Papdi Lilva Sambhar

I still remember those days in Bangalore when I grew up around Papdi Lilva. For the non-kannadigas papdi lilva is the twisted english version of avarekayi. Actually papdi lilva is not the exact english phrase for avarekayi, but still its fine to pull out a conjecture. See the adjoining picture and you will get a clearer picture of what it is we are going to talk about. So coming back to those good old days I grew up in Bangalore, I still remember my mom and grand mom preparing every dish with avarekayi. In the season the beans sell for like 5 bucks a kg and we used to bring in loads of it. Hence it is pretty natural for me to love this particular beans in the family of beans. Although papdi lilva is not termed as beans, it is a bean after all. What do you say? Check out the picture for goodness sake, isn't that a bean? :)

After having my afternoon lunch I left for work as usual today and when I came back home, my grand dad had kept the papdi lilva ready to be cooked. It was decided that we make sambhar with the lilva (believe me it is actually a discussion to decide what needs to be done with this papdi lilva, as anything can be done). What I like most of the papdi lilva - it is ubiquitous. Any dish can be prepared with this. So I started to help my wife in the kitchen to prepare the dish. I know you must be thinking - hey dude, cut the crap and tell us how to make it...Here I unroll it for you

Ingredients:
[1] Papdi Lilva - 3 to 4 measures
[2] Toor Dal - 2 measures
[3] Tamarind
[4] Tomatoes - 2 to 3
[5] Chili powder
[6] Sambhar powder (prepare one on your own, I will tell you how later someday in my blog OR get it from a strore selling MTR products)
[7] Mustard seeds
[8] Asafoetida (Hing, dude)
[9] Turmeric
[10] Oil
[11] Salt - to taste
[12] Water

Recipe:
[1] Take some dal in a pressure cooker and to that add the papdi lilva and water. Add enough water depending on the quantity of the sambhar you want to prepare
[2] To this add a spoon of oil and some turmeric
[3] Do I need to need to tell what to do next? :) Put the cooker on a flame and allow it to whistle 2 or 3 times. Once the dal is done you can turn off the flame under the cooker
[4] Its not that the cooker is going to whistle the moment you keep it on the flame, so lets get to work with the tamarind paste while the dal cooks :)
[5] Chop some tomatoes and put it in a mixer. To this add some tamarind (either the paste or the actual tamarind) and water and grind nicely
[6] Filter the tomato and tamarind liquid from the tomato skin/tamarind seeds into a separate vessel
[7] Put the vessel on a medium flame and begin heating
[8] To this add about 3 or 4 spoons of chilli powder and nicely mix the powder in the liquid making sure there are no knots
[9] After the liquid boils add some sambhar powder (3 to 4 spoons depending on how thick you want the sambhar) again making sure there are no knots formed
[10] Allow to boil for some time until the masala cooks
[11] Hopefully you have not forgotten to turn off the flame under the presssure cooker...
[12] Now add the dal + papdi lilva to this liquid and nicely mix the two
[13] Add some salt to taste
[14] Add some seasoning - to some heated oil add mustard seeds and allow to spatter and then add some Hing
[15] Serve hot with rice

Here is one tip: If you want to make sambhar that is less viscous, you can skip Step [9]

Enjoy folks, this dish is very tasty. My stomach is already rumbling

Good night!