Sprouted Moth called Matki in hindi. Its a curry very commonly made in many Indian households.
consumed with Chapathi or with rice. In Maharashtra it is famously known as Matki-chi-Usal and taken with Pav(Bun).
Before preparing this curry we need to sprout the beans. For sprouting, soak the beans in water for atleast 8 hours then fold them in a kitchen cloth, cover and keep it for anther 8 hours. The kitchen cloth should be damp enough to enable the beans to sprout. This is how I do it and have grown up seen moth beans being sprouted in this way. Nowadays, sprout makers are available in market which is also a convenient way to sprout the beans.
You would notice from pictures that I have been cooking in an aluminium vessel. Indian curries infact most of the Indian cooking is done in aluminium utensils. Cooking in this metal gives a different taste and I will call this difference as delicious because I have been having food cooked in aluminium cast vessels as a kid. 🙂
It takes roughly 40mins to cook this beans and to save time some people prefer to cook the beans first in a pressure cooker with some turmeric and water and then give the tadka in a pot/kadhai alongwith the spices as below recipe. But, I prefer cooking it directly in a pot/kadhai giving the tadka first and then cooking it alongwith some water. This makes it delicious since the beans will be cooking alongwith the spices. Also when you pressure cook the beans first, the skin comes out from the beans but when you cook it directly the bean stays intact and, we can control how much we want to cook it. But, you could definitely try out by giving tadka directly in a pressure cooker and then add water and just pressure cook it for 3-4 whistles.
Below is my recipe of cooking these moth beans using Indian spices.
Recipe
Ingredients Used?
1 cup moth beans (soaked and sprouted)
1 small white onion diced
3-4 cloves of garlic
some curry leaves
1 small green chilly roughly cut
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
a pinch of asafoetida powder
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste (GGP)
a pinch of homemade garam masala
2 tsp oil for cooking
coriander and lemon for garnishing
How I Prepared It?
I heated oil in a kadhai, added asafoetida, mustard seeds allowed it to crackle then added cumin seeds, green chillies,curry leaves, and chopped garlic. Sauteed it till garlic turned brown. You need to ensure that the seeds added in the begining do not get burnt so manage your heat accordingly.
Then added the onions, turmeric powder and GGP . Sauteed for some time the added the sprouted beans. Added salt to taste mixed it well and covered and cooked it for some time around 10-15mins on a medium to low flame.
It is important that the beans just cook in this simple tadka/tempering given alongwith turmeric and salt, this adds flavour to the beans.
After this add some water and cover and cook it now for around 30 mins till the beans have become soft.
You can adjust the liquid level for the gravy as required.
Garnish with coriander and do squeeze the lemon on it..
Enjoy the dish.
