I actually didn’t know what to name this dish. Umma makes a thick parippu (lentil) side dish to go with Neychor, Koonthal Chor or Thenga Chor all the time. If it is one of these three for lunch on Fridays, then by default, this parippu has to be on the table. It is so ingrained into our minds, that if I go with these for lunch and this parippu is not there, then I get all sorts of questions regarding its absence from B and the girls. I haven’t seen this being prepared in HD’s side but in our side of Tirur, this dish is very common.
I had already included it in the Koonthal chor post, but I wanted to give it a separate post, since it is eaten not only with it. I just named it “vevichathu”, which means “cooked” or “boiled”, but if any of my readers know a name for it, please do let me know. 🙂 This is the same case with the bottle gourd dish that umma makes, I wonder why she never asked for names when she learned to make them. 😀 I guess we are a more inquisitive generation who wants to know from whom, what, where a dish generated and all history related to it. Hehe…
OK, coming back to this dish, basically we serve it as side with a special rice and non-veg gravy, along with a couple of fried pappadams. I have seen many of them make a thinner daal gravy with neychoru and serve a beef or a chicken roast with it, but our side, we never do that. It always makes me wonder how just kilometers can make food habits different across areas. 🙂 The lentil is basically cooked till mushy, and then mixed with a coconut paste, and slightly simmered. Finally, it is tempered and served hot as side. It is a really easy dish to make which doesn’t need much effort but tastes so good. In my house, no quantity is big enough of this when cooked. Off to the recipe…
Parippu Vevichathu ~ Malabar Lentil Fry
Ingredients
- 1 cup masoor dal
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 green chillies slit
- 1 1/2 cup water
- Salt to taste
- FOR GRINDING:
- 1/2 cup grated coconut
- 4 shallots peeled
- 4 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 green chillies
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- FOR TEMPERING:
- 1 tbsp coconut oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 4-6 dried red chillies
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
Instructions
- Pressure cook the lentils with turmeric, chillies, water and salt till nicely mashed - around 5-6 whistles. Allow to the pressure to go off completely.
- Grind the ingredients under "for grinding" till coarse and without any bites.
- Open the pressure cooker lid and add the ground mixture. Give it a good mix.
- Keep on low flame on simmer for five minutes, with a closed lid. Switch off.
- Heat oil in a small pan. Splutter the mustard seeds. Briefly fry the red chillies and curry leaves and pour into the prepared lentils.
- Serve hot as side for ghee rice and chicken/beef curry.
Is masoor dal like green split peas? Looks healthy and very tasty!
Masoor dal is the orange lentils… Thanks a lot Angie…
Simple version of lentil…We also prepare something similar to this and give a tadka using mustard oil and dry red chilli…
That is interesting to know! Thank you so much Amrita…
A new dish to try, it looks so yum..
Thanks a lot Nora…
yummy dal
Thanks Akka…
Something tells me I must have had this… but don’t know the name… your title is actually apt! 😛 You are right, our side neychor is with dal curry and chilli chicken or beef curry and pappadams 🙂
Even I have no clue what it is called… 😀 Thank you so much Fami…