Leela's Kitchen

Ingredients

1 cup Horse gram

½ cup scrapped coconut

½ tsp Chilly powder

1 pinch cumin seed (jeera)

1 or 2 garlic pods

2 spoons of Tamarind pulp extract

2 spoons coconut oil

Curry leaves

Salt to taste

Cooking Method

1. Wash the horse gram thoroughly and cook it preferably in a black earthen pot. Do not use a pressure cooker. Cook the horse gram till it becomes soft.
2. Grind the scrapped coconut, chilly powder, cumin seeds and garlic with water in a blender, to make a smooth paste. Add 2 to 3 spoons of cooked horse gram and grind well. Then add a bunch of curry leaves and grind again.
3. Add this paste to the remaining cooked horse gram and add 2 spoons of tamarind pulp extract to dilute it. Heat it and switch off the gas before it boils.
4. Add 2 spoons of coconut oil and top it with curry leaves. Serve hot with rice, a good alternative to the everyday sambhar.

Postscript: The cooked horse gram was also one of our favourite evening snacks. Our mother used to dash the cooked horse gram with a lavish helping of scrapped coconut and jaggery.

Tip: Refrigeration was alien in our childhood days. So our mother used to keep the cooked horse gram in a black earthen pot with some tamarind to keep it fresh the next day too. Recipes for lunch.