Moms Kitchen - Andhra Recipes: Mamidikaya pappu

Mamidikaya pappu (Mango Dal)

Rice is the staple food of southern part of India and a typical Andhra meal consists of pappu (dal) with pickle, fry and papaddums. Kandipappu or tuvar dal is one of the popular dals grown in India. It is called as arhar in Bengali and tuvara parippu in Malayalam. It’s slightly sweet and highly digestable too.

Mango has been my all time favourite since my childhood. Those hot sunny days during March and April when plenty of mangoes are available,my granny was busy preparing pickles and we eating raw mangoes with salt and chillie powder, the thought itself makes my mouth water. Here in Singapore raw mangoes are available all through the year and mamidikaya pappu is a frequent dish in my home. I love the mangoes available at Mustafa which are a perfect choice to make this tasty dish.

Ingredients

Kandipappu (toor dal) - 1 cup
Green Chillies - 6 (slit into two halves)
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Chillie powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil - 1 1/2 tb sp
Ghee - 1 tsp 1
Raw Mango (sour in taste and cut into bite size pieces)

Seasoning

Mustard seeds (avalu) - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Red chillies - 3 to 4

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Garlic - 2 (cut into small pieces or crushed)

Hing - a pinch

For garnishing

Finely chopped coriander

Preparation

1. Wash and pressure cook dal adding a pinch of turmeric, ½ tsp of oil and 2 cups of water. (adding turmeric and little oil to dal helps dal to cook fast and soft)

2. Once the pressure is gone remove the lid of the cooker and mash dal with a masher.

3. Heat oil and ghee in a pan, add seasoning with a pinch of hing. when the seeds start spluttering, add mango pieces, stir once and cover with a lid for 3 mts in low flame till the mango pieces turn soft. Turn off the flame.

4. Add chillie powder and salt to mashed dal. Mix well. To this add the fried seasoning, little water and cook in low flame for 3 mts for the dal to absorb the flavour of the seasoning.

5. Garnish with finely chopped coriander.