“Har Khana kuchh kehta hai…Kuchh meethi yaadein…kuchh kisse…har bachpan ke unchuhe hisse…”
Every dish has a story…some beautiful memories…some childhood stories that you remember with every flavor….This dish belongs to my better half’s, Mr. Parveez’s hometown, Bengaluru. The name has been derived from Tamilian word “Chaaru” that stands for curry.
Living in USA, we Indians learn how to substitute few ingredients with what we have back home to what’s available in our grocery store. So, one day I found a new addition to our local grocer’s Veggie section. Like a little happy child in candy land, I called up my husband informing him about the drumstick leaves, asking him if they can be used.
You might find it extremely funny to read, but I normally text and call him when I am at grocery store. I actually became pretty popular among workers at the store since they always see me clicking pictures and texting someone [my husband] and then come back to the section to pick what I clicked. I really don’t know what kind of husbands take their wives calls in one time because it never happens with me. I usually get a call back after 5 minutes, with a patent dialogue “phone was on silent” or “Dekha nahi” [I didn’t pay attention] or a text back saying “meeting”. And as much as I feel that he should attend me before the rest of the world, I let it go…LOLzzz… Not really, the poor guy works very hard and I know if it isn’t work, he would make sure he talks to me first.
Ohh sorry, the story took a sweet romantic turn, lets get back to the main story. So, I call him all happy that I found drumstick leaves and he got super excited and asked me to buy them.
Once home, he asks me to make this dish which we normally make with spinach [equally flavorful, though]. This dish is healthy and its great for diets or low carb diets. The good thing about this dish is that this two dishes in one. This dish gives out a dry dish and a liquid daal type dish that makes it easy to eat with Rice and parantha/phulkas.
With each bite, he remembered his childhood of how his mother prepared this from the fresh leaves plucked from the neighbor’s tree….childhood flavors stay for life.
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 40 minutes |
| Servings |
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- 6 cups Drumstick leaves wash properly
- 1 cup Toovar daal washed and soaked for 30 minutes
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 tsp Salt More or less according to your taste
- 1/2 tsp Red chili powder
- 2 No. Onions 1 sliced and 1 chopped
- 4 No. Green chilies
- 2 TBSP Ginger garlic paste
- 1 cup Coriander leaves washed
- 2 No. Whole dry red chilies
- 1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
- 1/2 cup curry leaves
- 3 No. Tomatoes make a puree
- 1.5 cups coconut fresh/frozen
- 1 No. clove
- 1 No. Cinnamon stick 1 inch size
- 1/2 tsp Black pepper [whole]
- 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 tsp Tamarind paste
- 4 TBSP Mustard oil Or any other of your choice
Ingredients
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- Boil toovar daal with a pinch of turmeric powder and salt.
- Boil till its 50% cooked. Add the drumstick leaves. Once the leaves are a little cooked and daal is 70% cooked, turn off the gas.
- Drain the water and keep it in a separate bowl. Divide the daal and drumstick leaves in to 1 part and 3 parts. Both the parts need to be cooked separately.
- For the first part , dry curry, using the one quarter part of the boiled toovar daal and leaves. Add oil to a pan, Add the sliced onions, cook till onions turn brown and add a few curry leaves.
- Now add, half of the shredded coconut to it and cook till coconut turns brown. At this point, make sure the curry isn’t too dry.
- Now, add the toovar daal and leaves. Mix everything properly. Its ready to serve. This is the dry curry.
- Make a puree of tomatoes, ginger garlic, coconut, tamarind, coriander leaves, green chilies, dry red chilies, cinnamon, cumin seeds, cloves and black pepper.
- Now the other part of this dish with remaining three quarters of the toovar daal and leaves. Puree this part of toovar daal and leaves.
- Mix both purees together in a pan and bring them to a boil. The soup thickens while boiling.
- Meanwhile, in another pan, add some oil, add mustard seeds and once they crackle, add curry leaves followed by the chopped onions. Cook till onions turn transparent or pink. Add the red chili powder and turmeric powder.
- Add this tempering to the boiling soup. Cook the soup till it reaches the desired consistency. Serve with Rice or parantha.
- The soup goes well with rice.
- The dry curry can be served with phulka/Parantha or on the side with rice.
