Dhappalam or Teeya pulusu

Dhappalam also called as teeya pulusu is eaten with hot plain rice or with a mix of rice with Mudda pappu ( roasted toor daal which is cooked) and pulusu. This is a traditional Andhra recipe which I learnt from my mother in law. We call it teeya pulusu at home. I heard the word “Dhappalam” first in the song “Vivaha Bhojanambu..” from the classic film “Mayabazaar” where Ghatotkacha is enjoying all the dishes cooked for the wedding party. The word got me curious and searched it on google and found its our good old teeya pulusu. We grew up with that song from Mayabazaar, but till I got married into an Andhra home, I didn’t pay attention to the details 🙂

The below recipe uses Sweet potato , however you can replace or add regular pumpkin or even bottle gourd. I have tried adding even broad beans/ chikkudu and drum sticks too. But to be honest I like the pumpkin or sweet potato version the most personally.

Fried pickled dried chillies ( Majjiga mirapakayalu ) as an accompaniment are like icing on the cake. You can check the recipes for home made Majjiga mirapakayalu here.

So let us look at what all ingredients we need to make Dhappalam or Teeya pulusu

Ingredients

1. Tamarind Pulp or paste : From a lemon sized ball of tamarind
2. Sweet potatoes – 2 or 3 medium sized ones
3. Tomato – 1 large tomato.
4. Green chillies – 3-4
5. Curry leaves – a small branch/ sprig
6. Jaggery – 1/2 cup crushed or grated
7. Besan / Chickpea flour – 2 tbsp
8. Salt – Per taste
9. Coriander for garnishing

For seasoning

1. Oil – 2 tbsp
2. Mustard – 1 tsp
3. Methi – few grains
4. Dried red chilli – 2
5. Hing – 2 pinches
6. Turmeric – 1 tsp

Procedure

1. Mix the the tamarind pulp / paste into in a small pot with water filled up to 3/4ths.
2. Add salt, turmeric and jaggery to the water.
3. Halve the green chillies and add to the water.
4. Scrub and clean the sweet potatoes well and cut them into roundels or medium sized chunks and add them to the water.
5. Cut the tomato into large pieces and add them to the pot.
6. Add curry leaves and chopped coriander too and boil this mix till the sweet potatoes are cooked.
7. Check by pressing a small spoon against a sweet potato piece and it should be able to cut through easily.
8. Now in a small bowl make slurry of besan adding water as required. You can also use rice flour in case you d not have besan.
9. Now add this slurry to the pulusu that is getting cooked and mix well.
10. Boil this for some more time, till the pulusu gets little creamy soupy texture.
11. Add finely chopped coriander to the pulusu.
12. Now turn the heat off and prep the seasoning/ popu/ tadka
13. In a small kadhai or skillet. Heat the oil and once hot add mustard, methi seeds and halved dried red chillies.
14. Once mustard starts spluttering, turn off the heat, add hing and turmeric.
15. Now pour this seasoning over the pulusu.
16. Serve with hot rice and ghee.