Pesarattu / MLA Pesarattu/ Mung bean Crepe

      Pesarattu is a nutritious dosa/ crepe made with moong dal / whole green mung beans and rice. It's a popular telugu dish, high in protein. It's easy to make with out the time consuming fermenting process done with regular dosa, this dosa is without urud dal. Traditionally pesarattus are accompanied with spicy and colorful ginger chutney/ allam pachadi Click here for recipe .

ginger chutney, pesarattu and upma...

      If we add upma (Click here for recipe ) with pesarattu and chutney, it's called MLA pesarattu (got this name because of it's popularity in MLA quarter's restaurants in Hydrabad- wikipedia).
mung bean is also called: moong dal, pesara, moog dal, mash, paasi payir

How to make pesarattu:
2    cup        mung bean/ moong dhal/ paasi payir
1/2 cup        rice/ raw rice
4                 indian green chilli
1/2"             ginger   
1/2 cup        chopped coriander/ cilantro leaves

Method:
1. Wash and soak the mung bean and rice in water for at least 6 hrs.
2. Wash the soaked grains one more time, add little water and grind it with cilantro, ginger and green chillies to a smooth batter in a blender or mixer.
3. Add salt to the batter. Heat the dosa tawa or a flat round (pancake) pan, apply oil to it's surface,
4. Pour 2 ladle of moong dal batter and spread it around thinly with the back of the spoon, add 2 tsp of oil around the dosa.
5. Cook till the dosa gets crispy and brown on the pan side (at this stage the dosa should come off easily from the pan), flip the dosa and cook for a few min's.
6. Remove it from the pan, continue the process with the remaining batter.
7. Serve it immediately with ginger chutney/ allam pachidi.

Tips for taste:
1. Serve pesarattu immediately after cooking with chutney, it tastes better when it's hot and crispy.

2. To make MLA pesarattu, cook  Upma  and Ginger Chutney / Alam Pachadi  chutney before hand and make the pesarattu just before serving.


                                       

Ginger Chutney / Allam Pachadi

This is an interesting side dish for pesarattu (Click here for recipe), bold and colorful. The big flavors should not over power one another, it should be in a harmony. Ginger has a lot of medicinal value. 

Memory lane:
        My daughter played flute in her school (middle school) orchestra. She took it very seriously and practiced daily, at first it sounded something between a train's whistle and a fire alarm. The kids practiced a lot after school. During the final performance they dressed up nicely and played confidently and harmoniously. It was so good! not even one out of place squeaky sound was heard. We enjoyed it and was very proud of our daughter and her friends.
Ingredients:
1 cup         chopped fresh ginger
1/2 cup      tamarind paste 
1/2 tsp       fenugreek/ methi seeds
10- 12       dried red chillies
3 tbs         powdered jaggery/ brown sugar
1/8 tsp       asafoetida
salt to taste
to temper: 
1/2 tsp         mustard seed
1 tsp            black gram/ urud dal
2 tbs            oil 
few curry leaves
Method:
1. In a pan dry roast the red chillies and fenugreek for a few mins on low.  
2. In a blender/ mixer add the roasted red chillies, fenugreek and ginger and grind in to a paste, add the tamarind paste, asafoetida and jaggery and blend it well.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds when it splutters add the black gram and curry leaves.
4. Lower the heat and add the ground mixture, cook till the liquid evaporates and the chutney becomes nice and thick.
5. Serve it with crispy pesarattu, iddly or dosa.

Tips for taste:
   We can add more lemon juice/ chilli powder/ sugar to the chutney to adjust the taste.