White peas boiled with an assortment of aromatic Indian spices, it’s a must-have street-food in Odisha
Folks, let me take you on a trip down memory lane. Are you ready for storytime?
During my childhood, there were several days when I would wake up to the subtle-yet-magical aroma of ghuguni that wafted from my mother’s kitchen. I would quickly help my mother with chores, brush my teeth, take a shower and put on my school uniform and sit cross-legged on the floor to have the first meal of the day.
My mother would bring some piping hot steamed rice for my sisters and I. To go with this, there’d be aloo chakuta (Odia potato mash with minimum flavouring) and the most-awaited, homestyle ghuguni. This heartwarming combination of steamed rice, ghuguni and aloo chakuta used to be a favourite breakfast amongst the children of our household and my mother would prepare it for us at least four times a week.
My parents had four kids. My mother was a house maker. Her day mostly began with finishing some house chores, making breakfast and packing lunch boxes for 5 people. To manage time better, my mother would end up making us ghuguni almost every day as it didn’t demand a lot of attention while cooking, was filling, healthy and delicious.
I also remember the ghuguni walla who used to park his cart close to my school.
He used o sell a plate of ghuguni for 25Paise. The old man, I remember, was in his late 60s. He had a grumpy face, wore cotton shirts and draped a lungi (a piece of long cloth that Indian man wrap around their waist like a sarong). Anyway, my sisters and I used to love to have the ghuguni he sold. It was very different from the one that my mom made, but it was equally simple and delicious.
Ghuguni is prepared in every single street food stall in Odisha that sell
gupchup/pani puri, singharas, aloo chop, bara, vegetable chop, among others. It is also used in one of the most famous Odia street food, dahi bara aloo dum. Do you know what is the best thing about ghuguni? It is used as a complimentary dish to whatever you order to eat in Odisha. And what’s even better is the fact that you can ask for a second or third round of it as well.
Ever since the COVID-19 lockdown began, I have been craving for some good Odia street food. So today, I am making ghuguni to compliment my bara and dahi bara aloo dum. You can find the recipes for bara here and dahi vada aloo dum here. Let’s make some ghuguni now
Prep time | 10-15 mins
Cooking time | 30- 40 mins
Difficulty level | Beginner - Intermediate
Ingredients
White peas 1 cup
Tomato large 1, large cubes
Turmeric powder 1tsp
Salt 1 tsp
Water 2 cups
Curry paste ingredients
Onion large 1, large cubes
Garlic 8-9 cloves
Ginger 2 inch, chopped
Dried red chillies 2 units (can differ according to the taste)
Coriander seeds ½ tbsp
Cumin seeds ½ tbsp
Water 4-6 tbsp
Tempering Ingredients
Mustard oil 4tbsp
Cumin ½ tbsp
Curry leaf 8-10 units
Turmeric powder ½ tbsp
Kashmiri red chillies 1tsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves ¼ cup to garnish
Let us start by washing and soaking the peas overnight in one cup of water.
Next step is to transfer the peas to a pressure cooker. Make sure to add one more cup of water. Add tomatoes, turmeric powder & salt. Place the pressure cooker on the stove. We need one whistle on high flame and 4 to 5 whistles on low flame. Once the pressure releases, open the lid of the pressure cooker and check on the peas. The peas should be soft and most of the peels should be off of the legumes. Please refer to the video to check on the softness of the peas.
Next step is to make the curry paste. In a mixing jar take all the curry paste ingredients mentioned above and grind it into a smooth paste.
Place a Kadhai or a deep pan on the stove with medium-high flame. Once the pan is hot, add the mustard oil. Put the cumin seeds once the oil is hot and wait for it to splutter. Add the curry leaves and fry it for 10 to 15 seconds.
Bring the flame to low and add turmeric powder and Kashmiri red chilli powder.
Adding these dry spices to the oil helps in bringing vibrant colour to the curry.
Fry the dry spices for few seconds and add the curry paste. Keep stirring until the oil separates from the curry paste. Add a few spoons of water while frying if the curry is sticking to the bottom of the pan or burning. Once the curry paste is cooked add the boiled peas along with the water. You can add more water if you want to change the consistency.
Add salt to taste and let the curry boil for 10 minutes with the lid on. Open the lid and check on the consistency of the gravy if you wanted to be little thicker you can mash the peas lightly with your spatula. If the gravy consistency is lighter than you want you can keep boiling it until the gravy reaches up to your satisfaction. Once ready serve it with some coriander leaves on top as garnish. Discovery can be accompanied by anything and everything you like rice, Chapati, Idli, Upma, Bara etc.
Comentários