Kollu paruppu kadayal | Horse gram curry
Kollu paruppu kadayal / Horse gram curry is a flavorful curry made with freshly roasted and ground spices and boiled horse gram.
Equipment
- 1 Pressure Cooker
- 1 Pan
- 1 Blender or wooden mathu
Ingredients
For cooking kollu paruppu/horsegram
- ⅓ cup horse gram cleaned, washed & soaked
- 1 to mato chopped
- 10 to 15 shallots or 1 small onion
- 4 to 5 garlic cloves
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- ¼ tsp asafoetida
- Salt to taste
For dry roasting
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- ½ tsp black peppercorns
- ½ tsp urad dal
- ½ tsp chana dal
- 2 dried red chillies
For tempering
- 1 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- 1 dried red chili optional
Instructions
Cooking kollu paruppu / horse gram
- Check for small stones and wash the horse gram / kollu paruppu thoroughly. Soak for a minimum of 20 minutes. If time permits, soak for 1 hour.
- In a pressure cooker, take the soaked horse gram, tomatoes, shallots, garlic cloves, turmeric powder, asafoetida and salt.
- Close and pressure cook on high flame for 5 whistles and simmer for 5 minutes. Let the pressure release naturally.
- Open the pressure cooker and check for doneness.
- Take the excess water into a separate bowl. Do not discard this water. It can be used to make kollu rasam or even might be needed while blending at the last step.
- Take the cooked horse gram and set it aside. Now let's dry roast the needed spices.
Dry roasting the spices
- Heat a pan on medium flame. Once the pan is hot,lower the flame. Add coriander seeds, peppercorns and cumin seeds. Dry roast them on low flame till aromatic.
- Now add urad dal and chana dal. Roast the dals on low flame till they are slightly browned.
- Lastly add red chillies and switch off the stove. The red chillies will puff up slightly in the remnant heat. Let the spices cool down.
Making kollu paruppu kadayal / horse gram curry
- In a mixer jar add the roasted spices.
- Blend the spices coarsely.
- To the same jar add the cooked horse gram and pulse for a few minutes.
- The horse gram should be coarsely blended. You should not blend it to a smooth paste. Just one or two pulses are sufficient.
- If you can, use a traditional wooden ladle called mathu to mash the horse gram.
Tempering
- Tempering this dish is totally optional.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds crackle add curry leaves. You can add one or two red chillies at this stage. Switch off the stove.
- Pour over the mashed horse gram or add the mashed horse gram into the pan and mix well.
- Serve with piping hot rice topped with ghee or gingelly oil.
Notes
- Always buy fresh produce of horse gram and check for stones and mud particles.
- Soaking greatly reduces the cooking time. So try to soak the horse gram before cooking whenever possible.
- Tempering is optional.
- Horse gram curry / kollu paruppu kadayal doesn't store well. Have it within 4 hours of cooking or refrigerate immediately for 1 day maximum.