Thursday, August 11, 2011

Matodi Palya / Matawadi Palya



Matodi Palya also called as Matawadi Palya is a dish made of soaked Bengal gram or Chana Dal and fenugreek / methi leaves. It is one of those dishes which fall under the category of extremely tasty but time and oil consuming ones! You need to plan ahead as it needs the dal to be soaked for a few hours, the methi leaves picked, washed and chopped. Hence this is made as part of a special meal on a festival day or a weekend when you can over eat and play couch potato. This vegetable or palya as it is called in Kannada is quite crumbly by itself, making it necessary to add more oil (gulp!) when it is mixed with rice. It is eaten as a special combination with curd based gravies such as Majjige Huli or Hasi Majjige and even gojju or sweet and sour gravy.

There are again different versions of preparing this delectable dish. Just Bengal gram and sometimes a combination of both Bengal gram and Toor Dal are used here. Would like to add that this is also made with raw bananas or sometimes with cluster beans in place of the methi leaves. You could add a whole lot more than the amount of methi leaves mentioned here. The dal or dals are first soaked for a few hours till soft. Then ground with spices, green chillies and coconut till smooth. Then comes out your big kadai or frying pan. Biggest one actually! Folks don't take to it kindly if you don't serve this very generously at least twice a day, leftovers are lapped up without a murmur of protest!  The ground paste is fried till all the moisture evaporates and you get a divine aroma wafting through your home. Health conscious and lazy folks prefer to steam this paste as we steam idlis, then add a lesser amount of oil and fry for lesser time. I am yet to try making Matodi Palya this way, but definitely sounds like a promising idea. I personally like to eat this with plain steamed rice and oil, then with loads of rasam and then with curd rice. Oh, yes! Its heavenly!  If you have never tasted this, I urge you try it, you will surely love it...


This is my mother-in-law's recipe and boy was I glad she made a lot of it!! I won't tell you that I hogged on this and how!!

Ingredients:
Bengal Gram / Chana Dal 1 1/2 Cups
Fresh fenugreek / methi leaves, chopped - 1 cup firmly packed ( you could use 2 cups too, more doesn't hurt)
Green Chillies - 5-6  large
Asafetida / Hing - A generous pinch
Fresh Coconut, grated - 1/2 cup
Jeera powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Oil - 1/4 cup plus 1 or 2 tablespoons more as needed
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Bengal Gram - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 3/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - A few
Salt to taste

Procedure: Wash and soak the Bengal gram in enough water for about 3 hours or till soft. Think Masala Vadas! Grind the dal to an almost smooth paste using as little water as possible. A few whole grains here and there is fine. Grind the coconut, jeera powder, hing and green chillies to a smooth paste. In a large bowl, mix the ground dal, coconut paste, turmeric powder, chopped methi leaves and salt to taste. The ground mixture may taste spicy now, but once fried it will be less spicy. At this stage you could steam the mixture till cooked and then carry on with the rest of the procedure.

Heat 1/4 cup oil in a large broad, thick bottomed frying pan. Add the mustard seeds, chana dal and curry leaves. Add the dal mixture and fry on high heat for a few minutes, stirring continuously. This lot of oil will disappear like magic! Don't worry, it will resurface sometime later...

Lower the heat, cover the pan with a lid. You need to keep mixing the palya every 5 minutes or so for about half an hour. The raw smell should disappear, the dal cooked, crumbly and oily when done.


 Serve with hot rice and oil, gojju / majjige huli / hasi majjige...The above quantity serves 3-4 people.

21 comments:

Umm Mymoonah said...

Wow! A new kind of side dish, delicious.

Sum said...

One of my favorites too... Love it like anything.... I use a non stick pan these days to lessen the quantity of oil... And in your line 'I personally like to eat this with plain steamed rice and oil, then with loads of rasam and then with curd rice', i wanna add, 'taking out of the big pan and tasting and re-tasting it till it is time for meal and of course after the meal too' He he :D

Priya Suresh said...

Wow wat a nutritious and fabulous palya, super inviting..Seriously i can finish that whole bowl rite now..

M D said...

Love this one. It looks amazing. Need to give this a try. :)

Sushma Mallya said...

Wow love the methi flavor in this I am bookmarking this to try:)

Hasna said...

thats a whole new dish for me

Prathima Rao said...

This dish brings back memories og my paternal grandma...It was one of her many specialities..We werent smart enough then to note down the recipe..Came across a few but was not happy with the outcome..This on the other hand makes it apparent that the search for my ajji`s style matoda palya ends..Thx a ton Suma & to ur MIL too!!
Prathima Rao
Prats Corner

Sweet Artichoke said...

Yum, this looks absolutely delicious! the simple mention of bengal gram and methi got me hooked!!

Nitha said...

Looks nutritious and yummy...

Neha said...

Hey Suma...First time on your space...This Palya looks nice and tempting...happy to join you dear...Do visit me at http://muchmorethanahomemaker.blogspot.com/
Cheers

Tes said...

I love the beautiful yellow of this dish :) It looks delicious :)

Vani said...

That is one of the best looking matwadi palyas that I've ever seen! I've posted this too, but the short cut, besan version.

lalith said...

yummy yummy yummmy!!!!!

divya said...

Wat a healthy food,looks prefect..

Sushma said...

never had this before..will try it soon

chef and her kitchen said...

one of my favorite..I agree frying d ground version takes lot of oil n hence I always steam it and use..looks delicious..:)

Zareena said...

Never tried this before. This looks so easy too.

Forever mother said...

Hi
Came across your blog on Parentree and it was the recipe's name that caught my eye.
We make something similar, but as you mentioned, with cluster beans usually. We call it barda palya.
I have never done it with methi and your post has inspired me...though right now, sitting in office with my curd rice dabba on a festive afternoon, I'm just wishing I could spoon out some of the palya from your blog! It looks so yummy-yellow-inviting.
Recently, I made a similar version (with onions, though) with capsicum as the key vegetable, and it turned out quite good.
Just thought I'll share the recipe with you :-)
http://crib-crib.blogspot.com/2011/05/recipe-for-capsicum-barda-palya.html

Myvegfare said...

I love this, rather my H loves it more :), I call it paruppu aricha karmadu (Ground Dal curry), I make it with beans, bittergourd (my favouite), raw banana, drumstick leaves etc.., thinking of Methi and the click both is making me hungry

Divya Shankar said...

Wow .. tremendous and 1/4 cup oil, definitely must be mighty tasty :)
There is a similar dish that Tamil Brahmins make - called paruppu (dal) usili (crumbled form) - minus methi in the boiling step. After the steaming of the dal-coconut-chilli-jeera mixture, we take oil for tempering, add boiled beans or cooked banana stem pieces and add the steamed dal to it. Of course, the dish takes little more oil than normally required. Used to love this one when my mom makes it - mix it with ghee and rice and have .. those days are gone now ;)
I will try your version out defntly.

Vijayashree said...

Thanks Suma,
I am surely going to try this.
Thanks for sharing. Though I am from Karnataka, I only know Iyengar dishes. Thanks for sharing whole lot of yummy Madhwa dishes too.