Kobrakkai Pachadi

Coconut Thogayal (which is in Tamil) is called as 'Kobrakkai Pachadi' in Telugu. This is the second Andhra food that caught my eye (rather my tongue) inspite of having tasted the same stuff at home. I later realised the difference was in using mustard seeds. While eating the pachadi, if you happen to bite into these amazing little seeds, the taste is simply awesome.

Call me a dud, but inspite of the extremely simple recipe, I could never make it as good as my mother-in-law. I must have tried making it atleast a couple of times. Either the taste wasn't right or the consistency.

Yesterday my hubby's cousin was at our place. I was hurriedly cooking when i chanced upon this newly broken coconut in the freezer, looking fresh and inviting. I just grabbed it and went chop, chop, fry, fry, grind, grind and...voila! the pachadi tasted absolutely right.

So here goes the recipe...

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Oil - 3 tbsps

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Udid (Black gram) dal - 1 tsp

Chana (Bengal gram) dal - 2 tsp

Red chillies - 2

Tamarind - a little soaked in water

Salt to taste

Chop (or grate) the coconut. Heat oil. Splutter mustard seeds. Add udid dal, chana dal, red chillies and fry.

First coarsely grind fried dal & soaked tamarind in a mixer. Grind again after adding chopped coconuts and salt.

The pachadi is made using little water. I used the water in which the tamarind was soaked to give it an extra zing. My MIL sometimes also adds very little coriander leaves to enhance the smell.

As far as the red chilli goes, one that I used was a plain one and another was 'Byadgi chilli' (which has a crumpled skin) so as to give a nice golden colour to the pachadi.

Kobrakkai pachadi can be served with rice and ghee.