Wednesday, December 23, 2009

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.

23 comments:

  1. thatz a real nice recipe, I love the flavor of sesame seeds. We all love coffee & tea at home, so thankfully italways well stocked

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  2. Sra,
    this is very nice , we make a similar thing with Poppy seed paste(posto Sheem in Bengali)...
    have you asked your maid about the missing instant coffee packets ...or is it you already know the mystery person ;)...
    and the title of the post well :D...
    hugs and smiles

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  3. Hi Deesha, my family drinks both, not sure how I didn't get used to it. So much so that now when I ask for a cuppa to cure a headache, everyone falls of their chairs. :-)
    Jaya, I've made the posto versions of various other veggies myself. And no, it's not her, it's me, I find them wedged somewhere in the shelf or in a totally new place altogether days or months later!

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  4. Hey Sra,,

    How are you? Hope everything is going well with you. naaku chikkudukaayalu ante bhale istam.. nenu appudappudu palli podi vadatanu kaani nuvvula podi yeppudu vadaledu.. I try for your. mee 'kappi/tea' story bagundi.. nenu kaapi taganu kaani.. I love tea!!

    Happy Holidays,
    Siri

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  5. If I ever come to your home, i will carry my own tea, thanks for the message :-D I have this obsession with my kind of tea and I often carry a ziploc bag of red label when visiting friends who don't have tea

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  6. Love your title as always:). This posto curry is new to me. All set to try out.

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  7. I know the feeling exactly. Don't drink both. I always have coffee powder on hand, or the leftovers that mom left after her visit but it is tea that I don't seem to have, the right kind to make chai. DH drinks black tea so he has those fancy one which don't make a good chai and the explanations I give would make me blush.

    Broad beans are big favorite and those look very tasty. I don't cook with sesame much.

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  8. Srav,

    My grand ma used to make this, but with goru chikkudu. I love this with roti..

    Ayithe, ninnu visit chese mundu coffee/tea venta techukonte melanukonta :)

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  9. SRA
    Happy Holidays & Happy New year to you and your loved ones.

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  10. "This story is not about coffee or tea." - laughed like Hell, Sra! And the way you treat these beverages, you'd think they were contraband. ; D Never underestimate the very real pain of morning caffeine withdrawal.

    I'm reading this first thing, over my coffee. Very entertaining post. And your broad bean recipe sounds easy and marvelous. A whole cup roasted sesame seeds! Big yum!

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  11. Wow.. that's a lot of ellu... am not a big fan of it though. I like the spice mix that's going on the avarakai.

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  12. I would be a grumpy guest in your house Sra. I can not start my mornings without a hot cuppa ginger chai. And I am not shy about making it my way wherever I go. I go into my friend's kitchens and make it the way I like.
    Love the broad beans recipe. I'll eat any vegetable that is smothered with sesame. :)
    Re your comment on my post, I would love to try your Tom Yum Soup recipe. Haven't had that soup in ages and I literally mean ages!

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  13. this looks delicious,..merry christmas

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  14. Siri, nenu kooda eppudaina taagatame, naaku kooda chikkudu chala ishtam, kani ikka ginja unnavi dorakavu. Happy Hols!
    Bong Mom, actually, I've had two packets of orange pekoe gifted to me, would you be willing to shift from your obsession?
    Sunshinemom, glad you feel that way, thanks.
    Indo, ah, a fellow teetotaller!
    Padmaja, nuvvu naa Padmajayena? Blogs lo friend ayina Padmaja inkokaru unnaru, kani chala rojuluga touch ledu. Mail rayakunda comment rasava? Anyway, I will write to you. :-)
    Soma, thanks a lot!
    Susan, Glad I gave you some laughs along with the coffee. I've been having a small cup of either, mostly coffee, at the canteen because those are the only hot beverages available there and find myself looking forward to the break from work and their heat in the evening, not the caffeine. I don't miss them in any other situation.
    Laavanya, yes, it's a lot - but i really liked it.
    Jaya, Oh, you're welcome to make your own tea and coffee, I don't know how to anyway!
    Notyet100, thanks, wish you the same.

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  15. OMG - no tea or coffee , u guys have a bad habit :(
    The recipe is very different with sesame seeds!

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  16. Dear Sra,

    What I like best about this post is, it has coffee and sesame seeds! I might not have a cup of those lying around, but you'd be hard put to go without coffee in my house -- especially since my daughter is growing up to be a coffeemaniac like mom :)

    That is such an intriguing recipe with a whole cup of sesame -- yum!

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  17. Interesting recipe. You have good varied recipes. Following you.

    Chitchat
    http://chitchatcrossroads.blogspot.com/

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  18. HAHA -- Definitely bean there and done that too!! only in my case, it's the besan packets that go missing .. and then imagine the horror of it, my husband goes looking and finds four tucked in a corner (obviously, when I looked in the SAME corner ... nothing! Jeez!

    Love this recipe with beans, and the fact that it can be changed out to suit the bean .. very nice SRA!

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  19. Broad beans are familiar as a stir fry till date. I believe sesame seeds can lift up all such curries to a new plane of taste! And Sra for me coffee is my morning energy booster and we make sure we are well stocked up all time!

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  20. you know i am amazed at how you manage to come up with bean recipes. beans leave me muddled. beans dont do any work but expect you to do all the work for em. hmpf.

    also have a fantastic new year!

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  21. For a minute I thought it is a beans parupusili...Didnt read about the sesame seed podi..directly went to the picture :)

    We drink both C and T by the pot..Keep thinking we should cut it down but everyday it is the same story..

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  22. Cham, yes, so I've been told. :-)
    Linda, at the moment I have some coffee and quite a bit of tea :-)
    Ms.Chitchat, thanks.
    Sheetal, doesn't that happen always? Bah!
    Ni, you're right about the sesame seeds.
    Cynic, Shall I shock you further, I actually feel a sense of achievement stringing beans neatly!
    Ruchikacooks, I know how addictive it can be. I like the p u too, but can never get the smooth, powdery finish.

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