Chane usli – is one of the dishes that is served in temples during Ram Navami and other festivals. This is one of my all time favorite dishes to cook as well as eat. The temple version has a tinge of sweetness sometimes. Perfectly cooked black chick peas are spiced very lightly and garnished with coconut to get this very tasty dish.
There are many ways of making this dish. I think it varies from temple to temple. But I am posting here the simplest possible and tastiest version that I have tasted. Aayi makes this as a side dish for lunch/dinner, we don’t make it sweet though. This can also be eaten alone as a filling snack. This recipe was on the queue for a long time now, today when I saw a request for this recipe, I thought of posting it.
Ingredients: 1 cup black chick peas( chane ) 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds A pinch asafoetida 4-5 curry leaves 3-4 green chilies 1/4 tea spn sugar/jaggery(optional) 2-3 tbl spns fresh/frozen coconut A little oil Salt
Method: Soak black chane overnight and pressure cook them till they are soft. Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add curry leaves, green chilies, asafoetida. Now add cooked chane , salt, sugar/jaggery and cook for 5-6mins. Garnish with coconut, mix well and serve.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 30mins
Surti lilva or avrekaLu was unknown to me till I moved to Bangalore. There, I started hearing about avrekaLu everywhere. Once I found out what it was and how it looked, I checked them out in the vegetable market.
The whole beans( avrekayi ) look almost like green peas with shells on. The shells are harder than green peas.
I tried these beans a couple of times and didn’t like them very much. So I stopped buying them. I started wondering why all my friends from Bangalore loved them. Recently when I saw Ramya’s post , I thought of trying them again. I had seen this ‘surti lilva’ many times in frozen section of Indian store here, but didn’t know what they were. Thanks to Ramya who had mentioned this name in her post. I bought these and tried a couple of dishes, my husband loved it and started saying he wants these dishes often in our meals. I started liking them too after I tried a few dishes. This gravy turned out to be simply great.
Note: If you have not tried these beans, try more than once if you don’t like them the first time. I am sure you would love them. I suggest you all to try this gravy and you will definitely love it.
Ingredients: 3/4 cup avrekaLu 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut 1/2 cup chopped onion 4-5 red chilies 3/4 tea spn coriander seeds 1/2 tea spn urad daal 1/2 tea spn cumin seeds 1/2 tea spn poppy seeds 1/2 tea spn chana daal 1/2 tea spn sesame seeds 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds 4-5 curry leaves A pinch asafoetida 1/2 tea spn tamarind extract or 3-4 pieces of tamarind Oil Salt
Method: Cook avrekaLu in pressure cooker with little water. Heat oil and add chana daal , urad daal , cumin seeds, coriander seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, chilies and fry till a nice aroma comes out. Add onion and fry till they are translucent. Now add coconut and fry for 1-2mins. Grind it to a smooth paste with tamarind. Mix the paste with cooked avrekaLu , enough water to get gravy consistency and salt. Cook for 7-8mins. Heat little oil. Add mustard seeds. When they start popping add curry leaves and Asafoetida. Pour this seasoning over the gravy.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 25mins
