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Today I complete exactly 3 months of blogging….It`s pretty short I know , come to think of it, but to me it seems like I started aeons ago. It has been a pretty interesting journey of learning and experimenting and incidentally, my husband has really got settled down to the general idea that this is how its going to be, interesting meals and combinations cooked to perfection…and I let him be…He`s never going to guess, that there would never be re-runs…!!!

This weekend the weather was alarmingly nice to us, that we did not know how to celebrate. S was in a very nice mood and since we were all down with a bad cold, he suggested Bisi Bela Bath. What I do, is simply my mother`s version of ths kannadiga preparation. It`s so much close to the original only as it has rice and dal and tamarind water and veggies. I gently carve out the gazillion extra spices so the end result reminds of a very fragrant variety of sambar rice. It does not have the masalas loaded  with cinnamon, cloves or nutmeg.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup raw rice.

1 cup toor dhal.

4 1/2 cups of tamarind water extract.

1/2 cup of fresh dessicated coconut.

2 small or 1 big onion chopped. ( 1 cup of shallots or small onions preferred for enhanced taste)

4-5 drumstick pieces .

2 carrots sliced in to rounded coins.

1/2 cup of french cut beans or beans cut in to 1 inch slices.

Salt

Hing

Curry Leaves.

Mustard

Turmeric.

Ghee.

Fry in Oil:

3 spoons dhania.

1 1/2 spoons of urad dhal.

1/2 spoon venthayam

6-7 red chillies.

7-8 black pepper.

Small piece of cinnamon stick.

PREPARATION:

• Wash the rice and the dhal together and cook with 6-7 cups of water. The ratio is 2 cups to 7 cups of water. After putting the weight in the pressure cooker, wait for three whistles and then switch off. We would require the consistency to be mushy and hence no electric rice cooker please. Get this working as the rest of the ingredients will be finished by the time the rice is cooked.
• Grind the roasted ingredients to a powder and then add coconut and grind again with water to a very smooth paste.
• In a large kadai, add 3 spoons of ghee and allow to melt. Add mustard, curry leaves and then the shallots/chopped onions. Allow to brown a bit and then add drumsticks, carrots, beans etc and immediately the prepared tamarind water extract.
• Add salt, turmeric, hing and allow to boil well. The raw smell of the ingredients would be gone in about twenty minutes. This also enhances the flavour as  its slow cooked.
• Now add the ground paste and allow to boil for 4-5 minutes.
• Add the mushy rice+dal to this sambar gravy and mix well.
• Allow the riced to become homogenous and add more salt for the rice.
• Stir well and switch off when done.Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve steaming hot with a dollop of ghee , with a side of raita and veggie crisps or jalapeno chips!!!