Senagapappu vada / Chana daal vada

Usually the vada process is bit lengthy, but this chanadaal vada is bit quick as we just need to soak the daal for just 1 hour and the texture is not sticky when compared to urad daal, so it is easy to blend it. The flavour is irresistible.

Ingredients:

Chana daal - 1 cup

Salt

Ginger & Green Chilli paste - 1 tbsp

Onion - 1 chopped into small pieces

Chopped Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp

Method:

Soak the chana dal for not more than 80 minutes. Drain and blend coarsely.

Transfer the mixture into a bowl, add the green chillies, ginger, onion, coriander and salt and mix well.

Divide the mixture into equal portions and shape each portion into 1/2" thick small round flat balls.

Heat the oil in a kadhai and deep fry them till crisp and golden colour.

Serve hot with chutney

Voliga / Puran Poli / Sweet stuffed roti

This is a special sweet prepared during festivals or special occasions like weddings or house warming ceremonials. This is a little bit time consuming sweet, so if at all I have to prepare this I will make sure I have enough members to eat them. For best taste, use ghee instead of oil.

Ingredients:
Channa daal / Senaga pappu – 1 cup
Jaggery – 1 cup
Grated dry coconut – 2 tbsp
Khas Khas / Gasaalu – 2 tbsp


For dough:
Wheat flour – 1 cup
Fine Sooji – 1 cup
Salt – ¼ tsp
Water – 1 cup (roughly)
Oil – 1/4 cup

Mix the flour with sooji and make into dough by slowly adding water. The dough should be very soft with sticky consistency. At the end add oil and kneed it thoroughly. Cover the dough and keep it aside for 30 minutes.

Wash and soak the channa daal for 30 minutes in 2 ½ cups of water. Boil the channa daal until they are tender. You can check this by pressing the daal in between thumb and index finger. 

Boiled Chana daal

Note: Do not over cook the daal. If it has happened don’t panic, we can still use this in making a wonderful tangy rasam.

Drain the boiled channa daal and preserve the valuable water to make rasam. If necessary spread the cooked daal on a cotton cloth or kitchen towel and make it completely dry. 

Now grate or pound the jaggery and add the powder to channa daal and cook for few minutes until the jaggery melts and all the moisture evaporates.

Allow it to cool and grind it into smooth solid paste (of course without adding any water). Grind the cardamoms into fine powder and mix with the daal dough.

Now pinch some dough and roll it into flat chapathi, place the daal dough in the centre and bring the corners together to cover the daal dough.

Roll the ball into khus khus and coconut mixture.

Now place the dough on a parchment paper or any plastic sheet and dip your fingers in ghee and press it gently like a flat chapathi using your finger tips. If not, you can roll it with rolling pin.

Transfer this into hot pan, drizzle some ghee and fry like chapathi on both the sides.

This will taste even more on the following day.

Dhokla

Dhokla or Dhokra is a vegetarian food item that originates from Gujarat state in India. It is made with a fermented batter made up of with chana daal and rice. Dhokla can be eaten as a breakfast or as a side dish or even as a snack.

This is pretty much similar to the south Indian tiffin variety Idly. To make dhokla Rice and chanadaal are used, in the ratio 2:1 and soaked for 5-6 hours. The mixture is ground and this paste is fermented over night. The fermented batter is then steamed for about 15 minutes on a flat dish and cut into pieces. These chopped pieces are seasoned with mustard seeds, corinader leaves and fresh coconut. For the typical Gujarati style, an equal amount of water and a little sugar is added to the seasoning. As I want it spicy, I have avoided adding sugar.

Dhokla with Mint chutney

Ingredients:

Chana daal / Bengal gram - 1 cup

Rice - 2 cups

Turmeric - pinch

Salt

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

For seasoning -

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Urad daal / Black gram - 1 tsp

Chopped corainder - 1 tbsp

Grated fresh coconut - 1tbsp

Method:

Wash and soak the chana daal and rice for about 5-6 hours. Grind them into a smooth paste in a blender. Consistency should be like beaten yoghurt or like idly batter. Ferment it for about 6-8 hours or over night.

To the fermented batter add salt, baking soda and turmeric. Mix it thoroughly. In the mean time, boil the water in a idly / dokla steamer.

