yummy everyday meal: Pattai Pirattal /Pachai Pattani Pirattal /Green Peas Semi Dry Curry

Pirattal is a semi dry dish popular in Chettinad cusine and can be made in various ways.Vegetables like eggplant,drumstick and legumes,even chicken ,mutton also used to make pirattal.
Each tastes unique on its own way.I have shared vegetable pirattal here using baby eggplant and drumstick.

Pirattal is a versatile dish which can be served as an accompaniment or can be mixed with rice and eaten.

Coming to the recipe,it can be made with both fresh and dried soaked peas.Today's version is with the soaked peas and cooked the peas in the open pot.Most of the times, soaked green peas get overcooked in the pressure cooker,so I prefer the open pot method.It takes only 15-20 minutes to cook,meanwhile rest of the preparation for the curry can be done.

Pattani Pirattal /Green Peas Semi dry Curry

Basic Information

Preparation time 15 minutes
Soaking time 6 hours or overnight
Cooking time 25 minutes

Serves 3 (generously)

Ingredients

Ingredient	Quantity
Green peas/pachai pattani	1 cup (dried)
Onion( finely chopped)	1 medium size
Curry leaves/karivepillai	few leaves
Turmeric powder/manjal podi	1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder/milagai podi	3/4 -1 tsp
Coriander powder/dhaniya podi	1.5 tsp
Garam Masala powder	1/4 tsp
Fennel seeds	1/4 tsp
Salt	1 tsp
Coriander leaves(finely chopped)	1 tbs
Oil	1-1.5 tbs

Grind to fine paste

Ingredient	Quantity
Coconut(grated)	2 tbs
Tomato	1(medium size)
Cashews/mundiri	2-3
Fennel seeds/sombu	1/2 tsp
Ginger/inji	1/2 inch piece
Garlic/poondu	2-3 cloves

Method

Soak the green peas overnight and cook it in a pressure cooker or open pot along with a generous pinch of salt.Cook until the peas is tender and it should hold the shape.Set it aside.

Grind the given ingredients for grinding to a fine paste and keep it aside.

Now heat a pan with oil and once it becomes hot,crackle the fennel seeds.Saute it with pinch of salt till onion turns transparent.Add in the ground paste.

Cook it until the raw smell disappears.Add in all the spice powders,salt and give it a mix.Now rinse the blender jar with water and add it.Mix it well.Let it boil for couple of minutes.

Now add in the cooked green peas and cook it covered for 3-4 minutes or until the moisture gets evaporated.Add in the chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice, mix it well.

Serve it with rice or roti.

A tsp of ghee can also be added along with oil for extra rich taste.
Use ripe tomatoes to get a nice taste.
If fresh peas is used,then add it along with the onion and saute it.Then follow the rest of the method.