Thenga manga pattani sundal/ Beach sundal
Hola peeps. As I am typing this, Adya is having his online weekly zoom school class where all the kids show something that they have made/ played with during the week or are all listening to a story that their teacher is telling them. Its very cute to see the kids ineract with each other and say random stuff. Gives us a glimpse of how the actual class might be for these tiny tots. Its also a stark reminder that things are far away from normalcy. I have friends who have lost a parent and cannot go to perform the final rights.. I have friends who have welcomed a new baby into their family with the mum delivering the kid all by herself (I mean no one else in the family with her.. not even her own husband) and the dad/ rest of the family seeing the kid first online because he couldn’t be with the mom & baby at the hospital. I have friends who’ve lost their jobs. I have friends who are doing so much physically to help out during these hard times. I work in the airline industry where pretty much no commercial flights were flying for a good period of time and even now we are barely functioning. I am 33 and my parent folks are in their 60s and none of us have seen anything like this. Who would’ve thought a virus would be enough to keep us all inside our homes for such a long time & can create a havoc like this all around us. Just hope these times get over soon and become a thing of past. On a positive note, there is a lot of time that families can spend with each other, talk, chat, play & EAT… a lot of EAT is happening in our house hold. D & Adya are demanding more than ever and want to eat different foods just because they are bored mostly!
Those of you who lived in chennai or visited chennai must’ve surely visited the beach. One of the most favourite parts of my beach visits were the beach sundal & the molaga bhajji (this one wasn’t really good for the stomach but eh, sometimes stomach takes control of everything else :)). There were these teenage boys who typically sold these beach sundal in a thagara dabba (which I am not even sure how often got washed :D) with hot hot sundal which he would pack and give us in paper potlams (small cones/ packets) and man… the beach smell & the sundal is a match made in heaven.. I loved it and this was something though my mom didn’t fully approve (hygiene reasons) still bought it for us because sundal technically wouldn’t be very oily or have food colour added. We used to literally OD on these :). So every time I eat this outside of the beach, I reminisce about the good old days when the biggest dilemma in life was what to eat in the beach or what evening snack to have or what game to play in the terrace :). Ah, simpler life, simpler times. Wonder why we even grow up at times. Anywho, below is a humble attempt at recreating the beach sundal & its a pretty good attempt I must say. Learnt it from mil & tried it out on my own under her guidance. Just a funny reminder to my own self, put some pebbles around in the final picture. Also used a thooku (a vessel with a handle such as below) just to give a more rustic touch :). Try this out & enjoy! If you haven’t ever had this, then this is more so for you. Its so yummy and healthy as well. Try it as an evening snack some day and let me know how you like it.
- 2 cups vellai pattani/ dried white peas
- 1 medium raw/ green mango
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 nos green chillies
- 1 inch ginger
- 2 no dried red chillies
- a few curry leaves
- a handful coriander leaves
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1.5 tsp mustard seeds
- 3 tbsp whole urad dal/ black gram
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Soak pattani/ dried peas overnight.
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Next morning discard water & fill water to the level of the peas.
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Add 1/4t turmeric powder, 3/4t rock salt.
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Pressure cook for 3 whistles and simmer for 10 minutes and once again 3 whistles.
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Turn off heat & let the pressure naturally release before you open.
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Once you open, mash lightly with the backside of a ladle. If the peas is cooked well but firm (happens when the peas gets old I believe), then pulse 1/2c cooked peas in a mixer and add it back to the rest of the peas.
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Set the cooked peas aside.
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While the peas is getting cooked, you can chop mangoes into big chunks & pulse in batches in a mixer. Check notes for more details on this.
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Finely chop green chillies, coriander leaves & grate ginger. Set it all aside.
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Now heat 3T oil in a kadai/ pan, add 1/5t mustard seeds.
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Once it splutters, add 3T urad dal/ black gram, 1/2t turmeric powder.
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When urad dal starts to brown, add grated ginger, curry leaves, pulsed raw mango, grated coconut and a little bit of salt.
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Mix everything and add the cooked peas.
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Check & adjust for salt. Finally add finely chopped coriander leaves & turn off the heat.
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Serve warm alongside a cuppa chai! This one surely takes me back to the beach.
- When you pulse the mango chunks, there will be a few pieces that won’t grind. Take them on to your next batch of mango chunks. Finally the last few mango chunks that don’t churn, you can pulse just those in the mixer.
- You can add more mango/ coconut as per your taste.
- The pulsing cooked peas bit is optional but is a great hack to get the beach sundal consistency especially when the peas is cooked but firm.
- As always, spice down if you don’t want the end product to be spicy.
Stepwise pictures
Soak dried white peas/ pattani overnight. Following day, discard water. Fill water to the level of the peas/ pattani. Add 1/4t turmeric powder, 3/4t rock salt. 
Pressure cook for 3 whistles and then simmer for 10 minutes and again pressure cook for 3 more whistles. Let the pressure release by itself. Open & lightly mash the peas. 
If your peas is cooked but firm then take 1/2c of cooked peas in a mixer jar. 
Pulse. Add this pulsed peas back with the rest of the cooked peas. Set it aside. 
While the peas is cooking, cut up your mango into chunks. 
In batches pulse them in a mixer. The few chunks that remains in each batch after most of the other chunks have gotten pulsed can be carried forward to the next batch. The last few chunks can be pulsed sepeartely. 
Set the pulsed mango aside. 
Chop green chillies & fresh coriander leaves into fine pieces. Grate ginger. 
In a kadai/ pan, heat 3T oil. 
Once hot, add 1.5t mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add 3T urad dal. 
Just as it starts to brown, add 2 dried red chillies, 1/4t turmeric powder. 
When the urad dal browns, throw in the finely chopped green chillies, coriander leaves, curry leaves, grated ginger, raw mango and a little bit of salt. Give it a good mix. 
Add grated coconut. 
Mix well. 
Now add the cooked peas. 
If you find the sundal a little too dry, add 1/4c water. Mix. Check & adjust for salt. Turn off heat. 
Serve warm alongside a cuppa chai!
