Preparation time ([days] hrs:min)  :  0:10
Cooking time ([days] hrs:min)        :  01:30
Number of servings                        :  6

Horse Gram Soup. Horse Gram is a kind of lentil and can be purchased at any good ndian store. Please check cooking tips page for what horse gram is called in other languages It is indeed very hard to meet a person from Andhra Pradesh who does not consider this to be one of their favorites! The dish is most enjoyed during this cold winter season, adled over plain white rice accompanied by generous servings of fresh homemade butter.

No Ingredients Qty Measure Weight(gms) 

Ulavalu (Horse gram) 0.23 pound 104.04 
Tamarind concentrate 0.21 tablespoon 3.13 
Onions 0.17 small   
Chili Powder (Red Chili Powder) 1/3 teaspoon 1.67 
Black Mustard Seeds (Mustard Seeds, Aavalu) 1/4 teaspoon 1.00 
Cumin Seeds (Cumin, Jeera) 0.17 teaspoon 0.35 
Curry Leaves 12/3     
Vegetable Oil 0.04 cup 11.46 
Salt   to taste 0.17 
Chopped Onion 1/3 tablespoon 3.33 
Ginger Piece (1 inch in length) 0.17 piece 0.37 
Coriander seeds 0.17 tablespoon 0.90 
Garlic 1/2 cloves 1.50 

Method

Serves : 4 Cups

Finely chop onion and keep aside.
Grind to a rough paste: ginger, coriander seeds, garlic and two tablespoons of chopped onions.
Squeeze the juice from this paste into a small and wide bowl. Keep aside.
Clean the horse gram picking away any impurities. In a large pot, boil the horse gram(dal) along with 10 cups of water until it is well cooked.
You will notice that the dal does not get mushy as other dals do when cooked until soft. Also, the liquid has a brownish tint.
Strain and reserve the liquid and one cup of cooked dal.
In a blender, blend to soft paste: one cup of the above cooked dal and half a cup of the strained liquid. Keep aside.
In a deep, non-stick saute pan, heat oil on medium- high and add mustard seeds.
When they begin to pop add cumin, chopped onion (from step 1) and curry leaves.
Fry for a few minutes until the onion turns brown.
Now add the above paste(from step 4), red chili powder, tamarind pulp, salt and the juice (from step 2).
Stir for two minutes and then add the remaining liquid.
Cook on low heat for 20- 25 minutes stirring occasionally.
 

Tips :

Note 1:

Traditionally, cream which is skimmed from the surface of milk/yogurt or a knob of fresh butter is placed on hot white rice. When the cream or butter has just melted, a few tablespoons of this soup is ladled on top of it, mixed together and eaten. This dish is supposed to give heat to the body and hence is eaten more frequently in the winter. The leftover dal(from step 3) is kept aside as fodder for the oxen that plough the paddy fields, as well as for milching cows.

Note 2:

Instead of store bought tamarind extract, use 0.75 tbsp. of tamarind extract, if freshly extracted.


Orginal source of the recipe - http://www.ammas.com