Hare lasun ki dal ~ Green Garlic Daal

Fresh green garlic from farm market

"How can we use them in cooking, where can I find recipes using these greens". I always talk to myself when I see them at my local farm marker. Yes, I am talking about green garlic.

Green Garlic is a spring culinary treat that does not receive as much fan fare as it deserves. This mild stage of garlic may be hard to find unless your have access to a farmers market that sells this delicacy (from March to July) or you garden and grow your own. If you are going to purchase green garlic look for green stalks that are not yellowing or blemished.

Prepare - Similar to leeks, green garlic stalks trap dirt and sand within the leaves. Rinse each stalk carefully. Once washed, the entire stalk can be used.

Store - If you are growing the garlic then harvest right before you use it. Green garlic can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three or four days. One stalk of green garlic is equivalent to one or two cloves of garlic.

I got hold of a bunch from my local farm market and used in the preparation of this dazzling dal. I used half the bunch of garlic greens for this recipe as the green garlic flavor is very overpowering.

Green Garlic Daal

Source : My own
Cuisine: South Indian Fusion
Prep time: 7 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
1 C toor daal/ split-redgram lentil, uncooked
1 C or 10-12 sprigs of green garlic, chopped roughly
1 shallot, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped finely
1/2 t turmeric powder/haldi/pasupu
1/2 t cayenne pepper/mirchi powder/red chillie powder
1 t cumin/jeera
1/2 t oil
salt as per taste
2 C water
for tempering/tadka/poppu:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal/black gram lentil
5-6 curry leaves
a pinch of hing/asafeotida
1 T any cooking oil

Method:

• Wash and soak dal for 30 minutes. Add one cup dal with half spoon of turmeric powder, cumin/jeera and half spoon of oil. with 2 cups of water, pressure cook for 4-5 whistles. Adding oil to dal will cook evenly and mash perfectly, cumin/jeera gives flavor to dal and turmeric gives the color.
  
• Once the dal is cooked cool down add salt to it and mash dal with a masher or traditional pappu gidda.
  
• If you do not have a pressure cooker, boil it in a large pot with two and half cups of water till the lentil is little overcooked.
• While dal is cooking chop garlic greens, shallots and tomatoes.
  
• In a kadai or small pot heat a tablespoon of cooking oil, add mustard seeds, let it splutter then add urad dal/black gram lentil, curry leaves and hing/asafeotida fry for a minute.
• Add chopped onions and let them fry for another minute or till they turn transparent. Once you know that onions are cooked add finely chopped tomato and cook till the tomatoes looks mushy mushy and starts to leave oil from its sides.
  
• Add cayenne pepper/red chilli powder and chopped green garlic. Cook for a minute or two.
• Pour the entire mashed dal, stir well and let it simmer for 2 more minutes and you are done. Check for salt
  
• Serve hot or cold with rice, rotis/phulkas/Indian flat bread.

While you start to chop garlic greens you will notice that the aroma fills the room already! Reduce the quantity of garlic greens if you are not a garlic lover. I used 1/2 a bunch around 10-12 sprigs.

More dals from my kitchen:
Baby Bok-Choy Pappu
Udipi Sambhar
Pedamma's Pappu charu


Sending this to Weekend Herb Blogging Kelly from Sounding My Barbaric Gulp a herb blogging phenomenon started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. The new rules are in effect to this event, please check her blog for more details.

Baby Bok Choy Pappu ~ Lentil

Baby bok choy

Bok choy, also known as Pak choi or Peking cabbage, forms a small but elongated head (not round like European cabbage) with plump white stalks and deep green leaves. A member of the brassica family, bok choy offers nutritional assets similar to those of other cabbages: It is rich in Vitamin C and contains significant amounts of nitrogen compounds known as indoles, as well as fiber--both of which appear to lower the risk of various forms of cancer.

Bok choy is also a good source of folate (folic acid) and potassium. And with its deep green leaves, bok choy has more beta-carotene than other cabbages, and it also supplies considerably more calcium. The stalks and leaves have quite different textures, so in culinary terms, it's like getting two vegetables for the price of one.Baby bok choy has a sweeter flavor than adult varieties. For more information on varieties, availability, storage and nutritional information click here, here, and here.

Did you know...?
1 cup of cooked bok choi contains 15% of your recommended daily allowance of calcium ~ equivalent to 1/4 pint of full fat milk.

Source: Whole health MD

Baby Bok Choy Pappu ~ Dal

Baby bok choy pappu ~ dal with phulkas and fresh cucumber

I like adding baby bok choy in salads, stir fry's, soups, stir-fry noodles and fried rice and recently thought why not make some dal ~ pappu out of it. That way we can have our fiber intake as well as some folate too. Its a nice cross-over for leafy vegetable dal.

