Ulunthankali / Urad Dal Kali

A traditional South Indian dish with high nutritional value. Its mainly prepared for young girls and women. The main purpose of consuming this is to strengthen the hip bones for ladies. This recipe of mine was published in the magazine "Discover Chennai" http://www.discovercity.in/. Photo Courtesy my younger sister Angeline Paul.

UlunthanKali

No. of Serving : 7-8

Ingredients

Split Black Urad Dal - 1 cup

Raw Rice - 4 tbsp

Palm Jaggery / Karupatti - 2 cups (crushed and tightly packed)

Wood Pressed Gingerly Oil / Virgin Gingerly Oil - 3/4 cup

Water - 4 cups

Dry Ginger Powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt a pinch

Preparation Method

1. Wipe clean the dal and rice with a kitchen towel.

2. Dry roast dal and rice in a non stick kadai or heavy base aluminium kadai over a medium flame till a nice aroma comes. This takes about 8-9 minutes. Cool it and grind to a fine powder. Sieve it. 1 cup dal and 4 tbsp rice will yield 1 1/2 cup of powdered mixture.

3. Add a pinch of salt and dry ginger powder to the dal mixture and mix well.

4. Heat 4 cups of water in a pan and add the crushed palm jaggery / karupatti. Stir to dissolve and bring it to a boil. Filter and keep aside.

5. Heat a non stick kadai or heavy base aluminium kadai and add wood pressed gingerly / virgin gingerly oil.

6. Add the dal powder mixture and keep stirring for about 3 minutes.

7. Slowly and carefully add the filtered jaggery liquid little by little, stir continuously to avoid formation of lumps.

8. Keep stirring the mixture continuously for about 12 minutes till it thickens and forms kali.

9. Serve hot.

Notes:

Split black urad dal has more nutrients than the plain urad dal.

Split black urad dal fries up well than the whole black urad dal.

Wood pressed gingerly oil is good for health. It is widely available in shops nowadays. For ulunthankali they traditionally use wood pressed gingerly oil because it has a cooling effect on the body. Regular gingerly oil can also be used. Avoid other oils. Ghee is not necessary.

Dry ginger powder is optional but adds to flavour and also useful for digestion. Some of the palm jaggery / karupatti comes with ginger powder added to it.