Kerala Style Parippu curry / Kerala Style Dal

This is the first recipe that I learned to make and as you can guess it is one of my favorite dishes as well. I love the combination of parippu, Cabbage thoran, pappadam and ghee. As a kid, during sadyas, I used to eat only the above combo and finally have all the payasams :) Even now when I go home for vacation, my mom makes parippu and cabbage thoran for me most of the days :) So let me explain with the help of some pictures how to make delicious parippu curry or Dal. 

Ingredients:

Moong Dal - 1 cup
Garlic - 2 cloves
Shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
1 green chilly
2 shallots
1 teaspoon Cumin Seeds ( Jeera)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/4 teaspoon chilly powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
3 - 4 curry leaves
2 dry red chillies
Salt
1 teaspoon Oil

Prepping:  

Time for prepping - 10 - 15 minutes

Step 1: Wash Moong dal well.
Step 2:  Roast moong dal in a non stick pan for around 3 - 4 minutes. There will be a nice aroma of moong dal coming. Switch heat off then. You should stop before moong dal changes colour to black.
Step 3: Pressure cook Moong Dal with salt and water for 3 whistles. Open the pressure cooker once the steam has gone off and mash dal well with the help of ladle. Keep it aside. You can also add crushed garlic to the dal during pressure cooking if you like more garlic taste. Garlic simply gives an awesome flavor to the dal. Otherwise use garlic during grinding in step 5 of prepping. 
Step 4:  Cut shallots, garlic and green chilly into small slices.
Step 5: Grind ( grated coconut, shallots, green chilly, garlic, cumin seeds, turmeric, chilly powder, a bit salt and little water ) to a smooth paste using blender or mixie.

Method of preparing: (10 min)

Step 1:
Place the pressure cooker with mashed dal on stove top and switch heat on. 
Step 2: 
 Add the grinded coconut mixture to the mashed dal and let it boil. Add salt to the dal if needed after tasting. 
Step 3: Tempering
In another non stick pan, heat oil. When the oil becomes hot, add mustard seeds. Once it crackles, add curry leaves and dry red chillies and switch off.
Step 4 : 
Pour the tempering over the dal and switch off. Serve hot. Try the combo of rice, dal, cabbage thoran and ghee. Its yummy :)

I am sending this recipe to the event "Dish it out - Lentils and Garlic" and Vardhini's page. The event announcement can be found here and the dish it out event details can be found here. 

 





Sending the recipe to the event "Mission Explore: Lentils", a brain child of Sheelu and Pallavi. For June, the event is hosted by my favorite blogger Rafeeda of the blog "The big Sweet tooth".