Beans Paruppu Usili

"Paruppu Usili" is a classic Tamil brahmin dish served in all marriages. It can be made with many different green vegetables like cluster beans (kothavarangai), beans, broad beans (avarakkai), snake guard (podalangai), Plantain flower (Vaazhaipoo) etc. I burnt the usili once during my initial tries. Honestly it took me 2-3 attempts to make an edible usili and more trials to get nice usili especially the texture.Grinding the dals and stirring are the tricky part in this recipe. But it gives lot of volume making it ideal while cooking for large gatherings.Though Mor kuzhambu and usili is a famous combination this dish goes very well with vendhaya kuzhambu, Vathal kuzhambu, Coconut thogayal, rasam or even with plain rice topped with little ghee!!. So lets move to the recipe !!          

Beans Usili

Cuisine: Indian Category: Side dish Difficulty level: Medium Prep Time: 15 mins Cook time: 20 mins Servings: 4

Ingredients Beans 200 grams Thur dal 1/2 cup Channa dal 1 Tablespoon Dry Red Chilies 5-6 Curry leaves 1 spring Turmeric A small pinch Salt 1 teaspoon Oil 3 tabelspoon Mustard 1/2 teaspoon Asafetida 1/2 teaspoon Preparation     1.     Soak both dals together in 1/4 cup of hot water for 15 minutes. In the meantime chop the beans finely.

Method            1.     Add chopped beans to the pan along with 1 cup water, turmeric and half teaspoon salt. Once the beans get cooked, drain excess water (if any) and keep it aside.      2.     In the meantime drain water from the soaked dals and grind it in blender with red chilies, curry leaves, salt and 1/4 teaspoon asafetida. Do not add water as we need a thick coarse paste as shown.     3.     In pan add half amount of oil. Once oil becomes hot enough temper with mustard, asafetida and add the ground paste.       4.     Stir continuously in medium flame. At one stage the paste colour changes and it will form medium sized lumps. Simmer the falme, add remaining oil and keep stirring for few more minutes till the mixture becomes crumbly.      5.     Add the cooked beans. Mix everything well so the usili and beans get blend evenly.

Notes       ·         Do not soak dal with more water as it will get wasted. (If you are making rasam can add the dal extract to it)       ·         Drain the dal well and grind in batches if needed. If you add water the paste will become smooth and dilute and usili texture won't be good.        ·         Any cooking oil is fine but gingelly oil gives divine taste to usili :).

Thats it !! mouth watering is the word :)