Magaya Pappu

Hi

Today I am writing a traditional and easy dish - magaya pappu. When you are out of vegetables at home, what do you do? Think of an idea, a dish that can be done with what is available at home at that time like dal, pickle, onion, papad etc. One such dish is magaya pappu, magaya with combination of tur dal.

I learnt this from our neighbor's family. Very nice old and gentle lady, the head of the family with 10 to 12 members, a big family. I always get nice aromas of hing and avapettina dishes from their kitchen, ohh tempting.

When I asked Mamma garu what is special today? She told about magaya pappu. As theirs is a big family she told that with 1/2 kg tur dal, 2 depth laddles (garita used for sambar or rasam) of magaya and guppedu means fist full of curry leaves cooked together and add popu. ie magaya pappu. She told me to have it with challa mirapa kayalu (green mirchi soaked in sour curd). My mouth was watering you know. More over she cooks in a mud pot with thick bottom and wide surface. I don't know why it tasty when you cook in a mud pot. My grandmother also used to cook dal, mudda kura etc. in mud pot only. Those dishes used to taste very nice. The greatest cook in our family is my grand mother who prepares traditional dishes tasty and her version in any dish always turns out so exceptional.

OK. Let us go to prepare magaya pappu in mud pot.

Ingredients

• Tur dal                                                         1 cup
• Magaya                                                        1 1/2 or 2 tbsp (adjust according to your taste)
• Salt                                                               pinch
• Curry leaves

For Popu

• Mustard
• Hing
• Curry leaves 

How to prepare

1. Wash and soak tur dal ina a mud pot for 1 hour.
2. Cook it separately (not in a cooker) in mud pot stirring in between  till 90% dal is cooked.
3. Add magaya pickle and pinch of salt and cook well.
4. Mash it with wood masher (pappu gutti).
5. Add little curry leaves and cook for couple of minutes.
6. Check the consistency and add little water if required.
7. Then heat 1 tbsp of oil in a popu pan add mustard seeds. Let them pop. Then add  pinch of hing and curry leaves and mix into magaya pappu.

Taste it now. There is nothing like it. Old is gold!!!

Enjoy this magaya pappu with garama garam rice with dollop of ghee and vadiyalu.

My Notes

• This mud pot is available separately for cooking purpose with thick bottom and wide surface. Don't worry. The pot won't break. It is specially made for cooking purpose only. You can cook on gas stove or you can on coal fire or you can cook on wood fire.
• You can cook any dal or curries in pot. It tastes good and healthy also. 
• It takes time to cook dal separately. So it is good to soak the dal for 1 hour before cooking so that it gets soft quickly.