Tomatillo Dhal | Pachathakkali pappu/paruppu

Sometimes all you need is comfort food. Not something exotic but something simple and home cooked like curd rice with potato roast or dhal with rice and pickle for the side. One mouthful and you will be transported to your childhood days. Days when you waited impatiently for dinner after playing for hours in the grounds and amma served you pappu saadam mixed with her own hands with dollops of ghee. This dhal is something like that. Comfort food but with a twist. It is just a variation of our regular paruppu using tomatillos. The addition of tomatillo gives it a nice tang which will leave you craving for another mouthful.

~*What U Need*~ Moong dhal - 1/4 cup Toor dhal - 1/4 cup Tomatillo - 3 Tomato - 1/2 cubed Garlic - 2 cloves Green chilli - 1 Turmeric powder - a pinch To Temper Oil - 2 tsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp Hing - a big pinch Curry leaves - 1 sprig Dry red chilli - 1 Shallots - 5-6, sliced How I Made it: Remove the outer covering from tomatillos, wash and chop; Set aside. Wash dal and take it in a pressure cooker, add chopped tomatillos, tomatoes, garlic, green chilli, turmeric powder and enough water and pressure cook for 3 whistles or till done. Allow the pressure to release and open the lid and mash it slightly. Heat oil in a skillet, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter. Add cumin seeds and allow to brown. Add curry leaves, dry red chilli, hing and sliced onions and fry well. Add this tempering to the paruppu.

Serve with rice or rotis.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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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!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

Interested!!! Click to read more...