Bean There, Will Keep Doin' Dat!

Neither the Spouse nor I consume tea or coffee. Not stocking them has landed me in many a sheepish moment. I try to keep packets of instant coffee but mysteriously, they disappear just when my guests arrive. I've even had the guests looking at me very expectantly in the morning, only to be told that the darn things seem to have gone AWOL, and would they please adjust. For some, I've got coffee and tea from the pavement squatting stall outside my house. Finally, last year my mother arrived with a coffee filter, powder and the works when my aunt and her family came here to visit - after that, the bright steel of it lights up the dark interiors of the shelf it's been stored in. I periodically take it apart, reassure myself I know how to make it work, and put it back in.

I have gotten better at this over time, but this time, history repeated itself again with most of the packs doing a disappearing act by the time Uncle and Cousins halted at my place en route to their home. On the way back home from an outing, Cousin Sr reminded me that we needed more coffee for the next day and we stopped at one of our old haunts, a convenience store at a petrol bunk, to buy some.

This story is not about coffee or tea.

At the store, I saw some notices about 'farm-fresh' vegetables being sold there and could feel a cynical expression making its way across my face but suck itself back in at the sight of some shiny green broad beans. It was past 10 p.m. but they were still holding up pretty well, I thought, when I inspected them at close quarters, and decided to buy two packets.

Yesterday, I took the trouble to plough through my many cookbooks for a recipe and came up with this. It was a winner, all I need to do to keep making this is to find broad beans, or something like them, again and again and again.



Here's how you make it:
Broad beans/hyacinth beans/chikkudukayalu: 250 gm, stringed and chopped
Sesame seed: 1 cup/100 gm

Salt: To taste
Turmeric: A pinch

Tempering
Dry red chilli: 5 (I used some red chilli flakes that I had.)
Mustard seed: 1/2 tsp
Skinned and hulled black gram/urad dal: 1 tsp
Gram/Channa dal: 2 tsp
Cumin seed: 1/4 tsp
Oil: 2-3 tbsp

Microwave (for 2-3 minutes) or parboil the beans with some salt and turmeric. Drain them of water.

Roast the sesame well, cool and powder.
*** I think cooling is important, to minimise the bitterness they can produce. I powdered them in one short burst at maximum speed for the same reason.

Heat the oil, add the mustard, red chilli and the rest of the ingredients under Tempering.

Add the beans, mix well, fry a couple of minutes, cover and cook till softer on low heat. You can add a little water if you're afraid of the pan getting scorched.

Now remove the lid, make sure there's no water left, add the sesame seed powder and mix well.

Goes great with curds.

Off this goes to MLLA-18, hosted by Srivalli this month for Susan.

Vegan Broad beans Sesame seed humour My Legume Love Affair