Thursday, May 6, 2010

Tori Bendi

Tori is Pigeon peas and Bendi is a coconut based curry with a garlic seasoning.

Bendi reminds me of a very funny story.A few years back,a family friend of ours had gone to Mangalore with his whole family as part of a pilgrimage.Though Konkani is spoken in Mangalore,it is quite different from the Konkani we speak[in Kerala].The dialects are different and sometimes some words have a totally different meaning than what we intend to say!!

Story goes like this,they had stopped for breakfast in an amchigele[Konkani] restaurant which was evident from the waiters’ lingo.They were quite happy and asked the waiter what was the special item for the day.He said Surnali-Bendi.Though they didn’t understand what the dish was,they assumed it would consist of Surnu[Elephant Yam] and Bhindi[Okra].They were in for a pleasant surprise when the waiter bought along plates of Yellow Fluffy dosas and a curry made with pulses!!

My ma-in-law tells me that Bendi is indeed paired with Mushti Polo[spongy dosa/set dosa] and after such a long time I had it today and loved it.It tastes great with Rice too.If you do not like the strong flavour of Garlic,you could season it with mustard seeds and curry leaves too.


Tori Bendi

Ingredients


Tori/Pigeon peas[dried] – ¾ cup,soaked overnight and cooked[I pressure cooked it for 20 minutes]
Grated coconut – ½ cup
Roasted red chillies – 4-5
Tamarind – 1 small pea size
Salt to taste
Oil – 1 tbsp
Garlic cloves – 5-6,crushed

Method

Grind to a smooth paste the grated coconut,red chillies and tamarind.
Mix with the cooked tori/peas,add salt to taste and boil for 5-10 minutes.
In a pan,add oil and crushed garlic.
Keep stirring till the garlic cooks and browns well.
Add to the boiling curry and switch off the flame.
Serve with dosa or rice.

21 comments :

  1. With less ingredients,this tori bendi sounds definitely interesting and new for me..Looks awesome Divya..

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  2. Divya kanche randai losun phanna ghalle hanv khatta... losun migel jeevache... The way i add losun one may feel tht is it some pulses bendi or losne bendi :D... nd mushti polo also luks yum... nd yeah kerala konkani is totally different... I have many stories with the languages... :D

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  3. HI DIVYA
    I LOVE THIS PREPARATION.SINCE I AM FROM MANGALORE MARRIED INTO A NORTH CANARA FAMILY WE OFTEN PREPARE THIS AT MY MOM'S PLACE.HAPPY TO KNOW U LIKE THIS PREPARATION.

    SUDHA BORKAR

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  4. I miss surnolis even though I hated them when I got the chance to eat them.

    Your tori is really dark, the one I use is whitish. This looks more like Bagdo... incidentally, I just had lunch: chapatis and bagdya bendi!

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  5. My recipe for tori bendi is here:http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2008/06/tori-bendi.html

    Is what you've used Kaali Tori?

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  6. Easy and tasty dish, would love to try..

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  7. very new to me.. looks soo tempting. .truly delicious.. nice post dear!!

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  8. Nice dish with yummy ingredients.. the name sounds so different .. wonderful side dish.

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  9. even i thought it was a okra dish when I saw the title..looks delicious..

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  10. divya very simple one..delicious curry yarr..this dish and name itself is really new to me..Loved the Tori bendi nice one
    Its looks like blcak channa. u r from Which part of kerala

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  11. Yummm... wud go really well with rice :)

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  12. looks great..lovely recipe easy too

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  13. Beautiful, this looks really yummy!!

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  14. Look at those garlic, should be delicious!

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  15. Lovely presentation. Never tasted this preparation, but will surely try it once.

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  16. Toti bendi looks very delicious and a nice memory to go with it.

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  17. so few ingredients!! is pigeon peas brown in color? it looks like black chana! is neer dosa and polo the same?

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  18. Thank you all!!

    Raaga..Yes,I've used Black Tori:)

    Mallugirl..There are two varieties[as far as I know],black and white.I've used black here.Dosas are called Polo in Konkani,so neer dosa is just another polo:)

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  19. Looks yummy.. wud like to give a try

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  20. I love bendi.. and the garlic in it.. when we were young, we used to fight for the garlic in the bendi..mom had to give equal amount to all the kids..haha.. but I have never had it with musti polo.. your musti polo looks real good.
    Anu

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  21. why dont u change the look of your blog page? The writings are not at all legible due to the bold polka dots and it hurts the eyes.

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A blog is not complete without the readers feedback.Please let me know how you liked my post.Thank you so much for visiting my blog.

Love,
Divya.

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