Quick Misal Pav (Delicious Moth beans gravy)

Hello and How are you'll doing????

I have a wonderful Maharashtrian (Maharashtra is a state in the western part of India) specialty to share with you'll, that is packed with flavor and the goodness of protein the "MISAL PAV". It's a popular street food in Maharashtra and has two parts to the dish. A thick curry of Moth beans called "Ussal" which has less water content and a watery and spicy gravy called "cut". My variation has only one gravy to it and is served in a chat style. I had never tasted it, until a friend's mom sent it over to our place neatly packed for dinner. How wonderful is that. And like we all know,there's nothing as comforting as home cooked food. The misal was polished off in no time and I made every effort to get that recipe into my recipe book.

My friend Manasa was generous enough to share the recipe with me. Thank you girl. This has become a favorite meal for us on the week nights since it's a quick and healthy option loaded with protein. Since, the weather is going to get chilly in the months to come, it's comforting to have hot, home cooked food like this rather than doing a take away. The left overs are great to be packed for office lunch the next day.

Quick Misal Pav

Serves : 4

Cooking time:40 minutes(excluding the soaking and sprouting time)

Ingredients:

1 cup whole moth beans (also known as Turkish gram)

4 tsp oil

4 cloves

1 " cinnamon

8 pepper corns

3 whole dry red chilies

4 pods garlic

2 medium sized onions  chopped

2 medium sized tomatoes chopped

1/4 cup shredded unsweetened  dry coconut

1 tsp cumin powder

1 Tbsp corriander powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

For the garnish:

Sev (chick pea noodle like snack readily available at Indian stores. Onions, cilantro and tomatoes (finely chopped) and lemon. 

Directions:

Soak the moth beans over night. In the morning wash, drain and tie in a muslin cloth and keep damp. By evening the  beans have sprouted and ready to cook. Place enough water with 1/4 tsp salt in the cooker and pressure cook until well done ( 6 whistles in my cooker). Drain the cooked moth beans and reserve 11/2- 2 cups of the water from the cooked beans.

While the beans are pressure cooking, heat 2 tsp oil in a pan. Add the cloves and cinnamon and let the whole spices infuse the oil with their flavor and aroma. Next add whole dry red chilies and pepper corns and fry for 30 secs. In go the chopped onions and fry till they are translucent. Add garlic and chopped tomatoes and fry till soft and mushy. Finally add coconut and fry for a minute. Let the mixture cool completely before grinding it. A little water may be added if the paste is too thick.

Heat 2 tsp of oil in the pan and return the ground paste to the stove. Fry for a minute and add cumin, corriander, turmeric and garam masala powders. Fry till the oil separates. Add the cooked moth beans, the reserved water from the beans (amount of water to be added depending on the consistency desired)  and salt to taste and simmer for 4-5 minutes until the gravy is a little thick.

Finally, place the misal in a bowl, Garnish with sev, finely chopped onions, tomatoes and corriander leaves and a generous squeeze of lemon. You could serve the misal with dinner rolls or pav bread toasted with butter. 

So go right ahead and dunk your pav in the misal and let me know how you liked it. 

Images:Clicked by me. Please do not use without prior written permission.

Images are the property of Sruthi Singh and subject to copyright.