Back with Bisibele Bhath!

Hi all,

Sorry for such long absence. I must admit I've been having a sneek peep at most of the blogs every now and then :) Now on, I shall try and be as regular as possible in updating my recipes and also visiting your blogs. Happy Ramanavami and God bless!

Today's recipe is a treasured one. I've been preparing bisibele bhath with MTR ready mix for the past 3 years. My land lady Mrs. M is an excellent cook. She had invited S and me for lunch one day, the menu was a great spread with a traditional vermicelli payasam for dessert. The show stealer in the menu was Bisibele bhath for me without doubt. I took down the recipe for the powder and made it at home. Undoubtedly, it was awesome. Since then it's been one of my favourite recipes. Read on....

Ingredients:

For the powder:

Oil- 2 tsp

Red chillies (byadgi)- 5-6

Chana dal- 3 tsp

Udad dal- 1tsp

Coriander seeds- 1/2 tsp

Cloves- 2

Cinnamon-1" piece

Green cardamom- 1-2

Methi seeds- 4-5 seeds

Maratha Moggu- 1

Dagda phool- little

Copra (grated)- 1/4 cup

Khus khus (poppy seeds)- 1 tsp

Curry leaves- 1 sprig

Method:

In a Kadhai / Tawa heat the oil and dry fry each ingredients on a medium flame, till it gives out aroma. Cool it and powder it. Store it in an air tight container.

To prepare Bisibele Bhath:

Ingredients:

Rice- 2 cups

Toor dal- 1 cup or (Toordal 1 cup and rice 1/2 cup)

Mixed vegetables- beans, potato, peas, cauliflower, carrot, onion ( cut the veggies into bite size pieces, onion quartered)

Bisibele bhath powder- 2-3 tbsp ( according to your taste)

Coconut grated-1/2 cup (optional)

Tamarind paste- 1-2 tbsp

Jaggery crushed- 1 tbsp

Ghee- 1-2 tbsp

Salt- as per taste

Tempering:

Ghee/oil- 2 tsp

Mustard seeds- 1 tsp

Urad dal- 1 tsp

Chana dal- 1 tsp

Red chillie- 1-2, broken into halves

Note: You can temper it with fried cashews in ghee, after the above mentioned basic tempering

Method:

Cook the dal and rice with enough water and 1/4th tsp turmeric powder. Once cooked mix it well with a ladel so that both dal and rice combine well.

Cook the vegetables seperately.

Take a kadhai/wok place it on medium flame and put tamarind paste and boil for about a minute.

Add cooked vegetables, dal and rice mix, bisibelebhath powder, salt, jaggery. Add some water if necessary.Mix the contents well.

Boil for 5 minutes

Tempering:

In a Tempering utensil, heat oil/ghee and add chana dal, udad dal fry till it browns a bit.

Throw in the red chillies, mustard seeds and curry leaves let it splutter for a couple of seconds.

Pour the tempering ingredients over the simmering bisibele bhath. Mix well.

Sprinkle the grated coconut over the bisibele bhath and it's ready to serve.

Best accompaniment : salted/ spiced potato chips (waffers) or onion raita.