Chinta chiguru pappu -Tamarind’s tender leaves daal

If you are a Telugu speaking person and reading this blog chances are very high that you would have heard this old classic song “ Chettu lekkagalava O Narahari puttalekkagalava, chettulekki aa chitaaru kommana chiguru koya galava , chenchita chiguru koyagalava”… This is the song that has been playing in loop in my mind from the time I saw the tamarind tree growing fresh leaves.

Tamarind is the most popular souring agent used in Indian cooking across the country. While the ripened fruit peels are used majorly, the raw green tamarind and the tender leaves are also used when available.

I strongly believe use different varieties go souring agents per season since they are packed with many other nutrients other than just being Vitamin C source or a souring agent. Please read my earlier post on what all options are available seasonally.

We saw light green fresh leaves of a tamarind tree in our community and plucked few for making this daal.  We were already late as we could get very few tender sprigs and most of were little older.  Season for fresh tender leaves is between April-May. So what you see in pictures are slightly matured leaves but they were still tender and sour. You can still try your luck and grab hold of any late blooming trees and pick them. Else you are already planning for it next season.We need just a small cup for a good portion of daal. Please see the below picture for the perfect stage of chinta chiguru to be used.

I usually interchangeably use green chillies or red chilly powder or roasted ( in oil)  and ground dry red chilies for daal where I used tamarind pulp like  Paalak daal or malabar spinach daal etc. However, for daal made with greens which are themselves sour like Gongura ( Sorrel) , Chukka koora, or tamarind leaves I prefer using green chillies as the taste is definitely much better.

Ingredients

1. Toor daal – 1 large cup.
2. Tender tamarind leaves — a small cup ( More tender the better)
3. Green chillies – Coarsely ground – 2 Nos
4. Oil – 2-3 tbsp
5. Urad daal – 1 tsp
6. Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
7. Hing – 1 Pinch
8. Turmeric – 1/2 tsp
9. Fenugreek seeds ( Methi) – 1/4 tsp
10. Salt – Per taste

Step by step procedure.

1. Wash the toor daal and add 3 cups of water and cook in a pressure cook for 3 whistles. Adjust the cooking time per the daal quality/ water hardness. The daal should be well cooked and should fall apart when mixed.
2. Wash the tamarind leaves thoroughly. If you have very tender leaves, then you may chop these coarsely, else if the stalk is little hard separate the leaves.  Check and remove all stalks.  we had got ones wit stalk hence cleared all of the stalks. Even if one or two remain ensure to remove this while eating or feeing kids.
3. In a mortar pestle coarsely ground green chillies .
4. Take oil in a Kadhai and once hot add mustard, methi and urad daal. Newbies please be carful  and keep you face away while popping mustard seeds into hot oil as they may splutter all over.
5. Once urad daal is good golden colour add hing and turmeric.
6. Now add the coarsely ground green chillies and mix.
7. Add Tamarind leaves. You will see that leaves wilt quickly and change colour. Mix it couple of times and you will see leaves are already cooked.
8. Add Salt per taste.
9. Now add the cooked daal. Add a small cup of water to adjust the consistency per your liking.
10. Let the daal come together and turn off the heat.
11. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander and the “Chinta chiguru pappu” is done.

Variations

1. Instead of starting  off the daal with season, you can just cook the chillies and tamarind leaves in oil and fenugreek. Add daal and make the tadka at the end and pour over the daal. I mostly  prefer this way, but when in hurry I prefer the above method.
2. While our regular Pallu is generally void of onion and garlic, for those of you  who love the garlic flavour in pappu go ahead and add few peeled garlic cloves along with chillies in the seasoning before adding tamarind leaves.
3. You can optionally add finely chopped onions along the tadka and pour it over daal once done.

Serving Suggestions

1. You can serve the curry with hot rice ghee and fried majjiga mirapakayalu ( Sun dried butter milk soaked green chillies) as accompaniment.  For those of you who want to  check out recipe for “Majjiga mirapakayalu” read It here.