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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Masoor Amti

Hey everyone.. another somewhat traditional recipe today. Masoor Amti is a dal or lentil based dish, eaten with rice, commonly made at homes in Karnataka and Maharashtra. This recipe is my Mom's, probably passed down to her by my Grandmother. 

Fig.1 Masoor Amti

I find these typical recipes very convenient. It's quite amazing how simple some of the preparations are. Very little time required for prep-work too.

Ingredients:
Masoor dal - 1 cup
Fresh grated coconut - 2 table spoons
Onion - 2 chopped (used in parts)
Tamarind paste - 1 teaspoon
Amti powder - 1 teaspoon
(Amti powder is like garam masala. I presently use a treasured stash from my Grandma's kitchen. You can get it at Mangalore stores or some such Kanara grocery store in India. Sometime in future I will see if I can post a recipe for amti powder. For now I am posting here a link to Amti powder as posted by Nupur on One Hot Stove.)
Red chilly powder - 1 teaspoon
Oil - 2 teaspoons
Salt to taste

Procedure:
1) Soak masoor dal for 1 - 4hrs. Pressure cook. Mash a bit, add salt and keep aside.
2) Fry fresh grated coconut (which itself contains some oil) till light brown. 
3) Add 1 or 1&1/2 chopped onion and saute well.
4) Grind the fried mixture with tamarind paste.
5) Take cooked masoor in a deep pot. Add amti powder, chilly powder, salt, ground mixture and water (enough to get dal-like consistency) and cook till the dal reaches a rolling boil.
6) In a separate small frying pan (or a tadka pan) heat 1-2 teaspoons of oil, and fry the remaining chopped onions till they are slightly brown (caramelised). 
7) Now add the fried onion and its oil, as seasoning to above cooked dal. Briefly mix, and you are done!

Note: I have added about 1/2 of a bottle gourd (lauki) chopped into cubes to the dal itself while it was cooking in the pressure cooker (in step 1).. just cos it was sitting in my fridge. You could add suitable veggies to your liking.

I just heard about the Delicious Dals event hosted by Suma at Veggie Platter. So I am sending this dal to her event roundup.

Ok, that's all.. see you all soon!

15 comments:

Pavithra Srihari said...

hey nice one da ... why dont u send this to veggie platter event

Unknown said...

Thanks SS for this recipe, looks great !!! BTW, what is Amti Powder? Where will I get it?

SS blogs here said...

Hi Pavithra.. Thanks. Actually, yes.. that is a good reminder! I will look into the event. :)

Hey Priya.. Amti powder is like garam masala. You can get it at Mangalore stores or some such Kanara grocery store in India. Unfortunately I am not sure whether you will get it in the Indian stores in US. Can try. I have never made it at home as yet.

M D said...

Hey I get the amTi mix from my amma. I love ananas amTi, HagalKai amTi a lot. Masoor amTi is new to me. Good variation to try. :)

SS blogs here said...

Hey MD.. I know, homemade amti powd is most prized. My present stash is from my Grandma. :) Your ananas and HagalKai variations are new to me! Would love to try those!

indosungod said...

Masala powders from grandmas are treasures indeed. This is a simple dal and I am sure doubly tasty with the amti powder.

SS blogs here said...

Thanks, Indo!

Bong Mom said...

I love all dals so this will surely be liked. but tell me why do we need to soak masoor dal ? I buy the salmon colored skinless ones and they pressure cook quickly. Is this the one with the skins ?

SS blogs here said...

Hey Sandeepa.. Thanks for your comment. Yes, the reddish masoor cooks really fast.. cooks pretty decent even without a pressure cooker. Could use that just fine, I'm sure.

Frankly, I think even the one I have used here, brown masoor with-skin, will cook just fine in a pressure cooker without soaking. I am just being a bit cautious here.. writing it down like it is in my Mom's instructions. If I have time then I soak. :)

Suma Gandlur said...

Thanks for sending over this traditional, yummy dal. Would also love to learn that masala recipe from you in the future. :)
I too was wondering why masoordal needs to be soaked until I saw your response to Sandeepa's comment.
Take care.

SS blogs here said...

Thanks for visiting here, Suma. I'll definitely link back here and let you know if I post Amti Powder in future.

Niloufer Riyaz said...

A simple dish. looking forward for the amti powder recipe

Madhavi said...

simple and nice recipe
www.maavantalu.com

SS blogs here said...

Thanks, Niloufer and Madhavi!

SS blogs here said...

I have recently added a link to Amti powder posted by Nupur at One Hot Stove ( http://onehotstove.blogspot.com/2005/09/is-for-amti.html ) in the above post. Please refer there if you want to use Amti powder and not any general garam masala instead.

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