Under Pulse soups and curries (Part I), I will be talking about a variety of ‘Humman’ as you call it in Konkani made from pulses and lentils. In Konkani ‘Humman’ means a preparation of watery consistency. You can make a thick consistency that is less watery also. Under Pulse soups and curries (Part I), I will be mentioning about Bengal gram and green peas dal soup (Chonya dali ani peas dali humman). I will also mention about the preparation of curry with the same pulses. Both Pulse soups and curries are a healthy and rejuvenating side dish along with rice especially raw rice. I have specifically mentioned raw rice because we GSB Konkani’s are raw rice consumers. Even though we have adapted to the Kerala culture and have started consuming the brown rice (par boiled) too we have not kept aside the raw rice from our menu.
Now what is the difference between raw rice and parboiled rice? Paddy when dried and removed of its husk and bran we get raw rice. While hand pounding in olden days chances of breakage of rice was more. But now-a-days new techniques involving milling machines are there to avoid breakage of rice. Parboiled rice is prepared by boiling the paddy first either one or two times then drying and removing the husk and bran. In this process the bran is not removed completely and hence the nutritive value of parboiled rice is more. On parboiling, breakage of rice is less if boiled twice.
Even though Konkani’s adopted parboiled rice from Keralites, for wedding, upanayanam, poojas and ceremonies usually raw rice is taken. Raw rice is used to prepare nivedya’s which require only raw rice. But now-a-days with the change of times we have started taking brown rice also along with the raw rice for various occasions but not for nivedya’s. Parboiled rice is used to prepare ‘Kanji’ that is rice porridge which becomes an excellent ORS when consumed along with humman and curries of pulses and lentils.
Now coming to the preparation of ‘Humman’. This is our main protein supplement since we are neither egg nor meat eaters (But we have changed with time and there are non- vegetarians among us too). These humman vary in the method of preparation even-though they look the same. Like for some humman like green gram humman and dry beans humman we add asafoetida and chilli powder. But for the ones I am mentioning here no such ingredients are added. Now these dishes are not spicy ones and no onion and garlic have been used in the preparation. Yes! And the main ingredient in Konkani dishes coconut is included as a garnish in these dishes. However you can prepare even without coconut as well but the addition of it will enhance the taste and flavour of the dish. You can have both these along with rice as well as along with chapatti, poori, puttu etc….to mention a few.
Curries made from these two pulses are also somewhat similar to the preparation of humman. But the main difference is curry is the dry version of humman these humman.
I have also included variations in the preparation of humman and curries in Pulse soups and curries (Part I). Channa dal dry curry (Chonya dali Ukkari) is also prepared as a nivedyam during ‘Navarathri’ and distributed to neighbors and friends.
Ingredients
You need
- ½ cup of Channa dal/Peas dal
- Water as required
- Salt to taste
Seasoning
- 1 tbspn coconut oil
- A small spoon mustard
- A small spoon jeera/cumin seeds
- 1 to 2 slit green chillies or as per your spiciness level
- 1 to 2 Red chillies cut into pieces or as per your spiciness level
- 1 sprig curry leaves
Garnishing
- 2 tbspns of grated coconut
Method
PREPARATION OF SOUP (HUMMAN) WITH BENGAL GRAM AND GREEN PEAS DAL
Wash the dal of your choice and pressure cook the dal adding water to it until it is cooked. After the pressure cooker cools down remove the dal and keep aside.
Now do the seasoning as follows: Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds and when they splutter add the jeera/cumin seeds followed by green chillies. Sauté the slit green chillies for 1 or 2 seconds till the raw flavour goes off. Then add the cut red chillies and sauté them too for 1 or 2 seconds. Add in the curry leaves. To this seasoning add the cooked dal of your choice along with the stock (The water that you used to cook the dal). Add salt and mix well.
The dish is a bit watery and after adding the stock if you feel that water has to be added to attain the required consistency then please do it. After adding salt and water you have to boil the dal. Once boiled switch off the flame.
Garnish with 2 tbspns of grated coconut.
Your Bengal gram and green peas dal soup (Chonya dali ani peas dali humman) is ready to be served.
Serve as side dish along with rice, chapattis, poori, puttu etc….If you are having it with poori or chapattis you can have this along with a green salad of your choice. You can refer my post on Timblis for the same.
Variation in the preparation of Bengal gram dal and green peas dal humman
You can add pepper to the dish during seasoning
Ingredients
You need
- ½ cup of Channa dal/Peas dal
- Water as required
- Salt to taste
Seasoning
- 1 tbspn coconut oil
- A small spoon mustard
- A small spoon jeera/cumin seeds
- 1 or 2 slit green chillies or as per your spiciness level
- 5 to 8 pepper corns (crush and use. No pepper powder please)
- 1 sprig curry leaves
Garnishing
- 2 tbspns of grated coconut
The rest of the procedure remains the same. In this method no red chillies are used.
PREPARATION OF DRY CURRY (‘UKKARI’ IN KONKANI) WITH BENGAL GRAM AND GREEN PEAS DAL
Wash the dal of your choice and allow it to soak for 3 to 5 hours. You need not soak the Green peas dal just sprinkle some water and pressure cook. Pressure cook the dal as follows: Drain away water retain only very little water. Transfer the dal to the separator of your pressure cooker or if you do not have a separator you can use any other vessel which will fit in your cooker. You need not have to add water to the dal if you are soaking it. After one whitle simmer the flame for 2 to 3 minutes for green peas dal and 5 to 8 minutes for Bengal gram dal. Allow the cooker to cool and then remove the dal and keep aside. I follow this method of pressure cooking to avoid the formation of ‘a mass of dal’ after preparation of the dry curry. But even then chances of formation of mass cannot be avoided because it varies with the variety of the dal.
Now do the seasoning as follows: Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds and when they splutter add the jeera/cumin seeds followed by green chillies. Sauté the slit green chillies for 1 or 2 seconds till the raw flavour goes off. Then add the cut red chillies and sauté them too for 1 or 2 seconds. Add in the curry leaves. To this seasoning add the cooked dal of your. Add salt and mix well and cook it for 2 to 3 minutes.
The dish is not watery once cooked switch off the flame.
Garnish with 2 tbspns of grated coconut.
Your Bengal gram and green peas dal curry (Chonya dali ani peas dali ukkari) is ready to be served.
Serve as side dish along with rice or ‘Kanji’.
Variation in the preparation of ukkari (Curry)
You can add pepper to the dish during seasoning
Ingredients
You need
- ½ cup of Channa dal/Peas dal
- Water as required
- Salt to taste
Seasoning
- 1 tbspn coconut oil
- A small spoon mustard
- A small spoon jeera/cumin seeds
- 1 or 2 slit green chillies or as per your spiciness level
- 5 to 8 pepper corns (crush and use. No pepper powder please)
- 1 sprig curry leaves
Garnishing
- 2 tbspns of grated coconut
The rest of the procedure remains the same. In this method no red chillies are used.
Tips
You can soak the dal of your choice prior to pressure cooking so that it will cook fast in less time.
Always do the seasoning on low flame so that you don’t roast them to too much to give you an off flavour.
If you are using pepper corns in your recipe then as soon as you add the pepper corns to your seasoning see that you add the cooked dal to it. This is because the pepper corns will get burnt very fast and will give an off flavour to your dish.
The cooking time of Bengal gram dal and green peas dal are different.
For ukkari/curry you need not have to retain the water.
