Punukula Curry

Punukula curry

Punukula curry is an Authentic Andhra (Particularly coastal Andhra) recipe usually prepared with pesara punukulu/moong dal fritters. But today I’ve prepared punugulu/punukulu with leftover idly batter. Idly batter is little liquid consistency, so to attain punukulu batter consistency I’ve added Bombay rava/sooji. The consistency of the batter should be like vada batter. Small punugulu are prepared with batter and deep fried in hot oil. Today I’ve not added any garlic or onion to pretthe gravy curry. Here I present delicious and mouth melting punukula curry to serve as an accompaniment to hot steamed rice. Njoy Cooking, Serving n Savoring!

Author: Akshayakumbham 

Course: Side dish/accompaniment 

Cuisine: Andhra, India 

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

Idly batter: One cup 

Bombay rava: One fistful or as required to get Medhu vada batter consistency 

Green chili: 1 no.

Salt: As required 

Ginger: 2 inch piece

Tomatoes: 4/5 nos.

Red chilli powder: 1 tsp 

Garam masala: 1 tsp 

Curry leaves: A sprig 

Coriander leaves: Few

Oil: For deep frying punugulu 

Milk: One fourth cup(Optional)

Tempering:

Sesame oil: 1 tbsp 

Mustard seeds: 1 tsp 

Cumin seeds: 1 tsp 

Asafoetida: A pinch 

Method of preparation:

🍃. Take one cup of idly batter Into a bowl and add sooji/Bombay rava. Also add finely chopped green chilli, chopped curry leaves. Mix thoroughly and keep aside. Heat kadai and pour required amount of oil for deep frying. Take small amount of batter and drop them in oil for deep frying. Likewise fry all the punugulu and keep aside.

🍃. Heat kadai and pour one tbsp of oil. Add cumin and mustard seeds. When mustard splutter add chopped ginger and fry for a minute. 

🍃. Now add roughly chopped tomatoes into it and sauté till tomatoes turn into soft and mushy. Allow the mixture to become warm. 

🍃. Transfer the mixture into a mixer grinder and just use pulse button. Now transfer the tomato purée back into the kadai and add half cup of water. 

🍃. Now add garam masala powder, red chilli powder and required amount of salt. Bring it to boil and add fried punugulu into it.  Also add curry leaves and chopped coriander leaves. 

🍃. Allow the mixture to cook on low flame  for five more minutes. Add one fourth cup of milk and switch off the flame. Mix well.

🍃. Transfer the mixture into a serving bowl and garnish with Few coriander leaves. Serve yummy curry with hot steamed rice. 

Note:

Moong dal fritters are Prepared using moong dal/yellow lentils. One cup of moong dal is soaked in enough water for two hours. Drain the excess water and grind the soaked moong dal into a thick batter adding required amount of salt and green chilies. The batter is deep fried as small fritters/punugulu. They are further used to prepare the punugulu /punukulu curry. Also I’ve not added onions and garlic in this recipe. You can add ginger garlic paste and chopped onions to prepare the curry. Add the chopped onions and ginger garlic paste after preparing the tempering. Remaining procedure is same as the above.

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