My Culinary Trial Room

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Pachathakkali Paruppu Kootu | Tomatillo Kootu | Easy Dhal Recipes

Back in Chennai, we had a garden.. okay not specifically a garden, we had a piece of land in front of our house (BTW that didnot belong to us, it was my BILs) and we used that to dump our organic waste. After few months we saw few plants growing here and there and amma took the pain to investigate it. We found some tomato plants, a few ivy gourd, okra and bittergourd plants, thanks to the organic waste that we had dumped in. The seeds had sprouted, matured and grown into plants. We had an occasional supply of freshly grown veggies and of them tomatoes were in abundance.

Amma used to pick the tomatoes in their green stage itself and make this paruppu for our lunch and even for our chapathis. I have never eaten tomatoes in their raw form, infact I have never even seen them in the market and this paruppu sounded simple and interesting. We had it with white rice with a dollop of homemade ghee and it was perfect. We had it with chapathis and it was perfect too. This weekend when I went to the local market, I found some tomatillos in the market (btw I found that tomatillos are entirely different from raw tomatoes) and I instantly grabbed with this simple paruppu in mind.

~*What U Need*~
Pachaithakkali/Tomatillo - 2 nos, large

Thuvaram paruppu - 1/2 cup
Garlic cloves - 2 nos
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Hing powder - a pinch
Green chilli - 1, slit

To temper:
Small onions - 10
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Dry red chillies - 1
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Oil
Salt

To grind:
Jeera - 1 tsp
Coconut - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

How I Made it:
Grind jeera, coconut and curry leaves to a smooth paste. In a pressure cooker, cook dhal with garlic, hing, turmeric, chilli and salt for 3 whistles. In a pan, heat oil and temper with mustard seeds, curry leaves and red chilli. Chop the onions and saute till golden brown. Add the chopped tomatillo and fry till cooked. Add the cooked dal, required amount of water and bring it to a boil. Add the coconut mixture and cook till the raw smell goes off. Remove from flame.

Serve hot with white rice with ghee or with chapathis!!!