Monday, March 2, 2009

Kaali tori Bendi

Kaali tori means Black Toor (Pigeon pea) not the dal but the whole. There are two varieties of pigeon pea the white and black. These cannot be used directly as we use the split pigeon pea or dal. These must be soaked well in advance(overnight) and then pressure cooked until soft. Takes about 3-4 whistles in my Prestige Cooker. The whole Toor tastes slightly different from split ones. We use the split dal for dosa or daalithoy and the whole ones are used in masala gravies. I normally avoid using coconut in my daily cooking but once in a while we do indulge.
Kaali tori bendi is signature dish of my mhaav (Elder aunt). She adds green jackfruit when in season and it is had with steaming hot boiled rice. It tastes equally good even with rice noodles or dosa.

Here is what's needed:
1 cup black Pigeon pea
a small piece of peeled and chopped Potato/ Elephant foot Yam (Suran)(Optional)
1/2 cup grated Coconut
5-6 fried Red chilli
a small marble sized Tamarind
Salt to taste

For seasoning
6-8 Garlic pods
Oil

Procedure:
1) Soak the Pigeon peas overnight and pressure cook along with potato or suran if using until done.
2) Grind grated coconut,red chillis, tamarind and salt with water to smooth paste.
3) Add the ground masala to the boiled peas and give it a rolling boil before switiching it off.
4) Prepare seasoning. Slightly crush the garlic. Heat oil and add the crushed garlic to it and fry until golden. Make sure that each of the garlic is crushed else it may start spluttering. Pour the seasoning over the gravy. Mix and keep covered. The gravy tastes better as time passes by. While serving re-heat and serve hot.
P.S: People who do not prefer garlic can substitute it in the seasoning with mustard seeds and curry leaf. When garlic seasoning is used it is called bendi/koddel and if mustard & curry leaf is used it is called ghashi.

29 comments:

Varsha Vipins said...

I havent ever heard of this dal..thought it was black chick pea curry..almost same method..:)..looks delish UJ..:)

Manju said...

well, like varsha said, even i first thought it was the black chick pea (which we call kadala in malayalam) next time im at the indian store im gonna look for this black pigeon pea...im sure i will love this with all the coconut in it. great recipe, dear :)

Ashwini said...

We make this with little different masala..Love the taste of this..

KonkaniBlogger said...

This is my absolute favorite. I love it with the garlic phann.

Cham said...

Coconut and tamarind, I imagine the taste, Yummy curry!

Suparna said...

Hi Ujwal,

I love bendi with kadgi and tori combi...yummm

Shama Nagarajan said...

i love black chickpeas...a healthy recipe...looks yummy

Dershana said...

I just saw these black beauties for the first time at a specialty Indian store out here. I've never seen them used in my native. That's an interesting recipe you've posted, sounds a little like our erisseri.

Sunshinemom said...

The first thing I saw was started singing - "Kaali teri choti hai paranda tera lalni.....mushkil"! Forgive my whacky mind:), but the tale here is another yum one:). I have had this - my husband made it once. Very tasty too:)

Divya Kudua said...

Tori bendi looks delicious Uj..I use black tori too,made kadgi tori ghashi few days back,will be posting it soon.

Deepthi Shankar said...

very very yummy .. a very new recipe for me

lubnakarim06 said...

Wow completely new to me..... Looks yum.

FH said...

I have a pack of dry whole Tuar too, haven't used it yet. Dish look mouthwatering girl, enjoy there.
We have snow which turned to ice today!:)

Anonymous said...

We call it KOHAR i guess,coz it do looks same and we make the boiled kohar with Rava halwa,as a prasad to be distributed during Sindhi Festivals
They surely taste yummm with some tamarind and chopped onions and i am so glad to land upon here,coz now i found one more exciting way to have these peas

notyet100 said...

this loos interestin,..

Finla said...

Me too have never had this dal first i thought it was black urid dal , should look for this dal as the curry looks so yummy .

saffronapron.blogspot.com said...

Hey,
Pretty simple recipe. But, I have to admit that i never use this dal.The only reason is that I don't know what to make out of it. Now, I have no excuse:)
Cheers!

Mahimaa's kitchen said...

interesting recipe!! will try. sounds delicious.

Namrata Kini said...

Wow...simple and tasty meal. I have tasted tori ghashi and i like tori but never tried my hand at it anytime. Its not a common legume in my house or may be its not easily available in Mumbai. Bendi looks perfect.

Unknown said...

Sounds delicious.. looks yummy..

Shivali said...

New for me but looks yummy.

Aparna Balasubramanian said...

This way of preparing dal is new to me. Like mentioned in earlier comments, looks like Kadala Curry from Kerala.

AnuSriram said...

Looks delicious! Nutritious!

Yasmeen said...

Looks flavorful with coconut and tangy tamarind,I was actually looking for bhendi(okra) in the picture,until I read you meant garlic seasoning :)

VG said...

Very informative post. Thanks for sharing.

Preety said...

this recipe looks very different..

Usha said...

Looks healthy, wholesome and delicious !

Gita Jaishankar said...

I bought this dal from an Indian store recently though I didnt know what to do with that...I was prepraring only a basic curry dish with that...this recipe sounds wonderful... they look great too..thanks for sharing this wonderful dish.

Uj said...

Thank you all :)

Varsha,
Looks like many people have confused this for chick pea.. I never tried cooking chick pea this way. Will try next time.

Superchef,
Do try this. It tastes yummy :)

Maya,
I love bendi more than ghashi because of the aroma of the losunu phann.

Harini,
ha ha ha..My hubby too sang the same song! It never struck to me. Lucky you.. Hubby made this :)

Divya,
Kadgi and tori divine combination!