Pottu Pesara Kattu

Blogging is very addictive. I open up my blog with the intention of posting a recipe and before I start that, I will check some of my fav blogs and from the comments section on those blogs, I enter few more blogs and from there to few other blogs and this goes on. Does that sound like "been there done that" :) I'm sure it sounds familiar to every food blogger.

Here are some of the blogs I check almost every day.
RedChillies - I like her style of writing.
VeggieBelly - This blog I visit for it's amazing pictures.
Talimpu - Has some authentic south Indian recipes.

RedChillies maintains a food blog aggregator. My fav space on the web:) And, once you visit that page you are sure to get lost in the world of food blogs.

So, I opened up my browser to post this recipe and like I said, went to my fav blogs and from there to some other blogs, browsed for 2 hours and now back to posting the recipe:) here it is:
This is a simple soup/rasam kinda dish that got passed on from my grand mom to mom and from my mom to me.



Ingredients:
Split moong dal with the coat: 1/2 cup
satl as required.
Ginger (grated) : 1/2 tsp

Seasoning:
Oil/Ghee: 2 tsp
Mustard seed: 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp
Redchillies(broken): 4
Curry leaves: 5
Garlic: 1 clove
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Asoefetida(hing): a pinch


Procedure:

1. Cook the moong dal with water and salt in a pressure cooker until you get 2-3 whistles.
2. Remove the cooker lid and add more water and ginger and the dal cook in the water for 10-15 minutes without the lid.
3. Make sure the dal becomes soft and gets blended into the water.
4. In a seasoning pan, add oil and when the oil is hot, add all the seasoning ingredients in the order mentioned.
5. When the seeds start spluttering add the seasoning to the dal and water mixture and remove from heat. 
6. Adjust salt.
7. Add more red chillies if you like it more spicy. all the spice in this recipe comes form red chillies.
8. Optionally you can use oil instead of ghee(clarified butter) for seasoning or you can use half oil and half ghee.
9. Serve with steamed rice.