TOGARI NUCCHINUNDE (A Tur dal recipe)

Togari nucchinunde, a specialty of Karnataka, is a wonder dish made of togari bele/tuvar dal. The name of the dish implies that they are balls made of broken tur dal. Probably in olden days, when there was no the concept of supplying cleaned togari bele, grocery shops supplied  one which was a mix of whole and broken togari bele.  So, while cleaning and separating them some innovative lady must have found a unique way to use this broken bele and created this dish. Now that clean bele is available, the dish is made by soaking and grinding the whole togari bele.   It is one of the main dishes of a Karnataka meal, but made comparatively rarely. This is a protein rich, steam cooked dish and so is a very healthy dish. Very filling also. Though it is an item of main meals, it can also be used as a snack. Usually it is accompanied by another dish, majjige huli/paladya.

Ingredients

Togaribele/Tur dal                                            1 cup

Water                                                               3 cups

Salt                                                                  1 teaspoon

Ginger grated                                                  1 tablespoon

Ingu/asafoetida                                                3 or 4 pinches

Green chilies                                                    2-3

Grated coconut                                                1 cup

Menthya soppu/methi finely chopped              2 cups

Procedure:

Soak  togari bele in water for 3-4 hours.  Transfer to a colander and drain completely. See that no water remains.

Grind , ginger, green chilies, salt and ingu to a coarse paste without adding water. Then add grated coconut and run the mixer just for a few seconds so that it mixes well with the ground togari bele mixture.  Add finely chopped menthya soppu and mix well.

Now take one small fistful of the ground mixture and make balls as shown. Take a steel plate which has holes, smear with oil and arrange the balls in the plate. If you don’t have such plate you can arrange them in idli stand as shown. 

Now heat water in a pressure cooker. Place a steel ring or any other narrow vessel in the cooker. When water starts boiling, place the plate in the cooker, cover the cooker lid and steam for 10 minutes and turn off the flame. If you use idli stand, follow the same procedure.

Leave for five minutes and transfer the balls into a box.  

Serve hot with ghee and  majjige huli.

You can to eat the balls just with ghee, or mix with only rice or mix with rice and majjige huli, both.

Usually majjige huli a south Indian version of kadhi, has  in it vegetables like pumpkin, chow chow, snake gourd etc. But one used as an accompaniment of  Togari NucchinunDe can be made plain without vegetables too.

Note: One cup of  togari bele yields about 15 pieces of the dish. Serves 4-5