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Vazhaipoo Puli Kootu |Pressure Cooker Recipe | South Indian Lunch Thali #7

Vazhaipoo puli kootu, a south-indian style tamarind based, thick dal made with banana blossom aka banana flower. A simple and quick pressure cooker recipe with regular pantry ingredients.
Course Lunch, Main Course
Cuisine Indian, South-Indian
Keyword Banana blossom kootu, Banana flower recipe, Exotic kootu recipe, Exotic vegetables, Vazhaipoo kootu recipe
Prep Time 1 day
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 1 day 30 minutes
Servings 4
Calories

Ingredients

  • 200 grams Chopped banana blossom/vazhaipoo
  • 1 no fresh tomato chopped
  • ½ cup Tuvar dal/Split pigeon peas/tuvaram paruppu
  • cup chana dal/gram dal/Kadalai paruppu
  • ¼ cup Moong dal/Pasi paruppu I have used moong dal with skin
  • 1.5 teaspoon sambar powder
  • 1.5 teaspoon salt or to taste

Roast & Grind

  • 1 tablespoon chana dal/gram dal/Kadalai paruppu
  • 2 teaspoon coriander seeds/dhaniya raw
  • 3-4 nos red chillies
  • ¼ cup freshly grated coconut
  • 25 grams tamarind, size of indian lemon

Tempering

  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon mustard seeds/kadugu
  • ½ teaspoon methi seeds /fenugreek seeds/venthayam
  • ¼ teaspoon hing/asafoetida
  • few fresh curry leaves

Instructions

Preparing the banana blossom/vazhaipoo

  • Separate the florets from the banana flower. Open the flower slightly and remove the black thick stamen in the middle. Cleaned flowers can be stored in an air-tight container in the refrigerator and chopped whenever necessary.
  • The night before cooking the banana blossom, chop them and keep them immersed in buttermilk diluted water. Mix 2-3 tablespoon of buttermilk with 1-2 cups of water. This prevents the flower from blackening and also helps to remove the bitterness.
  • Chopped flowers immersed in buttermilk diluted with water, can be refrigerated for 10 days. That is the long I have stored them.

Let us make the Kootu

  • Wash and drain the 3 different dals mentioned in the ingredients.
  • In a pan, add a teaspoon of oil, roast the chana dal and coriander seeds mentioned in 'roast and grind'. Keep the flame medium and roast. Take it off one the dal turns golden brown. Add the chilies and coconut to hot pan and saute it in the residue heat. Remove it to a separate plate, add the tamarind to this. Let this all cool down completely.
  • Once the roasted spices cools down, take it in a spice grinder, add ¼ cup water and grind it to a fine paste. Keep this aside until use.
  • Heat a pressure cooker with oil, mentioned under 'tempering', When hot, splutter mustard seeds, hing, methi seeds and curry leaves.
  • Next add chopped tomatoes to the hot tempering, sauté them for a minute.
  • While the tomatoes are getting soft, remove the amount of chopped flowers you require for the kootu from the buttermilk water into a colander.
  • Wash it well under running water and let it sit in the colander to drain. I took about 200 grams of chopped flowers and there was about another 150 grams, which was used later that week.
  • Add this flowers to the softened tomatoes and mix well. Saute it for another 1 minute. To this now add the drained dals and a cup of water.
  • To this now add sambar powder, turmeric powder and salt. Add the ground masala to this. Add 1 cup of water to the mixer, wash and add that water to the cooker and top it with another 1 cup of water. So totally 3 cups of water.
  • Mix the kootu well. Close the pressure cooker and let this cook in medium flame for 4-5 whistles.
  • Let the pressure falls on its own. Open the cooker, mix it well with ladle. Serve the kootu with rice.
  • This delicious vazhaipoo kootu can also be packed for lunch along with a dry curry.

Video