Until 2 weeks ago, I didn’t know about this delicious Konkani dish. Daali betti is somewhere between a vegetable pulav and vegetable pongal . This is dry compared to bisi bele bhath . This has toor daal unlike any pulav and is dry in texture compared to pongal .
This dish was never prepared at my home, so when I got a request for this recipe, I didn’t know what it is. I asked my mom to go though the request and she said she has heard about this dish. One of my aunt prepares it at home. So when I asked her to get this recipe for me, my dad got it immediately. (Thanks TaraVaini for this).
From the list of the ingredients, I felt this dish would be out of the world. I made it for dinner and it turned out delicious. It gets a distinct flavor from ground cumin and ginger. Since this dish is dry, it is served with asafoetida tambli (add water to asafoetida chitney to get a tambli consistency) or ginger tambli (add water to ginger chutney to get a tambli consistency).
Ingredients: 1/2 cup toor daal 1 cup rice 2 tea spn cumin seeds 1 tea spn finely chopped ginger 4-5 green chilies 4-5 curry leaves 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 2 cups chopped vegetables (eggplant, ridge gourd/ gosale , gherkin/ tendli , potato) A pinch turmeric Oil Salt
I added green beans, gherkin and potatoes when I prepared this.
Method: Grind coconut with cumin seeds, green chilies and salt to a paste. Heat oil and add mustard. When they start popping, add curry leaves, ginger, vegetables, daal , rice and turmeric. Mix well. Add the paste, around 4 cups water(just enough water to cook daal and rice). Cook directly on stove top or in pressure cooker till done. Serve hot with asafoetida tambli or ginger tambli (see above for description).
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 30mins(in cooker)
I used carrot only in sambars or in kosambaris until recently. So I never tried to make any sidedishes with this beautiful and tasty vegetable, I thought it tastes awesome raw, so why to take all the trouble to cook it. I always have a big batch of carrot even though most of the time I don’t really know what to do with it. This problem was solved 2 years back.
We shared an apartment with one of colleagues of my husband and his family when we were in Sydney. They are from Andhra. His wife Lakshmi made this carrot sidedish and their cutie pie daughter loved it. It is sweetish from the carrot. Chilies are added to spice up this dish. I don’t remember her recipe, but this is what I did.
I cooked it after a very long time. It tasted great. I am sure most of you know this already, but those who don’t know can try this. I also make this with some daals , which I will post some other time.
Ingredients: 1 cup finely chopped carrot 1/2 cup finely chopped onion 3-4 green chilies 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn urad daal A pinch asafoetida A pinch turmeric 4-5 leaves curry leaves 1 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut Oil Salt
For fast cooking, the carrots can be pressure cooked and then added to onion mixture. But I prefer cooking them on stove tope, because it makes the carrot more tasty.
Method: Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add urad daal . Add curry leaves, chopped chilies, asafoetida and turmeric. Now add onions and fry till they turn translucent(do not brown them). Add the chopped carrot, around one cup water and cook till the carrot pieces are soft. Add salt, coconut and mix well. Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 2 Preparation time : 15mins
