4 October, 2018

CHICKPEAS/CHOLE SALAD+CURRY/DAL/KADALEKALU USLI – KATTINA HULI

Usli is a kind of sauteed salad made using different kinds of legumes, which are made very often in Southern parts of India. And normally we (people of south India) make saaru/rasam using the strained water in which the legume is cooked (legume stock as in vegetable stock) and make usli/salad using that cooked legume and call it as ‘kalina kattina saaru – Usli’ in Kannada and serve both with steaming rice. We can make this salad-rasam/Usli-saaru combination using chickpeas, horse gram, cow peas, green gram etc. You can refer Hurali kattina saaru & Usli recipe on my blog.

So few days before ie…. last week, I had soaked the chickpeas to make Chickpeas-cucumber Poha/Kadalekalu southekayi avalakki , but they wanted to have brunch but not breakfast, and I had soaked chickpeas lying there, So at that very moment it did strike my mind and I tried making kattina huli(huli..in which we use more quantity of toor dal compared to saaru/rasam and which will be way more thicker than saaru/rasam) along with cooked toor dal and masala, ground with lot of fresh coconut, instead of Kattina saaru. So that day this innovation of Kattina huli & Usli happened (I say innovation because I don’t think anybody do this I mean.. everyone normally makes rasam/saaru using this legume stock…at least I have not seen anybody doing this). We all liked it very much, So today again I tried it using chickpeas only and very gladly sharing the recipe of the same with you all. The huli should be very thick, so use water carefully.

Ingredients : (the quantity mentioned below is enough to serve for 4 to 5 people)

Toor dal/Pigeon peas/togaribele – 1 cup
Chickpeas – 1 cup
Water – 5 cups (approximately)
Thick tamarind juice – 2 tbsp (adjust)
Salt to taste (I always use rock salt)

For Masala ⇓ (huliPudi) :

Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp
Split bengal gram – 1&1/2 tbsp
Split black gram – 1 tbsp
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
Whole red chili – 8 byadigi (for color) + 4 gunturu (for hotness)
Curry leaves – 2 strings
Hing – 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Grated fresh coconut – 1&1/2 cup

For tempering :

Ghee – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 string
Hing – 1/8 tsp

For making Usli :

Oil – 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Green chili – 2 to 4 (adjust)
Curry leaves – 2 strings
Coriander leaves – 2 tbsp (you can also make the paste of all these 3 things ie… green chili, coriander leaves and curry leaves)
Grated fresh coconut – 1/2 cup

PROCEDURE :

Pressure cook both soaked chickpeas + 2&1/2 cup of water and toor dal/togaribele + 2 cups of water separately
Meanwhile gather all the ingredients listed under the heading ‘ for masala/hulipudi ‘ except coconut and dry roast them
Once the mixture is warm, grind into a semi coarse paste (almost fine) by adding coconut and required water

Once pressure is released, Put the cooked chickpeas into the strainer and collect the strained water (stock) in a container

Now put the cooked toor dal/togaribele, ground masala, thick tamarind juice and salt to the strained chickpeas water (stock), bring it to boil by adding remaining 1/2 cup of water if needed

Heat 1 tsp of ghee, add in 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing and put this tempering into the prepared huli and mix well and remove from the heat