Source : My own
Cuisine: Fusion
Prep time: 7 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients:
1 cup toor dal/red gram lentil
5-6 stalks baby bok choy, trim the tough ends
1/2 red onion, sliced
3-4 green chillies, sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric powder/haldi/pasupu
1 tsp red chilli powder/cayenne pepper
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
2 tsp tamarind pulp
for tempering/tadka/poppu:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal/black gram lentil
2-3 dried whole red chillies
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
few curry leaves
a pinch of hing/asafeotida
Salt as per taste
1tbsp oil
Method:

1. Chop coarsely bok choy and pressure cook them with toor dal/lentils along with turmeric powder, onions, green chillies, cumin seeds and chilli powder. Cook upto 3-4 whistles. Add tamarind pulp, salt to it and mash the contents.
2. In a deep pan heat oil, add mustard seeds, let it splutter then add urad dal/black gram lentil, curry leaves, torn red chillies, garlic and fry for a min. Add hing/asafeotida and pour the entire mashed bok choy dal and mix well. Let it simmer for 2 more mins.
3. Serve hot with plain rice or rotis /Indian flat bread.

Note: Use of salt should be limited while cooking this dal as bok choy already is little salty in nature. Thats what I found out while cooking with it.

Peddamma's Pappu Charu (kinda lentil/dal soup)

Pappu charu is a daily staple in every Andhrite home, but many are not aware of this incredible *Charu*, or else you can say it is a diluted version of sambhar except that there is no sambhar powder used in this. In the west to be more specific it resembles the taste of a lentil soup but little sour to taste as we use tamarind pulp juice/water. There are many variations to it, you can add many different vegetables to it like okra/bendakaya/bhendi, eggplant/vankaya/ baingan or raddish/mulangi/muli etc etc and are respectively called as bendakaya pappucharu, vankaya pappucharu, mullangi pappucharu.

Toor dal/red gram lentil

I learned the art of making pappu charu from my Peddama aka mother's elder sister when I went to Vizag on my 12th std vacation. She is a great cook and has magic in her hands in cooking traditional andhra recipes and non-vegetarian recipes. Today I made the simpler version on the request of Bee from Jugalbandi with just tomatoes, onions and green chillies. You can find on pappu charu recipe at Vindu's, Mom's Kitchen, Sailu's Food, Mahanandi, and Srivalli's sorry if I miss anyone, these are random listings for the recipe, Enjoy!

Source: My Peddamma
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Prep time: 7 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Makes: 6 people
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup red gram lentil/dal/toor dal
1 small red onion, sliced thinly
1 big tomato, cut and squeezed
3 green chillies, cut length wise
1 small ball size tamarind, soaked in 1 cup water
1 tsp red chilli powder (cayenne pepper)
½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
2 cups of water
salt as per taste
for tempering/tadka:
1 tsp urad dal/black gram dal
1 tsp cumin seeds/jeera
1 tsp mustard seeds/rai
2-3 torn dried red chillies
1 garlic clove, crushed and chopped
few curry leaves
a pinch of asafeotida/hing
1 tsp of oil

Method:

1. Wash and soak the dal for about 20 mins or so. Boil it in a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles.
2. Meanwhile soak medium marble-size tamarind ball in 1 cup of hot water. Once the tamarind is soft, pulp it with hands and filter it. Keep the tamarind water aside and if there is more pulp in the remaining tamarind repeat the same with 1/2 cup water this time and continue so on till you have squeezed all the pulp out of the tamarind just like you do for sambhar preparation.
3. In a deep sauce pan add the red onions, chillies and squeeze in the tomato pieces. To this add the tamarind water, cooked dal, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt, mix well and if required add water if the mix is too thick. Bring it to a boil or till the onions are cooked.
4. Lastly temper it with seasoning by heating oil in a kadai/round bottom pan add the mustard, cumin seeds, urad dal/black gram dal then add the torn dried red chillies, curry leaves, and garlic. Once they are golden brown turn off the heat and add asafeotida/hing. Immediately pour this seasoning into the dal soup, Pappu charu is ready!
5. Serve hot/cold with rice and curries or pachadi's as a side dish
   

Here is step by step photo explanation of the procedure, I know which would be confusing with out this.

ingredients

cooked dal mixed with tamarind water, onions, tomatoes, chillies, turmeric, salt and chilli powder

Pappu charu boiling on medium high

tempered pappu charu

Our meal today: Rice, pappu charu, cabbage pachadi and aloo methi fry

The recipe for cabbage pachadi and aloo methi fry will follow soon...