boiled, and the beans are cooked dry.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 100 g toor dal
• 100 g chana dal, bengal gram
• 5 dried red chillies
• 500 g cluster beans, or french beans, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon asafoetida
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 20 curry leaves
• 3 tablespoons sesame oil
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Method

1. TWO DALS ARE SOAKED AND GROUND RATHER THAN BOILED, AND THE BEANS ARE COOKED DRY. Its article is 365 characters long and every one of them is composition: made by cooking TOOR DAL AND BENGAL GRAM DAL with red chillies and french beans, cluster beans or plantain flowers, flavoured with ASAFOETIDA, CURRY LEAVES AND MUSTARD SEEDS. Two pulses rather than one is the thing to hold on to. What the article does not give is the method, so the rest of this page is a reading of the dish rather than a transcription: grinding the soaked dal coarse and steaming it is what makes a usili, and boiling the dals instead would give a koottu.
2. THE DALS ARE SOAKED, NOT COOKED, AND THEN GROUND COARSE. Two hours in water, drained thoroughly, then ground with the dried chillies and salt to a crumbly paste with no added water. Wet, it will not crumble later.
3. THE PASTE IS STEAMED BEFORE IT MEETS THE PAN. Fifteen minutes, in a flat dish. It comes out as a firm cake.
4. THEN IT IS CRUMBLED, AND THAT IS THE TEXTURE OF THE DISH. Broken up with the fingers into coarse crumbs. The name usili refers to exactly this crumbled state.
5. THE BEANS ARE COOKED SEPARATELY AND ALMOST DRY. Finely chopped, with a splash of water, lidded for eight minutes until just tender, then uncovered to drive the water off.
6. CLUSTER BEANS WANT LONGER AND ITS ARTICLE LISTS THEM FIRST. They are tougher and faintly bitter; french beans are sweeter and quicker; plantain flower is fiddly to prepare and the best of the three.
7. THE ASAFOETIDA IS HALF A TEASPOON AND IT IS NOT OPTIONAL. Its article names it among only three flavourings. In a dish with no onion, no garlic and no tomato, it is doing the work all three would.
8. THE CRUMBS AND THE BEANS ARE TOSSED TOGETHER OVER HEAT FOR FIVE MINUTES. In the tempered oil. Long enough to dry and catch slightly in places.
9. IT IS A DRY SIDE DISH SERVED WITH RICE. Its article pairs it with rice and a mor kuzhambu, a buttermilk curry, which is not a page here.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes