Saturday, October 26, 2013

Mataki UsaL

Ingredients:

Mataki (Moth) - 1 cup - let it sprout
Curry leaves - 10-12 or one branch
Black masala - 1/2 tsp
Gud or brown sugar - 1/2 tsp or to taste
Chili powder - 1/2 tsp or to taste
Fresh coconut - 3-4 Tb
Fresh cilantro/coriander leaves - a handful
Salt - to taste

Recipe:

Remove unsoaked mataki grains and add sprouted mataki in a pressure cooker pan.
Add enough water to cover mataki and cook mataki in pressure cooker.  
Prepare basic oil tempering.
Add 1/8 tsp hing powder and curry leaves. 
Add cooked mataki in it and add 1/2 cup water.
Add chili powder, black masala and salt.  Stir well.
Add gud at the end and cook for 2-3 min.  Turn the stove off.
Add fresh coconut and fresh chopped cilantro.
Serve as a side dish.

Notes:

1) Remove stones and impurities from mataki and wash it.
2) Tie it in a cloth and keep it in a dark place so that it would sprout.
3) Check every day.  If mataki is old it will not sprout and may get sticky due to fermentation. Don't use it as it will have bad smell.
4) If you add gud early, sometimes beans (here mataki) become tough so add gud only at the end of cooking.
5) Add more masala, coconut or cilantro if you wish.  When you don't measure all the ingredients exactly as the recipe...every time it will taste different...I really like it that way!
6) You can use this recipe for other beans like chana (Harbhara), dry peas, Moong, black eyed beans, lentils or mixture of all or some of these beans. 
7) Glossary of Pulses & Lentils - Indian Names
http://www.syvum.com/recipes/indian/glossp1.html


1 comment:

Unknown said...

These are sold by Swad as ‘moth beans’ btw (and this recipe is very similar to one of Iyer’s in 660 curries)… the sprouted version is even better.