My Culinary Trial Room

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Green gram conjee with Moong dhal thuvayal

When I was officially daughter to my mom ;), she made it sure that we have conjee / kanji atleast two weeks once. Said kanji cools ur body. (Now I understand why we were given this when we had fever) With this reason she makes, many variations of kanji - ulundu, pachai payaru, pasi paruppu. Name any dhal variety and she makes a kanji out of it. She once went to the extreme and added loads of garlic cloves and made a poodu kanji but thank god it was used as a medicinal preparation and hence everyone got only half a glass of it. Such a Kanji fanatic she is but for our very own goodness. She usually serves it with some variety of thuvayals.

Whenever we are bed-ridden with fever, amma usually makes us ulundu kanji with broken black skinned urad dhal. She gives us this and rasam saadam for our alternate meals. But believe me, both the meals soothes and relieves you from the fever dizziness and I love having this. But in ordinary days I just run like a lunatic when she brings me a bowl of this. I don't know why but I hate this. And so she started making ulundu saadam with chicken curry to make me eat it. I loved the combination of these two and since then I run again, but towards it with a plate in hand.

So following her words of wisdom in culinary and kai vaithyam, I have started making kanjis frequently especially during the summers. This is not with the split urad dhal but I substituted it with whole green grams and for side I made a simple moong dhal thuvayal (my favie). The combination of the crunchy lentils along with the mushy flavored rice is an awesome combination.

What is Congee/ Kanji?
Congee is a type of rice porridge popular in many Asian countries.To prepare the dish, rice is boiled in large amounts of water until it softens significantly.
In Tamil Nadu, it is a staple food in many house-holds, though rice is boiled, allowed to ferment overnight and then had in the morning as breakfast along with pickle/onions. This is another way to make the traditional kanji but wat I have made here is by following the former method.

~*What U Need*~
Raw rice - 1 1/2 cups
Water - 4 cups
Garlic cloves - 3
Green chilli(Large) - 1
Whole Green gram - 2 handfuls
Fenugreek seeds - 10
Salt

How I Made it:
Wash and clean the rice and green gram.
Pressure cook all the ingredients for 4 whistles or till mushy.

Serve hot with any thuvayals / pickles. The conjee can be made in watery / semi-gravy consistency. This is the best food for fever-ridden people.

~*What U Need*~
Moong dhal - 2 handfuls
Dried red chilli - 2
Water - as needed
Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
GArlic cloves - 3
Tamarind - marble sized piece
Salt

How I made it:
Dry roast the moong dhal and tamarind till brown.
Powder it into semi-coarse powder.
Add all the other ingredients and sufficient amount of water and blend well.

Note:
* You should get tiny bits of crunchy moong dhal in between.
* Add water little by little to get the correct consistency. It should not be watery. You should be able to make a ball out of it.

Linking this to Iftar moments held by Jabeen's corner