Vazhaithandu Curry With Moong Dal

VAZHAITHANDU CURRY WITH MOONG DAL

The humble banana stem combined with moong dal makes a mild flavored curry with delicious when paired with rice and Mor Kuzhambu and rasam

Ingredient

• ·          ½ cup moong dal (soaked in water for 2 hours)
• ·          2 cups buttermilk (sour)
• ·          ¼ turmeric powder
• ·          1 piece banana stem roughly 8 inches
• ·          2 tsp coconut oil
• ·          1 pinch asafoetida
• ·          2 springs curry leaves
• ·          1 tsp mustard
• ·          1 tsp urad dal
• ·          2 red chillies
• ·          1 tsp sugar
• ·          I tsp salt
• ·          2 tsp grated coconut

Method

1. To prepare the banana stem curry, first step is to chop the banana stem.  Oil your hands before handling the stem as it stain the hand.
2. Peel off the satiny outer layer with knife until the inner rough part is exposed.  This could be two layers or more depending on how thick the stem was to start with.
3. Keep a big bowl of diluted sour buttermilk on the side to immerse the chopped stem pieces.  This prevents them from darkening.
4. To cut the plantain stem, slices it thinly 4-5 slices at time place them in a stack and finely dice it, immersing the diced pieces in the buttermilk immediately. Do this until you have chopped the entire length of the stem into small bits.  Any tough fiber that come your way, peel them off and discard. Small fiber bits will remains and that’s what will make this dish healthy.
5. Once you are ready to cook, drain the chopped plantain stem and place in a vessel with ¼ water and turmeric powder mixed well.
6. Place 2-3 cups of water in a pressure cooker large enough to hold the vessel containing the chopped stem.
7. Pressure cook this for 3 whistles and 3 -4 minutes on sim.  Once cool remove and drain if required.  You can also boil this in very little water until almost soft.
8. In a kadai heat the oil and sauté the urad dal till light golden, put in the remaining ingredients (asafoetida, curry leaves, mustard seeds, and dried red chillies). After a quick stir put in the cooked moong dal and plantain pith. Add sugar and salt.  The sugar is to offset the slight bitterness in the stem.
9. Sprinkling water and cook covered for 10 minutes with occasional stirring, so that the dal is cooked but not mushy.
10. Check for salt and adjust.  Remove from flame.  Sprinkle fresh coconut and serve banana stem curry with rice and any kozhambu.

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