If you dont have one then, take a wide bottomed pan and add water till about 1 inch depth. Now place a metal stand or any wide bowl.

Now greese a cake tin or pressure cooker tin and pour the batter into the tin.

Slowly place the tin into the wide bottomed vessel on top of the metal stand or plate and cover it with lid.

Steam the batter for 15 minutes on medium high flame.

Steamed dhokla

Turn off the heat and prepare the seasoning. Heat a small pan with 1 tbsp of oil. Add mustard and urad daal to it. When the urad daal changes the colour, add 1 tbsp of water to it and immediately pour over the steamed dhokla.

Now cut them into small pieces and garnish with coriander and grated coconut.

Serve it with any chutney of your choice. Mint chutney is the best option. 

Kandhi Podi / Spicy daal powder

There are many versions of the spicy powders in South Indian Cuisine. One among them is this protein rich spicy daal powder. 

Ingredients:

1 small cup red gram/toor dal
1 small cup bengal gram/channa dal
1 tsp cumin seeds
7-8 dried red chillis (adjust)
Curry leaves 1 string
1/2 tsp asafoetida (Optional)
Salt to taste
1 tsp oil

Bengal gram / Chana daal, Red gram / Toor daal, Curry leaves, Cumin, Red chili

Method:

Heat a heavy bottomed shallow pan and add both the daals and slowly, dry roast on low to medium heat stirring constantly till they turn red. Don’t burn them. Remove from pan and keep aside.

In the same vessel, add the cumin seeds and toss them on medium heat for 2-3 min. Remove from pan and keep aside.

Next drizzle some oil in the vessel, add the dry red chilies and curry leaves and stir fry for 3-4 min. Remove and cool.

Allow all the ingredients to cool down and grind them all to a slightly coarse or a rough texture by adding salt  and asafoetida.. Store in an air-tight container.

Served with hot steamed rice and a dollop of ghee.

Kaaram senagapappu / Spicy chana daal

A simple snack, that can be eaten as it is or can be mixed with other savoury items. Very few ingredients required.

Kaaram Senagapappu

Ingredients:
Chana daal / Senagapappu – 2 cups
Chili powder – 1 tsp
Salt as per the taste
Oil – to fry the chana daal

Method:
Soak the chana daal for about 2-3 hours
Drain the water and spread them on kitchen towel or any thing which absorbs the moisture. I followed my mom’s method., dad’s lungi….

Chana daal drained on lungi

Wait until they become moisture free and fry them in 3-4 batches.

If you are doing them in large quantities, best / easy way to fry them is, place them in a stainless steel colander and place the colander into the oil pan.
Drain them into kitchen towels and allow them to cool down to room temperature and then sprinkle the salt and chili powder mixture.

NB: If you add salt when it is hot, salt will melt and making the chana daal soggy.

Senagapappu paayasam

 Senagapappu / Chana daal payasam

This is the delicious dessert prepared during festivals.  The main ingredents are chana daal and jaggery. Few people, they add the sago to the half cooked chana daal and cook both together. But some times, the sago might get overcooked or the chana daal is undercooked. So to avoid both, I cook them separately. Not only that I can give just the boiled sago along with sugar to my little ones to eat or to catch the transparent sago balls and have fun.

Ingredients:
Chana daal – 1 cup
Sago – 1 cup
Jaggery – 1 cup (NO substitute)
Cashew nuts
Raisins (optional)
Ghee - 2 tbsp

Jaggery, Chana daal / Senagapappu, Sago seeds

Method:

Wash and soak the chana daal for 30 minutes and pressure cook until 1 whistle or cook normally until it is just done and should be able to press in between the fingers.

Soak the sago for 5 minutes in 3 cups of water and cook them separately until they become transparent.

Now add the boiled sago to the chana daal and add grounded cardamom powder, gratted jaggery. Whilst the jaggery is melting down, heat a small sauce pan with 4 – 5 tbsp of ghee / neyyi and fry the cashews and raisins separately and add them along with the left over ghee to the chana daal mixture.

Stir every thing and serve warm or cold. Any sweets made up of jaggery will taste better when they are cool or at last at room temperature.

Note: Instead of frying the cashews and raisins in ghee, you can just add them directly to the boiled chana daal along with sago. They get soaked well and semi cooked.