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Masala Beans Poriyal
April 30, 2007 | 23 Comments
After our whinefest about Chandra Padmanabhan’s Dakshin, we tried a few more recipes from the book. They turned out quite well.
This one called for a whole teaspoon of asafoetida. We use freshly powdered whole asafoetida. It’s strong stuff, and the next time we will cut the asafoetida to a half teaspoon.
- Jai
MASALA BEANS PORIYAL
from Dakshin by Chandra Padmanabhan
Ingredients
1 lb/about 500 gms green beans (we used French beans)
Salt
MASALA
2 tsp oil
3 Tbs chana dal (split bengal gram)
1 Tbs urad dal (black gram)
2 Tbs coriander seeds
4 red chillies
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
4 Tbs grated fresh coconut
Marble sized piece of tamarind
Salt
TEMPERING
1 Tbs oil
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp chana dal (split bengal gram)
1 tsp urad dal (split black gram)
1 red chilli (halved)
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
8-10 Curry leaves
Method
1. MASALA: Zap the tamarind in the microwave on HIGH for 30 seconds with 1/4 cup of water. Let it cool a bit and extract the pulp.
2. Saute the chana dal, urad dal, coriander seeds, red chillies, and asafoetida powder for 2-3 minutes after heating the 2 tsp oil in a pan.
3. Take if off the flame, add the coconut and tamarind pulp and blend into thick paste (add a little water to make the paste smooth).
4. Add a little salt and blend a bit more and set aside.
5. BEANS: Add little salt and water to the beans and cook over low heat in a pan until the beans are tender. (if using frozen beans – microwave for couple minutes and skip the water as the beans are sufficiently wet already). Remove from pan and set aside.
6. TEMPERING: Heat the oil in the pan and add the tempering ingredients.
7. Add the ground masala to the tempering when the mustard seeds splutter and cook on low heat for 5-7 minutes or until the mixture is dry.
8. Add the beans to the masala and cook for an additional couple minutes until the masala blends well with the beans.
Serve hot with rice or roti.
Filed Under: Chandra-Padmanabhan, Coconut, Curry leaves, Dakshin, Green/French-Beans, Tamarind, vegan recipes, vegetarian recipes
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23 Comments
[...] Masala Beans Poriyal [...]
So finally you are happy with Dakshin
I am always wary of using excess asafoetida and fenugreek. So I add less and keep tasting it 
Does this one taste like Kerala thoran? Hmm..may be not because of all the dals.
it has less coconut and more spice than thoran. – b.
Wow, that looks way too yummy for a beans poriyal…never had tamarind in beans, I’m definitely going to try this one.
Freshly powdered hing is super stuff! Nothing like the flavor it imparts but it is strong compared to the powdered stuff which contains additives like flour and edible gum. To keep it from coagulating, I think, I am not sure.
This sounds like my kind of recipe! Yum!
1 tsp of hing????!!!! he he… i dont think i can stand that much of hing in any dish:) i like hing in paste form. after sra’s post i call it devil’s dung;) yup… its true:)
Even with pre-powdered hing, that looks pretty hingy! I love it though, so I’d like this dish… I suppose other vegetables could be exchanged for the beans; even cooked rice tossed with the masala would be good!
try asparagus, broccoli, cabbage (if you don’t mind the smell), brussels, green leafy veggies, this should work for practically anything. – b.
WOW! What a wonderful array of different flavors. A really fantastic bean recipe. Bee, you are a genius!
1 tsp hing is too much for me but I love the Porial and that beautiful book Dakshin!:))
Wow..thats a beautiful picture. One tea spn hing?? thats as much as I use for 2 weeks may be. I like hing, but can’t take too strong hing flavor. I am going to try this recipe.
Btw..I bought a pack of kamal kakri after reading your post. I will try your dish this week. Thanks for introducing a new vegetable
Excellent pic bee…Wow man …how you guys have a an excellent photgraphy technique …Please do give us few tips on that …..
great recipe
there are a bunch of links of blogs with exquisite pix which b put up in dining hall a while ago. check them out for ideas. we are new to food blogging pix and our range is quite limited. We try to take pix in natural light as much as possible. –Jai
looks Yum! love the whole hing, has such a fantastic aroma, wrote @ it sometime back, i think in my khattu mag post. anyway, what blender do you use, if i may ask? i always end up with bits of masala when i try to blend it.
thanks
richa, for whole hing and other powders, we first break it to bits in our heavy-duty mortar and pestle, then put it in a coffee grinder we have just for spices. for wet masalas, we use sumeet, and more recently preethi. – b.
Bee, looks tasty and green. Hing I add a tiny pinch probably stick with that, have a family of sniffers/smellers or whatever they are to be called.
its beautiful:)
Thats a LOT of hing
where do you get whole hing here! i am not a big fan of the powdered stuff (and thats about the only thing i found in the stores here). The poriyal looks good though, very good. Never had tamarind in the poriyal, will try it soon.
go to your desi grocer and ask for it. they will have it somewhere, maybe behind the counter. else, ask him/her to get some quick to salvage his/her reputation. it lasts for a while, so it may be even worth getting it online. my gujju grocer, who’s the only desi grocer within maybe a 500 mile radius, and has a tiny hole in the wall, keeps it. – b.
Bee,
This is called food photography.Beautifully captured. Beans palya is my fav and your version of making it is very different from ours. Got to make it. Have bookmarked it.
Thanx
Addl notes: It’s a good thing that the Masala is ground separately. I intend to make a large batch and freeze. As Pelicano pointed out – it could be very nice with Rice too(and some ghee!). Since the asafoetida has a chance to get cooked for a while, I think a larger amount than a pinch (as suggested by some of you) will actually be good with this. As I mentioned in the post I will back away from 1/2+1/2tsp to 1/4+1/4tsp for this measure. –Jai
wow wonderfull photography Bee, i am always check back on your photos more than the recipe
i love beans masala poriyal but i can never add 1 tsp of hing
Lovely picture bee…I make beans poriyal in a different way but my mom grinds a masala similar to the one u had ground , to make kootu. I too think 1 tsp of asafoetida is too much for any dish…even 1/2 tsp is too much .
Iam bored of making the same type of beans poriyal, and Iam going to try this next time when I buy beans.. Thanks for sharing.
How do you store the whole asafoetida? Mine always hardens up no matter what.
we store it in a small plastic bag in a small plastic container. ours dries up too. we just break it with a mortar and pestle and grind it to a powder a little at a time.
oooooo… that’s the most gorgeous photo of green beans yet. I’m making this TONIGHT!
The recipes look strongly flavoured. The picture looks just Perfect. Bee, would you mind telling how you get such nice white background in your above picture
Picture taken on a white plate with a white background in natural white light. I think I overexposed at least couple of stops. Also use as low an aperture opening as you can get by. Just experiment with that. Try to eliminate shadows by making the light come from behind the camera and/or using white paper positioned adjacent to the object. this is tricky and of course requires lot of trial. You might still end up with not completely satisfactory background…in that case you can use a software like photoshop to pour white into the background. Making light come from behind is tricky if you don’t want to block too much light by the camera equipment itself or worse still get a shadow of the camera on the pic
–Jai
Thanks Jai for very useful information. I would try my hands on using your suggestion next time i click a picture
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