Enthaligai: BISEBELABATH

This is one of my signature dish which has always been a hit at home. I prepared this as one of my friend asked me to post this recipe. This is one of the specialty dishes of the neighborhood state, Karnataka.

I first tasted this recipe when I was in high school. I learnt this recipe from one of my brother’s wife. I copied the recipe in a notebook and was preserving the notes until I master myself in this recipe.

Ingredients:

Raw rice – 1 cup

Toor dhal – 0.5 cup

Salt – as needed

Tamarind – 1 gooseberry sized (soaked in water)

Onion – 1 cup

Green peas – 1 small cup (Optional)

Mixed vegetables (Beans, Carrot, Potato) – 1 cup

Oil – as needed

Ghee – 3 tsp

To roast and grind:

Cinnamon stick – 1 inch

Bengal gram – 2 tsp

Urad dhal – 1 tsp

Coriander seeds – 2 tsp

Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp

Pepper – 1/4 tsp

Grated coconut – 1 small cup

Preparation:

1. Soak tamarind in water for 15 minutes. It is best if this is done at first to manage the cooking time. Tamarind paste can also be used as an alternate to this.

2. In a pressure cooker, cook Rice+Toor dhal with little salt. Water should be added in such a way the rice and dhal combi should be cooked slightly mushy. I usually add 3.5 cups of water to 1 cup of raw rice. Since I cook toor dhal along with it, I added 4.5 cups of water.

3. If you have a small cooker, cook the mixed vegetables adding required salt. This is an optional step as you can also directly cook the vegetables in tamarind water, but this step would definitely bring down the cooking time. Take care not to overcook the vegetables.

4. Roast the items given in the “To roast and grind” list and grind it smoothly in mixer. Grated coconut should be added only at the last state of roasting to enhance the flavor.

5. Extract 3 cups of tamarind water from the soaked tamarind pulp. To know how to make tamarind water; squeeze the soaked tamarind and extract the juice. Add some more water and squeeze the tamarind pump and extract the water. Repeat this process until no further thick juice can be extracted. If you are using tamarind paste, add 3 cups of water to 2 tsp of paste.

6. In a wide bottomed pan, add little oil, add the small onion and green peas. Add required salt. After sometime, say for 5 minutes, the small onions must have become brown.

7. Add the cooked vegetables, turmeric powder, and tamarind water. Let it boil for sometime until the raw smell of tamarind goes off. If you are skipping step 3, you can add the vegetables at this stage and cook the vegetables along with onion. But this process would take much time, hence I prefer to cook the vegetables separately.

8. Meanwhile, grind the roasted items into a smooth paste.

9. Now add the paste into the boiling tamarind water. Take care to avoid forming of lumps. Mix well. Let this boil for another 5 minutes. Adjust for salt, if needed. This would get thicker in time, so add little water if needed.