SPLIT BLACK GRAM GRAVY

Split bengal gram usually called "uzhunthu" in my Tamil language is a great energy booster I look upon when ever I feel weak, tired or suffering from body aches after a strenous week of exercise routine and a Mom's, wife's job. Well my mom prepares "uzhunthan soru" wherein this black gram is cooked with rice and consumed with some vegetable/ mutton gravy. Another great option is "vadai" which is made of polished black gram batter deep fried in oil.

I like this one somehow because I am very glad that I have skipped the rice part and the loads of oil in the vadai. This is a one pot dish and I prepared this in the pressure cooker. It is a good combo with roti, chapati, rice or any flat bread. Here in the pic I have served it with "spinach adai" which is a South Indian crepe made of the batter of little  rice, split bengal gram and pigeon peas(lentil). Ground paste of any green is added to the batter with some spices to prepare this. It can be simply called as the" rice and lentil crepe".

This gravy is almost like"Dal makhani" where the black gram is cooked with red beans without any potatoes.

To make it more interesting for my boys I have added potatoes so that they finish it without any of their long questions. Let's check on how to do this?

Ingredients:

Split black gram- 1 cup(washed and soaked in water for 1 hour)

Potatoes-  2 cups(cleaned and diced)

Onion- 1 tbspn (finely chopped)

Tomatoes- 2 (finely chopped)

Ginger- garlic paste- 1 tspn

Garam masala- 1 tspn

Turmeric powder- 1 tspn

Chilly powder/ Paprika- 1 tspn

Coriander/ curry powder- 1 tspn

Water- 2 to 3 cups(depending on how thick or runny you want the gravy to be)

Fresh cream- 1 tbspn

Oil- 1 tbspn

Salt to taste

Cilantro- 1 tspn (finely chopped to garnish)

Method:

Heat the pressure cooker and add the oil.

Add the ginger- garlic paste followed by the onions. When the onions get browned add the tomatoes(wait until they turn soft)followed by the black gram.

Add all the spices at this point and stir well. Add the potatoes now followed by salt.

Mix all the ingredients well again. Close the pressure cooker and cook with 2 whistles.

When the cooker is all set to open gently mash and mix the gravy with a ladle to help the black gram blend well with the potatoes. Add the fresh cream, garnish with cilantro leaves and serve hot.


Note: You can also opt to cook the potatoes separately and later add it on to the black gram gravy depending on the variety of potatoes you have at home. This is just to avoid the potatoes from getting overcooked or under cooked.