Week 2: Bendi

A spicy butter beans ('Avro' in Aamchi) curry, with a base made using dried red chillies, tamarind, and Szechuan pepper ('Teppal'). Topped with garlic tempering. Mmmmm, a delight for all the spice lovers.....

A few things about the ingredients used in this dish-

'Teppal' is one of the lesser known varieties of Szechuan pepper. It doesn't really belong to the pepper family, but is a type of berry, whose peel is what gives the flavour and not the seeds (which resemble peppercorns). It is used a lot in fish curry Konkani style ('fish ghasshi'), but ever since my wife and I turned vegetarian we haven't used it much - except for in Bendi!

To be honest, I am not a huge fan of teppal, particularly when you get it in your mouth while relishing the rest of the dish, but as it is a key ingredient in Bendi, I was given a handy tip to extract its flavour without the actual peppercorns coming in the mouth.

The red chillies I used were the Byedgi variety (or 'Byedgi Mirsaang' in Aamchi), which is the commonly used variety in Aamchi cooking. Byedgi chillies provide lesser heat but more colour - which Bendi calls for. If you are unable to get this specific variety, I suggest you use other dried red chillies that aren't too hot, such as but Kashmiri red chillies which are also known for their intense colour. The latter is more readily available in packs.

Lastly, I used canned butter beans (soaked in water) but as they lacks salt, I pressure cooked them briefly with some salt. If you get the dried beans, you would have to soak them until soft, and then cook them for longer (once again, with salt!).

So, here goes.

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Ingredients

1 Can (400 gms) butter beans

6 Red chillies (Byedgi variety)

Tamarind (the size of half a lemon)

2 tbsp Coconut oil

2 tbsp Teppal/Szechuan pepper

5-6 Garlic cloves

Salt to taste

Method

1. Soak the teppal in hot water.

2. Cook the butter beans in a pressure cooker with water enough to cover the same and one tsp salt (or more, as per your liking) for three whistles, or in a saucepan for 10-15 minutes.

3. In a small pan, heat the coconut oil and roast the byedgi chillies. Tip: Once roasted, I soaked the chillies in hot water as this extracts a better colour. If you like your food hot and spicy, you can use more chillies. I used six (as opposed to the 10-15 suggested in the Rasachandrika) to keep it balanced.

4. In a mixer grinder (or a mortar and pestle for some exercise), grind the teppal with the water and then strain the water using a strainer. Keep the water for use, and discard the teppal grinds.

5. To make the curry base or "massol", grind the red chillies and tamarind (remember to remove any seeds beforehand) and some of the butter beans from the pressure cooker. Tip: To avoid a kitchen disaster and for health and safety reasons, always ensure that you double check that the mains switch of the grinder is off before adjusting the ingredients, otherwise there is a risk of a mini-explosion!

6. Add the massol and the strained teppal water into the cooked beans. Keep stirring and bring to a boil.

7. While the beans cook with the massol, semi crush whole garlic gloves and sauté them for a few minutes in the same coconut oil and pan that the chillies were roasted, until golden brown.

8. Add the garlic to the curry and stir well.

9. Garnish the Bendi with some red chillies and serve with rice or chapattis.