Kali Tori (Pigeon Peas) Sukke With Onion And Bimbul.

"Kali Tori (Black Tori / Pigeon Peas) Sukke With Onion And Bimbul" ....... An awesome semi dry dish that goes very well with Dalitoy-Rice and Chapati too .......

I simply love Kali Tori / Pigeon Peas. Usually I prepare gashi with garlic seasoning and I love gorging on it with red ukada rice / red boiled rice. When my dear friend Sushma posted this kali tori sukke which was new to me, I was totally bowled and just had to do it. Sushma Mallya is a talented chef in her own rights with an awesome blog Authentic Food Delights to her credit which has lots of forgotten traditional recipes. Due to time constraint and certain commitments I could not prepare it for some time. But it was there in the back burner of my mind. My recent trip to Mangalore and my visit to market was really nostalgic. I wanted to buy almost everything I had not tasted in years though I do visit Manglore atleast once in 2-3 yrs. My flying visits never give me enough time to dig about and purchase what I want. But this time I had one full day without any commitments and what more can I ask for, I pulled my hubby along and went about on buying spree. A relative of mine gave me a large bagfull of bimbul and I was literally dancing looking at it. Love them and they are not available in Mumbai though some people do manage to get them, I have not been able to. Guess now I will make a trip to Mangalore just to bring veggies. LOL … I guess man is never satisfied with his never ending desires and when it comes to food its no stopping me anywhere. Coming to the sukke I have tweaked a bit in amount of addition of ingredients and added bimbul instead of tamarind. By and large the recipe remains the same. Thanks Sush for the lovely recipe, we loved it … yumz.

Ingredients

Kali tori / Black Pigeon Peas : 1 cup

Onions : 2 large sized or 3 medium sized.

Urad dal : 2 tsp

Methi seeds : ½ tsp

Coconut : 1 cup freshly grated.

Red Kashmiri Chillies : 8-10

Bimbul / Bimbli : 6-8 medium sized

Salt to taste

Oil : 1 tsp + 3 tsp 

Pick and clean the kali tori and soak in plenty of water overnight or for at least 8 hours. Wash and rinse again in plenty of water and put it in a pressure cooker with water an inch above the level of the tori. Pressure cook the tori to 2-3 whistle or till done. Let the pressure fall on its own. Gently open the lid and add in one glass of water and mix well. Now strain the cooked liquid from the kali tori / pigeon peas. You can use the liquid in preparation of saar, so do not discard it. Keep it aside in another vessel for later use. For this sukke we need only the cooked black tori. 

Peel off the skin and cut the onion into fine pieces. Keep this ready aside.

Wash and wipe the bimbul and snip of the ends. Cut it into 1 inch thick rings. You may get about 3 horizontal round cuts out of each bimbul. Keep this ready aside.

Heat 1 tsp oil in a small pan, when hot add in the urad dal and fry on medium heat. When the colour changes slightly add in the methi seeds and fry for a few seconds. Now add in the red chillies and fry for few more seconds and remove from fire. Add this to the grated coonut and grind to a smooth paste with little bit of water. If you do not have bimbul or hogplum add a small marble sized tamarind while grinding. I have not added it as I have used bimbul for this recipe. The paste should be semi coarse and need not be ground very fine. But check and see that all the added spices are ground properly. 

In a thick bottomed kadai add in the masala and bimbul pieces. Add water only if necessary. The consistency should be thick as this is a semi dry dish. Bring to a boil, on medium heat taking care to see that the masala does not get burnt at the bottom. Lower the heat and cook of 2-3 minutes so that the bimbul gets cooked. Now add in the pressure cooked and sieved Kali Tori / Black pigeon peas, salt to taste and mix well. Let cook on medium heat.

In another pan add in the 3 tsp of oil, when hot add in the chopped onions and fry till slightly colour changes to brown. Do not overfry it like we do for seasoning. Just when the colour changes, remove and add it to the cooked black tori with masala. Mix all the ingredients gently till all are well blended with the masala. Simmer on low flame for 5 minutes. Done. The Kali Tori Sukke is ready. Remove and keep it aside covered for 5-10 minutes for all the flavours to be infused properly. Serve hot with Dalitoy-Rice or Chapati. Tastes awesome.