Keerai Kulambu (Spinach and Pigeon-pea mash??)

For 3 full servings.

Ingredients:

• 1 standard packet of 16 oz frozen chopped spinach leaves
• 2 cups (245 ml) of toor dal (Pigeon-pea)
• Salt
• Oil (any damn oil. I use olive oil since I consider it to be healthier)
• 1 Large Onion (Red better but anything will work)
• 1/2 tbl spoon Mustard seeds (kadugu)
• 3 tbls spoons Sambar powder (Sambar podi - South india spice mix)
• Couple of Red dried chillies (Green chillies are okay too) as needed. I use 4-5.
• 1/2 tbl spoon cumin seeds (Jeera)
• Pinch of turmeric powder (optional)
• 1/2 tbl spoon broken white Urad dal (Ulutam paruppu) (optional)
• Frozen drum sticks (this is absolutely optional) - this is a vegetable popular in India :-)

Directions:

• 2 cups toor dals and twice as much water in a vessel.
• Add a pinch of turmeric to the dal and mix it.
• Pour some water into a presser cooker and put the vessel inside, close and put on high flame.
• Turn off the stove after 5 whistles but let the cook stay on the stove.

While the toor dal is cooking:

• Cook some white rice (Check for a post on cooking white rice :)
• Chop the 1 large onion into fine pieces. Say, about as big as the nail in your little finger.

When toor dal is done:

• Take toor dal vessel out and rinse the pressure cooker.
• You might want to mash the toor dal if they float around as separate pieces. It should be somewhere between a paste rather and individual pieces.
• Put cooker back in stove and heat in medium-high till water evaporates.
• Put 2 tbl spoons of oil in the cooker and heat.
• When oil is hot, add Mustard seeds, Cumin, Urad dal and "fry" till most mustard seeds pop. Be careful not to burn them. Can happen quite easily.
• Add chopped onions and chillies and fry till they are golden brown. Onions shouldn't wither too much.
• Add a little salt and sambar powder to this and mix for 15-30 seconds.
• Add the toor dal with the water in which it was cooked.
• Add the defrosted spinach leaves and drum sticks (drum sticks optional).
• Bring this to a boil while mixing regularly to prevent the toor dal from settling in the bottom and becoming burnt.
• While boiling, add more Sambar powder and salt to bring it to the right taste.
• Stop heating when the spinach leaves are well cooked. Drum sticks will take longer to cook. So keep that in mind if you add drum sticks.

Tada... Keerai Kulambu ready. Mix this Keerai Kulambu with the white rice and enjoy with a side dish of your preference.

Side dish suggestions:

• Microwaved appalam (pappad)
• Chips
• Some healthy vegetable that you cooked.

-Sarav

The purpose

The primary purpose of this blog is to keep track of the simple recipes I get hold of from friends and relatives. Most of the recipes I gather are meant to be as less painful as possible for a reluctant and unwilling cook like me.

I will also try to use as less ingredients as possible while still trying to keep the food quite palatable (I'm picky with food, so the end result should be quite good).

The secondary purpose of this blog is to help out other guys/gals like me for whom cooking is a chore and not a fun activity.

I will mark as optional those items that I don't think are essential. I will also try to list items in decreasing order of importance to make it easier to check if you have them in stock.

Hoping this helps someone else.

-Sarav