Jowar BisiBeleBhath

With my attempts to include jowar in the diet, I tried making Bisibelebath (BBB) using the jowar grains. BBB is one dish which I have tried with wheat and poha/avil as replacements for rice and was quite successful. With the confidence from the earlier trials, I decided for BBB. And I remembered Champa's post featuring an authentic family recipe for BBB. Anything authentic catches my attention immediately. I took this opportunity to try her recipe. Unlike Champa, I took an easy route with cooking jowar and dal. Else I followed her recipe. I reduced the quantities since it was for only 2 people for one meal.  I loved the flavor with the various spices that went into the masala.  

You need

• Jowar grains - 3/4 cup
• Tuvar Dal  - 1/2 cup 
• Tamarind - gooseberry sized
• Salt - to taste
• Turmeric - 1/4 tspn
• Oil - 1 tsp

For the masala:

• Chana dal/Kadalaparuppu - 2 tbspn
• Urad dal - 1 tbspn
• Coriander seeds - 2 tbspn
• Red chillies - 5 nos
• Methi seeds - 1/4 tspn
• Jeera/cumin - 1/2 tsp
• Pepper corns - 1 tspn
• Cardamom - 1 whole
• Cinnamon - 2 1" sticks 
• cloves - 4 nos
• Nutmeg powder - a big pinch
• Poppy seeds - 1 tsp
• Kopra/Dry coconut - 1/2 cup
• Oil - 1 tsp

For seasoning 

• Oil - 1/4 cup
• Mustard seeds - 2 tspn
• Red chillies - 2 broken
• Curry leaves - few sprigs

Method:

Pressure cook jowar and tuvar dal with a pinch of turmeric separately. Soak the tamarind in a cup of warm water. Take a kadai with the ingredients for  masala except nutmeg powder and poppy seeds. Roast on a medium flame till the dal turns golden brown and you can smell  the aroma of roasted spices. Just before  

removing, add nutmeg powder and poppy seeds. Mix well and leave it to cool.

Powder the roasted masala mix to a fine powder. Add the kopra/dry coconut to the powdered masala and pulse to blend finely.  Squeeze the soaked tamarind to extract the juice fully. Add some of the extracted tamarind water to the ground masala to make a thick paste. Reserve the remaining tamarind water.

Take the cooked dal in a pot, add salt, the ground masala paste. Mix well and add the remaining tamarind extract. Adjust the consistency by adding more water. When the the dal starts boiling, add the cooked jowar. Keep stirring so that it blends well. 

In a seasoning ladle, heat 1/4 cup oil. When hot add mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter, add red chillies, curry leaves.  Add the seasoning to the cooking mixture. Stir. Check the consistency and seasonings. If required, add some hot water to make it thin. On cooling, it gets thick. 

I find the jowar BBB very tasty. Though the grains were slightly chewy, it had absorbed the flavors well. May be next time, I shall try to pulse the grains coarsely like the broken wheat.