For so many days, I was quite confused about Pappu Charu, Sambar, Rasam. Atleast rasam would be easily differentiated with its watery nature. But I was unable to get the correct differentiation between the other two. Now I can clearly conclude by telling that Sambar is a thick version of lentils, sambar powder, veggies whereas Pappu charu is a thin version with lentil water, powders and veggies as I do both Sambar and charu regularly at home. We can add any vegetables in Pappu Charu and it can be well accompanied by any vegetable fry. As I am a veggie freaker, I add lots of vegetables into the Pappu Charu.
Ingredients
Toor Dal -- 1/2 Cup
Tamarind Extract - 1 Cup
Jaggery - 2 tbsp full
Salt - To Taste
Turmeric Powder - 2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder - 3 tsp
Fenugreek Powder / Methi powder - 1/2 tsp
Tempering
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 2 tsp
Jeera - 2 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds / Menthilu / Vendhayam - 1/2 tsp
Hing / Asafoetida - 1 Dash
Dry Red Chillies - 2 big
Curry Leaves - 1 stem
Vegetables
Okra / Ladyfinger / Vendaikai - 4 ( cut into finger size )
Carrot - 1 Small ( Sliced into smaller rounds )
White Raddish / Mullangi - 1 ( Sliced into smaller rounds )
Sorakai / BottleGourd - 1/2 Cup ( Cut into small squares )
Onion - 1 Small
Tomato - 1 Small ( cut into small pieces )
Brinjal - 2 ( Cut into small pieces )
Broad Beans/Avaraikai/ Chikkudukaya - 5 or 6 ( Cut into finger size)
Green Chillies - 4 ( Slit into Halves)
Method
- Soak the tamarind in water and extract the juice and keep it handy.
- Cook the toor dal / Thuvaram paruppu / Kandi Pappu in a pressure cooker to a fine paste. Add some water, mix and keep the dal water ready.
- Wash and cut all the vegetables in desired form and keep it ready.
- On a thick bottomed vessel, add all the vegetables, turmeric powder, little salt, hing/asafoetida, tamarind juice and little water and allow them to cook till the vegetables get mashy and softer.
- Then, add the dal water into the vessel followed by salt, coriander powder, red chilli powder, fenugreek powder and jaggery. Mix them well and let the charu cooks and comes to a boil.
- Add more water if you feel that the consistency of the charu is thick due to excess boiling.
- On a separate tempering pan, add all the ingredients in order in Olive Oil and pour the tempered contents from the pan into the Pappu Charu.
- Garnish with coriander leaves and switch off the heat.
- Enjoy the Pappu Charu with white rice and ghee.
Variations
You can add more green chillies to increase the spicyness of the charu.
You can add any vegetables of your choice into the Pappu Charu.
Tips
Dal water and tamarind juice are very important in this charu. So make these perfect and keep it ready.
If you add few drops of ghee during tempering, the whole pappu charu smells very good.
Adding drumsticks,small onions to the pappu charu gives an excellent flavour and taste.
Patiently wait till the vegetables get completely cooked. After its cooked fully, continue the process. Otherwise, your veggies would be little raw in the Pappu charu making it difficult for the kids to eat the veggies.