Grey Matter

Bisi bele Baath: Etymology- Hot Lentils (Paruppu) rice in Kannada and Tulu

We have a two part recipe for the preparation of Bisi Bele Baath : one is the powder that gives the unique flavor to the dish and the other is the actual preparation of the dish itself.

Part 1:(The powder)

It is customary to make this powder, store it and use it when ever required. And hence the following measures are for making a small bottle full of the powder.

Ingredients: (all are numbers,unless the units are specified. Tamil names are given within the braces)

Bay Leaf (Punnai Ilai): 2

Nutmeg (Jathikaai) : 2

Cinnamon (Pattai) : 5 rupee worth

Cardamom(Yelakkai): 6

Cloves(Lavangam): 8

Bengal Gram (Kadalai Paruppu): 200 gm

Black Gram (Ulutham Paruppu): 200 gm

Red Chilli (Molaga): 100 gms

Coriander Seeds (Dhaniya):100 gm

Black Pepper (Melagu) : 10 gm

Asafoetida (Perungayam): half katti

Fenugreek (Venthaiyam): 10 gm

Cumin Seeds (Seeragam): 10 gm

Curry Leaves (Karu vepilai): a hand full

Cooking Oil: little

Procedure:

After heating the oil in a pan, fry all the spices viz., cinnamon,nutmeg,cloves,bay leaves and cardamom and keep them seperately. In the same pan now fry rest of the ingredients, Pepper,Cumin seeds and curry leaves should be the last items to be added.

Keep this fried ingredients in Sun light for 15 mins and then powder them.

Part 2 (The Baath):(Serving 4-5 people)

Ingredients:

Rice (Arisi) : 2 Alakku

Red Gram (Thuvaram Paruppu): 1 Alakku

Tamarind (Puli) : 1 lemon size

Salt:As required

Turmeric Powder(Manjal thool): As required

Coriander Powder: 1/4 spoon

Chilli Powder : 1/4 spoon

Jaggery(Vellam): A lemon size

Carrot,Beans,Sambhar Onion, Green Peas,Potato – As much as you deem fit.

Coconut:1/2 (Kopparai thenga preferred)

Cashew nuts: as required

peanuts: as required

ghee:little

Procedure:

Soak the tamarind in water for some 10 to 15 mins.

Boil the Red gram, when the gram is 3/4th boilt, add the rice and 1 spoon of the above prepared masala powder and let the mixture boil for some more time until rice is boiled.

In a seperate vessel boil all the vegetables, except Sambhar Onion.

Pour little oil in a pan and fry the Sambhar Onion, after the onions are fried,add the soaked tamarind water (Puli thanni), Coriander powder, Chilli powder,Salt, Turmeric powder, Jaggery one by one and then add the boiled vegetables. Put 2 spoons of the above prepared masala powder to this vegetables mixture.

Now mix the boiled rice and gram with the vegetables mixture to make the baath.

Put some ghee to the frying pan add the scraped coconut, cashew nuts and peanuts and garnish the baath with this. Finally plant the coriander leaves on the baath.