Bisi Bele Baath(BBB)....aka....Bisi Bele Huli Anna....the patented dish of Karnataka!!

Bisi Bele Bath is another classic authentic dish from Karnataka.To make this delicious BBB a lot of prior preparation is required and more over it is time consuming to make a tasty and delicious BBB.BBB is a one pot meal and is filling too which is apt for a brunch or lunch on lazy weekends.The procedure to make the masala for BBB may vary from one home to another,I am sharing with you the recipe with which we make BBB at home.Some people might follow simple techniques to make the process simpler by pressure cooking everything together and adding masalas at the end,but the taste of it will not even match a bit to the traditionally prepared one.

Bisi Bele Bath literally means 'hot lentil rice' in kannada which is evident by the name that one should eat BBB piping hot,but for me it absolutely tastes good either hot or cold.Ideally BBB should be sprinkled over generously with spicy boondi and served with thick and creamy onion-tomato raita and some potato chips.My mom used to make special variety of thick potato chips which are par boiled and sun dried and which can be stored for a year.All you need to do is just fry them in oil when required and season with salt and chili powder and munch them as a snack or eat them with BBB,they taste very nice and quite different from the regular potato chips.

There are some childhood memories associated for me with this BBB as it used to appear very frequently in our lunch boxes.My brother's friends who are from Andhra had kept a nice name for this dish,they used to call it as 'Alla Baath' as they found it difficult to pronounce Bisi Bele Baath.My mom used to make a huge quantity of BBB which would be sufficient for four of us to eat as breakfast and lunch and sometimes I used to eat it even for dinner,yes I am that crazy about this delicious BBB.

I rarely make this at home even though I love it because of the lengthy process involved in making it and that is the reason why I have not blogged about this so far.Even the photographs I used in this post are more than two year old and was not happy with the photographs and that is one more reason I did not post it.I will try updating the post with new photographs when I prepare it next time.My BBB turned little brown in color as I did not have red chili powder at that moment,the addition of byadige mirch powder will give a nice red color to BBB.The list of ingredients and method seems quite lengthy and elaborate,but the end product is quite worthy for the effort you put in.

Ingredients:
1 cup heaped rice(sona masuri or anything similar)
3/4 cup toor dal
3 tbsp tamarind pulp
1 tsp grated jaggery
1/4 cup grated dry coconut
1 tsp red chili powder(preferably byadige mirch powder for more color)
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
2-3 tbsp oil

Vegetables required:
2 carrots,diced
2 potatoes,diced
15 french beans,chopped
1/2 cup dried green peas,soaked
1/4 cup dried double beans,soaked
2 big tomatoes,finely chopped
1 big capsicum,finely chopped
2 big onions,finely chopped

for tempering:
3-4 tbsp ghee
1 tsp mustard seeds
a handful of peanuts
10-12 cashewnuts,broken
a sprig of curry leaves
a pinch of hing

for Bisi Bele Bath Masala:
1 tbsp urad dal
1 tbsp chana dal
1" cinnamon
5-6 cloves
1 mace
1/4 tsp methi seeds
10-12 red chillies
5-6 byadige red chillies
2 tbsp coriander seeds
3 tsp poppy seeds
1/4 cup dry coconut,grated
salt
Method:
for masala:

• Dry roast chana dal,urad dal,cinnamon,laung,mace,red chillies,coriander seeds until brown and keep them aside
• Dry roast methi seeds,poppy seeds and dry coconut until slight brown in color and mix with the above roasted spices and add enough salt to it and grind to a slight coarse powder.
• You can store this in a clean bottle for weeks together for further usage as we need 3 tbsp of this powder to make one time.

To make BBB:

• Pressure cook soaked toor dal with turmeric for 3 whistles until soft and keep it aside.
• Pressure cook washed and soaked rice(for 30 mins) with 2 and 1/2 cups of water for 3 whistles or until done.Keep in one container soaked dry green peas and double beans in the pressure cooker while cooking rice.
• Pressure cook the vegetables potato,carrot and beans for 2 whistles or microwave them for 4-5 mins.
• In a big heavy bottomed kadai or cooker heat oil and add finely chopped onions and fry until translucent and add chopped capsicum and fry for a couple of minutes.
• Now add chopped tomatoes and fry until you get a pulpy mixture,it takes approximately 3-4 mins.
• Add cooked toor dal,tamarind pulp,grated jaggery,salt and 2-3 cups of water to it and let it come to a boil.
• Add cooked Vegetable,boiled peas and double beans and cooked rice and mix well.
• Add 3 tbsp of powdered BBB masala,red chili powder to the above mixture and simmer it and cook for 12-15 mins.
• Now check the taste of it and adjust the sourness(by adding more tamarind pulp),spicyness(by adding BBB masala) and salt according to your taste buds.This is the most important step as a well balanced taste of BBB tastes out of this world.
• Add grated dry coconut and mix well and cook for another 3-4 mins.
• Mean while heat a small tadka pan and melt ghee,add mustard seeds and crackle them.Add peanuts and fry until they are slight golden brown.Add cashew nuts and let them turn slight golden and add curry leaves and hing and quickly switch off the flame.
• Pour the tempering over the Bisi bele baath and give a nice mix to it and cook for another 2 mins.

Serve it piping hot with onion-tomato raita,potato chips and use spicy boondi to top the Bisi Bele baath.