Thursday, February 01, 2007

Easy Peasy!



As it’s winter, fresh peas are available in abundance and I spent one rather backbreaking night shelling a kilo or more of peas and watching a DVD. I even started out saving the pods for a peel stir-fry but quickly tired of checking each and every pod for a blemish.
Coincidentally, Pooja announced her weekly event would feature green peas and I wanted to participate, but probably the mind-numbing job of shelling so many peas in a single sitting had its effects on me – I couldn’t think of a single unusual recipe featuring peas. Well, it has to be unusual to me, at least, otherwise I’m not too keen on putting it up in my blog.
So I started hunting through my cookbooks and finally settled on this Rajasthani curry featured in Nita Mehta’s book. What I found unusual in this recipe was the addition of mangodi (vadiyalu in Telugu, I think, and the brown bits in the photo above), dried preserves made from flour, usually deep-fried to make crunchy accompaniments to chaaru (rasam/soup). In fact, the ‘vadiyalu’ made from urad daal/black gram are used in a sweet-and-sour tamarind-and-jaggery gravy in the parts I come from, but this one here is a spicy, somewhat tart, thick gravy that is accompanied by other vegetables.

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In pic above: Home-made mangodis/vadiyalu

The books informs us that this is a typically Marwari dish and that Marwaris are very fond of mangodis. In their case, they are made from moong daal. The ones I had have been tucked away in the bottomless pit that passes for my fridge for a year or so now, and I’m not sure what daal they are made of, but I used them anyway.
Here’s the recipe adapted from the book:

1 cup mangodi
1 cup shelled peas (you can parboil them ahead)
2 medium potatoes, peeled and diced, mangodi-size
A pinch of asafoetida/hing
1 tsp – cumin seeds
1 tsp or less – chilli powder
½ tsp - turmeric
Salt to taste
1 tsp or less - garam masala/curry powder
A few coriander leaves
Oil – 3 tbsp + 1 tbsp

Grind to a smooth paste:
2 big tomatoes
1 inch piece - ginger
1 cup curds/yoghurt
1 tbsp besan/gram flour OR rice flour

Fry the mangodis till crunchy and brown in the 3 tbsp of oil. Add the peas and potatoes, cover and simmer till done on low flame. The mangodis have to become soft, don’t worry about keeping them crunchy.

In a larger frying pan, heat 1 tbsp oil. Put in the cumin seed, when it browns, add the asafoetida. Then add the chilli powder and immediately add the ground paste. Let it fry/boil for a while, add turmeric and then the vegetable and mangodis. Cover and simmer till you get a thick gravy, or if you don’t have the patience, let it boil and roil till it thickens, finish off with a sprinkle of curry powder and coriander leaves, turn off the fire and get on with the rest of your day!

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27 comments:

  1. Hi Sra,
    Haven't heard of mangodis. where do u get it..The recipe has a lovely colour.
    great entry for pooja's event.

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  2. hi sra
    nice dish..mangodi is very new to me..can i ahve the recipe please...thanku..

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  3. WOW!!!! Never heard of these tiny little things!!!!! You get them at any grocery store?????

    The dish looks yummy... rich in colour and texture!!! :)

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  4. Hi Prema, I suppose you can get them in Indian stores, not sure. I just used the home-made South Indian ones I had with me and they are probably different from the authentic ones which I haven't seen.
    Swapna, hi, I too don't know the recipe for mangodis so I used the vadiyalu which are in the photo. Maybe we should check the Net.
    Coffee, maybe a store which North Indians frequent? Thanks. I too haven't heard much about mangodis.

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  5. Hi Sra,
    this is a great entry indeed ! you made a rajasthani dish ! awesome , totally new for me. every ingredients of it sounds intresting .
    will try it if i get all the ingredients together. :)
    thanks for sharing and participating with this novel idea.
    -Pooja

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  6. Hi sra,very spicy and great looking dish.I buy Mangodis and make the curry.Also we get frozen peas!!HeHe!! Looks wonderful,very nice for Pooja.I am glad you are partcipating!:)

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  7. Hi sra..this is new dish to me..looks delicous and nice entry for pooja's event...

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  8. absolute winner.... easy peasy indeed:)
    and what are these mangodis?

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  9. Looks good sra
    I think mangodis are same as Vadi. But we never put them in Dal, we fry them and put them in many veggie dishes though

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  10. Pooja, thank you, it's a new dish to me too!
    Asha, glad you know about the mangodis. It tasted nice, especially after a few hours in the fridge (and reheated).
    Thanks, Maheswari
    Sia, like I said, I think mangodis are like the vadis I put in the picture, but I'm not very sure. Anyway, whatever I used didn't taste too bad. You're South Indian, right, so those vadis in the pix might be familiar to you.
    Yes Sandeepa, they're made of dal but other than that, there's no dal in the dish - it's yoghurt-based.

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  11. Hi Sra ,thanx for visiting my blog.Your recipe looks very inviting. The mangodi you have used is made of mung dal(skinless). We get all sizes of vadi here in north India. Some are of the size of a ladoo and made of urad dal with pepper.I have never used them though.
    But your recipe tempts me to give it a try.

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  12. Hi, I've seen the laddu-sized vadis you've mentioned - called Amritsari vadi, right? I even used it in something once but it wasn't a nice experience, maybe I didn't cook it right.

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  13. Hi Sra,
    You are absolutely right, they are the same vadis. If I happen to get an authentic recipe using those vadis, I will let you know.
    Your recipe's gravy looks interesting because it has tomatoes as well as curds.I will try your recipe for sure.The vadis would be given priority now in my next grocery list!!!!:)

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  14. Will look forward to it. Yes, the gravy was very sour as soon as I made it but after resting for a while, became mellow. And it's a lovely, smooth gravy!

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  15. Sra,you never cease to Amaze me with your Recipes...Mangodi vadiyalu is something new and looks yummmy!! would love to taste someday.

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  16. ooh, Lera, such high praise! you're in Bangalore, right? just come to the city all Bangaloreans love to hate, and I will be waiting for you with this dish on my table!

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  17. mangodi? is is the same as wadis?
    nice recipe though.

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  18. Yes, I think they are the same as wadis. Try it, it IS a nice recipe.

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  19. hey, wats up??? Long time no see???

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  20. Yes, have been busy with work and a wedding, hope to get back to blogging by the end of the week. Thanks for asking.

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  21. I remember eating mangodi at a friend's place. Your recipe brought lot of memories back. It looks delicious! Is it available at an Indian store?

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  22. Mandira, I would guess so, Asha mentioned that they are available.

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  23. hey 14 days and no post ? what's up ?

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  24. Hi Sra,

    I am so excited to see a recipe using these little dal bits. Awhile back I bought a package of "moong dal vadis" and no amount of searching online yielded any information. I learned they're called mangodis from a comment in my blog, and now here is your lovely recipe for me to finally cook them properly! It looks delicious, thanks so much :)

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  25. Just busy with a few things, Sandeepa, hope to be back by weekend or Monday.
    Linda, glad my blog had a solution to your vadis. Thanks for visiting

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  26. I always learn something new here!

    Yay! I can now subscribe to your blog! I'm excited!

    Best,
    Paz

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  27. Paz, thank you, both comment and subscription are great compliments.

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