Tomato Dhal (Tomato Pappu)

A typical meal in a Telugu home would contain a pickle made with freshly ground vegetables, a sauteed vegetable curry (Eguru), a dhal or a vegetable gravy curry and curd. In Andhra one will find that a large variety of vegetables are used for daily consumption, like the ridge graoud, snake gourd, bottle gourd, bitter gourd to name a few. Not many other regional cuisine serves these. One may not find these curries being served in restaurants as well. But they are favourites at home.

My entire education happened in a boarding school away from home, I spent 12 years of my school life in a hostel and moved on to study in college again where I stayed on campus and finally did my masters in the United Kingdom.. so probably very few people know the loveliness of home cooked food than I. Whenever I go back home the first things that I used to ask my mom to prepare for a meal were Tomato Dhal and Ridge Gourd Curry (రామ్ములకాయ పప్పు & బీరకాయ కూర).

Here are the recipes, these are again two of the most simple dishes to prepare. They are tasty and healthy (believe me, I studied to be a chef, my graduate level education is a Diploma in Hotel Management and Catering Technology).

Tomato Dhal:
Tomatoes (country variety, choose red and ripe ones) - 1/2 Kg (5 to 6 medium sized)
Split Pigeon Peas (Lentils/Toor Dal/ Kandi Pappu) - 250 gm
Green Chillies - 4 or 5
Tamarind - 5 to 10 gm
Curry Leaves - a few
Turmeric - 1/2 tea spoon
Garlic Pods - 5
Dried red Chillies - 2
Mustrad Seeds - 1/2 tea spoon
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tea spoon
Asafoetida (Hing/Ingava) - a pinch
Oil - 3 table spoons
salt - to taste

Method:
- Wash the lentils thoroughly and soak them in fresh water
- Chop the tomatoes; wash them, remove the eyes of the tomatoes and make 8 pieces each
- Wash the green chillies; slit them in the center length wise and cut into two; you will get 4 slit pieces of chillies
- Drain the lentils and put them in a pressure pan; add the tomatoes, green chillies, Tamarind, Turmeric powder; pour enough water (2 glasses; or enough to drown all the lentils, not the vegetables). Close the lid of the pressure pan and put it on medium flame. Place the weight on pressure cooker once the steam starts flowing out steadily and continue to cook in medium or slow flame till you hear two whistles.
- Turn off the flame and let the pressure in the pan reduce
- In the meanwhile, clean the curry leaves, peal the garlic and roughly crush the pods
- Once the pressure is released, open the lid of the pressure pan, sprinkle salt and mash all the contents together to form a fine think paste. You will be invited by a mouth watering aroma of lentils, green chillies and tomatoes. Keep it aside.
- In a small vessel (Kadai) prepare the tempering (tadka). Heat the oil in the vessel, oil should be hot not warm, add mustard & cumin seeds, let them sparkle for a few seconds. Break the dried red chillies into two and add them to the oil, add curry leaves and let it sparkle for a few seconds. Now add the Garlic pods and sprinkle asafoetida (hing). Turn of the heat and pour the hot oil and the ingredients on the lentil mixture.
- Mix the contents well, keep it covered.

Serving: Serve hot with hot rice (or roti if you prefer), with melted butter (ghee) and relish with fried rice/veg crisps (vadiyalu - వడియాలు). You will just love it.

Note: The consistency of the Dhal should not be too thick (like cake) or too flowing (like sambhar). To vary the consistency to suit your liking, you can add water to the dhal after it is mixed with salt and boil it for a minute on low flame. Always add the tempering in the last, gives a great flavour.

The next post will have Ridge Gourd curry cooked in milk (Beerakaya Pala Koora).