Drumsticks Palidoo

This is a tur dal or lentil preparation, quite popular and is prepared for dinner. It is also on Menu list in Hotels and Restaurants. Drumsticks are "moringa", and it's fruit is eaten as vegetable.

Very tasty ..... eaten in dinner - time with roti and khichadi or baghara bhaat. You can improve its taste by adding a splash of pure ghee.

Ingredients :

1 cup lentils ( Tur dal )

2 tbspns Wheat flour

¼ tspn turmeric powder

1 tspn coriander seeds powder

1 tspn red chilli powder

10-12 seeds of fenugreek

1 tspn cumin seeds

1 tspn garlic paste

½ tspn ginger paste

1 tsp green chillies, slit lengthwise

1 medium sized tomato, chopped

2 drumsticks, peeled and cut into 3 inch pieces

1 tsp chopped coriander leaves

1 tspn dried tamarind, or juice of 1 lime

2 tbspn cooking oil

salt to taste

water

Method :

Wash the lentils, add 3 cups of water to it and cook them in a pressure cooker for 15 minutes after the first whistle. Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add fenugreek and cumin seeds. When they splutter add ginger-garlic paste and fry it to a rich golden brown. Keep the vessel covered partly so that the spluttering seeds and ginger garlic paste do not fly out. Quickly add wheat flour, turmeric, coriander seed powder, and red chilli powder. Fry them on low heat with constant stirring till it gives out a rich smell of the fried masala. Quickly add the smoothened lentil and its stock. Add drumsticks, tomatoes, green chillies, and tamarind / lime juice. Now add 2 1/2 glasses of water. Add salt to taste. Pressure cook for 5 minutes after first whistle.

Garnish with chopped green coriander leaves. Serve hot with khichari or baghara bhaat.

In olden days I used to make Palidoo on an earthenware stove over coal. My mom-in-law taught me how to cook a Palidoo on stone coal earthenware stove. This type of cooking results in very tasty food by cooking it on very low heat over a long period of time. The original recipe is however the same.Nowadays in modern times we cook food on a gas stove.

Palidoo can be cooked minus drumsticks. You can cook palidoo using eggplant ( brinjal ) or ridge gourd ( turai ). And if you add to the palidoo left - over meat curry then it becomes " Khurdi ", another Bohra speciality dish preparation.

Do try these variations of palidoo for a novelty cooking .....